WOO Study: Private Marketplaces Drive 76% of Programmatic DOOH Spend
2026-09-29 · via invidis
Private marketplace transactions made up 75.7 percent of global programmatic digital out-of-home spending in 2025, according to the second installment of a World Out of Home Organization study on how pDOOH is bought and sold. For screen operators and network owners weighing whether to open inventory to real-time bidding, the numbers suggest the market is still built on negotiated deals between known buyers and sellers rather than open exchanges.
The study also found that OOH-specialist demand-side platforms handled 65.5 percent of programmatic spending, compared with 34.5 percent going through omnichannel DSPs that also buy other media types. WOO says this points to specialist platforms and established buyer-seller relationships continuing to matter even as pDOOH gets folded into broader digital media buying strategies.
There is one notable exception to that pattern. Consumer electronics advertisers sent 72 percent of their pDOOH spending through omnichannel platforms, the opposite of the overall trend. WOO's report does not explain why this vertical behaves differently, but it is a data point worth watching for operators courting electronics brands.
Retail leads advertiser spending
Retail ranked as the largest advertiser vertical in the study, followed by finance and then business and industrial categories. For DOOH network operators selling into programmatic channels, that ranking lines up with where much of the ad budget conversation in the industry has already been heading.
Context from part one
This report builds on the first installment of WOO's Global pDOOH Expenditure Study 2026, which found global programmatic DOOH spending reached 1.339 billion US dollars in 2025, about 7 percent of total DOOH spending. The US was the largest market by volume at 545.5 million US dollars, while Germany had the highest programmatic penetration among major markets at 31.8 percent.
The study draws on confidential revenue submissions from 12 supply-side platforms across more than 40 markets, independently aggregated by PricewaterhouseCoopers. WOO is explicit that PwC did not audit or verify the underlying data, and that scaling factors were applied where market coverage was incomplete. That makes the figures indicative estimates rather than verified totals, a caveat operators should keep in mind before citing these numbers as hard fact in sales conversations.
WOO says it plans to repeat the study annually and expand both the number of participating platforms and the level of market detail, which should make year-over-year comparisons more useful once a second data point exists.
The announcement in full
Reproduced from invidis for reference. Digital Signage Magazine did not write the text below.
A new World Out of Home Organization study finds OoH-specialist DSPs also handle nearly two-thirds of programmatic outdoor spending.
Private marketplace transactions accounted for 75.7 percent of global programmatic digital out-of-home spending in 2025, according to the second part of a World Out of Home Organization study examining how Programmatic DooH advertising is bought and sold.
The findings show that pDooH remains heavily weighted toward private deals rather than open auctions. OoH-specialist demand-side platforms accounted for another 65.5% of spending, compared with 34.5% through omnichannel DSPs.
WOO said the results indicate that specialist platforms and established buyer-seller relationships continue to play a significant role in programmatic outdoor advertising, even as pDooH becomes more integrated into broader digital media buying.
Retail ranked as the largest advertiser vertical, followed by finance and business and industrial. Consumer electronics stood out in the opposite direction from the overall DSP split, with 72% of its pDOOH spending passing through omnichannel platforms.
The report is the second installment of WOO’s Global pDooH Expenditure Study 2026. The first report focused on geography and found that global pDooH spending reached US$1.339 billion in 2025, representing 7% of total DooH spending. The U.S. was the largest market by volume at US$545.5 million, while Germany recorded the highest programmatic penetration among major markets at 31.8%.
The study uses confidential revenue submissions from 12 supply-side platforms covering more than 40 markets. PricewaterhouseCoopers independently aggregated the submissions, although WOO notes that PwC did not audit or independently verify the underlying data. WOO also applied scaling factors where market coverage was incomplete, making the resulting figures indicative whole-market estimates.
Both reports can be accessed here and the WOO plans to repeat the study annually and expand the number of participating platforms and the level of market detail.