Ben Young
Ben Young
December 8, 2016

Tough week for Breitbart, losing advertisers, left right and centre. A nightmare scenario for retargeters whose ads aren’t blacklisting.

But so, it’s that time of year for wraps, trends and looking ahead to 2017. This week we have IAB members predictions for the year ahead. Keep an eye out for our The Best Native of 2016 released next Thursday, December 15th. Join the webinar to hear our discussion and analysis.

Notable Stories this Week

  • OutBrain’s Best Native Campaigns of 2016. Their list is a lot shorter this year but nice examples.
  • From Susan at the IAB – Where is Native heading in 2017. Challenges –> Content quality, measurement, scalability, publisher reliance on paid social and ad blocking. They even touch on VR advertising opportunities. Read it all here.
  • Marketers A List of 2016 via AdAge.
  • Fixing Native Advertising: What Consumers Want From Brands, Publishers, and the FTC
  • I took issue with this study, examining how 11-13 year olds interpreted native ads & fake news, give it a read here.
    The problem is, we already know that children have a hard time deciphering what is advertising, that’s why we have advertising guidelines…
    1. It does raise a question, should Facebook have a content & advertising policy for children, in a digital world you would certainly hope so.
    2. How savvy are the next generation of kids becoming. We probably need to re-examine prior studies for a digital world.
    I’ve been riffing on this for years, here’s an oldie from 2010 with McDonald’s advertising to kids.

Deals/M&A

Campaign of the Week

Smartest Commentary 

  • “A Microsoft-led team in 2013 [PDF], which researched the impact of good and bad display ads on future impressions. The team found that ‘bad’ banner ads led to a 20% reduction in future impressions compared to a baseline of no ads. ‘Good’ ads led to a 5% reduction.” – James Avery at AdZerk
  • “Our branded content at times outperforms our editorial content.” – Brandon Keenen, BuzzFeed

Datapoints of Note

  • Native ads generate clicks at a 30-40% higher frequency and convert at double the rate [of other mobile units.]
  • Publishers using AMP saw CTR increase by 300%, completion rates by 15% and ad performance 18%.
  • Above mirrors some of our findings, because more people arrive on the content, all your behavioral metrics rise.

Trends to Watch/Bleeding Edge

Events & Webinars


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