Businesses can employ a variety of methods and tactics in advertising and marketing to sell their goods and services. Native ads are included in the biggest social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as the publishing sector, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today. And perhaps you weren’t even aware of it!

The goal of native content is to blend in. We’re talking about a seamless integration into the material that already has your audience interested. Instead of something that is obviously recognized as an advertisement, the objective is to produce an advertisement that appears and feels like it is a part of the organic content.

Articles, films, and social media posts are all examples of things that contain native content. These advertisements are normally identified as sponsored or paid material, although the labeling is frequently undetectable to the reader due to its delicate nature.

The host site decides how and where the material will be placed. The material that is displayed in the website’s footers and sidebars may be recommended to readers by the host site based on the algorithm.

While native content is the most common term for this type of advertising, you might find other people referring to it as:

• Native advertising
• Zero-click content
• Sponsored content
• Promoted posts
• Branded content
• In-feed ads
• Custom content 
• Paid social media

How Does Native Content Work?

Native content’s main selling point is that it is made to look natural and fit in with other content on a website or social media platform. This necessitates that the advertisement be designed to blend in with the surrounding content.

Read Also: How do I Optimize my Native Campaign?

A native content piece on a news website could resemble a story or an opinion piece, for instance. The article would be written similarly to the other website content, with a compelling headline and body copy.

The piece may include references to the promoted brand or item, but any references would be subtly woven throughout the story. The objective is to produce an advertisement that benefits the reader while quietly and successfully promoting the business.

Example

This sponsored ad appeared in the platform’s regular newsfeed, leading users to a unique page on the NYT’s website. It highlights the importance of birds in our environment and their vulnerability to climate change, which resonates with the shoe company’s sustainability mission and name. This illustrates how native content can be relevant to your brand without necessarily being about it.

Main Features Of Native Ads

They are adaptable to the format and user experience

Those giant pop-ups that used to clutter your computer screen with advertising are beginning to lose ground in the world of advertising, giving way to native ads, which stand out as a type of advertising that instead of “invading” the user experience, enrich it as they seek to adapt to it by adjusting their approach, format and even language.

Native ads seek to adapt to the editorial format in which they are advertised. Native ad content appears seamlessly on the page it is placed on (Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc.) without hindering the user experience.

They add value to the user

The principle of native advertising is to add value to the user and motivate action. Conventional advertisements do not bother to investigate what aspects really motivate their buyer personas to consume, and this is an error that this new approach to advertising seeks to get rid of.

They don’t try to hide their nature

Native Ads are advertisements with integrated content and designed according to the environment. These types of messages are identified with the label “Advertising” or “Sponsored Content” depending on the website.

They look like a site’s own content

Native ads are content that looks as if it were the content of the site they are on and this is a great advantage for publicists, naturally flowing ads arouse the interest of the user and generate a positive response from them.

When a user feels that a brand or business provides valuable content, they feel more motivated to buy their products/services and, of course, adopt a positive attitude towards that brand.

In short, native advertising seeks to generate brilliant content and, in fact, this is the key to its success.

In addition, it is a type of advertising that seeks to generate engagement through content that seeks to get the customer to solve a need through your product or service.

It is important to note that to incorporate Native Ads you need to allocate a budget, if you still do not know how to invest in paid advertising, in this post we will teach you everything you need to know to invest intelligently and without losing money.

Why Use Native Content?

Native content is supported by some pretty solid scientific evidence. The click-through rate for even the best-performing mobile advertisements is between 1 and 5 percent. Making decisions is a function of your unconscious mind (really, 95% of your brain is unconscious). When you read, your subconscious searches for appropriate content and native adverts fit in. Your eyes will see something that resembles a banner ad, but your attention will be drawn to a native advertisement that is integrated into an article.

This leads to some (in my opinion) compelling arguments in favor of using native content.

Increased Engagement

Consumers looked at native ads 2X more than editorial content and spent the same number of seconds viewing them. Because native content is designed to blend in with organic content, it’s often more engaging and effective than traditional banner ads or pop-ups. Readers are more likely to read and engage with an ad that is seamlessly integrated into the content they are already interested in.

Improved Perception

Native marketing content can also improve the way that consumers perceive your brand. Because these ads are designed to provide value to the reader, rather than just pushing a product or service, they can create a positive association with your brand in the mind of the consumer. 

