Detailed illustration on definition and types of native advertising, with examples and visuals demonstrating best in-class practices

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Native Advertising
June 7th
, 2015
What’s Native Advertising?
Native advertising represents a fundamental turning point in the evolution of digital advertising
– it outlines the transformation from intrusive pre-adolescent display ads to the cohesive
maturity of digital ads with organic content, which improves the audience’s browsing
experience. It provides advertisers and publishers a more effective way to deliver paid ads that
increase engagement, brand lift, and reach than traditional banner ads.
In terms of increasing reach, since native ad units are more visually engaging, 25% more
consumers were measured to look at native ad units than display units, and consumers looked
at native ads 53% more frequently than display ads. Native ad units also drive higher brand lift
than banner ads with an 18% higher lift in purchase intent and 9% higher life in brand affinity.
Moreover, native ads are more share-worthy and have more potential to go viral; therefore,
they increase higher reach and penetration than display units. In fact, 32% of consumers are
willing to share native paid content with family and friends versus a mere 19% for display ads.
By delivering scalable, share-worthy paid content that is consistent with the surrounding
function and design, native advertising helps advertisers and publishers better achieve their
goals in leveraging user experiences as well as increasing ad effectiveness.
Mobile is an Opportunity
Consumer attention has become increasingly elusive as mobile adoption and usage grows. Since
native advertising is visually engaging and commands focus and attention, it can be an effective
method for advertisers to better engage with highly-distracted audiences. In fact, mobile native
ads are reported to have a 57% higher CTR and a 33% higher engagement than desktop native
ads. Therefore, as more and more audiences are consuming content through mobile devices,
native advertising with cross-platform capabilities is inevitably becoming a key part of
advertisers’ content marketing strategy in 2015.
Challenges
Both ad agencies and advertisers may face a few challenges along with favorable ad effects with
native advertising. For agencies, since every platform has a unique way of presenting paid
content, it might be challenging to find a general ad format to adhere to. Therefore, following
the “principles of native advertising” that will be covered in the next section is key to creating
content that is easy to scale between various publishers and ad platforms. Also, since tracking
and measuring results from each individual platform may be difficult, determining native
campaign objectives in order to call for the best metrics across various platforms becomes
crucial.

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For advertisers, because one of the key components of effective native advertising is coherence
with surrounding organic content, they might have less control over the content itself as well as
marketing messages within the content while collaborating with publishers to produce paid
content. That is to say, advertisers should amplify the value of paid content by creating quality,
share-worthy content that is tailored to each individual publisher.
Content Principles
Types of Native Advertising
1. In-feed Sponsored Content:
Designed to fit naturally in a publisher’s feed to provide similar user experience, matching user
expectations with established organic content patterns.
o Sponsored Story - Mimics the form and function of organic editorial content in news
feeds.
Example I: Desktop
Example II: Mobile

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o Social Ad - Takes the form of organic content and makes ad units similar to what the
audience expect from a friend to increase trust and opportunity for engagement.
2. Promotional Listings:
Appear along with search results or non-editorial content and are presented in a format and
feel similar to organic listings, aiming to drive immediate engagement.
o Promotional Display – Design to fit seamlessly into the product-focused experience with
links to a product page. 1
Example I: Etsy displays promotional product listings as part of the search results.
1 Native Advertising Insights -Research, Infographics and Resources. sharethrough. Retrieved from
https://www.sharethrough.com/nativeadvertising/

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Example II: Amazon showcases Sponsored Products based on a user’s recent activities on
the site.
o Paid Search Units – Appear next to organic search results with CTAs to drive traffic to a
page.
Example I: Search engines
Example II: Promoted search listing of The Salvation Army on YouTube

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3. Recommendation Widgets:
A preview of promoted content featured in recommendation widgets on various sites. These
widgets tend to always look the same from site to site, and the native experience comes from
the consistent user experience across many sites, which allows them to blend in. 2
Example I: Daily Finance
Example II: Star Magazine
2 The Six Core Types of Native Ads. Flite. Retrieved from http://blog.flite.com/home/2014/3/25/the-six-core-types-of-native-
ads#.VS1mZc6FFUQ=

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4. Embedded Banners:
Come in standard IAB containers (e.g. 300x600 banners) and contain contextually relevant
content within the ad with links to an offsite page.
Example I: WhoWhatWear displays contextually relevant banner ads on their landing
page with links to a page off of the site.
Example II: Recipe.com embeds banner ads that are contextually relevant to a page with
links to an offsite page.

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5. Proprietary Native Units:
Customized native units tailored to a specific platform to provide unique content experience
exclusively for the platform.
Example I: Pandora worked with Gatorade to create three branded workout stations
associated with the brand’s G series.
Example II: Spotify launched App Finder, enabling brands such as Rolling Stone and
Pitchfork to build a branded page and promote playlists within Spotify.

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Example III: During the story flipping process on Flipboard, ads that are highly relevant
to a topic that a user is currently flipping pop up, with links off of the app.
Principles of Native Advertising
1. Non-intrusive Design: Design natural promoted content to blend in seamlessly into the
surrounding organic content, aiming to provide a less-interruptive browsing experience.
2. Shareworthyness: Create share-worthy, scalable content to provide the same value and
relevancy as any other organic content.
3. Consistent Function with Surroundings: The type of content (e.g. video or story) and intended
behaviors (e.g. link to an article) provided by native ad units should function the same way as
the surrounding organic content.
4. Ad Transparency: Disclosure language such as “sponsored” or “promoted” is required.
5. Cross-platform Accessibility. As mobile native placements have a CTR one-third higher than
identical desktop placements3, being able to provide cross-platform native ad units is crucial.
Landing Page Guidelines
1. Link to an Existing Website: Native ad units with clear CTA direct users to a landing page
displaying content expected by users within an existing brand website.
Example: Essie on WhoWhatWear
3 Slate Adds Scale to Native with Polar. AdExchanger. Retrieved from http://adexchanger.com/native-advertising-2/slate-adds-scale-
to-native-with-polar/

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2. Link to a Campaign Landing Page: Native ad units with clear CTA direct users to a landing
page designed exclusively for a campaign.
Example: Jolly Time “Unplug Pop Connect”
3. Link to a Post without Leaving the Site: Sponsored content that fits into the surroundings and
directs users to a quality, share-worthy post without having to leave the site.
Example: Boudreaux’s Butt Paste on SkinnyMom