Marketers in the US will shell out $10 billion more for programmatic ad buying this year, according to new forecasts by eMarketer.

Over $46 billion will be spent on programmatic advertising in 2018, according to eMarketer’s latest report, “US Programmatic Ad Spending Forecast 2018: Private Setups Pull Even More Ad Dollars to Automation.”

More than 85 percent of all US native display ad dollars will transact programmatically in 2018, and that portion will continue to grow through the year 2020.

In 2018, $27 billion will be spent on direct programmatic, while $19.55 billion will be devoted to real-time bidding (RTB). Meanwhile, $10.56 billion will be spent on the open exchange, which includes ads transacted through a public RTB auction in which anyone can participate.

Mobile programmatic ad spending will reach $32.78 billion in 2018, which comes out to 70.4 percent of all programmatic digital display outlays in the US.

The least amount of budget this year, eMarketer predicts, will be devoted to private marketplaces, with $8.99 billion. That will change over time, however. Of the nearly $19 billion in additional ad dollars that will enter the programmatic display space between 2018 and 2020, the majority will go to private setups, such as private marketplaces (PMPs) and programmatic direct transactions.

EMarketer attributes this investment in private setups as a sign that buyers are still wary of transparency and quality issues in the open market. However, marketers still turn to programmatic for its audience targeting capabilities.

The increase in spending is good news for programmatic buyers, especially since many CMOs will continue to outsource this task. According to a recent study by NewBase (formerly Publicitas International), 43 percent completely outsource programmatic to out-of-house providers—more than any other task.

Outsourcing makes sense since overall, marketers find it difficult to understand programmatic pricing. It may be confusing to the uninitiated, but marketers across the world hope to gain a better grasp on the subject this year.

In a December 2017 survey by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and dataxu, more than 60 percent of marketers worldwide said better understanding auction dynamics/pricing is a priority for 2018.