As the earnings of the major advertising companies for the second quarter of 2018 are being released, one can be easily distracted by the massive advertising landscapes or can't fully grasp the issue of the duopoly in the industry.

The splits in the industry, which the brand advertisers call them channels or mediums are clear. At the end what trickles down to the millions of online publishers, and broadcasters (other than the walled gardens and search engines) is less than 12% of what advertisers really spent as the digital advertising budget.

$32bn out of $250bn goes to DSPs and other open internet sources vs. $218bn goes to walled gardens and paid search businesses

Moreover, if you add the different fees along the way that takes parts of such ad spend, what remains for the actual media owner is on average around 40% out of the tiny 12% of such budget

For instance, Google's network members (17% of Google's total advertising revenue) make 71% of what Google charge their advertisers.

I got inspired by a blog by Jounce Media that tracked how digital advertising dollars being distributed across the industry and then wanted to visualize such distribution and make it easy to understand by anyone

Here's an interactive treemap for how the $250bn ad dollars are being spent

Glossary:

AAP = Amazon Advertising Platform

FAN = Facebook Audience Network

DBM = Doubleclick Bid Manager (Google)

Display, Video, Native = Any online media spend other than paid search

Walled Gardens = Online companies (publishers) that are selling the media generated on their own site(s) and/or mobile app(s) by themselves (publishers here receive 100% of the Ad Spend)

DSPs (Demand Side Platforms) = AdTech companies that enable brands, agencies and any media buyers to bid and buy media or reach a targeted audience at scale (Publishers here receive 40% to 75% of the Ad Spend)

Digital Ad Services = Ad-tech and Mar-tech companies that play a role in supporting digital advertising selling and/or buying process







