Native Advertising: Formats, Benefits, Cases in Point

Native advertising is an ad message integrated into content that is useful and relevant to a user. Native ads should also be adapted to the patterns and requirements of a platform where it is published.

Natural or native advertising becomes increasingly more popular under the ‘banner blindness’, audience-centric revolution and growing disaffection by the abundance of direct advertising. According to the statistics, users view native ads 53% more than banner ads.

Native advertising doesn’t repel readers and appears with a brand’s offer which interests your target audience the most. When ad content is a logical part of an article, video, website or app, users consider it useful and do not even recognise this as an ad. Consequently, an advertiser can find the relevant audience on different platforms and build trusting relationships with each. 

Native Advertising Formats

This approach increases user engagement and improves lead generation since a target user takes an ad implication smoothly and sees its usefulness and applicability. Native advertising can be realised on any platform. You just need to choose an original format and presentation. The format can be represented through a banner, image, infographic, article, video or social media post. Native advertising formats depend on your niche, competition level and company targets. 

Native Advertising and Content Marketing

Content marketing is a significant strategic method enabling a company to build a long-term relationship with a target audience by means of educative, entertaining and branded content.

Quality content establishes contact with your audience, enhances product awareness, customer loyalty, and forms a correct perception of your product by consumers.

A product offer can naturally be embedded in a story, offering customers the right product at the right time through native advertising. This is a long process, when a company builds credibility step by step, while clients become loyal to the brand for years to come.

Media Native Advertising 

Brands keep their popularity by publishing useful articles and affiliate posts on platforms which are well-known to the intended audience. In terms of this channel, native advertising is a post, adapted to the publisher’s conception,  in one of the following formats:

1. Sponsor content is a brand-related article, which covers the informational needs of a reader while forming a strong association: brand = problem solution.

In an article, GQ Magazine mentioned the thesaketeroom.com website as an online store where users can buy “Unusual gifts for a Christmas surprise.”

2. Expert opinion or recommendation is an article which provides useful knowledge and expert recommendations. The brand, mentioned in the article, acts as an industry expert with trusted opinion.

A fragment from one of the articles on Forbes

3. Newsworthy or PR-article is a useful review on past or upcoming event related to a company or its product. Such native advertising helps to form a particular image and a market position.

ASOS PR article at fashionunited.uk

4. Special project is a unique and creative way to distribute beneficial to your company information in the form of quizzes, competitions, gamification, and so on.  This type of native advertising aims at entertaining, storytelling and forming an outstanding and positive brand image.

Skin Type Quiz by Renée Rouleau Skin Care

5. Native advertising can be presented on third-party websites as “See also” recommendation sections that are not annoying (unlike banners) and selected according to audience interests.

When readers are curious about the topic, they stay on the website and don’t see the difference between qualitative native advertising content and original articles. Simply put, when an audience relies on a source, they are usually open to ads.

Native Advertising on Social Media

Ad publications among followers’ photos and posts become a common thing for our social media feeds. They look organically and consequently are perceived as reliable as friends’ publications. Social networks algorithms track users’ interests and behaviour to show the most relevant products ads.

Depending on the platform, the native advertising formats can be the following:

1. YouTube.

Video hosting presents a few tools for placing a native advertising message. The integration depends on the author’s choice:

• Product placement – an advertised product integrated into video content;
• GDN – ad banners that open over a video;
• YouTube pre-roll or mid-roll ads – short scenes integrated into a video or played before a video. 

2. Instagram 

A platform with travel, fashion and lifestyle themes and a focus on visual content. Users with most followed profiles become opinion leaders, millions of people trust their recommendations. If a brand owner manages to find a profile with a relevant audience and the blogger inserts native advertising of a product, then just one publication can efficiently influence the loyal followers and lead to a sharp increase in sales.

Sarah Jessica Parker Instagram

Feed ads and stories targeted on a specific audience is another way to promote your products on Instagram. Such campaigns are set via your Facebook ad account. 

3. Facebook 

The best way to use negative advertising on Facebook is to ask opinion leaders to embed product info in their useful publications. Boosting Facebook posts to your intended audience is another approach which can work.

Native Ad Benefits

Native advertising should look as natural as possible. It should organically adapt to the platform specifics and offer solutions to prospective customer problems. Moreover, it should be user-friendly and not annoying. 

Besides, native advertising has other benefits:

• It’s placed where it can be seen;
• It provides a long-term effect due to the viral-based content;
• It considers specifics and features of a platform where it’s published ;
• It builds product credibility and improves customer loyalty;
• There are a variety of native advertising formats and a wide choice of placement platforms;
• Low competition;
• It’s not stopped by ad blockers.

What results can be expected from native advertising? First of all, building positive brand associations created by a marketing campaign, constant lead generation, targeted using the budget, and finally, sales growth.

The native advertising appears even in VR, which is not a surprise as unobtrusiveness is its primary benefit. This allows you to experiment with content formats and place your ads even on the most unobvious platforms, gaining the loyalty of any audience.