15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Sponsored Content

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Sponsored Content

Approximately 30% of Internet users say they find traditional banner advertising distracting and will actively avoid sites where the ads interfere too much with content.

This reality has forced publishers to search for new revenue options. Sponsored content has become a popular—and effective—choice, as this week’s stats demonstrate.

  1. Despite demographic and content differences, business and entertainment news users are highly receptive to in-feed sponsored content if it is relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy.
  2. Sponsored content is viewed by nearly half of business and entertainment audiences as enhancing the value of the overall website experience.
  3. Seventy percent of individuals want to learn about products through content rather than through traditional advertising.
  4. People view native ads 53% more than banner ads.
  5. Native advertising generates 82% brand lift.
  6. Seventy-one percent of publishers received no major complaints from readers for featuring sponsored content.
  7. The majority of readers, 54%, don’t trust sponsored content.
  8. One study found that 57% of readers said they’d prefer their favorite blogs and news sites run banner ads instead of sponsored articles.
  9. Three-quarters of publishers and media buyers alike have embraced sponsored articles. And there’s no secret to its recent success: 25% more consumers looked at sponsored articles than display ad units, and native ads have been found to produce 18% higher lift in purchase intent and 9% higher lift for brand affinity than banner ads.
  10. Native advertising spend is expected to more than quadruple by 2018.
  11. Sponsored content has been said to be a possible antidote to ad blocking, which cost publishers more than $22 billion in lost revenue last year.
  12. The Atlantic says that 60% of its revenue is today generated through sponsored content.
  13. On average, consumers spend almost two-and-a-half minutes with a branded story—the same amount as editorial content.
  14. Almost three-quarters of marketers (72%) think that branded content is more effective than magazine advertisements.
  15. Fifty-one percent of local news sites that sell advertising said they are now selling native advertising or sponsored content, compared with about 20% a year earlier.

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