November 2025

• Programmatic Transparency - ANA Benchmark
• Recertification 2026
• Where in the World is TAG?
• TAG in the News
• One More Thing

TAG Leads the Way on Programmatic Transparency as ANA Quarterly Benchmark Shows $13.6 Billion in Recovered Value for Advertisers 

In November, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released its Q3 2025 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark showing that continued progress in efficiency, media quality, and supply-chain transparency had helped marketers reclaim $13.6 billion in value. 

Those savings have been driven by the unique collaboration between TAG, ANA, and Fiducia, which has uncovered and helped advertisers address tens of billions of dollars in misdirected, misappropriated, and misspent advertising investments. 

By analyzing aggregated data from trillions of log-level ad transactions shared by brands partners at major DSPs, SSPs, Data Exchanges, and analytics providers, TAG and its partners are helping the industry identify inefficiencies, reduce wasted spend, and strengthen the programmatic supply chain. 

Equally important, participating advertisers have access to their own log-level data, and each company can access a custom Advertiser Benchmark based that enables them to compare their programmatic expenditures against validated industry metrics. 

Flipping the switch to transparency is easy. Ad buyers simply need to secure direct access to their log-level data from their supply chain partners. By doing so, buyers gain accountability over their vendors, increase control over media investments, strengthen direct supply paths, improve quality relative to costs, and create ongoing value optimization.  

One way to ensure your company has control over its data is by establishing direct vendor contracts that assure that access. Those contracts should cover all suppliers, provide always-on data feeds for ongoing analytics and optimization, include all specified data fields, and have no usage limitations or extra costs. More than 50% of the ANA transparency benchmark participants have already adopted those types of direct contracts with their suppliers.

The benefits of cross-industry collaboration to improve programmatic transparency and improve supply chain efficiencies were clearly demonstrated in the ANA Q3 2025 benchmark.

According to the benchmark, transparency and efficiency gains have powered a more disciplined and data-driven marketplace. The share of ad spend reaching publishers has risen 11% since 2023, reaching a new high of 47.1% in total non-CTV spend. 

CTV spending has increased to 45.6% of all spending, while CTV TrueImpressions improved by 15 points, reflecting stronger accountability and data-driven optimization. 

Advertisers have also moved the large majority of their budgets to curated spending, as private marketplace programmatic (PMP) accounted for 82% of all spending. Reinforcing that shift to quality, MFA exposure fell below .5% for the first time.

For the first time, the benchmark measured normalized brand safety and suitability metrics across web environments, and it found that just 1.32% of spend occurs in high- and medium-risk environments. Beyond risk, the benchmark also measured brand suitability, which should be central to marketers’ evaluation of quality environments, as negative sentiment can be as damaging as high-risk content. 

Companies wishing to learn more about how they can achieve a more transparent supply chain, reduce inefficiencies, and capture misallocated ad spend can contact info@tagtoday.net.

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble Recertify!! 

TAG’s 2025 recertification process is coming soon, so it’s time to start getting ready. Recertification begins on January 1st and ends January 31st. All supporting documents and evidence must be submitted via the TAG member portal.

Watch Todd’s “State of the Fight” After Party to learn more about the process and deadlines. Members with any questions or problems can reach out to at info@tagtoday.com.

Team TAG are always looking to connect with the TAG Community wherever they are! In November, TAG were at:

IACC's Marketplace Advisory Committee Meeting
November 12th 
US

U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center IP Champions Reception
November 18th
Washington D.C, US

Wult Webinar: The Future of Privacy Compliance: Data Solution for Media & Adtech
November 19th
Online

National IP Center: Digital Piracy Task Force Inaugural Meeting
November 20th
US

From “ANA Finds Miniscule ‘Risk’ In Programmatic Media Buys” in MediaPost:

“After years of progress eliminating waste in programmatic media buys, the Association of National Advertisers has added new benchmarks for brand safety and ‘suitability,’ including explicit risks to advertisers buying programmatic web and mobile ad inventory, as well as the sentiment associated with it.

“The good news is that the ANA analysis found that 99.1% of programmatic inventory runs in ‘low risk’ environments.

“The bad news is that less than half (45.5%) the advertising buys are associated with ‘positive’ brand sentiment, although the majority were ‘neutral’ and only 1.6% were ‘negative.’

“The new benchmarks represent a high bar for brands tracking the safety and suitability of their programmatic ad buys going forward, and follow years of more bottom-line benchmarking associated with waste in the programmatic media supply chain.”

Keep Up-To-Date With The Working Group Brief

TAG's working groups are a crucial source point of conversation and collaboration for digital advertising. Make sure you stay up to date with the latest progress and developments with the Workin Group Brief. 

Read the latest Working Group Brief 👉 tagtoday.net/working-groups

Leverage TAG Research into Your Everyday!

From APAC Fraud Snapshot reports, to UK Brand Safety Consumer reports, to Best Practices whitepapers, TAG's research is here to support our member's day-to-day compliance as well as strategic planning. 

Visit our Data and Insight page 👉 tagtoday.net/insights

Let's Make Some Noise Together 🤝

We love it when TAG members highlight our work together to fight digital ad crime and improve transparency. Please send any TAG-related press releases, blogs, or other announcements to Andrew Weinstein at andrewwstn@gmail.com for review before release.