{"id":1749,"date":"2015-10-02T21:52:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T21:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2015-10-27T21:54:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T21:54:16","slug":"is-native-advertising-the-answer-to-publishers-ad-blocking-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/is-native-advertising-the-answer-to-publishers-ad-blocking-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Is native advertising the answer to publishers\u2019 ad-blocking problems?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"articleHeader\">\n<h1 id=\"articleHeader__title\"><\/h1>\n<div id=\"articleHeader__separator\" class=\"separator\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><a title=\"Posts by Liz Farquhar, Winmo\" href=\"http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/author\/liz-farquhar-winmo\/\" target=\"_blank\">Liz Farquhar, Winmo<\/a> <time>October 2, 2015 8:10 AM<\/time><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"readableLargeImageContainer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/venturebeat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/skip-ad-4.jpg?fit=930%2C9999\" alt=\"skip ad 4\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><em>Image Credit: Shutterstock<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>This sponsored post is produced by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.winmo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Winmo<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The topic of \u201cad-blocking\u201d has escalated to a Donald Trump level of exposure in the media trades \u2014 especially after Google Chrome disabled the Flash Player plugin and Apple released iOS 9 with ad-blocking capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, publishers and advertisers are now convinced that the \u201cwar on advertisements\u201d is the beginning of the end, not just for advertising, but maybe even the entire Internet of Things. Scary thought, right?<\/p>\n<p>Well, before you hunker down in your survivalist bunker and wait for Armageddon (or even if you are already reading this from your wifi-enabled shelter), there may be a mutually beneficial way to work with this ad-blocking dilemma \u2014 and it\u2019s called native advertising.<\/p>\n<h2>The current state of ad-blocking for publishers and advertisers<\/h2>\n<p>In the past 12 months, global usage of ad-blocking technology has increased <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.pagefair.com\/2015\/ad-blocking-report\/\" target=\"_blank\">41 percent<\/a>, costing publishers an estimated $22 billion this year alone.<\/p>\n<p>More than 198 million people are using some kind of ad-blocking software. Not surprising, 41 percent are Millennials 18-29 years old.<\/p>\n<p>As consumers gain more power through technology, disruptive advertising becomes less popular and less effective \u2014 especially with\u00a0Millennials. Even before users had the ability to block digital ads, they stopped paying attention to them all together. Basically, if an advertisement doesn\u2019t contribute value or add to their Internet experience, consumers want nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>Case in point: even when display ads aren\u2019t blocked, the average click-through-rate (CTR) for display ads across all formats and placements is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinkwithgoogle.com\/intl\/en-gb\/planning-tool\/display-benchmarks\/\" target=\"_blank\">.06 percent<\/a>. Better yet, 50 percent of clicks on mobile ads are reportedly accidental. So\u2026there\u2019s that for ya.<\/p>\n<div class=\"readableLargeImageContainer\"><a class=\"readableLinkWithLargeImage\" href=\"http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/The-List.image-1.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/vbstatic.co\/brand\/img\/logos\/logo-placeholder-160x160.jpg\" alt=\"The List.image 1\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>At this point, even trying to make the case for display ads as a \u201cbrand awareness\u201d tool is a tall order. According to one recent study, only <a href=\"http:\/\/bannerblindness.org\/the-banner-blindness-infographic\/\" target=\"_blank\">2.8 percent<\/a> of users reported seeing ads that were relevant to their interests. So, the audience targeting is even lacking effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Just based on that data alone, it doesn\u2019t really seem like that type of ad-supported business model was going to hold up much longer any way.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the native advertising opportunity?<\/h2>\n<p>By all accounts, modern publishers like Buzzfeed and Vox are not in the same sinking boat as established media players that rely heavily on revenue generated from display inventory.<\/p>\n<p>Why is that? Well, because they have been capitalizing on the native advertising opportunity from the very beginning. Instead of relying on revenue from display ad inventory, savvy publishers are investing in native advertising strategies \u2014<\/p>\n<div class=\"readableLargeImageContainer\"><a class=\"readableLinkWithLargeImage\" href=\"http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/the-LIst.Image2_.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/vbstatic.co\/brand\/img\/logos\/logo-placeholder-160x160.jpg\" alt=\"the LIst.Image2\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>which, as it turns out, is a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p>When done well, native ads engage target audiences with relevant, useful content. And since the entire goal of digital advertising is to attract, engage, and convert audiences, this strategy pays off for advertisers and publishers in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Buzzfeed is one publisher that has gotten tremendous results from native advertising. To capitalize on its\u00a0200 million visitors each month and 18.5 billion social media impressions, national advertisers pay upwards of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/buzzfeed-nails-the-listicle-what-happens-next-1422556723\" target=\"_blank\">$100,000<\/a>per ad campaign.<\/p>\n<p>And brands are jumping at the chance to invest in native ads with Buzzfeed because the the ROI is there. For instance, Purina experienced significant lift in visibility and won back favor with a lot of consumers when its sponsored video \u201cDear Kitten\u201d generated more than 23.6 million views. Additionally, as one of Buzzfeed\u2019s top viewed videos \u2014 both in terms of paid promotion and organic reach \u2014 that native ad will continue to serve as a very profitable piece of evergreen content that the brand can leverage for marketing campaigns in the long term.<\/p>\n<p>Even though this is just an example of one publisher\u2019s success with a brand campaign, that investment in native advertising has paid off in droves, which begs the question: Why not give it a try in your own business model?<\/p>\n<h2>How publishers can begin to combat ad-blockers<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s no denying that ad-blocking software does present a lot of frightening scenarios for publishers and advertisers.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, there are also still many creative and innovative ways to work around ad-blockers and continue to drive actionable results for advertisers.<\/p>\n<p>A good place to start would be to ask <em>why <\/em>ad-blockers are popping up like gangbusters and look for ways to win back favor with users before losing money from advertisers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Liz Farquhar is Content Strategist at Winmo.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Sponsored posts are content that has been produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they\u2019re always clearly marked. The content of news stories produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact <a href=\"mailto:sales@venturebeat.com\" target=\"_blank\">sales@venturebeat.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liz Farquhar, Winmo October 2, 2015 8:10 AM Image Credit: Shutterstock This sponsored post is produced by Winmo.\u00a0 The topic of \u201cad-blocking\u201d has escalated to a Donald Trump level of exposure in the media trades \u2014 especially after Google Chrome disabled the Flash Player plugin and Apple released iOS 9 with ad-blocking capabilities. Of course, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/is-native-advertising-the-answer-to-publishers-ad-blocking-problems\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Is native advertising the answer to publishers\u2019 ad-blocking problems?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","pmpro-has-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MGMb-sd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadershipshape.com\/wardroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}