Native advertising is a type of promotion in which an advertisement is seamlessly integrated into an advertising platform and does not appear to be an actual advertisement. Native advertising is less intrusive because it is inserted into the general content and does not stand out among it. For example, an article is published on a website with a product review, which mentions your product among others. By using native advertising, you can avoid banner blindness in users, which occurs when regular ads are placed.
Native advertising on the internet is most often placed in articles in online media, influencer posts on social networks, and videos. This can be material with insights from the company, a product review, just a story related to the brand, or something else. Respectable media outlets label such material as «Promo» or «Sponsor Material». However, this does not mean that any brand or product can be excessively praised in such material.
The main feature of native advertising is its organic integration into content. Advertising should not differ from other content on the site and should be stylistically the same as the material in which it is placed. For this, native advertising must meet all the requirements of local editorial policy. For example, advertising should not contain open calls to customers. The goal of native advertising is rather to acquaint users with the product and make it more well-known than to sell the product. After becoming familiar with the product, the user can independently show interest in purchasing it, but if they do not, it does not mean that the advertising was unsuccessful.
Unlike most other advertising, native advertising cannot be removed by ad blockers. Users will see it almost in any case, so it should be of the highest quality. If content with native advertising becomes popular, it can reach a much larger audience than a regular ad. For example, an article containing native advertising can be fixed at the top of the search results and gather a lot of traffic. Accordingly, all these users will learn about the company or product.
Native advertising is best used to announce the launch of a new product or company, the launch of a promotion, or to talk about the brand's activities, etc. Even a regular article written by your company for some well-known online media outlet can become native advertising. The main thing is that this content is useful to readers and contains a mention of your brand. The platform on which native advertising is placed should not hide the affiliation of the content to the advertised company. If the content is useful and interesting, the reader does not care who the author is — a staff journalist or a company.
