Agencies Nearly Triple Spending on Google's DSP

Google has seen a nearly 300 percent lift in agency spend through its Invite Media demand-side platform since it bought the company last summer.

The figure represents growth from July 2010 through January 2011, and suggests agencies and their clients are eagerly boosting their use of Google’s ad exchange, including its real-time bidding capabilities. “If we took a snapshot on day one of the acquisition and now, there’s been substantial growth…in terms of agency spend,” said Neal Mohan, VP of product marketing for Google’s display ad products.

While most of Invite Media’s growth is coming from agencies, individual advertisers can also buy directly through Invite Media without an agency intermediary. However the bulk of advertisers’ self-administered audience buying has happened through the Google Display Network.

“One of the reasons we focus on agencies and trading desks [for Invite Media] is that agencies are making a big bet on having their own technology stack,” Mohan told ClickZ. “A lot of the growth comes from agency partners.”

Google published the figures today in a post on its Agency Ad Solutions blog. In the same post it also noted the number of agencies using Invite Media has doubled in the same six-month period. However Mohan declined to specify just how many are using it.

Last year advertisers spent over $350 million on real-time bidded inventory in the U.S., an amount that will more than double in 2011 to $823 million, according to Forrester research commissioned by AdMeld. Forrester estimates real-time bidded inventory will represent 8 percent of the overall online display ad spend this year.