Content ads will soon be as big a segment as video, display and social advertising. At least that’s what Zemanta’s Todd Sawicki told attendees of the Digiday Publishing Summit. The reason for this upsurge? Content ads are set to be the primary ad format for mobile.
But what is a content ad? Put simply, it’s any ad that uses content as the creative. It includes things like promoted recommendations, sponsored content, and native ads (all examples of content formatted to be consistent with the publisher site). Unlike other types of ads, content ads do not require standard formats, but do require standard components. These components are used to seamlessly incorporate the ads into a variety of different publisher environments.
For these ads to see the growth Sawicki predicts, they need to be both scalable and engaging. Fortunately, supply-side platforms are beginning to support content ads.
Full video of Sawicki’s talk is available below.
Tech Talk with Zemanta: How Content Ads Will Come to Dominant Publishers Advertising Efforts from Digiday on Vimeo.
More from Digiday
WTF are AI agents?
Despite so much use of the A-word, it’s still early for AI agent adoption, meaning marketers should ask what agents are for, how they’re made, what they do, what they might do — and what they can’t do — including potential reputational risks.
Creators are split on whether to keep using TikTok’s editing app CapCut post-shutdown
To many video creators — particularly those with less of a TikTok presence — the brief takedown of CapCut on Jan. 18 and 19 came as a surprise. Most news reports about the impending ban were laser-focused on the short-form video app itself, leaving many observers unaware of the connection between the two apps.
Digiday+ Research: Marketers expect bigger budgets in 2025, with an eye on investing more in influencers
Marketers are heading into 2025 expecting bigger revenues and bigger marketing budgets — a lot of which they’ll put toward influencer marketing.