Programmatic Ad Spend Up, But ANA Says $21.6 Billion Is Still Wasted.

Podcast advertisers are embracing programmatic buying options and the latest Programmatic Transparency Benchmark study from the Association of National Advertisers shows programmatic ad spending is growing overall, but some growing pains remain. It says marketers directed 41% of programmatic budgets to effective ad impressions during the first quarter. That was up from 36% in an earlier 2023 study. But ANA says more than a third of open web ad spending still goes toward impressions that don’t meet standard quality metrics, which translates to an estimated $21.6 billion in wasted media spending worldwide.

“This latest benchmark report shows progress in identifying inefficiencies, but there remains significant room for improvement,” said Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA. “Implementing the ANA’s recommendations — such as reducing the number of supply path partners and tightening domain lists — can substantially enhance these outcomes,” he said.

The report credits the improvements largely to a decline in low-quality placements on so-called “made for advertising” websites which lure users with clickbait or sensational headlines but are created primarily to generate ad revenue, often through techniques that prioritize ad placement and traffic acquisition over providing valuable content or a good user experience. While things are getting better, the report says a quarter of advertisers that took part in the study still allocate 12.9% to 25% of their ad spending to these made-for-advertising sites.

Yet the report also shows the scale and how much money is being poured into programmatic platforms. Between Nov. 24, 2004, and March 25, 2025, it says the marketers and ad agencies that participated invested $242 million in programmatic ads, resulting in 41.9 billion impressions. Most of the spending — 54.9% — went to ads on websites, while 11.1% went to ads on mobile apps. CTV captured a 30.4% share of the dollars. Ads were placed across 53,799 different websites and domains, but there is a concentration of spending as the top 100 unique domains and apps collectively accounted for 57.3% of total impressions.

The report says the median cost per thousand (CPM) paid by advertisers decreased slightly from $5.82 in Q4 2024 to $5.62. “Advertisers are willing to pay higher CPMs to ensure higher ad quality,” the report says. It also says the average CPM for private marketplace inventory reached $9.37, significantly higher than the $3.28 CPM for the open marketplace.

The ANA says the median amount of ad spending classified as non-viewable decreased to 35.2% in Q1, down from 39.1% in the Q4 2024 report. And the median amount of ad spending classified as non-measurable declined to 13.3% in Q1. That’s down from 23.8% in the Q4 2024 report, which it says is a consistent trend of improvement in overall measurability rates.