What is Native advertising?
Native advertising is a type of a paid media that fills the form and function of a customer or a visitors experience on the site or app in which they are placed. These are ads which can simply fit in. You can find these kinds of ads everywhere from your favourite blogger site to your favourite social media channel.
As an advertisement, it fits seamlessly into any user experience as it’s more contextual than other digital advertising like display and banner ads. Instead of appealing across the top of a web page, native advertisement mimics the look, feel and function of a content which makes it more likely that your visitors or audience will trust.
Types of Native Advertisement : There are 6 types of native advertisement and today we will discuss about each one of them with an example. Unlike other forms of advertising, native ads have several formats and each one of it possesses its own set of advantages.
1. In-Feed Units : Native advertising units are similar to the ones we have mentioned above. If you are able to view sponsored posts appearing on your social media page or on a blog post those are called in- feed units. They are paid placements which appear directly in-line with other articles, post and editorial posts. The in-feed unit looks differently from site to site as they fit into each website which are based on their unique customer experience.
2. Paid Search Units : Native advertising is a popular advertising method for any search engine. The top of the page advertisement placement you are bidding on are actually the native ads. Technically they are native advertisements placement as they are top paid search results and are made to look like the organic search.
3. Recommendation Widgets : Another place where you will find a native advertisement on sites like social media and even search engine pages is in the recommendation widgets. You will see these ads often on the off side of every web page or even at the end of an article. Sometimes it also recommends additional content you may be interested in.
4. Promoted Listings : If you are fond of online shopping like many others you would have seen promoted listing on their pages. For e.g. when you search for a new marketing book several sponsor listings appear on the search page. In reality, the publishers of that particular book have paid for those media placements to appear on your search engine and are made to look like organic listing.
5. Display Ads with Native Elements : This native ad might appear similar to the ones which you have seen online previously. You might have discovered it in an ad container or a banner. What makes them a native advertisement is that they are contextually relevant to the site where they appear and the content next to it.
6. Custom : By giving the speed of technological change and the potential for publishing partners. The IAB’s (Internet Activities Board) last type of advertising leaves the door open for a range of possibilities for native advertising. Like having a new Snap chat filter every week or day is an example of native ads wherein the brand makes a deal with them and pay them for their user interface.
Usefulness of native advertising
As on today content has become a central part of our lives, because content is everywhere. From the time we wake up till the time we go to bed we devour news article, television shows, photos, social media posts and many more. With the abundance of content in our lives and we have so less and little time to consume all of it.
Customers and visitors have trained themselves to ignore ads and a bunch of people are using multiple blocking software to remove ads from websites together. As native advertising are designed in such a way that it doesn’t look like an advertisement in the first place and makes it harder to ignore.
The layout of the native advertisement is such that it blends with the content of the pages. As a result, the customer interacts more with native ads much more than any other traditional banner ads. Native ads have the potential to increase customer interaction and generate conversations.
What is the Future of Native Ads?
The future of Native Advertisement is safe and it will continue to grow with every passing day. Native Ads are everywhere be it n social media or on search engines, publisher website, retail website or any other platform. As we look closer to the native ads expense we can see that the native ads budget for publishers have declined and social media is picking up the track.
Today, social media accounts in the US display native ads expense. Instead of purchasing or dealing with huge brands like Forbes, Huffington Post, businesses are investing on social media brands that produce similar content which their customer or visitors might be looking for.
Types of Native Advertising 2021
1. In-Feed Units
2. Paid Search Units
3. Recommendation Widgets
4. Promoted Listings
5. Display Ads with Native Elements
6. Custom
What is Native Advertising in 2021 : Podcast