30 necessary facts to know about Native Advertising

Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it’s placed.
The largest social platforms monetize with native, in-feed ads, promoted posts and sponsored stories including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr. The publishing industry has quickly followed suit, as companies such as Time Inc, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today, introduce new advertising integration on desktop and mobile that match both the form and function of their editorial feeds.
The chart above from Google Trends, which shows how often specific keywords have been queried over time, says it creating quite a lot of interest among online paid media options.
Two years ago, brands captured photos or videos of guests on Facebook and overlaid a logo or brand message. Last year, native advertising was a $3.7 billion media industry, 56% larger than social display ads (source: eMarketer), Native advertising is expected to grow by $700 million each year for the next four years.
It opens lots of possibilities for marketers to reach their targets in engaging and sharable ways. To help you navigate this medium, here are 30 necessary facts to know about native advertising.

1. 86% of online adults find advertising that appears as content (so-called “native ads”) to be misleading; 57% feel similarly about Facebook Sponsored Stories, and 45% about Twitter Promoted Tweets (source: MediaBrix)
   
2. 86% of users feel misled by video ads that appear to be actual content (source: Kiss Metrics)
3. 85% of consumers have never heard of native ads (source: Ask Your Target Market)
4. 84% of publishers believe native advertising adds value for consumers (source: At Content)
5. 81% of marketers are are looking to increase audience engagement and promote brand visibility through native ads (source: Online Publishers Association)
6. 79% of brands understand that native ads must be clearly labeled as content (source: Online Publishers Association)
7. 79% of B2B marketers state the goal of content marketing and native advertising is to raise brand awareness (source: Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs)
8. 75% of publishers offer online native advertising (source: Online Publishers Association and Radar Research)
9. Roughly 65% of both ad agencies and marketers plan to invest in native advertising, for an estimated total of $4.3 billion in 2014 (source: BIA/Kelsey)
10. 71% of consumers that previously bought a product from the advertiser said that the brand was one they “personally identify with” versus just 50% for banner ads (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
11. 70% of people want to learn about product through content rather than traditional advertising (source: Business Intelligence)
12. 70% of agency creatives say user experience is most important in native advertising (source: Solve Media)
13. 61% of advertisers validated the importance of a native look and feel for their ads rather than a standard ad placement (source: Forbes Insights)
14. 60% of Facebook’s revenue in 2013 came from native advertising (Source: JP Morgan)
15. 53% more than banner ads are native ads viewed (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
16. 57% of US publishers said engagement was the primary measurement that marketers use for native advertising; followed by traffic at 43% and social sharing at 33% (source: Online Publishers Association)
17. 57% of marketers found delivering their native videos as choice-based, rather than interruptive, was one of the most valuable attributes of online video (source: Forbes Insights)
18. 57% of venture capitalists, private equity firms, and angel donors say they are likely or very likely to invest in companies that sell native advertising (source: Solve Media)
19. 53% more are native ads viewed than banner ads; their purchase intent is also 53% higher and they generate 82% more brand lift (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
20. 50% of media executives consider native video ads to be more effective than conventional ads at hitting key performance indicators (KPIs)  (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
21. 34% of publishers say they are likely or very likely to add a native advertising option to their menus (source: Solve Media)
22. 33% of marketing executives say they have either bought or are going to buy native video advertising of brand videos (source: Forbes Insights)
23. 32% of consumers say they are likely to share a native ad versus 19% for display ads (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
24. 25% of consumers are more likely to look at a native ad than they were at a banner (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
25. 23% of executives said that native video has become a top media distribution tactic (source: Forbes Insights)
26. Only 10% of US Publishers have no native ad plans (source: Online Publishers Association)
27.  9% higher lift for brand affinity for native ads and 18% higher lift for purchase intent responses than traditional banner ads (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Labs)
28. 2% more viewership of native ads occurs among consumers than for original editorial content (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)
29. Between 1% and 3% is the reported click-through rate for Promoted Tweets; far higher than the standard banner click-through rate of less than.05% (source: Ad Age)
30. 1.2 seconds is time reported to spent by consumers on online editorial versus 1 second for native advertising (source: Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab)

To help publishers and marketers with standards for native advertising, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published The Native Advertising Playbook. To help you better understand the effectiveness of native advertising, below is an infographic of the Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab Study.
Did these facts help you navigate native advertising?