South America Programmatic Advertising Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends And Forecast (2025 - 2030)

South America Programmatic Advertising Market Trends and Insights

Surging Mobile Internet Penetration

Mobile internet users reached 418 million in 2023, and penetration is projected to hit 78% by 2030, expanding the addressable impression pool for the South America programmatic advertising market. Smartphones account for more than 80% of all connections, enabling accurate location-based and real-time bidding tactics. Monthly data consumption is expected to quadruple to 32 GB per connection by 2030, supporting richer video and interactive formats. Commercial 5G roll-outs promise low-latency auctions that raise win rates and ad viewability. Brazil, Colombia and Chile lead adoption, making them priority markets for mobile-first campaigns that fuse deterministic data with contextual AI targeting.

Proliferation of Connected TV Inventory

Connected TV is the fastest-growing channel in the South America programmatic advertising market, with regional CTV ad spend rising 27% year over year in Q3 2024.^{[3]Pixalate, “CTV Ad Supply Chain Trends Report – LATAM,” pixalate.com} Brazil’s 89 million monthly viewers now represent the biggest audience outside the United States, averaging 4.5 daily viewing hours. Ad-supported video on-demand penetration sits above 95% of CTV households, creating premium supply that commands higher CPMs. AI-driven contextual ads and private marketplace deals improve brand suitability and fill rates. The dominance of smart TVs 94% of all CTV devices strengthens household-level targeting and cross-device measurement.

Adoption of First-Party Data Strategies

Cookie deprecation accelerates the migration toward first-party identifiers that bolster audience quality and measurement precision. Retailers, streaming platforms and telcos enrich their logged-in user graphs, helping the South America programmatic advertising market maintain personalization without breaching privacy statutes such as Brazil’s LGPD. Early pilots show improved conversion lift when retailer data fuels look-alike modelling, and private identity frameworks such as UID2 gain traction among publishers seeking interoperable yet secure solutions.

Emergence of Retail Media Networks

Regional e-commerce leaders monetize checkout data to create closed-loop attribution, reinforcing retail media as the most potent engine of growth for the South America programmatic advertising market. Brazil’s online retail sales stood at USD 153 billion in 2024 and are forecast to more than double by 2025, supplying vast purchase-intent signals. VTEX’s acquisition of Newtail extends self-service ad access to 400 advertisers, while Adsmovil’s new retail-media unit accelerates network build-out. First-party context offers brands compliant ways to target audiences as third-party cookies fade.

Limited Skilled Programmatic Talent Pool

Advanced buying and data-science skills remain concentrated in a handful of metropolitan hubs. Agencies often spend months securing DV360 or Amazon DSP certifications, delaying go-to-market timelines and increasing labour costs. Small advertisers without in-house resources gravitate toward managed-service models, but capacity constraints can create bottlenecks that mute overall growth in the South America programmatic advertising market.

Fragmented Publisher Ecosystem Leading to Brand Safety Concerns

Invalid traffic rates exceed 14% on regional CTV supply and rise past 20% on mobile apps, undermining advertiser trust. Smaller publishers struggle to enforce ads.txt (ads.txt stands for Authorized Digital Sellers which is a publicly accessible file where publishers declare the sellers who are authorized to sell their inventory) and sellers.json (sellers.json is a publicly accessible ledger used by supply-side platforms (SSPs) and exchanges which contains details on the inventory they can rightfully sell, inviting arbitrage and opaque reselling. Advertisers respond by concentrating spend within curated marketplaces, sacrificing reach in favour of verified environments.

Segment Analysis

By Trading Platform: Private Marketplaces Drive Premium Growth

The South America programmatic advertising market size for trading platforms is led by real time bidding, which retained 46.20% share in 2024. Demand for open exchanges persists thanks to their scale and competitive pricing. Yet private marketplace guaranteed deals are projected to log a 14.90% CAGR through 2030 as advertisers seek brand-safe inventory and simpler compliance with privacy laws. Publishers enjoy higher yields and tighter control in these invite-only auctions, spurring supply-side innovation such as seller-defined audiences and pre-bid verification. Automated guaranteed packages attract large enterprises that value fixed pricing combined with automated delivery, while unreserved fixed-rate inventory satisfies niche placements where immediacy outweighs dynamic pricing advantages.

