Adtech at a Crossroads. Either We Wake Up — or We Sleep Through a Revolution

# Adtech at a Crossroads. Either We Wake Up — or We Sleep Through a Revolution

Adtech at a crossroads. Either we wake up — or we sleep through a revolution.

Adtech is the set of technologies behind digital advertising. It decides who sees your campaign, where, how — and how much you'll pay for it.

Adtech is entering a bend in the road. Poland may have it easier — but doesn't know it yet.

Over the last decade, marketers lived on the promise of automation, perfect targeting, and campaigns that "run themselves." Programmatic swallowed billions, and cookies created an illusion of precision. Today, the entire world of digital marketing is facing a brutal wake-up call: up to 30% of ad budgets disappear into the black hole of "adtech tax." And Poland? We spent almost PLN 7 billion on digital in 2023. Nearly half of that — on programmatic, whose effectiveness many marketers can't even measure. It's time to look at how deeply this global leak is absorbing our local advertising budgets — before the competition does.

The system is choking. A global diagnosis for a local disease.

Marc Pritchard from Procter & Gamble called today's adtech an "opaque supply chain." According to Forrester research, as much as 20% of online ad traffic is fake or suspicious in quality. Global marketer losses from fraud are estimated at up to $100 billion annually. Meanwhile, analyses from the Association of National Advertisers indicate that in the complex adtech ecosystem, 15–30% of ad spend disappears in the so-called "adtech tax" — non-transparent fees for successive technology intermediaries.

In Poland, the situation is even less clear. The programmatic advertising market is growing at double digits (in 2022, as much as 12%), but marketers' awareness of where money flows remains low. According to Gemius, around 40% of internet users in Poland use ad blockers — one of the highest rates in Europe. For advertisers, that means a significant portion of budget goes to campaigns that never reach their recipients.

Low levels of internal control in Polish companies over digital advertising budgets often result from too much trust in ad platforms and a lack of competence to independently verify data quality. As a result, even large companies allocate parts of their marketing budgets to campaigns whose effectiveness remains a mystery. Meanwhile, smaller brands entering programmatic rarely realize that along the way their budget may feed a dozen or more different technology entities.

While globally, leading advertisers are beginning to demand transparency and limit cooperation to verified partners, the Polish digital market is still stuck in a mindset from a few years ago: "buy cheaper and it'll be fine." As a result, billions of złoty flow through intermediaries most marketers don't even know by name, let alone understand the real value of their services.

Poland can, however, use global lessons before repeating the same mistakes. The condition is simple: brands and agencies must start asking "where is my money going?" — and stop treating that question as inconvenient.

The end of cookies, the beginning of transparency. How the new adtech is changing the world — and what it will mean for Poland

Global adtech is facing a fundamental shift. The end of the third-party cookie era, growing privacy restrictions (GDPR, ePrivacy), and pressure for transparency are pushing marketers worldwide toward simpler, smarter, and safer technology solutions. According to an ID5 report, 91% of global marketers have started implementing or testing cookieless solutions.

Several key trends are coming to the forefront. Identity resolution enables building user profiles without cookies, based on brands' own data and zero-party data. Contextual targeting is returning in a modern AI-powered form that understands content and user intent, rather than tracking browsing history.

In Poland, these trends are only beginning to sprout. While local technology players such as RTB House are already global leaders in using AI for advertising without third-party cookies, marketers' awareness still lags behind. Yieldbird offers Polish publishers advanced supply path optimization (SPO) services, but many advertisers still don't know why such services are worth using. According to estimates from IAB Polska, among several hundred significant publishers, fewer than half actively use advanced cookieless solutions.

The dominant posture among many Polish marketers is: "we'll wait until someone else does it first." The exception is the biggest market players — such as Allegro or WP Group — who invest in building their own adtech capabilities and internal competencies. Smaller brands still live in a cookie world, even though Google has repeatedly moved the final phase-out deadline.

Poland has a real chance not to repeat other markets' mistakes. Local tech providers — like Cloud Technologies, Gemius, and Yieldbird — are ready to deliver solutions tailored to the specifics of the Polish internet. But changing advertisers' approach requires strategy, not just waiting for external regulatory pressure. It's worth noting that Allegro Ads — the largest local advertising player — recorded a 24% growth in ad revenues in 2023 precisely by developing its own ecosystem based on first-party data.

The shift from tracking users to intelligently understanding context becomes not so much an option as a necessity. For Polish marketers, that means an urgent need to change mindset — from "cheap and fast" to "conscious and strategic."

The new adtech is already here. Poland can win — if it reads the direction correctly.

Creative + media integration, commerce media, and zero-party data — these are the main trends shaping the future of digital advertising globally. Leading brands are moving away from classic metrics like CTR and measuring campaign success through user engagement and real business impact. According to eMarketer research, the global retail media market value will grow to $122 billion by 2025, becoming one of the dominant advertising channels.

