The spending on digital ads has skyrocketed in recent years (some sources estimate the worth of the native industry at around $59 billion). And there’s a good reason for this growth. Native advertising has incredibly high engagement rates compared to all other forms of advertising. It’s the ideal way to initiate relationships with consumers.
Yes, native advertising budgets have exploded. No, the trend isn't slowing down, in fact it's accelerating.Click To TweetLooking at all of this, you might be under the impression that it can’t get any better for native. You might assume that native advertising is unlikely to surpass its current rate of growth. However, we believe that it’s still in its early years and about to take over traditional advertising. Read on to learn about these trends in more detail.
Increased spending for native ads
Although spending on digital and native advertising is at an all-time high, the native ad market remains ripe for expansion. Native is a hot topic in the advertising industry and it’s easy to understand what the fuss is all about.
Publishers and marketers can create ads formatted similarly to their content, giving consumers a much richer experience. Native ads also have soaring click rates, and they are already beating traditional ads in this regard (especially on mobile); Not to mention they are also cheaper to run.
This all leads to increased spending on native ads (better bang for the buck). According to data from BI Intelligence, spending on native ads will grow to $21 billion in 2018. In comparison, only $4.7 billion were spent in 2013.
The Ad Blocker Effect
At one time, big publishers got the bright idea that they could pester users into disabling ad blockers. At the time it seemed like a rational strategy. Unfortunately, it backfired on both publishers and brands.
Popular websites such as Forbes and Wired even pleaded with users that they turn-off their ad-blockers before visiting the websites. Some websites even flat-out refused to let a user read content if they had an ad-blocker enabled.
But these pleadings were seen as being annoying and desperate. Much like those flashy display ads that the user was trying to block in the first place. Readers, for the most part, chose to browse away and go to websites that don’t pester them with such demands.
Ad-blockers have resulted in a loss of revenue for publishers and brands, estimated at around $22 billion in 2015 alone. Scary, isn’t it?
Now, let’s look at where all of this is heading
The main philosophy of most ad blockers is that they’re only trying to block intrusive and annoying ads. This means that native ads aren’t being blocked by the major ad blockers. This is based on the notion that native ads aren’t intrusive or annoying.
There's a reason that adblockers ignore native ads. They're not seen as intrusive. However, this might change.Click To TweetThere is, however, some discussion about the potentially intrusive nature of native ad providers like Taboola and Outbrain. Translation: ad blockers might soon start blocking them. This is quite a realistic possibility for the coming period and something you should consider.
The good news is that even if this happens, it would only apply to those specifics networks, not native ads in general.
The rise of native mobile advertising
You’ve probably heard about this too many times by now. Mobile is taking over the internet. More and more people are primarily accessing the internet from their mobile devices as opposed to their PCs.
According to some reports, the number of mobile (smartphone and tablet) users has already surpassed desktop PC and laptop users. Most ads today are seen on mobile devices.
According to some estimates, native advertising will account for 63.2% of all global mobile display advertising by 2020, up from 52% in 2015.
The mainstream will continue adopting “content recommendation”
A lot of popular sites such as CNN and ESPN have embraced “recommendation” native ads as part of their strategy. They incorporate these widgets that display “interesting content from around the web” relevant to their audience. Most of these are actually just native ads.
Expect more and more brands and publishers to embrace this trend and apply similar strategies to capitalize on native ads.
Storytelling through native advertising
Native advertising isn’t about merely masquerading your ad to “blend in”. It’s about an entire experience that runs on a different philosophy than traditional ads. Yes, you will see plenty of native ads that are traditional ads in disguise. You click on a native ad with a bombastic headline and end up getting a sales pitch.
These are simply direct advertisers (ab)using a native ad delivery platform. The ones who get the most out of native advertising understand the bigger picture. It’s about providing the consumer with a value-driven experience. The same kind of experience they’re used to when they consume content from the publisher they already love and trust.
If you're not doing storytelling in your native ad campaigns, you're not fully utilizing the power of native.Click To TweetThe stories that will improve people’s lives are the stories that will be told by native advertisers. To put it in less poetic terms, native advertisers will have to master the art of storytelling. Expect to see this reflected in the headlines.
The number of headlines that promise the reader a good story for clicking on the ad will grow. And good native advertisers will deliver on the promise, realizing that the story needs to deliver value first, and only promote their product second.
More publishers will embrace email as a platform for native ads
Why do native ads work so well? It’s simple. They utilize the power of relationships. When your native ad appears on a website, that reader has a relationship with this website. They trust and like that publisher. And unlike traditional direct ads, a native ad lets you borrow from that trust and piggyback on that relationship.
Now, focus on that keyword there: relationships. What is the one major marketing channel that best represents relationship-driven marketing? You’ve guessed it – email marketing.
What if you could combine these two powerful strategies? The native ads that capitalize on pre-built relationships, and the email channel that dominates in terms of creating relationships.
Well, you can actually do this, and it’s quite simple. Just run native ads inside of emails. If you think about it, an email-based relationship is much deeper than any website-based relationship.
Sure, people have their favorite websites and feel some level of trust in their favorite bloggers or authors. But no website can come close to the personal feeling that is achieved by email marketing. When a recommended native ad appears inside of an email that those readers love, the level is magnified tremendously.
Hence, expect more marketers to catch on to this and start running native ads inside of popular newsletters. Fortunately, you can beat your competitors and get on the train much sooner.
At AdMailr, we’ve worked really hard to produce the most straightforward email advertising platform. We’re also leading the pack with our passion for email-based native advertising. You can join today and be one of the first in your field to experience the power of email native ads.
