One of the biggest trends we’ll see this year within martech and ad tech is growing pressure to clean up programmatic advertising.

Fraud and transparency issues are driving marketers to re-evaluate how they work with third-party tech firms. Here's what that looks like.

Marketers Are Reducing the Number of Partners They Work With

Some marketing and media companies are finding that they’re working with too many middlemen. According to Pathmatics, advertisers are cutting back on the number of demand-side platforms (DSPs) they use to buy inventory each month, and publishers are reducing the number of supply-side platforms (SSPs) they use to sell inventory.

In a spring 2018 study by Sizmek of 522 brand marketers in Europe and the US, 28% of respondents said it is a critical priority to reduce the number of vendors they work with. An additional 36% stated reducing vendors is a high priority.