Proximic by Comscore Releases 2025 State of Programmatic Report

Key Findings Highlight Continued Growth in Programmatic Advertising, Shift from Linear TV to CTV, and Emphasis on Privacy-Centric Strategies

NEW YORK, NY., January. 21, 2025 — Proximic by Comscore, a division of Comscore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) and a leading provider of audience and content targeting solutions for programmatic activation, today released its third annual State of Programmatic Report for 2025. A key finding shows that 72% of respondents are planning to increase programmatic investments in 2025, demonstrating advertisers’ continued reliance on programmatic strategies. The report also details current and emerging trends in CTV and linear as well as digital, social and audio, offering valuable insights for advertisers, publishers, and technology providers.

The report reveals a significant shift to Connected TV (CTV), which doubled its share of media budgets since 2023 to reach 28% in 2025. Nearly half of marketers increasing their programmatic CTV budgets are reallocating funds from Linear TV, signaling a definitive move away from traditional media and towards digital-first streaming platforms. Meanwhile, social media and audio/podcasts continue to receive a smaller share of overall budgets —with social maintaining stable investment since 2023, and audio/podcast demonstrating modest growth.

Privacy concerns also dominate, with 41% of marketers identifying contextual targeting as their primary strategy for navigating shrinking ID coverage and privacy regulations. More than half (52%) plan to increase their use of contextual data in 2025, underscoring the industry’s commitment to privacy-sensitive approaches. Additionally, 80% of marketers emphasized the critical need for deduplicated reach and frequency measurement in programmatic environments, ensuring cross-channel campaigns achieve both accurate audience targeting and measurable results.

"Our 2025 State of Programmatic Report showed dramatic year on year industry changes as programmatic continues to gain momentum," said Rachel Gantz, Managing Director, Proximic by Comscore. "Connected TV emerged as a clear winner, and privacy-focused strategies like contextual targeting are becoming essential for marketers aiming to deliver highly effective, privacy-centric campaigns.”

Additional findings:

• ID-Free strategies on the rise: 48% of marketers anticipate primarily relying on cookie-free targeting tactics by the end of 2025, reflecting the urgency to adapt to changes in the privacy landscape and diminishing identifier coverage.
• Privacy law preparedness: While 60% of marketers feel prepared for upcoming privacy regulatory changes in the U.S., 35% feel somewhat prepared, indicating a need for ongoing education and support.
• AI integration gains momentum: Marketers are increasingly turning to AI-driven insights to enhance targeting and campaign performance, with AI adoption seen as a key driver of programmatic growth.

Audience targeting is expected to face the greatest impact:

• 61% of respondents expect audience targeting to bear the brunt of privacy law impacts, with 60% adjusting their targeting strategy to accommodate data privacy laws and 59% re-evaluating targeting datasets to comply with new laws.

For a comprehensive analysis and detailed insights, download the full 2025 State of Programmatic Report.

About Proximic by Comscore
Proximic by Comscore, a division of Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), is a leader in programmatic targeting. Powered by Comscore's trusted datasets and the industry's leading natural language processing contextual engine, Proximic by Comscore enables media buyers and sellers to maximize the scale and performance of their campaigns. Through their innovative suite of ID-based and ID-less audience and content targeting segments, Proximic by Comscore supports the evolution of the programmatic ecosystem, enabling clients and partners to continue executing impactful advertising strategies.

Media
Marie Scoutas
Comscore, Inc.
press@comscore.com