1. Native
Advertising
Benchmark
Report
Q1 2016

2. Introduction
New paradigms emerging for brand marketers
Over the last decade content marketing has experienced a meteoric rise. Industry reports indicate that
77% of B2C marketers and 76% of B2B marketers will create more content in 2016 than ever before. As
individual consumers, we’re also witnessing the shift from mass marketing to brands as publishers. Some
of your favorite brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike and Red Bull are creating content hubs designed to tell
stories, educate and entertain customers, something that was unheard of just a decade ago.
With a content surplus on their hands, CMOs now face the
challenge of distributing it to audiences around the globe.
But standard content doesn’t fly anymore. Brands need to reach audiences with personalized content based
on their demographics, location and consumption habits, posing a challenge for in-house digital teams and
media agencies.
For many brands, native advertising has become a go-to media channel because of its roots in content
marketing. Native ads follow the natural form and function of the publisher pages they inhabit. When you
compare them to the incongruous look and feel of display ads it’s no surprise that Google says that over
56% of display ads are never even seen by humans. You can find native ad formats across large platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter, and leading media companies such as The New York Times, ESPN and
CNN. Since native advertising is a new channel for most brands our team at Zemanta saw the need to
provide market research to help CMOs make the right investments in platforms, services and media when
incorporating native advertising into their organization.
All of the data used in this benchmark report was pulled from the Zemanta One platform. This data spans
hundreds of brand campaigns across industries, content types and business objectives for Q1 2016.
Whether you’re just dipping your toes into native advertising or operating a completely scaled program it
can be difficult to know whether or not you’re doing a good job.
2 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Introduction

3. Ad Format Benchmarks
Diversity in ad formats presents a challenge & opportunity
for brands
At Zemanta we help marketers design campaigns leveraging over 25 native, social, content discovery and
mobile networks. This strategy enables your content to reach the widest audience possible and quickly
optimize campaigns to take advantage of performance and price changes.
Selecting the right native ad formats to use in your campaigns can be a challenge to say the least. With so
many variables at play, including page location, creative size and your own business objectives, it’s hard to
know where to start. After working with hundreds of marketers our team has found that the best approach
is to simply promote your content across ALL formats. Why rule out options until you’ve had the opportunity
to test and gather data?
But wait, if you just recommended using all the networks, why are benchmarks important? Understanding
the average Cost Per Click (CPC) and Click Through Rate (CTR) for individual networks can help you gauge
the performance and efficiency of your own campaigns. Let’s take a look at the data.
Related articles In-Feed Image/Footer
Overlay
Right Rail Exit Page
MobileIn-App
3 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Ad Format Benchmarks

4. Based on first quarter data, Image Overlay and In-App formats provided exceptional click through rates.
Related Articles also offered a surprisingly low click through rate combined with a higher than average
cost-per-click. While it’s important to evaluate the data on native formats we would caution marketers about
making haste judgements. The data above might hint towards refraining from using Related Articles or
In-Feed formats in campaigns, however these ad format often provide superior engagement on marketing
content once a click has happened. This is why it is critical to always have your post-click engagement
metrics (think Google Analytics) linked to your campaigns.
$0.00 $0.05 $0.10 $0.15 $0.20 $0.25 $0.30
Right Rail
Related Articles
Mobile
In-Feed
In-App
Image Overlay
Exit Page
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5%
Right Rail
Related Articles
Mobile
In-Feed
In-App
Image Overlay
Exit Page
Home & Garden
Health & Fitness
Food & Drink
Careers
Business
Automotive
Arts & Entertainment
$0.00 $0.05 $0.10 $0.15 $0.20 $0.25 $0.30
Right Rail
Related Articles
Mobile
In-Feed
In-App
Image Overlay
Exit Page
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5%
Right Rail
Related Articles
Mobile
In-Feed
In-App
Image Overlay
Exit Page
Health & Fitness
Food & Drink
Careers
Business
Automotive
Arts & Entertainment
Ad Format Performance — CPC
Ad Format Performance — CTR
Average Cost per Click
Average Click thru Rate
4 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Ad Format Benchmarks

