The Interactive Advertising Bureau is releasing its white paper on native advertising Wednesday morning, just as the Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez is slated to start day-long town hall hearings on the matter in Washington, DC.
“Native advertising is going to fuel the growth of digital media, but we may never be able to bucket it out,” said Peter Minnium, head of brand initiatives at IAB, who said nailing down a precise dollar amount is difficult.
Native social advertising is expected to grow from a $1.6 billion market in 2012 to $4.6 billion by 2017, according to research firm BIA/Kelsey.
“Native advertising is not a single-ad product,” said Minnium. The white paper unveils six different forms, ranging from standard “banner ads” to a new form called “in-feed.”
Other categories include “paid search,” which Minnium called “the grandfather of native advertising,” to a “recommendation widget” that can provide links to stories or ad products. Other categories include “promoted listings” and “custom ads.”
Whether it is in story or video format, the aim is to make an ad blend inconspicuously into the experience of the consumer.
“Advertisers are happy to put ads in the viewer’s activity stream, but in every instance, they have to be able to tell quite clearly it’s a paid ad,” Minnium said the white paper concludes.
It was drawn up after consultation with over 100 companies, ranging from Facebook to Hearst and BuzzFeed.