Dive Brief:

• Executives from brands, agencies, ad tech, and media and data firms discussed the biggest mistakes brands make with programmatic at the 4A Data Summit this week. 
• One of the biggest mistakes is relying on the wrong KPI for programmatic—it shouldn't just be seen a performance-driven mechanism, according to senior director of sales at programmatic marketing solutions firm DataXu Timothy P. Carey​. 
• Other major problems identified included: Moving too fast and spending before thinking; not creating own proprietary data; separating programmatic into a different silo from the rest of a team or agency; and forgetting to provide customers with value, like rewarding them for sharing information. 

Dive Insight: 

The great thing about events like the 4A Data Summit is that they can bring together great minds and facilitate beneficial discussions like the one that pinpoint these programmatic mistakes. Brands are still lagging behind in proper adoption of programmatic, something that could be hurtful in the long run. Having conversations about these more challenging technologies can only help the industry as a whole in the coming years.