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Banner Ad Media BuzzFeed

Banner ads back at BuzzFeed to reduce reliance on native content production

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

August 29, 2017 | 2 min read

Since 2013, BuzzFeed has sidestepped the much-maligned banner ad in favour of native content however, the company is now bringing the format back onto the site to more effectively monetise audiences.

Buzzfeed native

Buzzfeed native ads

Business Insider reports that banner ads will now run atop the story and home pages online and in the dedicated app. These will be served up globally through the Google DoubleClick Ad Exchange and Facebook Audience Network.

Despite the proliferation of adblocking software that could negate the banner ad efforts, BuzzFeed is still embracing the advertising format in a bid to make it less reliant on driving traffic to promoted posts, such as today’s efforts, ‘15 Hilarious Mille Bobby Brown GIFs That'll Make You Say, "Me AF"’ from ConverseUK and ‘Share Your Opinions On Colours And We'll Guess Your Favourite Oreo Flavour’.

As of July, Comscore research found that BuzzFeed reached more than 75m unique users, a huge new audience for advertisers to deliver ads to.

BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti said the adoption of banners reflects that “programmatic has improved in terms of loading times, mobile experience and ad quality,” furthermore, he said it helps monetise global audiences not yet served native content.

The move is reputedly being implemented to help get the books in order before the company’s long-awaited IPO in 2018.

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