In Poland, the situation is somewhat paradoxical. Allegro Ads, the leader in retail media, generated PLN 266 million in revenue in 2023 — 24% more than the year before. Allegro's success shows that local players can effectively leverage the potential of their own media platforms. Yet other major Polish brands are only now waking up to this trend. For example, Żabka and InPost have started developing their advertising ecosystems, but still have a path ahead to reach the maturity level of global retail platforms like Amazon or Walmart Connect.

One trend still largely absent in Polish marketing is zero-party data — data users knowingly share with brands in exchange for personalized content and offers. According to IAB Polska research, only around 20% of marketers in Poland actively use zero-party data in their communication strategies. Meanwhile globally, Forrester reports indicate zero-party data is becoming a foundation for building consumer loyalty, replacing mechanisms based on unethical behavioral tracking.

Content as a key element of campaigns is also gaining importance. In global markets, brands increasingly invest in storytelling-based campaigns and high-quality content. In Poland, influencer marketing is growing dynamically (its value exceeded PLN 100 million in 2023), but still largely relies on short-term activations rather than strategic collaborations driven by deeper analytics and long-term content marketing.

From a technology perspective, global standards increasingly include tools like ClearLine or OpenPath, which help marketers simplify the ad buying path and eliminate unnecessary intermediaries. In Poland, analogous solutions are still being tested. Many marketers continue to rely on older ad platforms such as AdOcean, which, while stable, do not always keep pace with global optimization trends.

For Poland to effectively seize the opportunities of new adtech trends, a mindset shift is essential. Marketers must stop viewing ads only through CTR and CPM, and start evaluating campaigns by their real business impact. Investment is needed in technologies that enable collecting and using first-party data — and in competencies that allow making informed decisions.

The global shift is already happening. The question is whether Poland jumps onto this train in time — or lets it leave the station.

The marketer of the future. What must they know to survive in the new adtech world?

A marketer who wants to thrive in the new adtech reality must combine technological knowledge with creative intuition. According to STX Next research, 64% of marketing teams globally declare active use of AI-based solutions. Data analysis, real-time campaign optimization, understanding privacy regulations (such as GDPR and ePrivacy) — these competencies are rapidly becoming the standard, not an extra advantage.

In Poland, the situation is more complex. Many marketers still treat technology as a "black box," handing full responsibility for campaign performance to agencies or ad platforms. According to IAB Polska estimates, less than one third of Polish companies actively educate their teams in modern advertising technologies. Worse, even fewer are ready to invest in data-driven marketing competencies at a strategic level.

That doesn't mean Poland is standing still. New roles are emerging in our market, such as marketing technologist or creative technologist, combining technological competence with creative thinking. More and more agencies and media houses — such as GroupM Data Hub or Xaxis Poland — are building their own technology capabilities and teams specializing in first-party data and cookieless personalization.

To truly unlock the potential of these changes, marketers must understand the technological basics themselves — including how AI works, methods of data integration, and ways to protect data. Technical competencies must complement traditional marketing skills like strategic thinking, storytelling, and building consumer relationships.

A modern marketer in Poland should therefore understand not only how to run campaigns, but above all how to measure effectiveness, analyze data, and use AI tools to automate and optimize advertising processes. Only then can brands realistically assess what they are paying for, why they are doing it, and how it affects their business.

Those who invest in new competencies first will be able to turn current adtech challenges into competitive advantage. The rest risk falling behind — with budgets disappearing faster than campaign results.

Poland can avoid the West's mistakes — but time is running out.

Poland is in a unique situation. Some Western markets invested billions for years into complex, inefficient adtech systems that they now must replace with new, more transparent solutions. The Polish market — less tied to historical investments — has a chance to leapfrog these stages and move straight to next-generation adtech. According to IAB Polska, digital advertising value will grow 10–12% per year, soon reaching even PLN 10 billion. We already have suppliers ready to deliver world-class technology solutions: RTB House, Cloud Technologies, Yieldbird. Now the key question is whether marketers in Poland seize this opportunity — or remain passive and allow others to gain an advantage that will be hard to match later.

The time to decide. Polish marketer — choose consciously.

The new adtech isn't asking for permission anymore. The transformation the industry is undergoing requires quick and conscious action from marketers. Either we invest in transparency, technological competencies, and first-party data — or our budgets will keep disappearing without a trace. Whoever reacts first will deal the cards. Whoever is late will be left with the bill.

---

Sources

Market data and statistics:

Industry analyses:

Case studies:

Skills and trends:

All data comes from credible industry reports and analyses.

---

This is an authorized translation of the original article.

Document prepared by mimo.ooo.