Today, many brands are embracing native ads in their regular ad strategy even though it initially faced resistance and criticism in the market. But native advertising has arrived and is not just here to stay but is showing great promise as it is estimated to grow 156 percent in the next three years driven mainly by a shift in consumer behavior.
A study of user experiences in native advertising showed 86 percent of respondents in favor of the trend but today it also presents a set of challenges for brands that desire to use it more often. It is the diversification of platforms in the mobile environment itself with a wide array of apps, videos and social media that has changed native advertising like never before.
The way technology is evolving in the mobile environment also offers opportunities a lot more dynamism in native advertising. The Better Business Bureau had come up with new policies for native advertising in October 2016 which has effectively raised the bar for native advertisements to keep customers more meaningfully engaged. The native ad field has seen a lot of creative innovation as of late. As far as social media applications are concerned, customer experiences have become seamless and more rewarding with brands spicing up their offers with a lot of creativity.
One area where native advertising is up against some serious challenges is transparency when it comes to engaging users. Even though the Internet Architecture Board(IAB) has come up with a playbook to address this issue, many publishers haven’t been delineating ads from other content with the desired level of clarity and consistency. The IAB is now developing an industry standard to tackle this issue but can’t afford to let advertisers overlook the need to make sure that customers are able to distinguish the native ads from regular content. It needs to be appreciated that native advertising does offer great opportunities for advertisers to win over new customers, unless it does so by enriching user experience it won’t have the necessary space to grow to its full potential.