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Mobile experiences are immediate and traditional ads can get in the way of that. So, it’s no surprise that native ads continue to grow on smartphones because of their effectiveness. According to a new report from IHS Technology and Facebook Audience Network, mobile native ads will expand to represent almost 2/3 of all smartphone ads by 2020.
This type of ad, which borrows the format but not the purpose from the content around it, accounted for 52 percent of mobile ad spending in 2015. To estimate how native ads would grow in the next five years, this report used estimates from a cross-section of brands, publishers, and other parties in digital media.
More importantly, the report shows that native ads have better engagement than display ads. While interruptive banner ad marketing isn’t dead yet, the native ads on mobile are 20 to 60 percent more effective at drawing clicks, shares, favorites and other positive actions or endorsements. Social network use is part of this growth since networks like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have helped push native ads into the daily lives of mobile users.
Mobile Native Ads To Grow Through 2020
Over the next five years, marketers will embrace mobile in a big way. Mobile will drive up spending on video, search, display, and social, and propel the migration of ad dollars away from traditional media, including newspapers and magazines. Some other key research findings from the report include:
- 75.9 percent of all online display advertising revenue ($84.5 billion dollars) will be mobile by 2020. 63.2 percent of that total will be native.
- Third party in-app native advertising is growing aggressively, with a 70.7 percent growth rate expected between now and 2020.
- Adoption of native advertising by app developers and publishers is slowed for the following reasons: lack of awareness of native ad formats, technology and scale limitations, low sophistication of native ad formats and a lack of standard pricing and measurement.
Are Content and Influencer Marketing Native Ads?
‘Native ads’ is probably one of the most frequently misused terms in modern marketing. For their study, IHS and Facebook went to a reputable source to clarify, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). While the term may sound like it includes efforts to incorporate product messages into content, it’s really about formatting. The IAB’s definition clarifies this point:
“Where content marketing aims to match content and format, native advertising, on mobile devices, is primarily an ad format that matches the style of the site or app where it serves. Moreover, native advertising can be bought programmatically, whereas content marketing usually requires editorial involvement.”
Content and influencer marketing practitioners can still gain a valuable takeaway from this research. While we want to keep our commitment to quality, building content that takes advantage of the form and function of the surrounding mobile user experience can help drive engagement. Proper packaging can make the difference when creating content mobile content and should be considered a early as possible in the production process.