Five advertiser trends that publishers should be aware of in 2016

New advertising formats, growing adblock user numbers and constantly changing competitors such as Facebook - the online marketing industry is in a constant state of flux for publishers. If you want to stay ahead of brands, you not only have to offer premium reach, but also keep pace technically and creatively. To help publishers impress their advertisers in 2016, Ligatus has identified five advertiser trends to look out for at the start of the year.

Native advertising becomes programmatic: Real-time advertising is also finding its way into the native sector. The demand for native forms of advertising is constantly increasing on the advertising customer side. In order to meet this demand, publishers must be technically equipped accordingly and also offer native formats programmatically via their SSP in the future. This trend is foreseeable, even if it has not yet been implemented by most technical service providers and platforms.

Content marketing is gaining in importance: In 2015, content marketing in German marketing departments revolved around which channels are best suited for storytelling, which strategy is promising and which effects can be achieved from a user perspective. A rather small budget remained for content promotion, which was primarily distributed across social media channels. In 2016, the budget pots for content marketing are growing and content created is to be promoted across a wide reach. Publishers who integrate formats for content promotion will gain new access to branding and performance budgets.

Advertising forms become dynamic with little effort: Marketers have wanted good cross-media advertising spaces for years. Particularly in view of the fact that mobile is becoming increasingly relevant, publishers must finally catch up in 2016. To do this, they should design advertising spaces in such a way that just a few creatives are enough to play out a campaign in the best possible way on a wide variety of devices and channels, whether on desktop and mobile sites or within an app.

Adblock users become the target group: Intrusive advertising formats, irrelevance and unappealing creatives have driven the spread of adblockers. According to Pagefair, there are 18 million adblock users in Germany alone (as of August 2015). With the help of technical solutions that enable ad delivery to adblock users, publishers can not only show them discreet advertising in 2016, but also offer explicit targeting. Test campaigns have shown that these users are less banner-blind and just as receptive to advertising messages as non-blocking users.

Native and moving image form a unit: Native advertising and video advertising were among the trending topics for advertisers in 2015. In 2016, they are merging: instead of sales-oriented advertising videos, brands are increasingly delivering moving image content that tells a story with added value for the user. Previously, this was where the user focus ended and video formats often imposed themselves on the user. In 2016, advertisers are therefore requesting video advertising formats that are not obtrusive and provide the user with a positive user experience, from outstream to integration in a lightbox.

Ligatus is (according to its own statement) "Europe's No. 1 native and performance network". The wholly owned subsidiary of Gruner + Jahr specializes in direct response campaigns and content promotion for mobile and desktop.