Optimizing $19.4M
in Automotive Programmatic Spend
How Smart Supply used AI-powered supply intelligence to eliminate waste and outperform industry benchmarks by up to 72% across all market tiers.
About the case study
Multiple automotive brands across all market tiers faced a critical challenge: they needed precision targeting and premium inventory access without the waste and fragmented bias of traditional programmatic buying. High eCPMs, performance sacrifices from unqualified audiences, and "tier blindness" were inflating costs and hindering ROI.
To solve this, Smart Supply by AI Digital implemented a multi-source intelligence approach, leveraging seven years of automotive learnings and live auction signals. By utilizing predictive filtering directly at the supply source, the team could qualify audiences and forecast outcomes like VCR and CTR before a single bid was placed.
The results proved that supply-side optimization – integrating SPO and automotive-specific deal IDs – could maintain premium quality while delivering massive efficiency gains across CTV, Live Sports, and OLV inventory.
The outcome:
32-72% lower eCPMs vs. industry benchmarks,
96% cost per completed, and view 1.48B annual qualified impressions.
Get Your Copy of This Case Study
Learn how Smart Supply uses pre-bid AI filtering to ensure your automotive media spend reaches high-intent shoppers in brand-safe environments.
.png)
WHAT THIS CASE REVEALS ABOUT strategy
True programmatic efficiency in the auto industry comes from qualifying the audience and the inventory at the supply source – before the impression
reaches DSP.
SMART SUPPLY’s APPROACH SHOWS HOW THE RIGHT STRATEGY CAN:
Reduce unqualified traffic by an average of 50% using predictive outcome data and proprietary pre-bid filters.
Maintain brand-appropriate quality thresholds across a brand family, from mass-market reach efficiency to luxury premium environment prioritization.
Reach validated in-market shoppers through dealership proximity targeting and auto-intender contextual signals.
As the automotive landscape becomes more competitive, Smart Supply delivers a model that is predictive, transparent, and optimized for real-world dealership outcomes.
By qualifying supply and audiences pre-bid, we significantly reduced media waste across $19.4M in programmatic auto spend. Shifting optimization upstream allowed brands to control costs, improve efficiency, and scale premium environments like CTV and live sports with confidence
Britany Scott
VP, Smart Supply, AI Digital