There are many different types of native ads, and two of the most common ones are search advertising as well as content marketing, the latter being particularly useful for businesses who are trying to increase their brand awareness, to diversify their target market as well as to boost their revenue. Sponsor-funded content is often placed alongside editorial content, with the specific purpose of reaching the target audience.
Why Are Businesses Expected To Invest More In Native Ads In 2015?
The answer to this question is very simple: native advertising is flourishing across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms and content portals, as well as news websites and streaming services. More than two billion people have constant access to Internet, and this is precisely why native advertising is one of the most efficient and straightforward ways to send a message and to raise visibility for a product or a service, thus helping business owners increase their sales and awareness.
At the same time, another reason why the native ads spending will increase is because an increasing number of people have started to rely on mobile devices, such as tablets or smart phones, in order to access their favorite news portal for information or to buy items online, from retailers and online marketplaces. Statistically speaking, it was proven more than once that native ads are the most efficient in the content streams that are commonly accessed by mobile phone users - and media publishers, advertisers, marketers and business owners certainly want to make the best of that. In addition to this, recent surveys have revealed that the print ad spending is expected to decrease by $1 billion in the United States in the next few years - while the print ad spending records a decline, the online advertising industry (and native advertising in particular) will record a significant increase.
In the United States alone, the digital ad spending on both online magazines and newspapers was of little over $7 billion, and it is expected to revolve around the sum of $8.5 billion a year, within the next several years. In 2015 alone, there is expected to be an approximate 30% increase in the native ads spending, as opposed to 2014. Native ads are literally being used by everyone - from high tech companies like Dell and IBM to internet fads like Ukraine dating. Media companies, social networking websites and all the other publishers are eager to create new revenue streams based on native advertising that would help them compensate for the constant decline in the print ad spending mentioned above - the more streams available, the more likely it is for marketing and advertising agencies as well as businesses to invest in native advertising.
Google has certainly played a very important role in the increase in native ads spending over the past decade, as it has repeatedly launched products and tools to help marketers and publishers reach common ground. Taking Product Listing Ads as an example, this marketing tool has become an $8 billion market within only two years from the moment it was launched, back in 2012. Google was, and still is, the primary destination for searching products and services, even though increasingly more people have started to rely on mobile devices to get what they want.
Online retailers are recording a 60% yearly increase in the revenue that originates from social networking websites. At the same time, the Product Listing Ads program mentioned above helps businesses that use it increase their mobile-generated traffic (people who visit their website via smart phones or tablets) by almost 50% each year.
Overall, it is important to mention the fact that native advertising offers brand agencies the opportunity to help business owners gain an edge over their main competitors. The traditional native ads as we know them are somehow becoming obsolete as they are replaced by the native mobile ads, one of the most powerful and efficient tools used by digital marketing professionals in the United States for brand affinity.
Last, but not least, it must be said that besides the fact that online advertising is slowly taking over offline advertising, there are several other notable benefits to native ads that will make them even more popular and sought-after in 2015: in addition for being a great tool for promotion, native ads are also great for lead generation and for increasing the conversion rate. From many points of view, it is safe to say that native ads play a much more important role in the sales and branding niche than direct-sales agents, and this has certainly caught the attention of large corporations.