Programmatic Transparency Benchmark

Efficiency Continues to Improve in Q2 2026

Q2 2026 extends the positive trend in media productivity, with TrueAdSpend rising to 45.1% (+1.8pp). Non-viewable spend fell to 10.1% (–3.2pp) and IVT held near-zero (0.1%), while non-measurable was broadly flat at 16.2%. Transaction costs rose to 27.2% (+1.3pp) as higher DSP Other and SSP fees outweighed lower DSP Platform and Data fees.

TrueAdSpend rose from 43.3% to 45.1%, driven by lower non-measurable inventory and near-elimination of IVT fraud.

Key Trends

• Continued improvement in working media: Non-viewable spend fell from 13.3% to 10.1% and IVT held near-zero (0.1%), extending the Q1 gains.
• Transaction costs broadly stable: DSP Platform and Data fees eased while DSP Other and SSP fees rose, leaving total transaction costs at 27.2% (up from 25.9%).
• Cleaner supply mix: IVT held near-zero (0.2% to 0.1%) and MFA stayed near 1.3%, while non-viewable spend fell to 10.1%.

What It Means

Quality — not cost — remains the primary performance driver, consistent with prior findings. Efficiency gains are now coming from better delivery (viewability), not cheaper supply paths.

The Q2 data highlights a split: media quality (measurability, IVT) continued to improve, while pricing efficiency slipped as CPMs recovered — TrueCPM rose to $9.03 and the TrueCPM Index widened to 32.6%. Managing the price of quality is now the key lever alongside supply-quality enforcement.

Structural Supply Chain Differences

Higher-performing advertisers consistently operate with significantly more concentrated supply footprints (46,516 domains/apps vs. 65,412 for the lower half). Although they maintain similar levels of private marketplace deals, the upper cohort demonstrates a clear preference for inventory that can be measured for viewability and verified for quality.

The lower-performing cohort remains distributed across a broader supply base, with correspondingly higher exposure to non-measurable inventory. The 12.3pp gap in non-measurable rates (10.4% vs. 22.7%) between cohorts remains the primary driver of the TrueAdSpend divide.

What Changed in Q2

From Q1 to Q2, both cohorts saw modest TrueAdSpend declines — from 54.0% to 52.3% for the higher-half and from 32.1% to 31.1% for the lower-half. Both cohorts improve on non-viewable rates, but the lower half continues to struggle with non-measurable exposure.

For top performers, non-viewable dropped to 11.8% and non-measurable to 10.4% — both strong metrics. For the lower-half, non-measurable remains elevated at 22.7%, and non-viewable sits at 12.6%. Combined, these two quality issues account for 35.3% of lower-half spend.

Key Takeaways

• Transaction cost gap widens in Q2: The higher half now has 23.6% TC vs. 31.4% for the lower half — a 7.8pp difference, indicating the lower cohort also faces supply chain cost disadvantages.
• Non-measurable inventory remains the #1 quality problem — a 12.3pp gap between cohorts (10.4% vs. 22.7%).
• TrueCPM gap narrows: A $1.35 CPM difference ($7.90 vs. $6.55) results in only a $1.86 TrueCPM gap ($11.94 vs. $13.80) — with the lower half actually now showing only a slightly higher TrueCPM, reflecting the mix effect of improved quality metrics.
• 35% of participating marketers now exceed 50% TrueAdSpend, up from 25% in Q1 — a significant milestone in benchmark progress.

1 Scrutinize Transaction Costs — Especially DSP Other Costs

Transaction costs rose to 27.2% (+1.3pp) this quarter — lower DSP Platform and Data fees offset a rise in DSP Other Costs and the SSP fee. Request an itemized breakdown of every fee line in your supply chain, challenge cost components that cannot be explained, and consider direct supplier contracts with log-level data (LLD) access to verify where every dollar goes.

2 Reduce Non-Measurable Inventory First

Non-measurable inventory is now the #1 media productivity problem: the lower-performing half loses 22.7% of spend to it versus 10.4% for the higher half — a 12.3pp gap. Prioritize publishers that accept verification tags and apps supporting open measurement, and shift budget away from paths where quality cannot be verified.

3 Curate a More Concentrated Supply Footprint

Higher-performing marketers used 46,516 unique domains & apps versus 65,412 for the lower half — roughly 19,000 fewer, better-vetted properties. Build and maintain inclusion lists rather than exclusion lists, evaluate the value each domain delivers against the risk it represents, and treat every supply path as an optimization opportunity.

4 Manage Price and Quality Together

The TrueCPM gap collapsed from $11.58 in Q1 to $1.86 in Q2: a $1.35 CPM difference between cohorts now translates into nearly the same effective cost of quality. Evaluate media buys on quality-adjusted cost — TrueCPM versus stated CPM — not headline CPM alone. Cheap inventory that fails quality checks is the most expensive media you can buy.

5 Keep CTV Growth Measurable

CTV reached 41.6% of tracked ad spend — the largest environment in the Benchmark. Build an acceptance framework for CTV sellers and platforms: verify Open Measurement (OM) SDK support, transact through app-ads.txt-compliant supply, favor private marketplaces and direct paths, and demand measurement transparency before scaling spend.

Continue to Manage IVT & MFA

IVT cost (0.1%) and MFA (1.3%) are near historic lows — but only because of continuous detection and filtering. Keep pre-bid and post-bid IVT tools active and audit MFA exposure quarterly; these gains reverse quickly when attention moves elsewhere.