Online Advertising Benchmark Report

Executive Summary

From June-July 2013, Demand Metric conducted a benchmarking study to understand the impact online display advertising and real-time bidding (RTB) is having on the online advertising landscape.

All members of the Demand Metric community received email invitations to participate in the survey, and participation was encouraged through a random draw incentive for an iPad Mini.

While respondent email addresses were collected in order to facilitate the prize drawing, no identifying information was retained or considered in the analysis of the survey data.

Following collection of the survey data, Demand Metric analyzed the results and draw statistically significant conclusions.

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Key Insights

Online advertising remains a cornerstone of modern marketing, but how marketers buy, measure, and optimize media has changed dramatically.

While programmatic advertising is now the default buying motion, several factors introduce real uncertainty for marketers:

• Signal change & privacy: The deprecation of third-party cookies, platform tracking restrictions, and regional privacy laws are reshaping how identity and targeting work.
  
  
• Measurement & attribution: Disparate data sources, modeled conversions, and walled-garden limitations make it difficult to compare performance over time.
  
  
• Supply quality & safety: MFA (made-for-advertising) sites, AI-generated content, and evolving brand-safety standards require ongoing vigilance and supply-path optimization.
  
  
• Auction volatility: CPM/CPC swings driven by economic pressure, seasonality, and fragmented inventory can obscure true campaign effectiveness.
  
  

What to do: Pair performance KPIs (CPA/ROAS) with quality metrics (attention, on-target reach, incrementality) and continuously test privacy-safe, AI-assisted audiences to adapt to shifting signals.

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(Then → Now)

Then (2013)

• Adoption: 56% of organizations used online display advertising; large enterprises led the way (70%), compared with 54% of small and 53% of midsize companies.
  
  
• Top benefits: Targeting (82%) and measurability (72%) were the leading advantages of online advertising.
  
  
• Awareness gap: 58% of respondents had never heard of RTB, and only about 11% were using it at the time.
  
  
• Effectiveness insight: Among those with moderate to advanced understanding, 67% said RTB campaigns were more effective than non-RTB; only 42% of all RTB users perceived a performance lift.
  
  

Now (2025)

Programmatic advertising spans web, mobile, CTV, audio, and digital out-of-home, powered by AI-driven decisioning.

The original promises of precision and efficiency still stand, but privacy loss, measurement fragmentation, and content integrity have made automation more complex to manage.
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AI and clean-room data sharing are ushering in a new phase of autonomous optimization, where human strategy and machine learning coexist to deliver transparency and trust.

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Short Overview of the 2013 Study

Scope & Methodology

• When: June 20 – July 5, 2013
  
  
• Sample: ~350 responses; 317 valid and non-duplicate entries analyzed.
  
  
• Profile: 40% of respondents from companies with ≤25 employees, 15% with 251–1,000, and 4% with more than 10,000 employees. 44% held marketing leadership roles.
  
  
• Purpose: Benchmark the online display advertising landscape and evaluate RTB adoption, understanding, and impact.
  
  

Key Statistics

• Usage/Adoption: 56% used online display ads; large firms led at 70%.
  
  
• Importance: Only 8% said display wasn’t important; 63% of large firms labeled it “important or very important,” versus 49% of small firms.
  
  
• Budgets/Spend: 37% spent more than $10K/month on online ads; 52% of large firms spent over $20K/month, while most small and midsize firms spent less than $10K.
  
  
• Regions/Segments: North America dominated targeting (87% overall; 95% among large firms).
  
  
• Top Benefits: Targeting (82%), measurability (72%), ROI (54%).
  
  
• Awareness: 58% had never heard of RTB; usage stood around 11%.
  
  
• Future Plans: Roughly 32% of non-users aware of RTB planned to adopt it “in the near future.”
  
  
• Vendor Landscape: Awareness was spread across many providers; price ranked only fourth among decision factors, signaling an early, maturing market.
  
  

Analyst Bottom Line (2013)

RTB excelled at what advertisers valued most, audience targeting, but adoption was held back by low awareness and limited education.

Vendors that focused on teaching, not just selling, were expected to earn long-term market share as the ecosystem matured.

Modern Takeaways for 2025 and Beyond

1. Programmatic is truly omnichannel.
   Apply RTB discipline across CTV, audio, and retail media while enforcing supply-path optimization and brand-safety controls.
   
   
2. Lean into AI — responsibly.
   Use predictive modeling for audience planning and pacing, and generative tools for creative testing, with strong compliance and bias safeguards.
   
   
3. Measure incrementality, not just clicks.
   Combine modeled conversions, on-target reach, attention metrics, and lift studies to navigate signal loss and platform noise.
   
   
4. Invest in privacy-safe first-party data.
   Clean-room collaboration, contextual AI, and consent-driven modeling stabilize performance amid evolving regulation.
   
   

About the Sponsor

In 2013, AcuityAds was described as a real-time bidding platform powered by proprietary machine learning that allowed advertisers to hyper-target their digital consumers across display, video, and mobile campaigns.

Today, that company is illumin, following its 2023 rebrand and name change to illumin Holdings Inc., continuing to innovate in AI-powered media automation.

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About INSIGHTS™ by Demand Metric

INSIGHTS™ by Demand Metric is a research and benchmarking program that helps marketing and go-to-market leaders turn data into decisions.

Each study combines practitioner input, analyst validation, and executive interpretation to deliver credible, actionable benchmarks and trend analysis.

INSIGHTS™ reports help organizations identify capability gaps, benchmark performance, and guide strategic investment in people, processes, and technology.

Learn more about INSIGHTS™ by Demand Metric here.

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