Consumers are quite comfortable with paid content when it looks and feels like other content they’re consuming – and that’s the basis for native advertising.
Cats, being so skittish and flexible, make perfect subjects for funny videos and people love funny cat videos. One of the videos in your feed might be produced by a cat food company, but who cares – it was hilarious!
And sure, that major hardware chain did pay for that DIY explainer article on backyard decking, but we’re good with that as it gave us some great information when were on a DIY website looking for advice.
It turns out that consumers are quite comfortable with paid content when it looks and feels like other content they’re consuming – that’s the basis for native advertising, and why so many major brands are incorporating it into their marketing mix.
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is a type of paid advertising that uses content that blends in seamlessly with the page or platform on which it features, and the content contained within.
Native ads match the content of the page they are on – think a video ad on a YouTube channel or a beautifully shot photograph on Instagram.
Native ads don’t look like ads and they are consumed as other content on the page. The reader moves to the ads as they would move from one piece of content on the page to another.
What are the different types of native advertising?
Paid content is a popular form of native advertising, where the advertiser produces sponsored content for a website or other platform – that is, an ‘article’ that promotes its brand, while providing useful or interesting content for the reader.
In-feed native advertising places ads as recommended content. It can take the form of links appearing below an article you’ve just read, or as part of your news feed on social media.
If you’ve googled anything today, chances are you’ve come across search and promotional native advertising. These are paid listings that appear as the first listings on a search engine results page, or as part of the sidebar.
Examples of native ads
Internet users who enjoy whiling away the hours watching funny or incredible videos on social media would recently have watched one, which looked user-generated, but was really an example of native marketing.
Land Rover’s Dragon Challenge video ticked all the boxes – it was eye-catching, dramatic and suspenseful. The video shows the world’s first attempt to scale the stairs of the Heaven’s Gate landmark in China in a car, which attempted to climb the 999 steps at a terrifying 45-degree angle. The native ad perfectly reflected the Land Rover brand of daring, excellence, adventure, and success.
Possibly the most common form of native advertising is a paid article on a news website. A fascinating story about multi-coloured corn in Business Insider recently had great success, growing sales of the corn variety at a rate rarely experienced by vegetables. The article told the story of Glass Gem Corn, a multi-coloured corn variety, and featured the story of one man and his search for his Native American roots that led him to develop the coloured corn. It contained links to buy the seeds online from Native/SEARCH, the company that owns the product.
Forbes is a popular platform for native advertising, and KPMG recently discovered this with an article called The Great Rewrite’. The native ad focused on different industries and how they are rewriting the rules in a post-innovation age. This native advertising was effectively subtle. The article wasn’t about KPMG, but it did firmly connect KPMG with the future of innovation.
What are the benefits of native ads?
People have a natural desire to reject blatant advertising. They skip ads in video feeds; they scroll past them on web pages. Not so with native advertising. In fact, studies reveal that consumers look at native ads 53 per cent more than traditional display ads.
The effectiveness of native advertising stems from them giving the consumer what they want – information, stories, entertainment – rather than simply telling them they should buy.
Because of this they are more effective than regular display ads. Studies show that native advertising creates an 18 per cent increase in purchase intent.
Native advertising also works around advertising fatigue, when people get so bored with traditional display ads that after a while they simply start ignoring them. Native advertising uses content that is relevant and interesting, which engages the audience.
What’s interesting from a marketing perspective is that despite native advertising being clearly marked as paid advertising, people love it anyway. They’re consuming relevant, entertaining and informative content and they don’t care that the platform has been paid to run it.
Speak to the marketing experts
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, and we are experts in every aspect of the marketing mix, including native advertising.
We can help develop your marketing strategy and create native ads designed to elevate your brand and increase sales.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.