There are a lot of people in the industry that believe that standard banner advertising will slowly be phased out for “native” advertising, which weaves a brand’s content (videos, photos, articles, etc.) in with the site’s content. In a recent Ad Age article, it is argued that publishers are beginning to “pin their business models on native inventory” and that “today’s agency must be thinking about a wide range of content.”
Key vendors that have already begun to incorporate more native advertising opportunities are:
- YouTube
- Tumblr
- Forbes
- Google Search
Native advertisements do seem promising, as they average CTRs of 1% – 3%, which is close to 2,000% higher than the 0.05% industry average for a standard banner. A recent campaign for an Overdrive client demonstrates this finding as well. A B2B sponsored article listing received a 204% higher CTR compared to its standard banner counterparts running across the site, which also translated to efficient back-end conversions for the client.
While native advertising becomes more popularized, it is the Overdrive media team’s belief that the standard banner still holds an important place in clients’ media plans. Standard banners are still the primary media formats used for audience targeting, retargeting and other forms of behavioral intent targeting. What do you think? Will the standard banner eventually be replaced?
