Top Native Advertising Statistics for 2022

This post was updated on May 12, 2022.

In recent years, native advertising has undergone hyper-growth as more consumers are switching off social media and returning to editorial and content based recommendations and experiences. And in over a decade since the term “native advertising” was first coined, native has expanded to include video, mobile and programmatic advertising. 

But the story of native advertising began long before. Check out our infographic of the history of native advertising over the past century or more.

As we go deeper into 2022, take a look at some of the top native advertising statistics that are guiding marketers in their digital marketing strategy right now:

1. Native advertising spend in the US  jumped 37% in 2021, and is expected to reach $98.59 billion in 2023. (eMarketer)

2. In 2022, native video advertising is forecast to comprise 84.1% of all video ad spend in the US, an increase of nearly 2% compared to 2021. This is in contrast to social video spending, which is expected to drop by over 2.5% compared to last year. (eMarketer)

3. Programmatic native ad spend in the US is expected to reach $83.4 billion in 2022. (eMarketer)

4. 47% of marketers worldwide are confident in the effectiveness of native advertising. (Neilsen/ eMarketer)

5. By using Outbrain’s programmatic contextual advertising tool, Max CTR, which delivers only high engagement opportunity bids, advertisers got 5X higher CTR. (Outbrain)

6. Marketers using Interest Targeting on Outbrain saw average conversion rate increase by up to 55%. (Outbrain)

7. 21% of global consumers plan to spend less time on social media in the next 6 months, pointing to a growing consumer preference for editorial-based and native online experiences. (Outbrain-Sevanta)

8. 68% of consumers trust native ads seen in an editorial context, compared to 55% for social media ads. (Outbrain-Sevanta)

9. 75% of consumers trust content and recommendations seen in an editorial environment versus 54% who trust user-generated content and recommendations on social media. (Outbrain-Sevanta)

10.  Native advertising on the open web that uses a softer trust-based approach to content marketing got 5-10X higher average CTRs than a  more aggressive push marketing approach. (Outbrain/Content Marketing Institute)

11. Native ads are 62% easier to understand than display ads, and 31% easier to understand than social ads. (Outbrain/Lumen)

12. Click-to-play video is the preferred ad format, with 97% of survey respondents saying they liked it. (Outbrain) 

13. Long-term native campaigns are more cost-effective. Native campaigns running more than six months have a 36.4% lower average CPC than campaigns running six months or less. (Outbrain)

14.  The native advertising category with the highest clickthrough rate is the Beauty category, with average CTR of 0.104%. (Outbrain)

15.  Mobile outperforms desktop on native for affiliates. Mobile-specific spend makes up half of the total affiliate spending, though it drives 65% of clicks at a 48% lower CPC. (Outbrain) 

16.  For affiliates, utilizing Lookalikes for native advertising boosts conversions 3X and drops CPA by at least 35%. (Outbrain) 

17.  Consumers look at native ads 53% more than display ads. (Outbrain)

18.  Native advertising is considered the least intrusive form of advertising, and social media advertising the most intrusive. (Outbrain-Sevanta)

19.  Native ads create an 18% increase in purchase intent. (Outbrain) 

As  consumer demand for native ads and content recommendations increase, more marketers are looking to understand native advertising and how to succeed with native campaigns. That’s why Outbrain has launched the Native Advertising Expert Certification. It’s free, available on-demand, and the best way to train up in the powerful native advertising tactic. Start the Outbrain Academy course today.