Native advertising

Native advertising is a type of advertising that matches all the content on a platform on which it appears. Such ads resemble unpaid content, so users do not identify them as ads.

In this article, we will explain why you should use native advertising and how to make it work. We will go over the benefits of native advertising, describe the types of native ads, and provide examples.

Why should you use native advertising?

There are different ways to promote products, and native advertising must be the most popular one. Here, we will explain why you should use native ads and how they can scale your business.

The main advantage of native advertising is that it does not provoke immediate audience rejection. Consumers become more resistant to traditional ads and develop banner blindness. Even so, native ads are not identified as promoted content and do not have straight calls to action.

Here is why implementing this type of advertising is so effective:

1. Native ads pan out. They increase customers’ purchase intent and engage them more than original editorial content. Consumers interact with native ads more than with other types of advertising.
2. Native ads don’t tire out the audience. They do not cause ad fatigue that occurs when audiences get bored of constantly looking at ads. Native advertising engages customers without making them feel tired.
3. Consumers are more loyal to native ads. They are aware that native ads are a form of advertising. However, if a resource has already proven its expertise, such advertising will not cause a negative reaction. An experiment at Stanford University on how people distinguish native ads from other types of content proved that although consumers identify native advertising easily, it still affects their purchase behavior significantly.

Now that you know why you should use native advertising, let’s proceed to find out the way native ads work.

How do native ads work?

The goal of native advertising is to create a natural advertising message and increase the number of targeted actions. The platform where you place your ads and the content you promote are your key factors for success. Consumers see native advertising embedded into sites or apps they use every day. It is subtly and naturally woven into the digital content and feels like it should be there. If people are interested in advertised products, they are more likely to engage with ads even if they are labeled as “sponsored” or “branded.”

To sum up, native ads pan out because they do not look like ads and bring value to customers. Let’s move to the next section to discover the advantages of native advertising.

Benefits of Native Advertising

If you want to promote your business, we recommend giving this type of advertising a try. Let’s review some native advertising benefits and talk about why they are so crucial.

• Customers perceive native ads more positively. If you want to increase customer loyalty to your promoted material and raise the effectiveness of your campaign, do not use aggressive advertising messages and calls to action.
• Native advertising does not invade users’ personal space. Native ads fit into the platform format rather organically. This way, consumers find the info they are looking for and do not notice the difference between regular and promoted content.
• Users cannot block native ads. They can block only certain elements, but they will stumble across native advertising anyway if they use a platform where it is embedded.
• Natural advertising does not fall into the banner blindness zone. According to a study carried out by IPG Media Lab & Sharethrough, natural advertising has more chances to become viral on social networks. Consumers look through native ads 53% more often than display ads, and 32% of respondents are ready to share the native ad information.

As you can see, native advertising is an excellent method to promote your business. We will describe the types of native ads in the next section.

Types of Native Ads

The choice of a native ad format depends on many factors, including niche, industry, price policy, target audience and its preferences, available resources, etc. Let’s discover the most common types of native ads to understand which ones are the best for your business.

The most popular types of native advertising are sponsored social media content, advertorial articles, and collaborative content. Take a closer look at each one below.

Sponsored social media content

Nowadays, nearly half of consumers shop using their mobile devices more than in-store, making social media an excellent platform for native advertising and promoting your business.

Companies that leverage native advertising usually work with bloggers, as they have large audiences that trust them. If a blogger promotes something, there is a great chance that their subscribers will buy this product. However, make sure to work only with experts who have not only their audiences’ trust but actual expertise and competence in your niche. Choose bloggers who have trusting relationships with their audiences and the same values as you do.

The most common way of implementing natural advertising is when bloggers mention services or products when posting content to increase customers’ brand awareness. There are different types of native ads on social media: posts, stories, videos, tweets, articles, etc.

Advertorial articles

Such native ads are placed in the middle of non-advertising material. As a result, they are not identified as ads, as they look natural. We can find advertorial articles in magazines, newspapers, on sites, etc.

Collaborative content

You can come across collaborative content on video platforms and social media. Companies usually ask influencers to give their creative input during the product development process or provide them with a discount code to gain profits.

Using collaborative content helps increase customers’ brand engagement and loyalty. Influencers who handle word-of-mouth marketing and promote a brand and its products via digital platforms are called brand ambassadors, and this process is called influencer marketing.

Companies are more flexible when they create collaborative content. Brands seek influencers who are ready to make every effort to communicate their message to subscribers according to companies’ requirements and briefs.

As we can see, all these types of native ads have their peculiarities.