Industry consolidation and programmatic’s power: 2 hot topics explored by the top 10 display advertising columns of 2016

The year’s most popular Display Advertising column is a story whose end hasn’t yet been written, as we go into 2017 not knowing whether Verizon’s planned purchase of Yahoo will actually go forward despite two big hacking admissions from the internet company. A second big acquisition of the year — Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn — didn’t make the top 10 but was still of considerable interest and likely long-term impact.

Meanwhile, some of the more longstanding industry trends continued their rise this year. Programmatic display is as hot as ever, and marketers are getting more knowledgeable and sophisticated about making the most of it. Video advertising — driven in part by the rise of mobile — was also on the upswing in 2016. And, finally, native advertising, both promising and problematic, was still being worked out this year, as the industry (and the Federal Trade Commission) struggled to maximize efficacy while being sufficiently transparent to consumers.

For more details and actionable information about these trends, refresh your memory with these top 10 Digital Advertising columns of the year, all contributed by our expert columnists:

1. How Verizon’s Yahoo buy will reshape the digital ad marketplace by James Green, published on 8/8/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 146, Google+ 29, LinkedIn 228
2. Programmatic Display: 3 Tactics to Master in 2016 by Brad Bender, published on 2/29/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 155, Google+ 32, LinkedIn 299
3. Why you should be using out-stream video ads by Ted Dhanik, published on 4/4/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 75, Google+ 15, LinkedIn 195
4. Demystifying the display advertising landscape by Brad Bender, published on 5/30/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 158, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 286
5. Now That The FTC Has Spoken On Native Advertising, What’s Next? by David Rodnitzky, published on 1/12/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 103, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 182
6. 6 secrets of digital storytelling by Peter Minnium, published on 9/9/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 200, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 436
7. The 3 types of remarketing you should be trying by Brett Middleton, published on 7/7/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 213, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 477
8. The #1 way advertising budgets will change this year by Mike Sands, published on 5/6/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 149, Google+ 34, LinkedIn 357
9. Why the digital advertising ecosystem loves native by James Smith, published on 6/30/2016
   Social activity: Facebook 249, Google+ 30, LinkedIn 515
10. 2016: The Year Of Display by Adam Grow, published on 1/22/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 85, Google+ 22, LinkedIn 266

Methodology: Columns published in 2016 are ranked in order of page views measured by Google Analytics. Data includes all columns published through November 30, 2016. Social data provided by SharedCount.