We're big advocates of native advertising. Native is one of our three company pillars, alongside Programmatic and Mobile—we believe it's these three trends that are driving the future of the digital advertising landscape. Native ads are increasingly becoming the preferred standard for publishers, brands, and consumers. Findings show they lead to increased purchase intent and brand loyalty as compared to banner ads, while also improving the consumer ad experience.

More people than ever are using their mobile devices, instead of their computers, to search the web. The shift comes from more people having access to smart devices and the accessibility and convenience of searching, sharing, and gaming while on the go. Cellphone users currently look at their phones upwards of 150 times a day, a number that is only anticipated to increase as mobile technology becomes more advanced. Knowing this, every single glance a mobile user makes at his or her screen is an opportunity for your business to capitalize.    

It’s a stance we’ve taken for years—don’t get too caught up in the clickthrough rate. Sure, CTR has traditionally been the go-to metric for display ads; we see it all the time when we’re asked to provide Flite’s average clickthrough in meetings. I was recently involved in reviewing Flite’s latest benchmarks, and we debated whether we should even include CTR for this and future versions. We ultimately decided we would, but agreed that when we circulate these numbers, we make clear to our customers that clickthrough is not the metric to get stuck on.