Supply-Side Targeting Gains Traction in Programmatic Ads

Advertisers are adopting supply-side targeting to bypass DSP infrastructure bottlenecks and improve inventory visibility.

Updated on Oct. 25, 2026 in Advertising

Supply-Side Targeting Gains Traction in Programmatic Ads

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Supply-side targeting now accounts for 37% of programmatic advertising spend as of 2025 data. This shift helps buyers navigate infrastructure bottlenecks in digital video advertising.

Why it matters

Supply-side targeting allows buyers to bypass queries-per-second constraints at the DSP level, granting better visibility into inventory quality and content signals. This approach is gaining ground as digital video spend continues to rise.

Programmatic marketplace data from 2022 through 2025 shows 37% of total spend utilizes supply-side targeting. Within the connected television (CTV) segment, this targeting method accounts for 51% of marketplace activity.

The players

OpenX

An independent programmatic advertising exchange that manages ad inventory and targeting data for publishers and buyers.

IAB

A trade association representing the digital advertising industry that tracks and projects sector-wide advertising spend.

The details

Buyers now apply targeting through deal IDs within existing standard workflows to circumvent query limits at the demand-side platform (DSP) level. By shifting targeting to the supply side, firms remove infrastructure bottlenecks that previously prevented the evaluation of all available ad requests. This provides direct access to inventory, offering greater visibility into content signals and quality.

2022-2025: Period during which OpenX tracked exchange activity.
March 2026: Launch of attention targeting for CTV.
2026: Projected year for digital video ad spend to exceed $80 billion.

Market Landscape

As digital video ad spend is projected to exceed $80 billion in 2026 per IAB forecasts, the infrastructure for programmatic buying is shifting to handle higher volumes. This move toward supply-side targeting reflects a necessary evolution in how buyers process increasingly dense digital inventory.

Marketers should review their current programmatic workflows to determine if supply-side targeting via deal IDs can mitigate inventory visibility issues. Operators must monitor how these efficiencies impact their ability to access premium CTV supply as market competition intensifies in 2026.

The takeaway

Supply-side targeting is now a standard tool for bypassing query constraints in high-volume programmatic environments. Operators should track their own DSP request failure rates to decide if supply-side integration is necessary for maintaining inventory access.