Better Targeting

25% more consumers looked at in-feed, native ad placements more than standard banners. Many native content platforms offer advanced targeting options, allowing businesses to reach specific audiences based on location, interests, and demographics. This can help ensure that your ad is being seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.

Cost-Effective

While creating high-quality native marketing content can be time-consuming and expensive, the cost per click or impression is often lower than other types of advertising. This can make it a cost-effective option for businesses that are looking to reach a wide audience on a limited budget. And in this economy, we all need ways to save some coin! 

Improved SEO

Native marketing content can also help improve your search engine rankings. By creating high-quality content that readers share and engage with, you can improve your visibility on search engines like Google.

Unblocked Ads

We love ad-blocking features, but as marketers, we also hate them. Native content is difficult for ad-blocking tools to detect and block. Traditional ads are often intrusive and irrelevant, whereas native content is more engaging and less likely to be perceived as annoying. In fact, 32% of respondents said they would share a native ad with friends or family, compared to only 19% for banner ads.

How do You Write Native Content?

It is said that content is king in this age of limitless knowledge. Therefore, you must create a piece that is appropriate for the royal court. Here are some guidelines for creating original content that will support your business, win over customers, and boost sales.

1. Be Useful, Be Relevant, Be Read

While conversions and engagements are undoubtedly the goal, good native content should read as naturally as any article. That means the article has to be something that a customer can take value from even if they don’t make a purchase. it could be purely entertaining, or simply relevant to the reader’s interests.

Good native content can be an enjoyable read, a good insight into a business or industry or even just provide your users with a good laugh. It can also give customers extra value by being useful – can you show customers how to get the most from a product or save money?

Fundamentally, good content is relevant to both you as a business and your customer base.

2. Decide Why You Are Writing And Execute

What’s the purpose of the article? Are you trying to make a sale? Get signups for a newsletter? Drive a download? It is important before you start to write to decide why you are writing. Whatever your reasons, a call to action is absolutely crucial. As is its placement and delivery.

In many cases, advertisers will leave the call to action until the end of the article to allow readers to enjoy the article as they would any editorial content but others opt to place the call to action closer to the start to deliver their advertisement sooner. Decide which works best for your product, for the individual article and the product and execute a clear, precise call to action.

3. Know Your Platform

Native content can be used in a variety of ways, but on all platforms, one thing is consistent: it has to look like what people expect to see. This means that for social media, ads should look at home in the feed and, when clicked on, it has to be familiar.

Native content can be used in a variety of ways, but on all platforms, one thing is consistent: it has to look like what people expect to see.

When writing content that will be used on other websites, it is crucially important that you recognize the platform. This will help build trust from readers and will ensure that they do not view your product with suspicion. Does your piece fit on the site? Is the headline a completely different style? Can users seamlessly switch to your article without it being jarring? Read the intended home of the article, learn their style and you will be able to deliver content that readers connect with and enjoy.

4. Invert The Pyramid

Writing good native content follows the same principle of any editorial content – delivering your important information first. Imagine your article as a layered pyramid with the most important information at the bottom. When writing content, we invert that pyramid and deliver conclusions and takeaways first.

That allows readers to know instantly what the article is going to tell them and what they can expect.

If we keep that pyramid in mind, we can structure the article in a way that delivers supplemental information in the middle and specialist information towards the end.

5. Own Your Product

While we don’t need you to go into the minutiae of your product, your content should reflect that you are an expert on what you sell. Be authoritative, and speak in a voice that projects your expertise to your customers.

If they have taken the time to click on your headline, there is more than a good chance that a customer is seeking your expertise and your advice. Don’t be afraid to make definitive statements about your product.

However, that means that your article needs to be as well-researched and unimpeachable as any editorial content. If you make a statement of fact, you will need to cite references that are as unbiased as possible.

6. Write For The Web

How readers consume online content has shifted over the last number of years and it is crucial that advertisers recognize that shift. Your content should be structured in such a way that makes it readable and accessible for readers.

A successful native piece will:

• Use lists where possible – putting information after numbered headlines allows readers to scan the article
• Contain simple, short, but information-rich headlines
• Have short sentences
• Have a number of cross- or sub-headings that contain keywords linked to the topic to allow easy searching
• Link to relevant extra information rather than attempting to place massive amounts of text in one page
• Be conversational and engaging
• Include keywords throughout the copy, links and headings

Follow these tips to instantly improve your native content and create better user journeys for your users.