Programmatic display spending will reach nearly $33 billion in 2017, according to a new study by eMarketer.

Despite the risks, as YouTube and Google have shown, programmatic advertising has continued to rise in popularity; eMarketer also forecasts that spending will reach over $45 billion by 2019.

Although placing ads programmatically can surprise advertisers by where their ads show up, 74 percent of U.S. digital display ad dollars spent in 2017 will go to private marketplaces and programmatic direct setups to ideally eliminate any outlying risk.

The mobile landscape is also growing in programmatic display advertising as almost 80 percent of all U.S. mobile digital display ads are bought programmatically. By 2019, eMarketer suggests that will rise to 85.2 percent. In 2016, programmatic display advertising accounted for only 68 percent of all U.S. mobile digital display ads.

“Private setups give buyers and sellers greater control over their automated buys,” said eMarketer principal analyst Lauren Fisher in the company’s press release.  “They may have initially served to bring in reticent buyers and sellers, but now private setups drive much of the change and momentum in the marketplace, as both parties seek greater control from their programmatic efforts.”

Programmatic direct spending is growing overall, while ads placed on an open exchange are declining. So far this year, programmatic direct buys will buy the majority of ads (56 percent), while real-time bidding will grab 44 percent of ads.

Last year, more than half of all U.S. digital video ad dollars were traded via automation; by 2018, eMarketer predicts that nearly three-quarters of those transactions will occur programmatically.

In 2017, programmatic advertising grew by 28 percent. Programmatic ad buys are on the rise with no sign of stopping in the coming years, and the most popular areas of growth are methods of trustworthy and private ways of purchasing those ads.

Source: Adweek