In order to uncover the real state of the content marketing and native advertising industry, PulsePoint and Digiday surveyed over 500 brands, agencies, and publishers, digging into the formats, current trends being used and marketplace challenges that define the content marketing and native landscape.

Here are a few of the key takeaways from the research, which are explored in much greater detail in the White Paper: How Content Marketing and Native Will Drive a New Era of Engagement:

Developing Definitions
Content marketing was identified primarily as “the strategy behind creating and distributing valuable content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience” (74 percent) and “content created, owned and distributed by the brand” (67 percent).

Content Marketing and Native Growth will Outpace Display and Search
By 2017 content marketing and native ad budgets will grow 59 percent and 46 percent respectively, while display and search growth will stagnate.

Campaign Objectives and Campaign Measurement Are Still Disconnected
The metrics marketers are using to gauge the performance of each format say a lot about their intentions, and it makes the situation a bit more complex.  Brands/agencies overwhelmingly indicated that they use content marketing for upper funnel strategies: 67% list brand engagement as the number one objective best supported by content marketing and 55% list brand awareness.

Lack of Demand Comes From Lack Of Resources – In Bandwidth and Budget
Lack of budgets and resources to deliver high quality content efficiently is the number one barrier brands/agencies cited today (55 percent).

Advertising Technology Will Power Content Marketing
45% of brands, agencies and publishers believe automation technology will enable content marketing and native to scale.