When you Google: “What is native ad”, you see most results with blended ads on blog or news websites.
Source: https://www.intrixmedia.com/guide-to-native-advertising/
Yes, in the marketing industry, when we speak about Native ads, it is widely considered as something which appears on blog and news listing websites and blends with other organic and native range of content.
Not to mention, by definition, native ad is any ad which matches the format/layout of the platform’s organic content on which it appears. Therefore I say, native ads beyond native ads. Let’s break this down.
Rewind 15 years back when we did not have dominance of digital platforms and we were largely dependent on newspapers. Now, try recalling the ads which used to appear in these newspapers? This flashback is just for fascination! By the way, seemingly, you must be aware that The scenario is still the same, so let’s jump back to the modern day methodology. But think about newspaper ads. What is the organic but fundamental content of the newspaper? The news itself. There is a fix and set format of how news is published and then when you see the design, look and feel of the ad, you can clearly distinguish the difference between both, the news and the ad.
Source: https://goodmockups.com/free-newspaper-horizontal-print-ad-mockup-psd/
Same thing is translated into Google Display ads in the modern digital world. However, on the contrary, with the native ads, you can’t really pick out an ad from native content except for the fact, it is labelled as sponsored or promoted content. Now, the definition implies that even social media ads are native ads. Compare Google display ads with social media ads and you will realize, with social media ads, the ad might appear like a post from a brand you follow which highly attracts user’s attention and that is the very reason, social media ads are massively successful whilst simultaneously resulting more engagement and ROI compared to the display ads. Therefore, it goes without saying that the native ads do not disrupt the user experience.
What are readily available Native ads platform you can utilize:
Google Search Ads
Any social media ads (Not all placements though)
Source: Reddit Feed
Native Ads (As popularly known)
1. Product Placement:
From years, we are seeing product placement at many places, it is certainly nothing new and can be located particularly in the movies. Recently, with the rising popularity of web series and YouTube videos, it has become cost effective for even smaller brands to do product placement. Now, when we talk about Native ads here, we have to be extremely mindful that the product embeds effortlessly into the drama and doesn’t look like a “salesy” ad. I’d call that a Native ad.
Very famous example from a Bollywood movie:
2. Influencer Marketing
There are mainly two kinds of Influencer marketing. One, when you collaborate with an influencer and when you collaborate with a page. For both the cases, we have to first research its organic content. What is the format, pattern, style, voice they follow. If we talk about an influencer who makes drama style videos and then you make them give a monologue type testimonial, it isn’t going to give the best experience to their followers and in turn return to your ad investment. Instead the idea is to have the influencer promote in the same format they display their regular content which way it is highly effective.
They could have a drama style content, or just text over trendy music, or a relatable rant about a situation. The idea is to have the influencer promote in the same format they share their regular content which way it is highly effective.
Here’s an example:
Source: instagram.com/scoopwhoop
