While it is true that native advertising has taken the digital media world with a storm, however it is still a complex field and a lot of people are not aware of what it is all about. In this article, we’ll guide you through everything related to native advertising.
Native Advertising – What is it?
Here is how Wikipedia defines native advertising:
Native advertising is a type of online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. For example, an article written by an advertiser to promote their product, but using the same form as an article written by the editorial staff.
In the simplest of terms, native advertising is paid content. Different from most of the content we see as the best SEO company Toronto. The ad format the advertiser pays for is created keeping two things in mind; the advert should be specifically, singularly and uniquely created for the particular channel in question and secondly the content should be consistent and native to the technical and editorial format of the channel the advert will appear in.
This content could be anything, from articles, infographics, videos to anything in between. As long as the said content is aligned and ‘native’ to the site it will be published on, it will be a form of native advertising rather than the regular advertising.
Native Advertising – Facts and Figures
While native advertising is talked about and treated as if it is something that is entirely new to the marketing landscape, it is not the case. In fact, you would be surprised to know that native advertising has been up and running for quite some time now. Google AdWords, promotional tweets on Twitter as well as buying followers and reach to appear on Facebook newsfeeds are all examples of native content. Suffice to say, in a highly chaotic advertising industry; native adverts are so well blended and integrated with the regular ads that it has become a tad bit challenging to separate and identify them.
Before we share some of the best examples of native advertising, take a look at a few of the statistics regarding its popularity and impact on the digital marketing world.
- Around 49% of audience and customers have no idea what native advertising is.
- Native ads are viewed by people 53% more than regular banner ads.
- It increases brand lift by 82% and boosts conversion rate by 60%.
- Due to native ads, consumer purchase intent increases by 53%.
- 81% of marketers depend upon native ads to increase audience engagement and brand visibility.
- More than 90% of publishers plan to launch a native advertising campaigns if they are not already offering the service yet.
- By 2017, an increase in spending from $ 3.1 billion to $ 5 billion is expected on native ads on social media sites.
Native Advertising – The Best Examples
According to the statistics mentioned above, it is safe to say that native advertising is the future of marketing even if it’s not so widely appreciated by the customers as yet. This is because majority of the audience finds native adverts to be deceptive and intrusive. However, if done cleverly and with the right attitude, native advertising is bound to maintain the integrity of both, the brand and the publisher instead of compromising their value. Thankfully, advertisers and marketers have become increasingly adept at fulfilling the rules of native advertising and delivering splendid and formidable content to the audience without them realizing that it’s a sort of a promotional content.
Here are some examples of native advertising that don’t look like a regular advert, but rather editorial content.
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is perhaps the most popular platform to feature sponsored ads that fulfill the criteria of native advertorials. Because of its simple and straightforward content model, brands are easily able to integrate and promote their products and services. Also, BuzzFeed mentions clearly at the top of the article if and when it is a sponsored post, thus carrying out a transparent native ad campaign and not misleading their audience at all. Let’s take a look at some of the top native ad campaigns on BuzzFeed.
DUNKIN DONUTS
For content to be successful, it doesn’t always have to be an informative article, in fact, a quiz is sometimes the best way to trigger customer interaction. BuzzFeed published quiz titled ‘Which Donut Are You‘ as a promotional advert for Dunkin Donuts. Even though you may find the quiz stupid, but the way BuzzFeed and Dunkin Donuts recognized the humor in it and channeled the message is incredibly funny and captivating. Remember, advertising is not always about stressing on your qualities, instead poking a little fun on your products is really appreciated by customers. After all, incessant and aggressive self-promotion eventually gets on the nerves of the customers.
INTEL
This sponsored content from Intel, ‘15 Things We Did At School That Future Students Will Never Understand‘ is one of the best examples of native advertising there is. The message by the brand, even though being extremely unobtrusive and inconspicuous, is effectively delivered while revisiting the past and reminding the customers regarding the product, Intel, effectively. Suffice to say, this piece of native advertising fulfills the said criteria fully and maybe even adds more to it. It inspires a range of emotions from the reader, nostalgia, hilarity, intrigue, and what not, you name it. Further, all of these qualities make this article shareable, which in turn boosts customer interaction and engagement.
This piece by Intel and BuzzFeed should be your muse when trying to come up with potent and powerful native advertising for your brand.
FORBES
This is yet another site that publishes great native content. Under the section Forbes BrandVoice, the American business magazine allows marketers and CEOs of different brands to connect with the Forbes audience directly
GAP INTERNATIONAL
The article, ‘The Six Defining Traits Of The Successful 21st Century Organisation‘, published on Forbes, and written by the Founder and CEO of Gap International is one of the greatest examples of native ads. By mentioning the name of her corporation only once in the byline to give reference and not giving any further mention throughout the article, it shows that the integrity and the value of the piece remains authentic and uncompromised.
Thus, this type of a native piece shows that you don’t need to make a reference of your company or product in your article in order to make it an effective native ad. Rather, sometimes, it is better to leave brand or product placement in the article and base the success solely on the value of the brand and its association with the article.
The New York Times
Native advertising isn’t entirely limited to online publication forums like BuzzFeed and Mashable, Instead, magazine and newspapers alike can act as publication forum for your native ads. Let’s see how New York Times approaches and manages native ad campaigns.
NETFLIX
Under its paid post section NYT ran a sponsored post by Netflix, ‘Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn’t Work‘. The article was inspired by the Netflix series, ‘Orange is the new black’, which itself relates to the journey and experiences of a woman, Piper Kerman, in the prison.
Why the content is a successful native piece, you ask?
The answer is simple. Since the article addressed the social issue (how the prison model for women in US is flawed), it was directly in line with the type of content published in The NYT. Thus, without having to deviate from the content format, Netflix and NYT were able to publish a successful native piece. Also, since there is little to no mention of Netflix or its series (apart from the byline), it shows how they were able to publish an organic article.
Keep in mind that these are only a few examples of how native advertising can work. Because of the vast array of online platforms, native advertising is not restricted to these publication forums. Social media sites, entertainment forums and news media sites are all offering services to brands and companies to place their native advertorials under their paid posts section.
Thanks to such clever native ad campaigns, customers and audience are already warming up to this new form of native advertising. it is about time that you start understanding its importance in the marketing world as well as also start making more effort to make your native ads successful and effective. So get in touch with us today and see how we can help you in this.
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