This article is part of our Paid Advertising and Media resource section
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Definition Native Advertising
Native advertising is a new trend that is booming in online advertising. This alternative appeared in the United States, just a few years ago, in the face of a changing advertising context in which traditional online formats are becoming less and less effective.
Native advertising is part of the broader world of advertising, but its presentation differs from many conventional advertising formats because it attempts to match the surrounding environment and user experience.
How to use Native Advertising?
Native advertising consists of including an advertisement on a website or platform respecting its format and editorial style. That is, our advertisement must get adapted to the rest of the content published on the site, it must fit organically with the information that accompanies it.
The essence of native advertising is the same as that of cinematographic product placement. It is preferable to include the product in the plot rather than interrupt the film with an advertisement. In the celluloid world, this practice began in the 1930s.
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Native advertising can take different forms depending on where it is displayed. Some formats are designed to blend into editorial content, while others appear within feeds, recommendation areas, or other parts of a digital platform. The format chosen should make sense for both the audience and the environment in which the advertisement appears.
The Characteristics of Native Advertising are:
- Advertising offers something interesting: advertising is part of the content and adds value to the site.
- It is entertaining and entertaining.
- It is related to the interests and expectations of users.
- They integrates perfectly into the site and does not hinder or interrupt the browsing experience; the ad does not move, blink, or appear suddenly.
- Explicitly specifies that this is advertising content.
- Native advertising differs from other marketing strategies in that it is respectful and non-intrusive. The ethical treatment of users is highly valued by users, which considerably increases the probability that they will remember the brand or product in the future.
One important consideration is transparency. Although native advertising is designed to fit naturally into its surroundings, users should still be able to understand that the content is promotional. Clear disclosure helps distinguish advertising from independent editorial content and can make the relationship between the advertiser and publisher more transparent.
Another characteristic is relevance. Native advertising works best when the subject of the advertisement has a meaningful connection with the interests of the audience. An advertisement that looks visually similar to the surrounding content but has no relevance to the reader may still be ignored.
There are two types of Native Advertising:
closed
Its diffusion is limited since the contents get published on a platform through a specific profile.
Open
All platforms that share thematic or target audience participate so that the same content can get promoted in different media at the same time.
These approaches demonstrate how the distribution environment can influence a native advertising campaign. A closed approach focuses on a particular platform and its audience, while an open approach can allow similar promotional content to reach audiences across several relevant environments.
Examples of native advertising
The advertorial
It may or may not be online, and it has the appearance of the medium where it appears, a very similar design, and even the same, in other words, just by removing the brand name, it would pass through the content of the medium. When it is online, it is usually had the tag “sponsored content” and has a clear call to action.
Advertorials can provide more space than a conventional banner for explaining a product or service. Because they can contain additional information, they may be useful when an advertiser needs to communicate more than a short promotional message.
The online video advertorial
It is the same as an advertorial but in video format, with no twist and turns. There were Campaigns with a high impact on YouTube during 2013.
Video can combine visuals, narration, demonstrations, and branding in a single format. This gives advertisers another way to communicate a story or explain a product while keeping the presentation connected to the platform where the content appears.
Sponsored content
It is the content that creates a medium and a paid brand, it doesn’t have a clear call to action, unlike advertorial, so it serves more as brand recognition. It can be used in conjunction with banners of the brand in question to get site visits and conversions.
Sponsored content can therefore have a different purpose from a direct-response advertisement. Rather than immediately asking a visitor to purchase something, it can introduce the brand, communicate information, or build familiarity with the audience.
A single sponsor
You can sponsor a magazine, a chapter in a series. You don’t usually have a clear call to action; it is more about brand recognition.
Single sponsorship can give a brand visibility within a particular publication, program, or content environment. The advertiser becomes associated with the sponsored material while the audience continues consuming the content in its normal format.
Brand content or brand journalism
The only difference between branded and sponsored content is that the brand creates the content for the medium.
Product Placement: placing products in a “covert” way, say, for example, watching a chapter of a series or a movie and a well-known brand of milk or soft drinks appears, it is not accidental, it is native advertising. In the online world, it also happens, even with articles where coincidentally, the keywords that position next to the brand name appear. PP example of «LG smartwatch.»
Product placement is one of the clearest examples of integrating a commercial product into an existing piece of entertainment or content. The product becomes part of the environment instead of appearing as a separate conventional advertisement.
Feeds ads
Ads or highlights that recommend content from other websites, under the same look & feel of the website from which they appear.
Feed advertisements are particularly common across digital platforms where users continuously scroll through content. Because these advertisements are displayed alongside other posts or recommendations, their design can follow the surrounding feed while still being identified as promotional material.
Native advertising can also appear alongside other formats within a broader campaign. For example, an advertiser may combine native placements with full-page advertising when it wants to use both integrated content experiences and more prominent advertising placements.
Similarly, native advertising can be part of a wider push-based promotional strategy. Businesses exploring different approaches can also examine popular verticals in push advertising to understand how different audiences and industries may be approached through push campaigns.
The effectiveness of native advertising ultimately depends on the relationship between the content, the platform, the audience, and the advertiser’s objective. A well-matched placement can provide useful information while introducing a brand to an interested audience, whereas an irrelevant placement may fail to attract attention regardless of how closely it matches the surrounding design.
