ANA Finds Programmatic 'Waste' Has Increased 34% In Two Years

by Joe Mandese , August 14, 2025

While considerable improvements have been made in the efficiency of their ad spending over the past couple of years, major advertisers are losing the programmatic media-buying arms race, with the level of "wasted" ad spending rising 34% to $26.8 billion from just $20.0 billion when the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released its first Programmatic Transparency Benchmark report in June 2023.

"To help marketers close the remaining $26.8 billion inefficiency gap, the ANA is making programmatic performance data more accessible," the ANA announced as part of the release of the latest edition of the periodic report, unveiling a new "ANA Online Benchmark" tool available to its members as well as TAG (Trustworthy Accountability Group) members.

The new tool, the ANA said, enables marketers to "spot inefficiencies, track progress and make smarter, faster investment decisions without waiting for the next quarterly report."

While some of those reports have been released to the press periodically, including the latest one, the aggregate "waste" estimates depicted in the chart above were derived from press releases that the ANA issued highlighting the release of three reports.

It shows the increasing magnitude of overall waste and inefficiency in the programmatic media-buying marketplace, but the reports themselves have found significant improvements in the efficiency of specific -- especially vexing -- parts of the marketplace, including so-called "made-for-advertising" or MFA sites, which accounted for two-thirds of programmatic ad-spending waste in the ANA's first report in June 2023, but now represent only 0.8% on a median basis.

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