5. How can CTRs and CPCs vary so much by ad formats? Compared to other channels like Search and
Display, native campaign performance is often directly correlated with a brand’s content strategy. Content
that entices audiences to click and engage see higher CTRs and ultimately lower CPCs. The reverse
happens too -- brands promoting landing pages, technical content or gated information often see much
lower CTRs and higher CPCs. Native advertising formats can be tough to benchmark on CTR and CPC
alone compared to mature channels, but this does give us some insight into the market dynamics of each
ad format so we can bid and optimize campaigns efficiently.
Industry Benchmarks
See where you fit in
Have you ever wondered how your native advertising campaigns compare to your industry peers? Industry
benchmarks are a great way to take stock in your performance to date, see how your peers are performing,
and develop an action plan to improve your campaigns. And if you’re already top of your class at least you
now have some data to put behind your bragging rights!
$0.00 $0.05 $0.10 $0.15 $0.20 $0.25 $0.30
Right Rail
Related Articles
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5%
Right Rail
Related Articles
Mobile
In-Feed
In-App
Image Overlay
Exit Page
$0.00 $0.05 $0.10 $0.15 $0.20 $0.25
Technology & Computing
Travel
Personal Finance
Home & Garden
Health & Fitness
Food & Drink
Careers
Business
Automotive
Arts & Entertainment
Industry Performance — CPC
Average Cost per Click
5 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Industry Benchmarks

6. 0.0% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0%
Technology & Computing
Travel
Personal Finance
Home & Garden
Health & Fitness
Food & Drink
Careers
Business
Automotive
Arts & Entertainment
$0.00 $0.05 $0.10 $0.15 $0.20 $0.25
Industry Performance — CTR
Average Click thru Rate
We were surprised to see most industry CPCs within a fairly close range of each other, but quite a few
differences in CTR. The Food & Drink category pairs exceptionally well with content marketing because
audiences are always in search of new recipes and unlike many content topics, food content never goes out
of style. Brands can continue to promote recipes from 2012 as if they were published yesterday! Categories
like Arts & Entertainment also perform well due to the nature of the content being promoted. With images
of celebrities and headlines surrounding pop culture topics it’s easy to see why people are interested.
6 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Industry Benchmarks

7. Advantages Over Legacy Channels
Lower rates help native advertising shine for top-of-funnel
After looking at the data, it is clear that native advertising remains incredibly inexpensive compared to rates
for search and display. While rates shouldn’t be your only deciding factor, it’s important to understand how
native matches up against other media channels that typically own the majority of a brand’s media budget.
Using averages from Zemanta One, native offered marketers an average $0.16 CPC and 0.60% CTR. When
we compare that with a CPC of $0.55 and 0.35% CTR from display, native is the clear winner for top-of-
funnel campaign. The challenge with display is that the advertising industry agreed on standard formats
very early on it isn’t lifecycle. Unfortunately for us, we’ve been living with those standards for the last 20
years. This rigidity has restricted the creativity of brands and ultimately led to a decline in performance. With
native, brands now have the freedom to find the best formats that fit their audience, content and business
objectives.
With an average CPC of $2.50 and 1.91% CTR search is an excellent complement to native advertising.
Once brands have built awareness through personalized content with each consumer, highly targeted
search campaign work exceedingly well to acquire new customers. With that said, native isn’t just a top-of-
funnel channel. While it might fall behind search from a performance perspective, it’s low cost mean direct
response marketers can achieve similar goals such as whitepaper downloads app installs and customer
sign-ups but at a rate that’s 15x more affordable.
CPC
$0.16
Native (via Zemanta One)
CTR
0.60%
CPC
$0.55
Display
CTR
0.35%
CPC
$2.50
Search
CTR
1.91%
7 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report Advantages Over Legacy Channels

8. The Zemanta One Advantage
Connecting brands & customers
through content
So what does this all mean? If you found yourself on the lower end of these ranges that just means there’s
plenty of room for improvement! You’re already well ahead of many marketers who are just starting to
scope out their plans for native advertising. If you’re already hitting some of these benchmarks don’t stop
and rest on your laurels! Take your native advertising programs to the next level with our platform Zemanta
One.
Zemanta One makes native advertising simple with all-in-one software to help marketers plan, buy and
measure the success of their global content promotion. Your customers live across channel and devices,
so your content marketing should too. Whether it’s desktop web, mobile web or in-app, reach your audience
wherever they consume content.
Are you ready to scale your content marketing?
Drop us an email at sales@zemanta.com to get learn more.
8 | Native Advertising Benchmark Report The Zemanta One Advantage