European organisations are leading the way in bringing their programmatic operations in house, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau which suggests that this may be a consequence of GDPR and their greater ability to manage their data.

The IAB International Report on Programmatic In-Housing includes the results of a survey across three regions: the US, Europe, and Latin America.

This found that, while programmatic’s share of global digital ad spend stands at 68%, in the US this figure rises to 85% and is over 80% in most European countries. As mobile and digital video usage continues to rise, the report expects additional growth, with a surge forecast for Latin America where mobile usage is rising dramatically.

At the same time, brands are choosing to exercise greater control over their programmatic buying; globally, more than a fifth (21%) of organisations have completely moved programmatic in-house, while almost half (48%) have moved it partially in-house.

A further 16% have tried to bring it in-house but ended up outsourcing it to partners; 15% have no plans for in-housing.

But these figures hide some distinct regional differences. Just 18% of US and 16% of LatAm organisations had completely moved to in-house, compared to almost a third of European organisations (31%).

The differences are less dramatic when partial in-housing is added to the equation, but Europe is still ahead of the other regions with 74% of organisations there having fully or partly brought programmatic buying in-house, compared to 69% in the US and 63% in Latin America.

The US may be, by some distance, the largest programmatic market in the world but that size and the associated number of partnerships may make it more difficult to bring everything in house, the report suggests.

It also notes that access to and control of data plays an integral role in programmatic effectiveness – and with Europe having been at the forefront of data regulations with GDPR, “European organisations may be farther along in managing their data, and thus might be more prepared to bring this function in-house”.

Sourced from Interactive Advertising Bureau