How Often Marketers Add Technology Tools [Survey]

Many marketers are reducing the number of programmatic platforms they use to buy inventory. Pathmatics analyzed the top 100 advertisers on its platform and found that two years ago, on average, advertisers ran at least 1% of their ad spend through about seven different demand-side platforms (DSPs) each month. But now they only use about four DSPs per month.

Due to Facebook’s ongoing data-sharing scandal with Cambridge Analytica and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—which stipulates that user data can be used only if that individual gives a company explicit permission—industry insiders have speculated that marketers will also pull back on their usage of third-party data vendors. After Facebook announced it was shutting down its Partner Categories, which enables third-party data providers to offer their targeting directly on the platform, data aggregator Acxiom saw its stock drop 23% over the following week. (Acxiom is getting acquired by ad agency holding company Interpublic Group for $2.3 billion.)

One type of vendor that has benefited from advertisers’ data concerns is the customer data platform (CDP), which is used to store people’s data. CDPs deal exclusively with first-party data and have doubled in number year over year, according to MarTech Today’s industry landscape.

Over one-third of the marketers surveyed said they have a formal methodology for reviewing their tech stacks. Among the roughly two-thirds that don’t have a formal process, most plan to implement one.

How are you navigating marketing technology vendors? To learn more, contact Lori at 877.447.0134 or lberson@BersonDeanStevens.com.