The first report of its kind from the company, eMarketer predicts how native ad spending will pan out this year, and where ads will be concentrated.
It says that native digital display ad spending will account for 52.9% of all display ad spending in the US this year, hitting $22.09bn – a growth of 36.2% over the course of 2017.
Next year, this figure is expected to rise even more, reaching $28bn, eMarketer predicts.
eMarketer principal analyst Lauren Fisher said: “Growth of native digital display is being driven by publishers’ pursuit of higher-value and more mobile-friendly inventory, as well as by advertisers’ demands for more engaging, less intrusive ads.”
The report also reveals that a huge chunk of ad spending is focused on social networks like Facebook, and as a result is primarily mobile-based.
Native ad spending on social networks is expected to represent 84.2% of all US native display spending this year and amount to a whopping $18.59bn.
eMarketer reveals this is actually a drop in social networks’ share of the native ad market.
Fisher said: “We’re seeing a huge ramp up in non-social publishers adopting in-feed ads and video.
“Coupled with continued advances on the programmatic native front, this will accelerate non-social native display spending.”
However, mobile’s share in the native ad space is growing – native mobile ad spending is set to hit $19.50bn in 2017, which equates to 88.3% of all US native advertising.
In addition to this, programatically-purchased US native display ads are predicted to rise to 84% of all native digital display ad spending in the US this year, or $18.55bn.
Fisher said: “It’s been a slow start to enabling programmatic buying for non-social native display ads, but with the majority of buying platforms quickly moving to accommodate native ads, we see that changing in the next several months.”
To read the full report please click here.