You may not recognise the name, but Native Advertising is likely everywhere in your life, even if you don’t realise it. Chances are you’ve seen several examples of native advertising today – from a sponsored Instagram post to paid advertising in News articles, native advertising is becoming our default expectation when it comes to digital marketing. 

Native advertising is advertising that is specifically designed to blend in, rather than stand out. It’s increasingly popular and rapidly evolving, and when implemented correctly, it can often have greater audience engagement than traditional advertising methods.  

Traditional advertising has always been designed to stand out and grab audience attention. Despite this, native advertising emerged to break the rules in 2011 and create an advertising experience that consumers could enjoy. As the name suggests, while the content is still ‘sponsored’ it’s native to the platform in which it is being aired – it blends in with the look, feel, and function of the media format it appears in. Native advertising has since evolved from a consumer engagement tactic to a powerful tool that can seriously influence decision-making. How many ads have you bypassed because they were too ‘in your face’? Now, think about the ads that you saw just subtly – which one had more success in gaining your attention? While every business is different, native advertising can be crucial to the success of any advertising campaign.

What makes a Native Ad?

 There are different ways in which native advertisements can be executed, including:

• promoted listings 
• Sponsored articles
• paid search ads
• in-feed units
• custom ads
• In-ad that includes contextual relevance
• content recommendation engine widgets 

Native ads are designed to align with a publication’s content and editorial style to appear to be part of the publication itself. Consumers should still be able to distinguish the ads from the publications original content, but they can be difficult to spot as they blend well with the organic content. 

Native advertising fights ad fatigue. Ad fatigue is what happens when the audience gets bored with seeing ads. After a while, they simply stop paying attention. Native ads are brand exposure cloaked in editorial content, so they don’t tire out the audience. As long as the content is relevant and interesting, native advertising engages the audience. Due to this, Native Ads aren’t just favourable for brands, but for the publishers as well! According to Forbes, 71% of publishers report no negative reader response to native ads.

When creating your native ad campaign, there are a couple of key factors you should consider that could make all the difference to the success of the ad. When done well, native ads can be interesting, informative AND sell your product, but If you get it wrong, it could damage your brand. 

How do I create an effective Native Ad?

Firstly, the line between being subtle and transparent must not become blurred. The goal is for the ad to remain subtle but retain transparency about the commercial nature of the content so readers don’t feel deceived and lose trust in your brand. Finding the right balance between subtlety and transparency will determine the success of any advertisement campaign. 

Secondly, do not be afraid to add a little bit of ‘yourself’. People tend to shy away from adding a personal touch to an ad, but if an ad has no sense of ‘self’, there’s little for consumers to connect with. Over time it’s normal for ads to follow the same theme and format when coming from the same business, as long as each ad is not exactly the same, as the content will tire. 

Is Native Advertising right for my goals?

The key is that the content needs to have value to readers of the publication, and not just clickbait designed to trick people. If you’re going to invest in a native advertising campaign it needs to be relevant and offer value or solve a problem for the reader.

You also need to be willing to invest the time required to create this content. It takes a lot more effort than a traditional PPC (pay-per-click) advertising campaign which are commonly one single ad spread across many different platforms, designed to reach a large scale audience in one hit. 

There are still many occasions where traditional advertising is effective, and it is important to understand when to still use these methods. 

Native advertising has proven to be gaining traction, becoming more effective and accepted as time goes on. Knowing the difference between native and traditional ads and using them accordingly will ensure your advertising campaign’s success. 

If you need help creating a marketing strategy that is right for your brand and your budget, we are here to help! Get in touch today on 07 3198 4890 or contact us online.