Agencies see creativity, programmatic and mobile as the big opportunities for native advertising

– 24 per cent of agency native spend predicted to be on mobile by the end of the year

– All agency trading desks see programmatic native as a major opportunity

New research has revealed the changing face of the UK’s native advertising market: there is more confidence and budget, with programmatic and mobile seen as the two main areas for growth. 

The second annual independent survey into this market was commissioned by native advertising platform Adyoulike and covered all major agencies and agency trading desks across the UK. It revealed that 16 per cent of native advertising spend now comes from new dedicated budget, as compared to only 6 per cent last year, and that 63 percent of agencies are now very confident that the native market is well regulated (up from only 33 percent in 2014).

In addition, UK agencies currently say native will account for an average of 18 per cent of their total digital display spend in 2015. That figure is further estimated to grow to 26 per cent in 2015. 

Creativity is seen as a key force behind the future growth of native advertising. Almost two thirds of agencies (65 per cent) say that native’s fundamental role is addressing the creativity challenge in digital advertising – even though getting past ‘banner blindness’ is seen as the number one factor that is currently driving agency spend on native, with engagement second and the opportunity for better creative coming in third.

The two other key areas of opportunity for the future, according to the report, are mobile and programmatic. Around two-thirds (64 per cent) of agencies see native as the best way to address the creativity gap in mobile ads, with an improved user experience and higher engagement levels seen as the primary benefits. In fact, a quarter (24 per cent) of their native ad spend is predicted to be on mobile native campaigns by the end of 2015.

The research was conducted on behalf of Adyoulike UK by FaR Partners through the FaR Agency Panel.