Native Advertising Definition

Normally, Ads are made to look apart from the rest of the content of the webpage, because the fundamental principle behind creating Ads is to make them eye-catching so that more viewers are compelled to look at them, thus resulting in more clicks and ultimately customer acquisitions. But increasingly, publishers are trying to maximize the revenue from their media space and this has resulted in a significant increase in the number of Ads in the media spaces. So much so that consumers find the ads to be intrusive, and tend to move away from such pages, in general, resulting in a decrease in traffic. Thus publishers had to come out with an alternative approach and this led to the birth of Native Ads.

Native Ads are basically difficult to identify as Ads in the first place. They are made to look like a part of the website’s user interface and mix with the visual element and overall content while promoting a certain brand or a product. without disrupting the user experience. Native advertising example can be a suggested post on Facebook, a sponsored tweet by an influencer on Twitter, or one of the videos recommended to you when you start browsing YouTube. Traditional and invasive advertising formats, like banners or pop-ups, interrupt the user’s navigation whereas native advertising has the ability to attract much more attention from the readers as it is less noticeable. It contains relevant & productive information so are shared more by people in the social media platforms increasing the customer reach.

• Content advertising integrates online advertising into web pages by using the content as support. Native advertising will be successful if its content is relevant. It should be in line with the rest of the articles that are there. 
• In order to capture the attention of the potential client, engage them with highly valued information, which is so interesting and attractive that they will even want to share it with other people.
• Optimizing and adapting this type of advertising to the different devices and platforms available. Several videos, images and other dynamic multimedia forms should be used so that the user has the opportunity to interact with your content and engage with your brand.

Different Varieties of Native Ads

The multiple types of native ads can be listed as follows:

• Open – Consists of promoting the same content on various platforms or pages that share the same topic at once.
• Closed – This form of native advertising is the one which is published by a specific page or environment. It is formatted according to the environment itself, for instance, a post on a specific blog, or an advertising message on a social network.
• Hybrid – Few platforms allow the content publishing engines to install a private marketplace where advertisers have the option to bid on the inventory of ad space either through direct sales or programmatic auction through Real-Time Bidding. Therefore, advertisements distributed on hybrid platforms are placed there by the platform itself, the space having been sold to an open platform advertiser.
• Editorial content advertisement – These are all content which includes a sponsored message and are perfectly integrated into the environment following its format and style. Content mainly created by the advertisers and the editors themselves. These types of messages blend in perfectly like a piece of content of the website which allows them to go unnoticed. These ads allow users to interact with them without interruption or leaving the page.
• Search engines advertisement –  The most popular search engines amongst users such as Google or Yahoo allow users to highlight their links in the results obtained by the users’ search. These sponsored links which come with a disclaimer identifying the brand or page appear at the top of the page of results.
• Recommendation Widgets – These advertisements blend in but do not adopt the format of the rest of the content of the page. It contains something that sets them apart, such as “don’t miss this” or “we recommend”. Content producers and influencers are usually contacted by brands for their creative input and voice in the makings of a product or provided with a discount code to gain a percentage of the profits after consumers use the code in their purchase. Collaborative or recommended content may also include a brief or a contract which can vary from client to client. However, there is flexibility as the finished product is a representation of the content producer.
• Promoted lists – These advertised messages are presented identically like the other products that can be found on the page. Amazon would be the best example of a page that uses the promoted lists to include objects with links which direct to the brand’s page.
• Standard advertisements – These ads present themselves similar to display, even though they are set apart from the rest of the page by an identifying label. These types of announcements are found outside the editorial area of the page and do not share the format of the rest of the content. They are generally linked and redirected to a page external to the advertiser itself.
• In-Game native Ads – In this case, the ads seamlessly blend into the gameplay environment. The game assets are usually branded or replaced with branded assets. Incorporation of native ads includes replacement of the in-game assets character apparel, background elements etc. with branded assets.
• Tailored  – The most creative form of branded content. This one is agreed on and created by the editorial team of the environment and the advertiser. It can take on many creative shapes and types allowing for total creative freedom.

Why use Native Ads?

The main benefits of this form of marketing come from the short-term interactions created with customers and the ability to build long-term relationships.

• Undisrupted Ads –  Unlike banner ads that annoy the consumer, here the consumer is conditioned and given the space to consume the content as per his convenience without forcing him with pushy banner ads.
• Effortless consumption – The ad displayed in the background is subconsciously consumed by the consumer with zero efforts .  no efforts are required from the consumer to consume the content. The context in which the ads are placed allows for easy product/service registration in the minds of consumers.
• Trending – Native advertising on mobile is the ad format of choice for millennials  suggested by a survey of 300 where 38% said that in-feed native ads make them more likely to purchase the brand featured in the content.
• Unique – Native ads allow for advertiser content to stand out by blending in . Placed in the right context, native ads perform better and stand out from other low performing ad formats.
• Higher conversion rate – Native ads generate higher click rates than other mobile ads because of its non-intrusive nature it has a high acceptance rate thus resulting in higher click rates.
• For all – Native ads provide a win-win opportunity for all key players in the ecosystem. Advertisers effectively communicate the brand offering, Publishers do not worry about losing their user base and the Users enjoy their content without interruption.

Drawbacks of Native Ads

Recently, the total number of native advertisers has been stagnant and overall expansion has slowed. Only about 11% of online advertisers use native formats now and brands that buy native ads only run them across 10% of the total number of sites that they advertise on considering the limitations:

• Measurement – Measuring the performance and sustainability of native campaigns is difficult for advertisers. Without unified standards, it is hard to gauge metrics, such as return on investment (ROI), impact, and effectiveness.
• More Labour – A great story and design require both time and labor for advertisers and content creators. The actual process of crafting a native ad campaign is a costly, multistep process which involves a lot of collaboration and rounds of review done over a long period of time.
• Deceptive – Consumers should only be exposed to online advertisements that are fair, clear, and engaging. Unfortunately, native advertising has the potential to be too discrete especially when the poor content does not disclose much of the product.
• Costly – Native advertising can be more expensive than other forms of content marketing.
• Affects Brands Directly – If the experience with the native ad content is bad, negative feelings directly affects the brand.

Roundup

Native advertising offers high quality, useful and updated information to the final user. It also lets the brand customize their branded experience to suit the product or service offering. It In addition to that, it carries the added advantages of digital advertising which include cost-effectiveness, broad spectrum of audience and the ability to precisely target viewers based on various factors which may include demographics, psychographics, behavioral targeting.  Almost 50% of marketers do not have a clear idea what native advertising is and only 3% are very knowledgeable about native advertising. Maybe your competitors are experimenting with recommended contents or other native advertising types but is high time you started gathering extensive information about it to get started. The above article will serve you as a comprehensive native advertising guide.

Abhishek Dey

I and my team research various ad networks and can help you increase your overall ad revenue; so you could rake in more greenbacks with the best monetization platforms. I am just a mail away, so reach out to me if you want to scale up your website revenue. mail: [email protected]