‘Tech Tax’ cost programmatic advertisers over $30bn in 2017

An overview of global investment at various levels of the programmatic chain.

The World Federation of Advertisers estimates that for every dollar traded programmatically, only 40 cents make it to the publisher. The value of working media is likely lower, as this scenario does not factor in ad fraud; the true figure could be closer to 28 cents. In his book Mad Men, Bob Hoffman expands on the idea by factoring in both ad viewability and noticeability, further eroding the dollar to just three cents.

The WFA believe some 55% of investment goes towards what some have dubbed the “tech tax”. WARC drew a consensus from media buyers, and...

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