What is Native advertising?
Native advertising is a digital advertising format that looks and behaves like other content in the environment where it is displayed — in other words, natural advertising.
The definition is fairly broad — it could for example be a sponsored post in social media or a paid article on a news site, but also certain advertising in audio and video channels. This article is about native advertising on the web, for example news sites and online magazines.
A native ad can be thought of as natural to a website from two perspectives. There is the visual perspective, that the appearance of the ad is as integrated as possible with the rest of the site. And there is the content perspective such as the tonality of the text and the importance of meeting the audience in the right channel.
Native advertising is all about offering a non-intrusive ad format, not about misleading visitors. Serious brands use native advertising as a branding tool, where building trust is essential. Ads should be clearly marked, and marketing laws must be followed.
Different types of native advertising
With True Native, ad teasers are embedded on the website, for example between editorial teasers. Clicking the ad brings the visitor to a landing page on the same site, displaying the article, just like when clicking an editorial teaser. You can find an example here.
True Native Scroll is a variant of True Native where the entire article is displayed within an article flow. Many websites implement infinite scroll, which is a perfect match for this format, but it also works well to put it under a single article to create a kind of mini infinite scroll. Delivering and measuring native articles in the flow from an external platform is Advisible's innovation. It is an advanced and highly effective ad format that website owners had to implement themselves in the past. You can find an example here.
Content Display is a hybrid between banner ads and native ads. The appearance of the teaser is the same as with True Native, but clicking it brings the visitor to an external landing page. The content on the landing page does not need to be an article in this case, but can for example be a product page.
Advantages with native advertising
Responsive. When properly implemented, native ads are responsive, which means that they adapt and look good on all screen sizes
Easy to create. No special tools or knowledge in HTML, JavaScript or CSS is required to create a native ad campaign. The advertiser or its proxy simply inputs headline, lead, body and images in Advisible Console and the result is automatically tailored for each publishing website.
Less intrusive. Due to the fact that native ads do not break the shape and color of the website, they are visually less intrusive for visitors.
How to get started
If you are a website owner and have basic knowledge in web programming, you can try yourself using our guides. If you are an advertiser, you just need to log in to Advisible Console to start creating ad campaigns.