Toolkit proven to help deliver programmatic transparency

ISBA and PwC have released the headline findings from the second Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study, following on from the first study in 2020. The latest wave of audits- which took half the amount of time to complete - show that there have been vast improvements in standardisation of data across the supply chain, with unattributable spend now down to 3%, vs the 15% reported in 2020. Meanwhile, the ad impression match rate is now reported to be 58%, which is “a nearly five-fold increase in the percentage of matched impressions” according to Sam Tomlinson, PwC’s Marketing & Media leader.  

The improvements can be in part attributed to the development of the Programmatic Financial Audit Toolkit, which was launched by the Cross-industry Programmatic Taskforce last February. The Taskforce - which includes the IAB, ISBA, the AOP, the IPA - is the first of its kind and was formed following the 2020 study. It set out to improve the transparency of the programmatic supply chain to allow campaigns to be financially audited end to end. You can read the full mission statement here.  

This collaboration resulted in the launch of the Toolkit to improve standardisation and help advertisers and publishers to conduct financial audits of their programmatic supply chains. The Toolkit consists of three parts and is available to download for free.  

“The results announced today demonstrate the real-world impact of the Toolkit, and the fact that the delta and match rate have improved so dramatically is testament to the work of the cross-industry taskforce”, says IAB UK’s Chief Digital Officer, Tim Elkington. “All parts of the digital advertising supply chain have been involved in improving transparency and we are pleased to see what has been achieved as a result.” 

You can find out more about the study on ISBA’s site.