This month’s analysis focuses on how increasing ad refresh counts impact key performance indicators such as viewability, CPMs, and click-through rates. To simplify interpretation, refreshes are grouped into five buckets, each covering a range of five refreshes, with the first bucket representing the original (non-refreshed) impression. This structure enables us to observe how performance shifts with each additional refresh.
Ad Refresh Activity Trends Across Refresh Count Buckets :
Bucket 1 – First Impression (Viewability: 78%, CPM: $2.81)
- While this bucket has the lowest viewability, it commands the highest CPM, setting the performance benchmark.
- Advertisers value the first ad slot for its freshness and higher engagement potential, even if it’s not always viewable. High CPM reflects strong demand for premium, non-refreshed impressions.
Bucket 2 (1–5) Refreshes (Viewability: 88%, CPM: $1.38)
- Viewability jumps by 10%, but CPM drops by 51% from the first impression.
- Refreshes increase the chance of the ad being in-view, but advertisers apply significant discounts due to decreasing engagement and perceived value of repeated exposures.
Bucket 3 (6–10) Refreshes (Viewability: 95%, CPM: $1.03)
- Viewability continues to improve, but CPM drops another 25%.
- Even with better visibility, ad repetition and reduced user interest make these impressions less valuable, pushing advertisers to lower their bids despite higher viewable rates.
Bucket 4 (11–15) Refreshes (Viewability: 95%, CPM: $0.92)
- Viewability saturates, but CPM falls another 11%.
- No additional visibility gains are achieved, yet the impression quality drops, indicating diminishing returns from continued refreshes.
Bucket 5 (16–20) Refreshes (Viewability: 96%, CPM: $0.84)
- Viewability reaches its peak, while CPM declines by another 9%.
- Even though the ads are highly viewable, they are no longer engaging. Advertisers treat them as low priority inventory, leading to reduced bidding intensity.
Ad Refresh Activity Trends Across Refresh Count Buckets :
Bucket 1 – First Impression (CTR: 0.41%, CPM: $2.81)
- The first ad impression consistently delivers the highest value, both in terms of user engagement and advertiser spend.
- Ads in this slot receive full user attention before fatigue sets in, making them prime inventory for advertisers, hence commanding premium bids and driving strong CTR.
Bucket 2 (1–5) Refreshes (CTR: 0.17%, CPM: $1.38)
- The sharpest performance drop occurs here, CTR falls by 59% and CPM by 51% compared to the first impression.
- The likelihood of users seeing or interacting with the ad drops compared to the first impression. Advertisers respond to this lower engagement by bidding more conservatively, resulting in a sharp decline in CPMs.
Bucket 3 (6–10) Refreshes (CTR: 0.14%, CPM: $1.03)
- CTR sees a decline, dropping only slightly. CPM continues to decline by 25% from the previous bucket.
- While user engagement stabilizes, advertisers perceive diminishing value in these impressions, possibly due to lower attention span, reduced in-view time, or repeated exposure to the same user.
Bucket 4 (11–15) Refreshes (CTR: 0.14%, CPM: $0.92)
- CTR remains flat, and CPM drops a further 11%. This indicates that additional refreshes bring little incremental engagement.
- Spend is likely to deteriorate further, with users largely ignoring ads at this stage. Advertisers discount these impressions accordingly due to weaker user engagement.
Bucket 5 (16–20) Refreshes (CTR: 0.14%, CPM: $0.84)
- While CTR stays unchanged, CPM declines by another 9%, signaling diminishing returns on continued refreshes.
- At this saturation point, impressions have minimal perceived value. Advertisers continue bidding further lower, treating these impressions as low-priority inventory likely to deliver very little performance. Effective content category targeting can boost CTRs by reaching users already engaged with relevant content.
Report Overview:
The DataBeat Programmatic Trends Report for May 2025 analyzes anonymized data from industry partners within the DataBeat network, focusing on programmatic advertising trends in the U.S. This report provides a detailed comparison of May 2025’s performance against both April 2025 and May 2024, offering insights into month-over-month and year-over-year changes.
Key Highlights:
- MoM, Display CPMs increased by 1.7%, Video CPMs increased by 9.5%, resulting in 4% increase of overall CPM.
- YoY, Display CPMs declined by 31.9% and Video CPMs increased by 0.9%, leading to an overall CPM decrease of 24.8%.
The YoY decline in CPM from May 2024 to May 2025 may be influenced by the broader US political cycle. CPMs in May 2024 were notably elevated, likely due to early PMP campaign activations tied to the primary season as political parties began nominee selections. Following the 2024 election cycle, political ad spend has likely normalized. In addition, economic uncertainty linked to Trump’s renewed political activity may be dampening consumer confidence and tightening marketing budgets. This effect appears more pronounced among Chinese companies and marketplace sellers, who were previously strong contributors to ad revenue growth across social and retail media platforms. Their financial headwinds may be contributing to the softer CPM environment observed in 2025.
To mitigate the impact and drive recovery, publishers should focus on diversifying demand sources, optimizing floor prices, and leveraging header bidding to increase competition. Additionally, exploring high-performing ad formats and strengthening direct deals can help stabilize revenue in the coming months.
Here’s a look at industry trends, broken down by inventory and demand.
1. Display Trend
- Display CPMs increased by 1.7% month-over-month and experienced a 31.9% decline year-over-year.
- Most of the SSPs saw a month-over-month CPM increase, indicating that this trend is consistent across most SSPs. When looking at year-over-year performance, all SSPs demonstrated a decrease in CPMs with an exception to Pubmatic.
2. Video Trend
- Video CPMs increased by 9.5% month-over-month and experienced a 0.9% increase year-over-year.
- Almost all SSPs saw a month-over-month CPM decrease with the exception of Punmatic, Vidazoo, and Rise, indicating that this trend is consistent across most SSPs. When looking at year-over-year performance almost all SSPs saw year-on-year decline with exception of Pubmatic.
3. Device Trends
- Mobile CPMs saw a month-over-month increase and Desktop CPMs saw a month-over-month increase, with Mobile up by 1% and Desktop up by 4%. Year-over-year declines were also observed, with Mobile falling by 30% and Desktop by 28%.
- CTV CPMs increased month-over-month and decreased year-over-year by 5% and 7% respectively. Ad Exchange claimed the top rank in terms of volume.
4. Programmatic Integrations
- Prebid leads the market with a 42% share, closely followed by AdX at 31%, TAM at 20%, and EBDA at 7%. While CPMs for integrations such as TAM and EBDA increase month-over-month, year-over all integrations saw a decline in CPMs.
5. AdX Advertisers
- Among advertisers, TEMU surged ranks to claim one of the top positions, with a CPM of $0.33 with a 47% MoM decline.
- Adobe and Amazon also saw notable rank increases, both maintaining CPMs $0.79, with Adobe experiencing a 2.6% CPM increase and Amazon seeing a 10% decline.
6. AdX Bidders
- Google Ads and DV360 remain at the top in ranking among bidders, other bidder rankings remained relatively stable.
- Most AdX bidders experienced a decrease in CPMs month-over-month, with the exception of Opera Ads and Yahoo DSP which showed decrease in their CPMs.
For a detailed overview, please download the full report.
