Native Advertising

Native Advertising 

The difference between native ads and other types of advertising is that they don’t really look like ads – they blend in with the surrounding content and align with the look and feel of the media format in which they are shown. When done well, native ads can be an excellent way to drive quality traffic to your website and support your other marketing efforts. Some of the latest stats show that:

• The native advertising sector is predicted to grow by $400 million by 2025 (The Drum).
• Native ads are 62% easier to understand than display ads and 31% easier to understand than social ads (Outbrain/Lumen).
• Native ads generate 20-60% higher engagement rates than display banner ads (MarketingLand).
• Native ads increase purchase intent by 18% (Outbrain). 

In this guide, we’ll help you understand the fundamentals of native advertising including:

• What is native advertising?
• What is the difference between display advertising vs native advertising?
• The different types of native ads with examples 
• The pros and cons of native advertising 
• Is native advertising controversial?
• How much does native advertising cost?
• How to get started with native advertising 

What is native advertising?

Native advertising is a type of paid media that is designed to match the look, feel and function of the editorial content of the platform in which it features. Native content can take many forms including infographics, videos, blogs and articles. Unlike other ad formats, native ads are contextual, seamless and do not disrupt the editorial flow or a user’s experience when they’re browsing a web page or social media platform. 

Native ads can be shown in print publications such as newspapers and magazines, as well as websites, apps and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The key to choosing the right online and offline publications is researching your target audience demographics and finding out where they are spending time. Some older audiences might be reading more newspapers than other groups, whereas the best place to reach teenage audiences is likely to be social media. 

How do you spot a native ad?

Native ads blend in so seamlessly that it can sometimes be difficult to spot them. Below are some of the common features of native ads to look out for:

• They contain the words “Promoted Post”, “Suggested Content” or “Sponsored”.
• The post or widget contains a small icon that shows the content is paid when you click it.
• They’re in-stream, or in other words, they blend in instead of standing out in the form of a banner or pop-up ad. 

It’s important to disclose that your content is in fact an ad, but we’ll touch on that in more detail later on.

What is the difference between display advertising vs native advertising?

The key difference between display and native ads is that native ads align with the editorial flow whereas display ads are designed to stand out, capture a user’s attention and persuade them to click through using a clear call-to-action such as “SHOP NOW” or “REQUEST A DEMO”. Display ads often contain rich and interactive visual media whereas native ads adopt a softer approach. Display ads tend to be more effective for retargeting people that have previously interacted with your brand, while natives are more effective for driving quality traffic to your website.

Here is an example of display vs native ads:

What is the difference between content marketing and native advertising?

Content marketing and native advertising are essentially two pieces of the same pie, except they’re cut differently. Content marketing is a long-term, owned media strategy that involves creating valuable content to establish credibility in your industry, build an audience and draw people towards your owned media and advertising platforms. Examples of content marketing include blogs, articles, case studies, infographics, e-books, whitepapers, etc. Content marketing is a key player in search engine optimisation (SEO) and improving your online visibility organically. 

Although native content aims to provide readers with value, the key difference is that it’s a type of paid media that utilises the readership or audience of an established third-party publishing platform. It can support your content marketing initiatives and save a considerable amount of time and resources compared to generating traffic organically.

What are the different types of native ads?

Native ads can take many forms depending on your marketing goals and objectives, but below are some of the most common types:

• Advertorials: Advertorials have been around for some time and are typically placed in newspapers, magazines and online publications. They take the form of an entire piece of editorial or journalistic content and fit the style and tone of a publication perfectly.
• In-feed ads: Ads that appear alongside other content in a social media feed.
• In-article ads: Ads that appear in an article and match the overall theme of a website.
• Promoted listings: Promoted listings are shown on ecommerce and similar sites to show featured offerings to consumers first. They don’t have editorial content but fit in seamlessly with the surrounding listings. 
• Paid search ads: Like promoted listings, paid search ads aren’t editorial but are shown at the top of a customer’s search results based on their location and preferences for certain types of businesses. 
• Content recommendation widgets: Content recommendations that appear below or alongside a platform’s editorial content. 
• Custom ads: Custom ads refer to any contextual ad that doesn’t fit a specific format. 

What are the pros and cons of native advertising?

Check out the pros and cons of native advertising:

Is native advertising controversial?

