While the advertising industry's digital transformation has given way to innovative technologies, including programmatic, it has also introduced new challenges. Sustainability being one that is a high priority and capturing more industry attention. In the last decade, consumers have become increasingly environmentally conscious and sustainability has moved to the forefront of advertiser and ad tech leaders' agendas.
In terms of carbon footprint of programmatic advertising, the size of campaign collateral, length of advertisements and frequency of communication with servers are some variables that contribute to energy use. As the industry evolves to new baseline technologies such as new identifiers and the demise of third-party cookies, it’s an opportune time to begin considering how more sustainable practices can be adopted.
The shift to digital is also worth noting. The total share of ad spend continues to grow on the digital side and contract on traditional, non-digital channels. According to the IAB, digital advertising saw a 35% lift in 2021 alone, reaching $189 billion. Brands, advertisers and publishers' digital media investments are likely to continue to increase, compounding the ad tech industry's impact on the environment.
What is sustainability in ad tech?
The true definition of sustainability in ad tech varies. However, examining the overarching goal the industry is working toward sheds some light. It can be summarized as the creation of a digital advertising supply chain that prioritizes achieving carbon neutrality through the reduction of environmental costs associated with creating and delivering digital campaigns.
This goal requires stakeholders throughout the digital advertising ecosystem - from advertisers to publishers and everyone in between - to take consistent steps toward minimizing the ecological impact of digital ads and campaigns.
Adopting a clean approach to programmatic
Research has shown that the typical digital advertising campaign produces 323 tons of carbon dioxide. To establish an environmentally friendly ad tech ecosystem, leaders must closely examine their digital supply chain and identify opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint. This includes addressing inefficiencies that increase environmental impacts, such as outdated tech stacks; large, data-heavy campaign creative; complex, multi-platform media bidding practices and more.
Achieving carbon neutrality in the digital supply chain will be a complex journey for the industry. However, there are already several companies working on solutions. Here's a peak at a few that are leading ad tech towards a greener future:
Dentsu launched DIMPACT. This web-based tool calculates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with digital media content to allow advertisers to understand the emissions linked to their media choices and make proactive, informed decisions about the type of digital advertising used.
Good-Loop, an ethical advertising platform, enables viewers of online video adverts to prompt advertisers to make a charitable donation in exchange for their attention. It has created a green ad tag that allows advertisers to track and offset the CO2 emissions of digital ads in real-time. They've also released an offering called "TreePM," which plants a tree for every thousand impressions served.
Scope3 is on a mission to decarbonize media and advertising, leveraging its data and models to predict and understand the emissions of every single part of the advertising supply chain. The company is a trusted source of truth for emissions measurement, reporting compensation and reduction by organizations in every segment of the media and advertising industry.
The health of our planet and sustainability is something that every industry will need to explore, and we anticipate that the carbon footprint of advertising will grow in importance for brands in the years to come.
– Gina Preoteasa, SVP, and Patrice Gamble, Senior Account Manager