• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, December 5, 2014

Advertisers in Europe continue to increase their use of programmatic ad technology when buying and selling media. European marketers spent 16% more via programmatic in the third quarter of 2014 compared to the second quarter, per a new Adform report. Year-over-year spend growth is up over 200%.

Mirroring the U.S., mobile marketers are rapidly adopting programmatic technologies in Europe. Desktop continues to command the majority of programmatic ad spend in Europe (73% last quarter), but mobile and tablet spend is coming on strong. Combined, mobile phones and tablets accounted for 27% of all programmatic ad spend in Europe last quarter, up from 14% during the same period in 2013.

Adform notes that mobile spend is up 591% year-over-year while tablet spend is up nearly 385%. Year-over-year spend has increased 158% for desktop inventory.

However, unlike the U.S., European marketers are not turning toward private ad exchanges with as much zeal. Adform notes that private exchanges accounted for 28% of total programmatic ad spend in Europe last quarter, up just 1% from the previous quarter. 

While slow, a shift from open to private exchange trading is underway in Europe, and Adform predicts it “will generate higher revenues for publishers, and will prompt them to offer programmatic access to greater quantities of their premium inventory.”

Keeping the “premium inventory” theme alive, European marketers are becoming more comfortable buying rich media ad units via programmatic. Marketers allocated 14% of all programmatic ad spend to rich media ad units at the end of the second quarter of 2014, and that number rose steadily throughout the third quarter, up to 17%.

Adform’s full quarterly report can be found here.