Dive Insight:

Native advertising has been seen as a way forward for advertising on publishers’ websites at a time when ad blocking software adoption continues to rise and traditional digital formats such as display and banner ads are ignored or seen as contributing to a poor user experience. The challenge with native ads is because they are designed to mimic editorial content, the FTC guidelines stipulate how the ads are disclosed as paid to ensure website visitors understand the difference between ad and editorial content.

A lot of native advertising is done via influencer marketing campaigns and last year the FTC announced it would become more stringent in enforcing its disclosure guidelines for influencer campaigns. Brands like Warner Bros. and Lord & Taylor were sanctioned in 2016 for social media campaigns that didn’t meet disclosure requirements.

Overall native advertising is still in its early stages and renewal rates are low at 33% across all media websites and average campaigns run for only two months. One bright spot was with publisher sites with more established native programs, such as sites with more than 50 brands buying native units, recording a renewal rate of 49%, according to MediaRadar. By category, media and entertainment led all others in native advertising by more than one-third.