How Google Dominates Ad Tech

Rate New Data Shows Just How Big Google's Ad-Tech Advantage Really Is

By: 

Alex Kantrowitz

 Published: October 18, 2013

In ad-tech, there's Google and then there's everyone else.

The search giant and owner of DoubleClick is far and away the biggest player in the ad-tech industry. Google served over 300 billion ad impressions in September, according to data from Evidon obtained by Ad Age, a massive number putting it ahead of its next nearest competitor,OpenX, by over 200 billion monthly ad impressions.

The index provides a rare look into just how dominant Google position in ad-tech really is. The company is often spoken of as the industry's largest player but does not release impression data and declined to comment for this story. The Evidon numbers though -- collected from sites visited by the over 10 million users of its Ghostery browser extension's GhostRank panel -- provide a telling sample of data.

"I think those numbers are directionally accurate give or take a small margin of error," said OpenX CRO Jason Fairchild in an interview with Ad Age, confirming Evidon's read on his company.

Google showed up in three out of the top 12 spots on Evidon's index: DoubleClick took the top spot with over 229 billion impressions served in September. Google AdSense registered over 59 billion. And DoubleClick Bid Manager, Google's demand side platform, served over 27 billion.

"We try not to focus on how big the elephant is. We take one bite at a time," said Mr. Fairchild when asked how OpenX could compete with a market leader as dominant as Google. "When we started in display, Google was pretty entrenched," he said. "We don't see that to be the case in mobile or cross screen," he added, listing places where Google's competitors might see success.

The numbers are not meant to reflect distinct ad counts. Rather, as multiple tags can fire on each ad, the counts reflect the number of times each company's tags fire even if a single ad contained muliple tags on it. But it shows that Google serves a whole lot of impressions, and its ad technologies mediate much of the ad-supported web.

AppNexus and Rubicon tags rounded out the top five, firing 73 billion and 46 billion times in September respectively. The numbers do not vary much month to month, an Evidon spokesman said.

Digital ad spends will touch Rs 4,391 crore by March, 2013: IAMAI

http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=33703_Digital+ad+spends+will+touch+Rs+4391+crore+by+March+2013:+IAMAI

According to the Annual Digital Advertising Report published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB, the market, currently pegged at Rs 2,851 crore, sees spends skewed towards online classifieds and search.


If any doubts remained on the massive potential that is seen in the digital advertising space, a look at the findings in the Annual Digital Advertising Report published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB looks good to dispel them.


The report states that the continually growing market will touch Rs 4,391 crore by March, 2013. As of March, 2012, the market is pegged at Rs 2,851 crore. It is seen reaching Rs 3,535 crore by the end of the calendar year.



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A further look into the study reveals how, of the total online ad spends of Rs 2,851 crore in FY 2012, the majority of more than 50 per cent was spent on online classifieds, followed by search at 20 percent of the total spends.


Interestingly, social media spend form only 3 per cent of the total spends and the lowest in the pie is spent on online video (2 percent).


By March 2013, spends on online classifieds are seen at Rs 2,686 crore (of the estimated market size of Rs 4,391 crore), search at Rs 723 crore and display ad spends at Rs 838 crore.


According to publicly available sources, the total size of the offline advertising market, including print, television, OOH, radio and cinema, is seen at Rs 26,501 crore in the year 2012. Comparatively, the digital market at its current valuation is almost 11 per cent of the conventional medium.


The report states that the digital ad spends have been growing at 25 per cent year-on-year basis - from Rs 1,623 crore in March, 2010 to Rs 2,277 crore in March, 2011 and eventually, to the current level.


Travel, banking, financial services and insurance sectors continue to be the highest spenders as far as display ads are concerned, followed by telecom and automobile sectors. Education, electronic media and print media spent the least on display ads.


With the base figure rising from Rs 571 crore in FY 2011 to Rs 676 crore in FY 2012, the display ad spends by automobile companies have increased significantly. Its overall share has continued to rise steadily - from 9 percent in FY 2010 to 13 percent in FY 2011, and 14 percent in FY 2012.


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