{"id":112625,"date":"2015-01-27T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T00:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/part-introduction-native-advertising\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:53:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:53:43","slug":"part-introduction-native-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/analytics\/part-introduction-native-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"Part I: Introduction to Native Advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Native Advertising?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that is a tricky question! Despite its\u2019 increasing popularity and use over the past few years, native advertising remains one of the most ambiguous and controversial marketing terms. First of all it still lacks an official definition. One can find a plethora of terms used to describe native content such as: corporate journalism, brand-published sponsored content, ads blended with editorial content and so much more that can be far from accurate. So native advertising basically refers to any paid content (e.g. article, infographic, video) that blends in the flow of a publisher\u2019s content and looks like an organic piece of the publisher\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

According to Google trends, interest in native advertising follows quite similar pattern both in the US and in the UK. For both countries there has been an increase in interest during the last two years which peaks towards the end of summer 2014 after comedian John Oliver had a good rant about how Native Advertising was a threat to the editorial independence of newsrooms, misleading readers and eroding trust, on live television to a US audience on the mainstream HBO channel. At this point it became a mainstream conversation that had breached the confines of press rooms and digital marketing departments and the elephant in the room had finally been brought to light.<\/p>\n

Using Google Trends we can also see that conversations and media posts about \u2018Native\u2019 \u00a0first took place in the US and the UK followed slightly later, indicating that the US was the trend setter for the growth of native advertising.<\/p>\n

USA: Interest over time<\/p>\n

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UK: Interest over time<\/p>\n

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According to a US study by Copyblogger, 73% of marketers are still clueless to what native advertising is. The truth is that native content comes in all shapes and sizes and that in itself can be confusing. We all have come across numerous examples: sponsored stories on social media, recommended blog posts and links, sponsored Spotify playlists. Even paid search ads are in essence native content as they are designed to closely resemble organic results; search engines weren\u2019t exactly queuing up to make it crystal clear that those listings at the top of their results pages were ads.<\/p>\n

However what native advertising is; may easily change depending on the definition that you choose and the way you interpret it; for example, some claim that social media platforms are not publishers therefore sponsored stories on social media are not native ads… I\u2019m taking that one with a pinch of salt!<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the difference between a traditional advert and the advertising seen on a native ad? It is meant to be of a more educational nature and to have some kind of value for the user. Undoubtedly, it doesn\u2019t interrupt the flow of organic content in a way that pop ups do for example. This\u00a0changes everything for advertisers and creative teams, that until now, were trying to make their ads stand out \u2013 now they have to blend in. The key to achieving this is relevancy. Native content is content that visitors of a particular website are expecting to find there.<\/p>\n

Why use it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a recent survey published by IPG (the Independent Publishers Guild) it was found that users engage 53% more with native ads than with display ads, while 23% of the responders would be willing to share the native content. In comparison, sharing a banner ad with your friends has never been a regular past time. So what native advertising offers compared to traditional display advertising is a higher degree of consumer engagement. A piece of native content could go viral on a global scale without adding any additional cost for the advertiser in terms of CPCs. At the same time it should allow advertisers to give their ads a sparkle of editorial trustworthiness.<\/p>\n

Apart from the aforementioned benefits, its extensive use is gradually turning it to a mainstream service, especially for advertising agencies. According to Far Partners report; 83% of agencies In the UK offer display advertising services while the remaining 17% states that they are planning to do in the near future. It is also predicted that in 2015 native advertising will account for 15% of display spend \u2013 now being at 9.25%. Therefore another consideration for using Native advertising is simply in order not to be left behind, if your competitors are using this advertising space and it works for them, then can you afford not to?<\/p>\n

But use it with caution!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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