• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, January 19, 2016

AdRoll's 2016 "State of the Industry Report" found that 66% of marketers surveyed planned to increase programmatic ad spending this year, more than double the number in 2015. The performance ad platform partnered with Qualtrics to survey 1,050 U.S. marketers on the programmatic marketplace. In addition, the report found that 87% of marketers are enjoying greater return through programmatic ads compared to traditional media buying.

"Programmatic has clearly crossed into being the primary way that marketers think about digital advertising," said Adam Berke, president and CMO of AdRoll.

Among the report's key findings:

• 32% of marketers spent more than 50% of their budgets on programmatic in 2015, more than four times the 7% who focused on programmatic in 2013, and more than double the 14% in 2014.

• Programmatic buying on social is now 50% more popular than programmatic display for B2C marketers, with 75% of all B2C marketers using the technique.

• On mobile, one-third of marketers are now buying programmatically, and retargeting jumped from 54% to 82% this year, with 87% of marketers indicating they plan to increase their mobile retargeting investment in 2016.

• Programmatic for TV had its most significant increase, with a quarter of marketers reporting they are now buying programmatically on TV. In addition, 20% of marketers reported buying programmatically on online video.

• Attribution remains a challenge for mobile, and 41% of marketers note attribution transparency is the biggest challenge for mobile advertising. 84% of marketers agree attribution is either critical or very important to marketing success, representing a 140% percent increase since last reported. 40% of marketers are now using a multiple touchpoint attribution model, nearly double that of last year.

Berke said retargeting across all media channels via programmatic is the fastest-growing segment in terms of digital media spending, followed by mobile, social and programmatic TV. "People are still trying to figure [programmatic TV] out," said Berke. "It's so new that it hasn't been thought through enough to incorporate it into the attribution models most marketers use."

Berke said that a lack of available inventory is also a factor holding programmatic TV back. "The more media companies that expose the inventory, the more demand there will be."

Finally, "the way that marketers want to target, execute and manage campaigns on social media is to use the same programmatic campaigns that they've seen used in traditional display advertising," noted Berke.