• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, April 18, 2017

Consumers exposed to native advertising were 21% more likely, on average, to shop in-store, according to a study of three national campaigns in Q4 2016. The study, conducted by Placed, a location intelligence and ad-to-store attribution firm, and Sharethrough, a native ad platform, found that brands are using native advertising to drive in-store visits in greater numbers and with more cost efficiency than digital display advertising.

While Sharethrough declined to name the three national brands -- quick service restaurant chain, an apparel brand, and a global consumer electronics company -- it said they out-performed Placed benchmarks for in-store lift for their respective verticals, at a collective average of 300% above the standard.

Among the study's findings:

--Native ads drove in-store traffic more efficiently than traditional display ads:The brands Sharethrough and Placed studied drove traffic to their stores through native ads at an effective cost of 41 cents per visit. The consumer electronics brand drove in-store traffic to stores selling its products at 22 cents a visit, a high cost efficiency that was 84% lower than Placed’s benchmark.

--The business impact from native ads reflected a significant return on investment:The quick service restaurant chain was able to drive additional sales from people exposed to their native ad campaign equivalent to a 20x return on their native spend.

Dan Greenberg, Sharethrogh’s co-founder and CEO, told Real-Time Daily via email that the company’s partnership with Placed enables it to offer brands purchasing programmatic native ROI studies that demonstrate how native is helping make an impact on their business. "This work shows the direct relationship between a brand putting better ads in someone’s content feed today, and more people shopping in that brand’s store tomorrow,” Greenberg said.