As Radio Goes Programmatic, ANA Shows Stronger Transparency And Brand Safety.

As programmatic platforms like Amazon Ads, AudioGo, Triton, StreamGuys, and StackAdapt, among others are now making over-the-air radio inventory as easy to buy as digital ads, there is positive news from the Association of National Advertisers. Its quarterly benchmark report on the programmatic market shows steady gains in transparency and efficiency for programmatic channels.

The ANA says when connected TV is excluded, its TrueAdSpend Index climbed to 47.1% —which means nearly half of every ad dollar now reaches publishers. That is up from 46.6% in Q2. Seller revenue increased to 73.2% of spend, while supply-side platform (SSP) costs fell 1.6 points to 13.2%.

“Marketers leveraging log-level data, curated supply, and quality-led optimization are reclaiming wasted spend, boosting media productivity, and unlocking billions in incremental ROI,” the report says. That improvement adds up to a substantial financial recovery.

The ANA estimates that, compared to 2023, advertisers have redirected roughly $13.6 billion that would previously have been lost to inefficiencies — such as platform fees, fraud, or low-quality inventory — back into real, measurable advertising that reaches consumers. In other words, these dollars are no longer being absorbed by opaque middle layers of the programmatic supply chain, but are now funding “working media” that drives outcomes for brands and revenue for publishers.

The ANA says transaction costs fell and media productivity losses remained stable during Q3, even as data costs increased slightly to support greater audience precision. Invalid traffic stayed at 0.4%, and so-called “made-for-advertising” exposures dropped to 0.7% of total spend. “Lower platform costs, incremental quality gains, and consistent transparency are driving stronger advertiser ROI and sustainable media efficiency,” the report says.

Private marketplaces still dominate programmatic sales, accounting for 81.6% of spend, as advertisers consolidate budgets with high-performing publishers and trusted SSPs.

New Brand Safety Focus

For the first time the ANA report also measures brand safety and suitability across programmatic channels. The results will bring a collective sigh of relief in the ad community. The ANA says 99.1% of ad spend occurred in “low-risk” environments, a milestone that the trade group says reflects the maturation of the programmatic ecosystem toward both efficiency and integrity.

“Marketers can now verify that their ads appear in trusted, responsible environments,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice, adding that the new measures show “concrete signs that programmatic is evolving from an opaque system into one defined by accountability and control.”

The ANA says that median brand risk across programmatic inventory was just 0.13% on average, with 99.05% of spend classified as low risk. The new sentiment analysis shows that nearly half of all ad spend was placed next to positive or neutral content, while just 1.56% appeared beside content judged to have a negative tone. The ANA says this demonstrates that advertisers are now able to achieve scale across the open web without over-blocking legitimate journalism, as AI-driven tools can distinguish between harmful content and trusted news coverage.

The ANA says these developments mark a “defining inflection point” for the $123 billion digital ad market, as it shifts from transparency to full accountability. “This quarter’s results show that marketers, leveraging the standards introduced by the ANA, are not just cleaning up the supply chain — they’re managing it with precision,” Liodice said.