There is a bit of a debate surrounding native advertising and how ethical it is. Quality, well-placed native ads can be very difficult to identify, so much so that they can deceive customers into thinking it’s just another article or blog post. You can avoid deceiving consumers by displaying a term such as “Advertisement” or “Sponsored Content” on the display icon and the content itself to disclose that it’s an ad. You can also follow the rules outlined in the American Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) guidelines for native advertising:

• Be transparent - content shouldn’t suggest or imply to consumers that it’s anything other than an ad.
• Disclosure may be necessary to ensure that consumers understand that the content is advertising.
• When using disclosures to prevent deception, the disclosure must be clear and prominent.

How much does native advertising cost?

The cost to create a native ad campaign is broken down into a few categories:

• Ad design: This includes strategy, audience and topic research, copywriting, graphic design, video production, etc. You can keep these tasks in-house, outsource to an agency or do a combination of both.
• Ad placement: The cost to place an ad on a website or platform will depend on the size of the publication’s audience, the size of the ad and the type of content, a publication’s domain authority.
• Publishing costs: You then need to pay a publisher for showing your ad on their platform. This is usually on a cost-per-thousand (CPM basis, i.e. for every thousand impressions your ad has. CPM costs usually range between $10 - $20.

How do I create a native advertising campaign?

Below is an overview of how to get started with native advertising and create a campaign:

• Get clear on your advertising goals
• Define your audience 
• Choose your publishing platforms 
• Create your content 
• Set a campaign budget
• Track, test and optimise 

The first step is determining your goals, i.e. the purpose of your native ad campaign. Do you want to build brand awareness and engagement? Or are you aiming for more performance-based goals such as increasing conversion for sales, subscriptions or signups? Some types of native content are better suited to different goals (e.g. video content is great for branding) so try to get crystal clear on this.

Once you know your goals, you can identify your audience and research where they’re hanging out. You can create buyer personas for your target audience that outlines the key demographics as well as the type of content they consume and engage with. Remember, people who click on native ads aren’t the same as search engine users that want answers for a specific query or social media users that are consuming content from brands they like and related brands – consumers of native ads are ready to explore, learn and discover something new.

The next step is choosing your publishing platforms. It’s important to choose platforms that align with your brand, e.g. an outdoor clothing brand will need to look for websites and platforms that are relevant to that niche and where the people on the platform assumedly have an interest in camping, hiking or outdoor adventures. You may decide to work with traditional publishers, new-media publishers or a mixture of both. Using tools such as Taboola, Outbrain and Nativo is a great way to find publisher websites that run native ads. To determine which sites are a good fit for your campaign, look out for metrics such as:

• Size of platform
• Audience demographics 
• Potential target audience reach
• Type of content on the platform 

When you’ve chosen your platforms, you need to create your content. Great content is the beating heart of effective native ads, so focus on what will appeal to your target audience. Whether your content is to inform, educate, inspire or entertain, make it count. Add as much value as possible so that when people land on your content they gain something – even if they don’t convert. You’ll also need some ad creatives including a thumbnail image to promote click-throughs. Remember, it needs to blend in seamlessly with the page. 

Once your ad is good to go, you need to set a budget by determining a cost-per-click (CPC), i.e. the amount you pay when someone clicks on your ad. At the start of a native ad campaign, it’s recommended to choose a higher CPC as it’ll get your ad in front of more people which will build up more data for you to optimise and strengthen your campaigns.

The final step is to track, test and optimise. By A/B testing different thumbnails, headlines and other media, you can see what’s most effective and tweaks needed to maximise your campaign performance.

What are the best practices for native ads?

Below are some of the tips for creating effective native ad campaigns:

• Disclosure: Make sure you disclose that your content is a paid advertisement. You do not want to deceive your audience.
• Invest in producing good content: If you don’t have the writing expertise or time to spend crafting a quality piece of content, consider hiring a content writer.
• Coherence: Try to implement the design and layout of the web page or publishing platform in your content.
• Get creative with video content and storytelling: Stories make it much easier to convey a message and evoke emotional responses in people.
• Use a clear CTA: Make sure your readers know what you want them to do by including a clear call to action, e.g. “Call us to learn more”, “Buy now”, “Sign up today”, “Visit our website for more information”.

Who can help me with native advertising?

We hope this guide has helped you understand the fundamentals of native advertising and how it can help you build brand awareness and drive quality traffic to your site. If you would like to get the ball rolling with native ads but don’t have the time or expertise to devise a strategy, create content and approach publishing platforms, you can consider hiring an advertising agency. They know the ins and out of native ads and have helped a wide range of businesses reap the benefits of native content. Learn about advertising agencies and the services they offer.  

If you’re keeping your native ads in-house, you might be interested in learning about the different digital advertising tools to create and manage your campaigns.