Publishers and holding-company trading desks accelerate supply-path optimization to curtail hidden fees, improving effective CPMs and transparency. PubMatic’s Activate solution streamlines direct connections that bypass duplicative intermediaries, aligning with global trends toward leaner supply chains. As more impressions migrate to optimized paths, private deals are expected to raise their portion of the South America programmatic advertising market share over the forecast horizon.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Advertising Media: Connected TV Accelerates Beyond Mobile

Mobile display secured 57.80% share of the South America programmatic advertising market in 2024, a reflection of the region’s mobile-first behaviour and high prepaid penetration. Rich-media units, rewarded video and app-install formats remain staples for performance marketers. Desktop display holds steady for upper-funnel messaging but loses incremental share to emerging formats. Connected TV, however, is on course for a 12.30% CAGR through 2030, transforming lean-back viewing into measurable, data-driven buys. The South America programmatic advertising market size linked to CTV expands as smart-TV adoption climbs and AVOD services proliferate. Dynamic ad insertion and server-side stitching allow seamless creative swaps, elevating viewer experience and brand recall.

Audio gains momentum as streaming habits deepen. Programmatic pipes now power sequential messaging that bridges audio sessions with complementary display or video exposures, reinforcing omnichannel frequency goals. As measurement vendors standardize incrementality methodologies, advertisers allocate bigger budgets to cross-screen activations that tap both mobile and living-room screens.

By Enterprise Size: SMBs Embrace Cloud-Based Solutions

Large enterprises commanded 64.30% of South America programmatic advertising market share in 2024, leveraging proprietary data and multi-market footprints to negotiate volume discounts and preferred access to premium supply. Sophisticated stacks integrate demand-side and data-clean-room solutions under unified identity frameworks. Yet small and medium businesses will expand at a 12.70% CAGR to 2030 as cloud-based self-service portals lower cost and skill barriers. Tiered subscription models eliminate minimum-spend thresholds, and AI-powered workflows simplify audience building, bid strategy and creative iteration.

Platform vendors court SMBs with verticalized templates and localized language support. Certified channel partners bundle training, campaign management and analytics in one subscription, fostering repeat adoption. As ROI visibility improves, smaller advertisers become a vital growth engine for the South America programmatic advertising market.

By Industry Vertical: Retail Media Transforms Commerce Advertising

Retail and eCommerce held 28.50% share of 2024 spend and is projected to post a 13.40% CAGR through 2030, fuelled by onsite sponsored product ads, offsite display retargeting and shoppable video. Closed-loop attribution that links impression to point-of-sale confirms return on ad spend, prompting packaged-goods brands to reallocate budgets from search to retail networks. Automotive deploys geotargeted creatives that sync with dealership foot-traffic peaks, while financial-services campaigns pivot to data-clean-room collaborations that respect KYC obligations. Travel and hospitality engage audiences with dynamic pricing messages tied to real-time inventory, capitalizing on pent-up tourism demand.

Gaming, fintech and digital-service providers inhabit the “Others” bucket, piloting programmatic omnichannel strategies to acquire high-lifetime-value users. The shift toward performance-based KPIs tightens feedback loops, sharpening creative formats and bid multipliers. As vertical boundaries blur, commerce data will underpin an ever-greater slice of the South America programmatic advertising industry.

Geography Analysis

Brazil anchors the South America programmatic advertising market, propelled by 183 million internet users and 89 million CTV viewers. LGPD compliance efforts standardize consent flows, reducing cross-border frictions and drawing first-mover investment from global platforms. Increased 5G availability further lifts mobile auction liquidity and ad-loading speeds.

Argentina follows as the second-largest contributor; its robust smartphone base and high banking penetration attract premium-brand budgets. Regulatory alignment with the European Union eases data mobility, making the market attractive for multinational campaigns. Advanced digital out-of-home networks in Buenos Aires and Córdoba integrate with demand-side platforms, extending omnichannel reach.

Colombia, Chile and Peru represent the fastest-growing cluster within the South America programmatic advertising market. Rising middle-class populations and supportive telecom regulation hasten broadband uptake, while local publishers adopt open-measurement SDKs that improve viewability verification. Although smaller in absolute terms, the Rest of South America including Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador offers green-field potential as connectivity improves and local agencies upskill.^{[4]DataReportal, “Digital 2025: Brazil,” datareportal.com}