BI Intelligence Native is Soaring as Marketers Better Grasp the BenefitsNative advertising has been a hot topic for some time and it isn’t going away anytime soon.

In fact, it looks like native’s here to stay — and soar.

“By creating advertisements that are in the same format as the content audiences are there to consume, marketers hope to provide a much less disruptive advertising experience,” explains Business Insider Intelligence. “Native ads have also proven effective, drawing higher click rates than traditional banner ads, particularly on mobile devices.”

Based on exclusive data, BI says that spending on native ads will reach $7.9 billion this year and grow to $21 billion in 2018, rising from just $4.7 billion in 2013.

In its recent report, BI provided key takeaways from its analyses.

“Social native ads will account for the biggest share of native ad revenue during this time period, but native-style display ads will grow the fastest,” it maintains. “Social-native, including Facebook News Feed ads and promoted tweets on Twitter, will draw a majority of native ad revenue between 2013 and 2018.”

What else is going to grow quickly? Native display ads, “like the splashy native ads on Yahoo’s news pages and apps, will see the fastest ramp-up.”

Sponsored content — i.e., paid stories and sections on BuzzFeed and The New York Times will also continue to attract attention and dollars.

“Native ads perform better than traditional display,” notes BI. “This is particularly true on mobile. Desktop native click-through rates (CTRs) averaged a respectable 0.15 percent, while native-mobile ads had CTRs over 1 percent according to recent data from Polar Media Group and Celtra, respectively.”

The only caveat?

While BI contends that its research shows consumers have a positive attitude with regard to native advertising, advertisers and publishers need to be on guard to ensure ads are relevant and promoted by trustworthy brands.