Native advertising can be found in various forms, of which the main ones are the following:
- as "Recommended Content" on a website, usually at the end of an article. Other variations that indicate this content is advertising are: "Recommended For You", "Suggested Post", "Paid Content", "Promoted Stories" and others.
- as Sponsored Posts (or Sponsored Stories) in the news feed of Facebook and other social media, among other unpaid content.
- as ads at the top or side of Google search results, but which look exactly like organic results.
- as Product Listings on E-commerce sites
Some important features of native advertising that you should know are the following:
1. Its main difference compared to traditional display advertising is that the content automatically adapts to the environment (appearance, style, style) of the medium in which it is displayed. In this way, it does not negatively affect the user's user experience, as some other forms of advertising do (for example, pop-up banners that cover the entire screen of a site's page and remain there until the user closes them). So even though the reader knows that this content is an ad, he is usually not bothered and doesn't look for ways to avoid it, as he does with banner ads (ad-block is known to "break" in recent years)
2. It gives the advertiser the possibility of highly personalized targeting (custom content) to the users who will see the ad, according to their interests and other data collected from the various actions of the user on the Internet. In this way, the advertiser reduces the overall reach (i.e. how many people the ad is shown to in total) but the leads (i.e. potential buyers) that are created are of better quality.
3. As a result of the above, native advertising has higher engagement rates than traditional online advertising such as display. By extension, it has correspondingly more clicks and of course more conversions.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from native advertising. Most native advertising platforms have costs that even smaller businesses can afford. It is an investment that is well worth it.
The key to achieving a company's native advertising goals is this: quality in content and creating value for the reader through it.
The content should give the reader information that is of interest and useful to him (have some benefit), thus improving his overall user experience. Then it is much more likely that native advertising will have better results in terms of engagement, clicks and conversions.
If, on the other hand, the content appears to be purely selling in the first place, without creating value for the reader, then it is likely to lead to reader annoyance and of course the advertising objectives will not be achieved.
In conclusion, native advertising is a great tool for all online businesses. But it is necessary to create an effective marketing plan, which leads to the correct targeting of potential consumers and of course to the creation of quality content.
