Survey Suggests Mobile Banners Being Replaced By Native, Video Formats

According to a recent survey of 283 “clients and agency executives” commissioned by Trusted Media Brands, the mobile banner is a declining ad unit. Native and video were the formats many marketers said they were going to turn to this year.

Yet native ads face a number of challenges that might make them less popular over time.

Banners were the top mobile format being used today. However, the survey indicated that many agencies and clients were intending to shift away from banners in 2016.

Source: Trusted Media Brands (2016)

Native and video were identified as the top formats for 2016. Native ads were valued by marketers because they were regarded as less intrusive (44 percent), better at increasing brand awareness (32 percent) and generating engagement (32 percent).

Yet marketers also said they were difficult to measure and not easy to produce. Those issues appear to be reflected in the drop from 50 percent to 45 percent of marketers who say they’ll use native in 2016.

While more intrusive, video was cited as better for brand awareness and engagement.

Source: Trusted Media Brands (2016)

Video ads can be compelling in mobile when used judiciously. Yet they’re not a panacea for what ails digital advertising. The rise of ad blocking can be regarded as an expression of dissatisfaction with mobile ads and ad quality in general.

Yesterday, eMarketer published a forecast that argued display spending (on desktop and mobile) would overtake search advertising this year. However, search was not discussed at all as an option in the Trusted Media Brands survey.

Search remains one of the most effective digital formats and arguably the least intrusive. It’s also generally not the focus of ad blocking.