Dive Brief: 

• According to Sharethrough, a native advertising distribution firm, the performance of native ads in 2013 was unimpressive despite all the hype. 
• The top performing native ad — Harper Collin's 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand, which ran on BuzzFeed — only resulted in 715,267 social actions.
• No native ad cracked 1 million social actions in 2013, and the drop-off from the top two spots is dramatic. Number three on the list, an American Express ad on Mashable, only clocked in at 115,852.

Dive Insight: 

These numbers certainly don't inspire much excitement about native advertising and could lead the industry to believe the medium isn't worth the effort. It's important to remember that native ads are still in their infancy, and advertisers and publishers still haven't perfected the formula of what works.