Consumers visually engage with native ads 52% more frequently than with traditional banner ads, according to a new study from Sharethrough and the IPG Media Lab.
The study, titled Benchmarking the Effectiveness of Native Ads, used surveys and eye-tracking technology to measure ad impact for major brands.
Among the key findings of the study, which reports the results of both a survey and an eye-tracking study:
- Native ads registered an 18% higher lift for purchase intent, and 9% higher lift for brand affinity, than banner ads.
- Consumers looked at in-feed native ad placements 25% more than banner ad units.
- 32% of respondents said a native ad "is an ad I would share with a friend or family member" versus just 19% for banner ads.
- 71% of consumers viewing native ads who had previously bought a product from an advertiser said the brand was one they "personally identify with," compared with just 50% for banner ads.
Number of Views - Native vs Banner Ads - Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab - May 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Also, consumers viewed native ad units and original editorial content nearly identically. In fact, a slightly higher percentage of people tracked looked at native ads (26%) versus editorial content (24%).
Percentage Who Saw and Time Spent Viewing (In Seconds) - Content vs Banner Ads - Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab - May 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
For more, check out the following infographic:
Exploring The Effectiveness of Native Ads - Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab - May 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY:
Native Advertising Defined
“Native” advertising can mean all things to all people. Pinning down what exactly it means in an content experience, in particular, is hard.
Digiday asked top publishers for their definition of native advertising. Most used different labels, but the agreement was that native advertising for publishers means crafting ads that fit within their experiences without feeling like intrusions. We asked publishers at the Digiday Publisher Summit to define native advertising for them.
- Ryan Manion, CTO, Politico - It’s still being defined. You want to provide the advertiser with the best experience you can and also provide the best experience for the users who want to view those advertisements.
- Will Pearson, president, Mental Floss - Native advertising is about taking what the advertiser is wanting to communicate and integrating it with what our users are expecting.
- Matt Sanchez, CEO, Say Media - Native advertising is anything that takes on the form of the medium.
- Tom Cochran, CTO, Atlantic Media - It’s similar to TV or movies. It’s a way to promote the content of our advertisers in a way that’s more ingrained way that’s built into the design of our properties.
- Carolyn Bekkedahl, svp of digital media revenue, Meredith - Advertising that stems from a brand that is more than just one piece of creative. It can be video or text that robustly describes whet a product or service an advertiser has.
- Mary Mucko, president of digital sales, Gannett - When we’re able to take advantage of the platform the advertiser’s on.
View the video below for their full responses.
Nielsen Study of the Resonance of Native Video Ads
While the interest and conversation around native advertising has only continued to escalate, there has been a lack of concrete data about the effectiveness of native ads. To that end, Sharethrough recently conducted a study with Nielsen to compare the brand-building effectiveness of native video ads against pre-roll video ad units. Sharethrough worked with five leading advertisers to serve the same creative message in both pre-roll and native advertising formats for each advertiser’s campaign and used Nielsen Online Brand Effect for in-depth metrics on brand lift and the campaign elements driving that lift.
So what happened?! Native advertising showed higher brand lift across all the campaigns in the study. You read that right, in 5 out of 5 campaigns native ads delivered higher brand lift than pre-roll.
In fact, in one campaign for soft drink brand Jarritos, native ads generated an 82% brand lift amongst users exposed to the ads as compared to just 2.1% for users exposed to the campaign’s pre-roll ads.
The study also found that users were actually “more likely to have negative brand opinions after being exposed to the pre-roll creative than the native ads.”
In another campaign for a consumer packaged goods product, native ads generated a 42% lift in purchase intent, while pre-roll did not generate any lift.
While we’ve always considered it to be self-evident that choice beats interruption, sometimes you just need data to help hammer home the case. This report helps illustrate the positive impact that native ads can have for brand advertisers and why they should be careful about the use of interruptive advertising mediums.
To download the full report, please visit here.
Ok enough of these long blocks of text, here’s an infographic that sums up the key findings:
What Video Advertising Methods Drive The Highest Brand Lift - Nielsen - March 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Courtesy of an article dated May 8, 2013 appearing in MarketingProfs and an article dated March 20, 2013 appearing in Digiday and an article dated March 21, 2013 appearing in Sharethrough Blog
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