SYDNEY: Programmatic media trading will account for more than half of all display, video and mobile advertising spending in Australia by 2016, putting it in the top four countries globally, new research has claimed.

Magna Global, the strategic media unit of IPG Mediabrands, participated in a worldwide program to assess the current extent and prospects for programmatic media trading and said only the USA, Netherlands and the UK would be making greater use of this channel over the next few years.

Victor Corones, Magna Global Australia managing director, noted it had got off to a slow start as it had taken time for the technology infrastructure, from the US, to be set up, but it would advance rapidly.

"Now we expect in 2013 it will account for 28% of spend, up from 19% in 2012," he said, in remarks reported by B&T. "It is clearly one of the most dynamic sectors in media."

His colleague Marc Lomas, general manager at Cadreon Australia, the division of IPG Mediabrands that handles programmatic trading, said most Australian publishers now offered real-time buying.

"We are at the point where it is possible to run an entire digital media buy programmatically and we are going to see this become the norm," he stated.

"The growth curve we are seeing is driven by the operational efficiencies on both sides, superior performance and the ability to fuse first and third party data sets," he added.

Magna Global forecast that global spending on programmatic trading would triple in value to $33bn by 2017 and the US would remain the largest market.

Magna Global was also among a number of agencies, including Accuen, Amnet, Havas Media and Horizon Media, which recently struck deals with AOL to buy online ads through automated exchanges. Media buyers are attracted by the convenience offered by programmatic buying, a trend which is only going to accelerate as more sophisticated systems develop.

Data sourced from B&T; additional content by Warc staff