MGID Is Eyeing Opportunities for Native Advertising in New Markets

MGID, the native advertising platform, is courting the Latin American and Mexican market. In 2016 the company experienced a growth of 491 percent in these markets and is now introducing a Spanish dashboard that advertisers as well as publishers can use to manage their native campaigns.

This will be the first launch in a series of localised user interface rollouts, which aims to provide a more streamlined experience for MGID’s Spanish-speaking clients.

We talked to Michael Korsunsky Chief Marketing Officer, MGID, about the opportunities and the challenges of catering to emerging markets for native advertising.

We see a definitive trend in more aggressive interest in the Latin American market across the entire Native space

What are your revenue expectations for the Latin American market?

Unlike North America, Australia/New Zealand and the EU market, the Latin American and Mexican market has significant variances in both demand and monetisation. Largely, due to wide spread in currency exchange rates, payment processing and lower payouts on the content side of things.

With that in mind, revenue and budget expectations cannot easily be compared to other markets. There is, however exponentially increasing demand, and we focus our efforts on overall market penetration and establishing long-term relationships with key publishing partners in the Latin America and Mexico markets.

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Overall, we see a definitive trend in more aggressive interest in the Latin American market (LATAM) across the entire Native space. Top demand countries within LATAM are generating CPMs comparable (and occasionally exceeding) Tier One markets, so increase in interest is fairly obvious.

Another market of immediate interest is Africa

How does the Latin American market distinguish itself from other markets - besides the language?

Success in LATAM requires individualised, country-based approach to presentation and content alike. Of course, this is true for all markets, but LATAM represents a different level of significant variances in cultural and social patterns. What is acceptable in Colombia may be a faux pas in Mexico and vice versa. LATAM combines a multitude of contrasting history, religion, language variations and social traditions rarely seen anywhere else.

Which other emerging markets for native do you expect to grow in importance in the coming years?

The markets in Asia-Pacific continue to expand rapidly. Another market of immediate interest which is showing growth is Africa.

When will native advertising truly take off in your opinion?

Ultimately, penetration rate will continue to be driven by results. Both, positive and negative. The only real limitations are publisher side format availability and ease of deploying native campaigns. Additionally, as we see native continuing to present new ad formats, the adoption will increase as well.

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Native advertising services are being criticised over issues such as transparency. How big of an issue is this for the industry, in your opinion? 

All advertising is and should be analysed and criticised, and Native is no exception. Ultimately, skepticism is a derivative of under-performance. Advertisers are focused on results rather than formats or strategies, and attention to quality is inevitable component of the process. Transparency in itself is no way a larger issue for Native than other delivery mechanisms.

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