Native advertising refers to paid advertisements that are displayed on websites other than your own. This means that the content offered does not come from the website operators themselves. A special feature of native advertising is that the advertising is integrated into the existing design of the website on which it is displayed. It therefore fits into the native environment. This is where the name native advertising comes from.
Thanks to the mostly editorial-looking posts or ads, these are often not recognized as advertising at first glance. The transition between advertising content and editorial content is therefore skillfully concealed and blurred for the user. As soon as the ad is clicked, the user is automatically redirected to the website of the advertising company, where very high-quality content in the form of images, graphics and videos is usually intended to appeal to and inform the user in the best possible way. The user should therefore be offered real added value through native ads.
Compared to traditional banner advertising, native ads primarily increase the visibility of the ads, which means that the message can be delivered to consumers even more efficiently. But that’s not the only advantage. Native ads also often bypass the otherwise critical ad blockers. This in turn increases visibility and makes native advertising one of the most popular forms of advertising currently on the market. However, it should be noted that in Germany every ad must be labeled. This means that ultimately, even with native ads, an ad must be identified as an advertisement for the Internet user.
Native ads – not so good after all?
Native advertising undoubtedly has positive effects. These include increased visibility and the provision of high-quality content, including added value for the user. However, there are also views on native advertising that suggest that the boundaries between advertising and editorial content are becoming increasingly blurred with this form of advertising. This can ultimately lead to a loss of trust among users if they have unknowingly and unwillingly clicked on an ad because the labeling was not sufficient.
Whether or not native ads should be set up as part of your own online marketing strategy is up to you. There are already many good examples where this type of advertising works. These include Amazon, for example. But native advertising is also already being used by many companies on Google or in social networks such as Facebook. More details are provided in the following sections.
Native ads in social networks and search engines
Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer companies the opportunity to distribute their content to users of these social networks free of charge. However, if you want to be found beyond the organic reach, you have to place paid posts in the form of advertising. This is where native advertising comes into play. Facebook can display targeted articles in the timelines of suitable users. If they fit in with the look and feel of the page and the content is relevant to the user, the post is very likely to be clicked on, as it can hardly be distinguished from a real article as an ad. As a rule of thumb, the more the ads or native ads look like posts from subscribed channels, the more likely they are to be interacted with.
However, native advertising has also long since arrived in search engine marketing. A closer look at the Google search engine in particular reveals that the first three results of a search usually bear the “Ad” badge. These are therefore simply advertisements. In terms of presentation, however, Google AdWords text ads can hardly be distinguished from organic search results without labeling. For example, if you search for a fan, these are the first search results on Google:
Native advertising on Amazon
Similar to the Google search engine, native advertising can also be found and used on Amazon. The Sponsored Brand, formerly Headline Search Ad, and the Product Display Ad function as a classic form of banner advertising, which clearly appears to the user on Amazon as advertised content. Native advertising, on the other hand, can be used primarily with sponsored products. Similar to Google, sponsored products, i.e. advertisements, usually appear in the first results of a search on Amazon’s search engine response page. If you take the example of the fan again, the following search results appear first, directly below the sponsored brand and above the organic search results:
Apart from the first hits, sponsored products are also displayed between the organic search results in the style of native advertising. This can be recognized on Amazon by the small “Sponsored” badge:
These two examples make it clear relatively quickly how much the Sponsored Product Ads fit into the existing design and can hardly be distinguished from the organic search results.
The use of Sponsored Products on Amazon is particularly worthwhile when launching or introducing new products, as visibility is significantly increased. If you only rely on organic reach for new products, visibility is often very low. Sponsored Products also offer the advantage that both vendors and sellers have access to the Amazon Advertising Console and can therefore place Sponsored Products. If you have any questions or are looking for support with PPC campaigns, an Amazon agency can provide comprehensive support.