Key Takeaways
- Top-performing marketers are more than twice as likely as peers to run three or more channels (45% vs. 21%) and more likely to use connected customer data (58% vs. 44%).
- Fragmentation remains costly: 42% of marketers estimate more than 20% of their programmatic budget is wasted, and only 7% have a fully unified measurement strategy.
StackAdapt’s annual State of Programmatic Advertising 2027 report finds that top-performing marketers are taking on more complexity than their peers and managing it more effectively.
Based on a global survey of 885 senior marketing and advertising professionals in addition to anonymized StackAdapt platform data, the report defines top performers as marketers reporting significantly stronger year-over-year performance as they expanding across channels, data, measurement and AI while keeping those capabilities working together.
Compared with other respondents, top performers are more than twice as likely to have expanded their channel mix to three or more channels (45% vs. 21%) and more likely to use connected customer data (58% vs. 44%).
What Separates Top Performers in Programmatic Advertising?
Additionally, 69% of this cohort report greater measurement confidence while 31% are less likely to report fragmentation-related budget waste.
“More channels, better customer data, and AI are expanding what marketers can do, but they’re also making marketing more complex,” said Ryan Nelsen, CMO of StackAdapt. “Our research shows that the strongest performers are making those moving parts work together more effectively.”
Why Does Fragmented Channel Execution Waste Programmatic Budget?
Measurement is one area where that coordination pays off as just 7% of marketers say they have a fully unified measurement strategy, and most are using several methodologies at once. Marketers using cross-channel attribution report stronger year-over-year performance than non-users (75% vs. 60%) and greater confidence connecting ad investment to results (66% vs. 47%).
The research shows that marketers are investing in reach—83% have added channels to their marketing mix over the past two to three years. The opportunity now is coordination: 10% say they almost always run truly omnichannel campaigns, and 42% estimate that more than 20% of their programmatic budget is wasted because of siloed or fragmented channel execution, rather than the channels themselves.
At larger budgets, the challenge shifts from access to alignment. According to StackAdapt platform data, advertisers spending more than $10 million annually are more likely to use measurement capabilities (69% vs. 56%) and adopt a broader set of platform features. In the survey, high-spend marketers cite organizational silos (28% vs. 16%) and technology limitations (23% vs. 17%) as barriers to omnichannel strategy more often than mid-spend marketers. That points to operating models, rather than investment levels, as the next lever for performance at scale.
How Does Connected Customer Data Affect Programmatic Performance and AI Value?
Connected customer data is emerging as a clear performance divide. Only 45% of marketers say their first-party customer and prospect data is mostly or fully connected across acquisition, conversion, and retention. Among those marketers, 74% report stronger year-over-year performance, compared with 59% of marketers with less connected data.
Connected data and measurement shape how much value marketers get from AI. Among marketers with mostly or fully connected customer data, 79% say AI has improved cross-channel coordination, and they agree that AI only delivers value when the underlying data and measurement are connected and trusted.
Looking ahead to next year, the report identifies four priorities for managing growing complexity: connecting customer data across the lifecycle, coordinating execution across channels, establishing trusted measurement practices, and aligning teams and workflows. Together, these foundations can help marketers make better-informed decisions about audiences, budgets, and campaign optimization.
The full report is available for download here.
