The holy grail of digital advertising is accurately determining who to target, when to target them, and what products to highlight. Data management platforms (DMPs) facilitate smarter media buying by unifying data from multiple sources to allow more accurate and detailed audience segmentation. In our recently published Ad Technology (Data Management Platforms) Forecast, 2016 To 2021 (US), we take a more in-depth look at the market. We examine demand for DMPs that support the programmatic advertising ecosystem, including platforms from vendors such as Adobe, Google, IgnitionOne, Krux, Lotame, Neustar, Oracle, and Wunderman (KBM Group). We conclude that:

  • DMPs have hit a tipping point, driving continued robust growth. While the US DMP market is relatively small at $500 million, we expect to see robust 43% annual growth over  the 2015 to 2021 period. We believe DMPs reached a tipping point in the past year or two as both marketers and publishers became increasingly aware of their benefits. CMOs are focusing on improving their marketing and advertising ROI, and DMPs demonstrate tangible value by clearly organizing data into taxonomies, identifying intent to purchase, and yielding higher conversion rates.
  • More and new data offers DMPs a unique opportunity. DMPs easily unify data from multiple sources. While DMPs are widely used to manage first-party and third-party data, we’ve identified over 25 types of data used in DMPs, including social, mobile, and CRM data. New sources of first-party data are emerging, including TVs (data sets from set-top boxes and over-the-top video), automobiles, and wearable sensors. As the Internet of Things becomes a reality, the need for data analysis tools will become even more critical.

If you have an interest in the sector, be sure to check out the reports by my colleagues Susan Bidel and Richard Joyce: Maximize Media ROI With A Customer-Centric Approach, Savvy Publishers Deploy DMP Insights Across Their Organizations, The Digital Media Buying Maturity Framework.

To learn how our forecasts can help you with your investment decisions, read our ForecastView overview.