OAREX’s latest study of ad tech payments across the digital media ecosystem reveals that ad networks are paying later than ever.

One alarming statistic is that payment delays increased by an average of 12% in Q4 2017, when media companies need money the most. The broad conclusion is that late payments (beyond stated terms) are endemic to the industry, and ad tech companies are paying later and later.

Download it here: Q3 Digital Media Payments Study

Here are some key findings:

• 55% of Demand Partners pay late, 31% pay early, consistent with earlier findings.
• 20% of Demand Partners are always late and 27% pay late more than half of the time.
• 80% of Demand Partners have paid late at least once in the last 12 months.
• 61% of all payments were late during Q4 2017.
• Late payments are getting later. The average late payment was 7.7 days vs. 6.5 historically.
• Apple and Google Play pay well before their stated terms and are paying earlier than ever
• Connatix pays 9 days early on average (see Exhibit A for more details).

You can download our ad tech payment report here, which includes a breakdown of the data by ad network.