Research: Bidtellect’s Quarterly Native Report Q4 2016

Bidtellect’s quarterly report analyzes the billions of data points flowing through our Native Demand Side Platform (nDSP), to reveal important trends and insights into the Native advertising ecosystem for marketers currently executing Native campaigns and those looking to learn more. This quarter we decided to take a deeper look into Native video as marketers are creating more video content to incorporate in their media plans.

The fragmented digital media landscape has caused marketers to struggle with creating the right content for the right distribution platform. Understanding how video content is performing is critical for marketers to be able to create relevant original content for each destination. Native video formats emerged as a way to solve for this major obstacle in the ecosystem. It allows marketers to identify how a specific video is performing and ensure that they are reaching consumers with engaging content in organic and relevant environments.

Here are the 3 main trends and takeaways we found in Native video and standard Native (In-Feed, In-Ad and Recommendation Widgets) throughout Q3 and Q4 2016:

Native Video is Growing…Fast

An increasing number of marketers are incorporating video based content into their holistic marketing strategies, and as they are seeing success with campaign objectives and consumer engagement, they are investing more heavily. More than ever, content marketing is becoming a central component of any brand’s strategy, and including video in that solidifies a well rounded, immersive content plan. People are consuming an increasing amount of video content online and brands know that they need to be reaching them with quality video content in organic, relevant environments.

In-Feed Delivers Engagement for Native Video

Similar to what last quarter’s report found with standard Native In-Feed, Native In-feed video is the most engaging Native video product. The user-initiated video is consumer friendly, non-intrusive and provides the most qualified, engaged user for a marketer. In fact, 40% of users that click to watch an In-Feed video go on to click on the landing page. Because of its highly engaging nature, In-Feed can be most useful when targeting consumers that are lower in the funnel and for campaigns with conversion objectives.

The autoplay products can be more beneficial for reaching consumers in the upper funnel and with branding and awareness campaigns. For more details on the difference between each video product, and how to best execute Native video for your campaign needs click here.

Marketers Continue to Consolidate

The sophisticated technology available today enables higher levels of productivity, enhancements in workflow efficiency, more precise measurement and optimization and ultimately, better performance and results. As brands continue to execute cross-device and cross-platform campaigns, media buyers are seeking a more efficient workflow process and are moving toward consolidated platforms. We are seeing this on our platform as the number of brands executing both Native video and standard Native programmatically continues to rise.

Native Across Device

People are actively consuming content across devices. The report found that CTRs were 200% higher in Q4 on mobile devices than desktop. However, we are still seeing deeper engagement on desktop. Although industry initiatives continue to push for greater mobile content experiences, (AMP etc.) consumers are still struggling to have the same level of meaningful engagement on their mobile devices.

How Are Consumers Engaging Across Publisher Categories?

November’s election generated enormous buzz and conversation it’s no surprise that News and Law, Gov’t & Politics were two of the most engaging publisher categories in Q4 2016, both showing average Engagement Scores of over 9.

Reach out to marketing@bidtellect.com with any questions, and click here to download a PDF of the full report. Bidtellect-Q42016-QuarterlyReport-Jan2017