It’s been 24 years since AT&T ran its first banner ad on Netscape, and things couldn’t be more different today. Back then, it was all about the bright, broad and in-your-face. Today, the most successful online ad campaigns are more subtle and leverage user demographics and consumer behavior to target the right audience. Let’s take a look at the evolution of the online ad and how it has changed in the last quarter of a century.
Right now, we live in a world where the native ad rules. These are online ads that are integrated directly into a user’s line of sight — not in the periphery like banner ads or on another page entirely like pop-up ads. Examples of native ads include sponsored stories on Facebook, promoted tweets on Twitter and sponsored listings on Etsy. Primarily, they have supported elements that are meant to look natural to the page around them, mimicking their style, language and design.
These ads work not only because they’re strategically placed, but also because they’re hyper-targeted and therefore more relevant to a user. Native advertising is one of the most valuable kinds of advertising, and studies show that consumers look at native ads 53 percent more frequently than display ads. They also revealed that 25 percent more people look at in-feed native ads (such as a sponsored Facebook post) versus standard banner ads. Native ads also register a higher boost in purchase intent than banner ads, which may translate into a better ROI.
No one knows how the future of digital advertising will unfold, but we can make some educated assumptions. The first thing we know is that marketers will build upon what’s already working — native ads, personalization and targeting with analytics. Forbes reported that advertisers are already planning to invest significantly more in analytics and advertising insight platforms, so we expect more sophisticated analytics to guide the next generation of marketing.
We’re also hedging our bets on custom native ads, or native ads that are specially developed between a publisher and an advertiser, as well as programmatic advertising, which uses artificial intelligence to handle auction-based ad-buying. We only expect growth and fine-tuning from the technologies that make these ad options possible, so there’s a strong likelihood they’ll be sticking around for the foreseeable future.
The future is unknown, but one thing’s for certain— the eCommerce marketer who stays ahead of the curve is the one who will be the most successful.