Native advertising—ads that have the look and feel of the content that surrounds them—are not really new.

Ever since the first radio programs interviewed sponsors about their businesses and early magazines turned over parts of their issues to “advertorials,” smart advertisers have tried to slip their messages under the radar of wary target audiences.

But today, native advertising is one of the hottest areas of the online advertising world for three simple reasons :

Native ads are an effective way to get an advertising message around ad blocking software.

Native ads are proven to have higher levels of engagement than traditional non-native ads.

And perhaps most importantly, for many of the fastest-growing social media applications, like Twitter and Instagram, native advertising is the only way to reach their audiences.

Digital ad spending is on the rise, and no area is rising faster than native advertising. Native ads come in many forms, but all share the common goal of not “looking” like an ad.

So whether you’re talking about native display ads, sponsored content, or even the virtual reality native ads of the future, understanding and having a strategy for native advertising is an imperative for every advertiser, publisher, ad agency…in short, any organization that interacts with its customers online.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together the essential native ad report that explains native advertising from top to bottom.

The valuable insights you’ll get from this new report, titled The Native Ad Report: Revenue Forecasts, Top Drivers and the Rise of Sponsored Content and Programmatic Native, include:

The 4 powerful growth drivers of native advertising

An insightful history of how native advertising grew on the Internet, and especially social media

A data-rich breakdown of trends in current native advertising, plus projected growth rates and spending for the next 5 years in the key areas of native display ads, social ad revenue and sponsored content

Analysis of the six primary native advertising formats—in-feed, search, promoted listings, content recommendation widgets, standard ads with native elements, and custom-content units

The tremendous opportunity—and little-recognized threat—that is coming as major ad exchanges support native advertising with new programmatic channels

How Facebook became the dominant force in native mobile display ads

became the dominant force in native mobile display ads How Instagram is exploiting huge demand from advertisers to reach its users through native advertising to grow its global ad revenue 6 times in the next two years

is exploiting huge demand from advertisers to reach its users through native advertising to grow its global ad revenue 6 times in the next two years An inside look at Twitter’s 3 native advertising vehicles—promoted tweets, promoted trending topics, and the latest, promoted “moments”

3 native advertising vehicles—promoted tweets, promoted trending topics, and the latest, promoted “moments” The strategy Snapchat is pursuing to triple its native advertising revenue this year

is pursuing to triple its native advertising revenue this year The inside story of the fastest-growing native advertising area, sponsored content

Publishers’ strategies for maximizing revenue from native advertising

How Buzzfeed’s experience with native advertising revealed the surprising challenges and roadblocks that native advertising entails

experience with native advertising revealed the surprising challenges and roadblocks that native advertising entails The regulatory threat to native advertising

And much more.

This exclusive report even reveals the 4 important new trends in native advertising that will be the source of innovation, growth and new challenges for years to come.

The Native Ad Report: Revenue Forecasts, Top Drivers and the Rise of Sponsored Content and Programmatic Native is how you get the full story on native advertising.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to native advertising, choose one of these options:

Purchase an ALL-ACCESS Membership that entitles you to immediate access to not only this report, but also dozens of other research reports, subscriptions to all 5 of the BI Intelligence daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of native advertising.