What is Native Advertising? Definition, Types and Benefits

Native advertising conforms to the media platform around which they appear through its design, feel, and functionality. The use of paid ads perfectly resonates with the look, feel, and function of the content in which they appear.

Native ads often appear on social media or within recommended content on websites. In contrast to conventional ads, native ads do not appear as banners, flash, or display ads; they barely resemble advertisements. They go through the flow of the editorial page and appear as part of the actual content. The core of native advertising is to stay non-disruptive and expose the reader to advertising content without even raising a flag.

Marketers have been using native advertising in abundance over the past decade. Social media platforms' inception has made native advertising one of the most popular forms of ad campaigns.

We will deep dive into the history, importance, current trend and different types of native advertising in our article, so stick around to enhance your knowledge about them, as you never know when you may encounter them while surfing. 

Native advertising: is it a modern concept?

Not really, native advertising may have boomed in the recent past, but it is rooted back to the early twentieth century. It was first used in magazines to tell brand stories. Almost all major brands globally have used this type of advertising through newspaper advertising and editorials.

In recent times, native advertising has come to life. With the development of AI technology and native advertising, 88% of the native advertising was done programmatically through special ad management software.

Display ads vs. native ads

Display ads or banner ads are easier to judge, as they appear in the form of graphics in different sizes and formats. Display ads are meant to target particular website visitors; they are helpful in effective brand building and promoting a specific product.

Display ads are more target group-oriented and are used to generate sales leads. They become part of the brand strategy and its tonality. The most used display ads are hyperlinked, banner ads, image-based ads, and other similar types of advertising. 

Usually, they appear either at the top or at the side of websites. However, these static display ads are now replaced by more dynamic and complex stuff, including videos, interactive elements, and pop-up notifications.

On the other hand, the native brand is run for a different strategy, which is more detailed. They fit into the media and are unidentifiable. Unlike display ads, they are less intrusive and hard-selling.

The purpose of the native ads is to touch the sentimental part of the target audience by telling the brand's story. As far as effectivity is concerned, native ads create an excellent click-through rate, thus effectively driving traffic.

How to figure out it's an ad?

It is usually difficult to realize whether you are consuming a paid advertisement if it is a native ad because the native ad's problem is to become part of the editorial neutrality of the publisher.

For instance, you click a particular website link, and instead of landing at the actual website, you are routed to any other web portal. Regularity authorities face challenges regulating the use of such native ads to ensure users are not misled. Even though native ads sit unrecognizable within the main content, you can still identify them by a few telltale signs.

Below mentioned are a few words that usually hint at a native ad.

• Suggested Post
• Recommended For You
• Small icons, when you click them, denote that it is an ad
• The word Sponsored
• The word Sponsorship credit
• Suggested videos

Types of native advertising

Mainly native ads are divided into three main categories and are discussed below.

1. "In-Feed" Ads

The most common native advertising is the In-Feed ads. The most popular platforms are the social networking sites where these ads are excessively used. They are integrated into content pieces and social feeds. They form the best non-disruptive sequence form and blend in perfectly to become part of the actual content.

2. Content Recommendation Ads

They become part of the articles you read online and are mentioned in the form of links at the end of the article. 

3. Search and Promoted Listings

Search engines that display top-of-the-page ads. These are paid listings and appear as ads. The basic concept is to use the keywords a user has entered to search for a particular topic.

Advantages of native advertising

Most digital marketers have turned their attention to native advertising, one of the most commonly used marketing strategies for digital marketers.

Is that content is the king, and it won't go away any time soon?

It Works: The main reason behind such a high ratio is its success rate. Premium ads yield up to 0.38% average click. Secondly, these ads do not break when viewed on devices like desktops, laptops, or phones. The view rate of a native is 53% more than display ads. Furthermore, these increase the likely sale of a product by 18%. In short, native ads works for online marketers.

Global Reach: Native advertising bear the capacity and capability to tell the brand story to unlimited visitors globally. If used with other advertising channels, brands will produce results like never before.

Fatigue free: Native advertising breaks ad fatigue. People usually get bored by looking at the same ad repeatedly. Contrarily, native ads avoid fatigue as they become part of the main content rather than flashing separately and breaking the reader's attention.

Positive purchase behavior: Native advertising is subject to producing positive purchase behavior. It is observed in a study that customers do not bother with native ads. Consumers are no fools; in most cases, they are well aware that it is an ad before clicking a link. Nevertheless, they visit - thus influencing purchase behavior in a very positive way.

How does programmatic native advertising work?

Native advertising has been in business for a long time, but with AI and digitalization, the process of native ads has significantly altered. 

Programmatic advertising is the computerized usage for running the ads on the websites. It is an automatic generation of ads from time to time. All companies need to do is to schedule their ads, make the payment to the online portal, and it will run automatically.

