Naver’s display-ads team posted a quiet but material creative change on 2 November. From Wednesday 2 December 2026, new registration and edits stop for the familiar 750×280 image banner on mobile search home (Smart Channel). On the same day, registration opens for a new creative type: native image → banner type (mobile search home), built around a 450×450 PNG cut-out plus separately entered copy. Existing 750×280 creatives keep running until a later phase-out notice. Delete one now and you cannot put it back.
The official notice is in the Advertiser Centre: 모바일 검색홈 이미지 배너 신규 등록 중단 및 네이티브 이미지 배너형 전환. It is not a Powerlink or Place test. It is the branded unit that sits on Naver’s mobile search home — the surface students and shoppers hit before they even run a query.
From one finished banner to image + copy
Under the old model you uploaded a finished wide creative with the offer text baked into the pixels. Under the new banner type you register four parts: a main image (450×450, PNG, max 500KB, cut-out / “누끼형” only — thumbnails are rejected), a main line, a sub line, and a disclaimer (or film-industry notice where required). Naver assembles them to fit the placement. Copy colour flips automatically for light and dark mode, which is the quality reason Naver gives for the change.
Two layouts are generated and shown at random: image on the left of the copy, or image on the right. When the image sits on the right, the call-to-action button you registered is dropped. Directional photos that only work facing one way will look broken in half the impressions. Naver says it will later settle on a single layout after it has performance data, and will announce that separately.
What stays, what dies, who is blocked
Existing 750×280 creatives remain ON/OFF-able and deletable after 2 December, but they are on a countdown. Naver is explicit that old units will be phased out in sequence, and that anyone who wants to keep appearing on mobile search home must register the new banner type. Restricted verticals for the placement include hospitals and clinics, drugs and medical devices, health-information services, matchmaking, tobacco and adult. Review can also reject underwear and swimwear, diet / hair-loss / wig creatives, funeral services and contraceptives. If you run those categories elsewhere on Naver, do not assume the Smart Channel slot is available.
Put this next to the rest of Naver’s November calendar. The platform rebrands to N Ads with new terms from 4 November. Place ads expand and Powerlink favicons grow from 5 November. Shopping Search Ads swap their Quality Index for a Click Expectation Index on 25 November. The mobile search-home banner rebuild is the display half of the same month: more control for Naver over how the ad is composed, less control for the advertiser over a single finished asset.
My take
If you buy mobile search home today, do three things before 2 December. First, export the live 750×280 list with ON/OFF state and recent CTR — that is your baseline. Second, do not delete anything; a deleted old creative cannot be re-registered. Third, prepare cut-out PNGs and left/right-safe copy now, then register under Native Image → Banner type (mobile search home) as soon as the new path opens. Treat the first week of dual layouts as noisy data. The SEO angle is secondary but real: Smart Channel is paid real estate on the search home, and when Naver owns composition, brand consistency and dark-mode readability become auction variables you no longer fully control. Primary source: Naver Ads notice 34505 dated 2 November.