Report: Native ad buying surges 74%, programmatic slips 12%

According to a new report from MediaRadar, programmatic advertising in the US dropped substantially in the first quarter of 2017 from a year ago. Conversely, native ad placements have surged during the same time period. And while there isn’t a one-to-one correlation, there is a relationship, according to the company.

According to the report, which tracks thousands of advertisers and ad buys across digital and traditional media channels, programmatic declined 12 percent year over year. The report attributes this to brand safety concerns and the black-box nature of programmatic placements.

Source: MediaRadar (July 2017)

The report found a 74 percent increase in native advertising from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017. MediaRadar says the surge in demand for native “represents the largest growth in buyers for any ad format.” Growth is being driven partly by native ad performance and to some degree by the fact that native placements are more transparent to advertisers.

MediaRadar asserts that native advertising demand has tripled since January 2015. The report asks, accordingly, if we’re now in a “native advertising bubble.”

The largest digital category in terms of advertiser numbers is mobile, which is up 8 percent vs. 2016 — but mobile is a platform, rather than a channel, which includes programmatic and native. MediaRadar also says that the overall number of digital advertisers is down 8 percent year over year and that marketers are being more selective about which channels they use to reach audiences.