Programmatic ads run in real-time at a large scale, enabling brands to optimize their campaigns and enhance return on investment. Thumbnails images, content URLs, headlines, description texts, and other forms of metadata elements are used to build a native ad. RTB, or real-time-bidding, is the process through which these ads are shown to online users. 

Let us dig out in detail what exactly a programmatic native ad is?

Programmatic native in a nutshell

Users create space for an ad impression with the help of programmatic native advertising. A bid sent on behalf of the publisher to the Supply Side Platform, commonly known as SSP. The DSP responds by sending metadata metrics and pricing bids on behalf of the advertiser. 

The winning bid is instantly configured based on the metadata through a template to fit into the web page or an app. To our surprise, the whole process takes only a fraction of a second to complete. Such a quick, action-based task makes it a real-time advertising feature, targeting the right audience in the blink of an eye. 

So, the programmatic Native is a tool to hit the target customer in quick succession and generate sales leads in a flash. Marketers tend to achieve far more targeted responses and generate a high value of click ratio through the programmatic source of ads and the efficient tracking tools

What is the cost of a native ad?

The native ad campaign is cost-effective and easily becomes part of the marketing mix as these always drive high engagement and its costs can be easily anticipated with a quick marketing audit. 

You have full liberty on your budget for the native ad. The basic formula is how far you wish your ad to go and last. The pricing depends on where the ad is intended to display and for much time, just like conventional board ads.

However, the recommended budget is between USD 2,000 to USD 5,000 a month for a medium-sized business. Such budget lines provide you with enough room to successfully design and optimize your ad patterns. 

Then some premium publishers have huge daily traffic to their websites. They are costlier as compared to non-premium publishers. CPM prices are higher in comparison to parenting forums. In short, you have all the liberty to choose whatever you wish to go with your native ad campaign.  

The average CPM prices range between USD 0.50 – and USD 4 in a programmatic campaign. However, a native campaign reaches as high as USD 10 and in some cases, USD 20.

Price is not a problem as far as a native ad campaign is concerned. You can easily manage and design your strategy based on cents in your pocket and the size of your business.

Does native advertising have a future?

We can state that native advertising is still on the rise and is yet to reach its peak. The trend is upwards if we analyze data from the last decade.

As the mainstream websites, which previously were adamant about not providing space for native ads, are now more lenient, opting for such ads makes native advertising go further up. It is deduced from the trend that the native ad is becoming as important as the mainstream TV or OOH advertising.

Going Native is the key to achieving sales targets in the future. Whether brands intend to promote or sell their services, one of the go-to advertising campaigns is the native mode.

Worried about the future? Just read that the net spending on native advertising is expected to reach USD 402 million by 2025, a 372% increase compared to 2020.

So native advertisement is here to stay as yet. 

Key to a successful native advertising campaign

Trends change, with more brands opting for native campaigns, prices, and space barrages are bound to happen. 

So, to stay up to the task and develop efficient promotions, we have stitched a few key trends to watch out for.

Be Programmatic

Conventional buying of native space is a thing of the past. Programmatic ads racked up 90% of the total ads in 2020.

So be prepared to go systematic and digital. The name of the native ad game in the future is programmatic. The cons include reducing human labor, the system providing more control, and being more flexible. You can put your buying on auto mode to champion your campaigns.

Another positive of programmed buying is that the advertisers have multiple options simultaneously. It provides high reach to launch an ad campaign cost-effectively. 

Follows a list of only the main cons of the programmed ad launch:

• Cost-effective
• Time-efficient
• Right targeted group of consumers
• Flexibility 
• High transparency
• Real-time data

Valuable content

Advertisers need to realize that consumers these days are more knowledgeable than ever before. So, to convince them and make them loyal to their brand, always put effort into valuable content only.

Strive to put something unique to grab the attention of your target audience. A research-based on the behavior of online consumers reveals that they want brands not to sell them products but wish for a story. So, be more objective and try thinking out of the box if you will stand a chance of winning new potential clients.

As brands, you can collect customer data about buying behaviors and mold your strategies accordingly. Align your branding strategies to put your landing page in the spotlight, which meets the expectations of your target audience.

Tell a story

To have effective native ads, try telling your brand's story rather than urging users to buy it. Put your product in the right context of the marketing mix.

To achieve this purpose, you can use premium publishers. SEOs are also an effective way to draft ads to meet ongoing trends. Placing native ads on premium publishers, besides being costlier, produces better results and develops trust in the minds of the consumers.

Be mobile, not social

With increased emphasis on programmatic native ads, the social nature of advertising has vastly diminished. Trends suggest that non-social Native is booming. Native ads on social media have shown a downward trend.

The majority of online marketers are now opting to use native format outside of the garland walls of social media.

Last word

Native advertising is the present and future of the marketing mix. Brands have excessively used programmed native advertisements to implement their branding strategies successfully and subsequently achieve high targets. So, if your brand still has not used the native mode of online advertisement, we suggest it is never too late. The results speak for themselves.

That concludes our detailed discussion about the native advertisement. We hope you enjoyed studying. Adios!