Most of the digital marketers are talking about Native Ads nowadays. So, does it mean that it is a new concept of ads like the cryptocurrency or blockchain? Are Google’s Display Ads, Search Ads, Facebook Ads, etc. are dying a slow death because of the Native Ads? Or Native ads are complementary to these ads types? Or is it an entirely new form of Advertising for which every marketer out there is going crazy.
We will try to find out answers for all these questions and try to understand what actually are the Native Ads. Why there is so much buzz about the Native Ads nowadays. How Native Ads work, and if it is a useful form of advertising for every business?
What is the Need of the Native Ads?
Online display ads are visually loud and distracting. Why? Because they appear in those places they aren’t meant to be and often act as a hindrance for consumers trying to consume content.
That’s why people hate them. The pages containing banner ads usually load slower than a page without having banner ads on them.
So, the user has to wait longer for consuming the content from that slow loading page because of the banner ads on it.
A page that would otherwise load in half a second takes almost ten seconds to load when loaded with banner ads.
Another problem with the banner ads or display ads is that they do no good; rather clutter the page and the clutter plainly ruins the reading experience.
In fact, nowadays online ads are getting even more “noisy and cluttering”.
It is shocking to know that approximately 200 million monthly internet users use adblocking software. In 2015 alone, publishers selling ad spaces on their websites lost almost $22 billion in online ad revenue.
Hence it is evident that in order to get success from the ads, it has to be served to the right person at the right time and in the right place.
Knowing all of the above now the question is how brands would reach their target demographic now?
So, Native Advertisement is the answer to this problem. Now let’s discuss in detail the Native Advertising to understand what are Native Ads and how they work.
What are Native Ads?
Native advertisements match the look, feel, and website page where they appear.
These are mostly found in social media feeds as a sponsored post, or as recommended content on a web page.
As explained earlier, native ads don’t really look like ads, unlike the display or banner ads.
Rather, Native Ads look like part of the editorial flow of the page where they appear.
Native ads are non-disruptive and they serve their purpose without hindering the content consumption experience of the user.
Native advertising can be classified into three broad categories i.e., native-style display, sponsorship, and social.
- Native-style display: This type of Native advertisements are ones where the advert is consciously designed in such a way that its look and feel matches that of the content.
- Sponsorship: Brands pay to the independent content creators to create content specifically to promote their content in sponsorship model of Native Advertising.
- Social: It is simply the ads that brands promote on their social networks in order to engage with their audience.
What Does Native Advertising look like?
- In-Feed Ads: Ads that appear in your news feed on social networks (i.e., your Facebook or twitter feed).
- Search & Promoted listings: Ad listings that appear at the top of your Google search results or in the sidebar.
- Content Recommendations: Recommended articles that appear below the article you just read, provided by a content discovery platform. (Outbrain, Taboola)
How to Differentiate Between Regular Content & Native Ads?
Native advertising is confusing for the consumers because they look exactly like the content they are engaging with.
But, on the other side Native Ads unlike the display ads don’t interrupt the reading experience of the users.
Nowadays Native Ads are shown with words like “Sponsored”, “Promoted Content”, “Suggested Post”, “Recommended for You” etc., which makes it easy for consumers to understand that the content marked with these words are Native Advertisements.
Though in a way Native Advertising is good and enhances the users’ engagement in the right context and at the right time.
For instance, if you are reading about a holiday destination you wish to go and you click on a link saying “Top 10 Holiday Destinations this Season” and the link takes you on booking.com blog.
It is justifiable because booking.com offers hotel bookings for every holiday destination.
And on their blog, they write about the hand-picked popular holiday destinations.
Booking.com is paying the website publisher for your click.
Native advertising is fine and legal unless it misleads and confuses the consumers.
Though many consumer watchdogs like the Federal Trade Commission and the Interactive Advertising Bureau are trying hard to regulate the use of native advertising to provide consumers more meaningful and relevant ads with the content they consume.
Why Digital Marketers are Increasingly Turning to Native Ads?
- Native Advertising Works: According to a survey consumers engage with the native ads 53% more than the display ads. Visual engagement with the native ads is the same as with the content, but they create 18-20% more purchase intent.
- Native Advertising Doesn’t Tires the Audience: With display ads and seeing them constantly the audience gets bored. In such cases, they simply stop paying attention to those ads. Whereas in Native advertising the brand message is cloaked in the editorial content in an engaging and meaningful manner, and the audience doesn’t tires out engaging with that content. Relevant and interesting content is the key to native advertising and it engages the audience very well.
- Native Ads are not obtrusive, obnoxious and annoying: Native ads like the display ads don’t work on bidding model where the highest bidder gets the top position for his ad. Display ads can sometimes be obtrusive, obnoxious and annoying especially when they are in a banner form which causes to slow-loading pages and produces hindrances to consumers while content consumption. The good thing about the Native Ads is that consumers know that they are viewing a form of advertising, but still, they don’t get irritated with them. It is important to note that native advertisements still have a significant effect on purchase behavior.
How Native Ads Can Become More Effective?
Relevance is the key to marketing. If you serve relevant ads to the customers it would give better results.
Through programmatic Native Advertising, advertisers can serve relevant ads at the relevant times to the customers which would surely increase their chances of increased clicks and sales.
Programmatic Native advertising uses the programmatic auction of native ads through Real-Time Bidding.
With programmatic native advertising when a user visits a website and starts consuming content, based on the content he is engaging with The Supply Side Platform (SSP) sends bid requests on behalf of the publisher.
The Demand Side Platform (DSP) responds with bids on behalf of the advertiser.
Based on the winning bid SSP instantly configures the native ad to fit into the website or app.
This entire process occurs within a fraction of a second and users are served with most relevant ads.
With the programmatic Native Advertising, native advertising can achieve a far more targeted response for each user in real-time.
This would translate into increased engagement and higher conversions.
Conclusion
Native advertising has many different forms and features. It can be the most ideal way of advertising for the brands to engage customers in real-time with the most relevant ads.
The best part of the native advertising is that it is not obtrusive, obnoxious, and annoying like display advertising. The ROI of native advertising is higher than other advertising methods.
