The digital advertising landscape is constantly evolving to meet the demands of consumers today. More consumers head to digital channels to research, shop and find product recommendations. Just as importantly, they have very specific attitudes toward how brands decide to engage them while they are online.
To better understand the online advertising landscape, here’s a look at some interesting statistics:
- Native advertising was the fastest-growing advertising segment, with 35 percent growth between 2017 and 2018. (eMarketer)
- Native ads receive 53 percent more views than traditional display ads. (Sharethrough)
- Native advertising increases purchase intent by 18 percent. (Forbes)
- Native ad spending is projected to increase to $41.1 billion in 2019. This means native advertising will account for 61 percent of total digital display ad spending in the U.S. (eMarketer)
- Native video advertising accounts for 56 percent of video ad spending. (IAB 2018 Video Ad Spend Study)
- The average Facebook user clicks on eight advertisements per month. (Hootsuite)
- Mobile ad campaigns are five times more effective than online advertisements. (Mobile Marketer)
- Appearing in mobile search ad results can increase brand awareness by 46%. (Wordstream)
- 64% of consumers will click on a Google ad when they are looking to buy items online. (Lyfe Marketing)
- 73% of consumers dislike pop-up ads. (Wordstream)
- Worldwide digital ad spend is expected to reach over $375 billion by 2021. (Lyfe Marketing)
- On average, 46% of users act after viewing a video ad. (Lyfe Marketing)
- Location-specific digital ad campaigns are 20x more effective than traditional banner ads that are not location-based. (Lyfe Marketing)
- Over 51% of smartphone users have found new brands or products while searching from their mobile device. (Lyfe Marketing)
Some key trends to watch out for include the following:
Digital Video
Digital video ad spending continues to climb, according to IAB’s 2019 Video Advertising Spend Report. Marketers report digital budgets have increased 25% year over year. Approximately 86% of marketers are using video content in their campaign outreach efforts.
One trend this year is shorter video ads, or bumper ads, that are compelling and grab a consumer’s attention. YouTube and Google both launched 6-second bumper ads as a way to offer brands a creative way to extend brand reach in a short time frame.
Check out this example of a high-impact bumper ad by Reese’s
Native Advertising
Advertisers are spending big on native advertising. These ads emulate the look and feel of the media format where they appear, gaining greater acceptance and engagement because they are designed to seamlessly integrate into social feeds and websites versus banners or pop-ups.
Some popular formats of native ads include:
- Recommendation widgets such as recommended posts, article or resources
- In-feed ads such as ads that appear within a feed on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. They appear as other types of content appearing in the feed, making them less intrusive than other types of advertising.
Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising shows no signs of slowing down, In 2018, mobile’s share of the U.S. digital ad market climbed to 63 percent of total digital ad spending. Over 55% of the US population regularly watches video on mobile, and the average smartphone video viewer is estimated to have spent 44 minutes watching videos on their device in 2018. Table users spent 38 minutes. Now in 2019, mobile is predicted to “surpass TV as the medium attracting the most minutes.”
- The stories format is an excellent choice for mobile advertising, especially on Snapchat and Instagram. Although they can be used on desktops, the formatting makes it more suited to be viewed on mobile devices. According to a Facebook user survey, the ads seem to be very successful. 53 percent said they made more online purchases based on stories.
Story ads exist within existing story feeds and look much like the rest of the organic content on the platform.
- Google recently introduced the launch of several new ad types that will be showing up on mobile devices. Google searches on mobile devices will include gallery ads that allow advertisers to display multiple images for users to swipe through.
Users will also begin to see ads in Google’s discover feed — the feed of news stories that are built into many Android home screens, inside the Google app, and on Google’s mobile homepage — though they’ll only appear in select locations for now.
The digital advertising industry is continuing to grow and change rapidly and remains one of the most effective ways for businesses to find new customers and expand their reach.
Interested in learning more about additional marketing strategies and tactics to target and convert today’s consumers? Download our Omnichannel Marketing eBook.
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