Procter & Gamble, Bayer scrutinize ad tech as brands demand accountability and lower costs

By Jack Neff September 18, 2025 12:00am

Ad tech vendors are facing the same accountability reckoning that once upended media agencies, as marketers question where their dollars really go.

Procter & Gamble Co. and Bayer Healthcare are among companies currently reviewing their ad tech relationships, and consultancy ID Comms is preparing to launch a review on behalf of another client later this year focused on its ad tech relationships.

"We're waiting for the wave to hit," said Tom Denford, CEO and co-founder, ID Comms, predicting more formal reviews involving ad tech providers, noting that there's "huge potential" for savings and efficiency gains that affect billions of dollars in spending.

The Association of National Advertisers hired an investigative firm and a consultancy almost a decade ago to investigate media agency issues and develop a media buying contract template. But ad tech firms-the independent demand - and supply-side platforms that power programmatic buying—have faced relatively little scrutiny.

That's even though these platforms now take as much—or more—of marketers' media budgets as agencies. Although open web programmatic accounts for only about 10% of industrywide media spend, DSPs and SSPs together captured roughly 30% of those outlays, according to a 2024 Association of National Advertisers Programmatic Benchmark study.

The ANA found that buy- and sell-side ad tech players each accounted for about 15% of the overall digital media cost.

That 30%— even if it only applies to 10% of a media budget—amounts to 3% of overall media spend. That's what media agencies used to make off the entirety of a marketer's outlay back when the industry moved from the commission compensation model decades ago.

The scrutiny gap is closing not only because more marketers are focusing on what they're paying ad tech vendors and what they're getting for that money, but also who's accountable when things go wrong. That focus has intensified this year amid reports-and even informal Congressional inquiries—about ads appearing alongside child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and pornography or served to known bots.

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