Though you've probably consumed some form of native advertising in the past 24 hours, chances are you have no idea what it is. The 2014 State of Native Advertising Report by Copyblogger found that nearly half of those surveyed knew nothing about native advertising, and another 25 percent said they were hardly familiar with it.
The 1998 film "The Truman Show" starring Jim Carey provides several examples of native advertising that help explain what exactly it is. Carey plays Truman, a man who has unwittingly and unknowingly been the star of an ongoing, 24-hour-per-day, commercial-free television show since he was a baby. Everyone else in the show knows what's going on except Truman.
The show is paid for by strategic native ads placed throughout the "show." His movie wife at one point comes home from the supermarket and holds up the "Chef's Pal," an all-in-one kitchen utility tool she got free in the checkout line. Though it was clear she was conveying a call-to-action for viewers to buy the item, Truman simply saw it as his wife being herself in the normal scheme of life. Truman's reaction (or lack thereof) is the goal of all marketers using this technique.
Native ads, in a nutshell, are placed within or around content of various forms to appear less intrusive to a viewer. The goal of the advertiser is to blend the paid content so well in context that it compels users to click on it more as a resource or call-to-action. The Truman Show provides an excellent make believe example of native advertising in videos. But there are many other methods that marketers employ online.
Content Marketing
One of the most subtle and effective types of native ads are hyperlinks to company websites embedded in web content. Everyone has seen them. But if the SEO journalist who wrote it did a good job, you had no idea what you just read was an advertisement for a company.
Google uses hyperlinks as part of its algorithm to determine a web page's relevancy, importance, and popularity. The more links back to a certain page, the higher Google will place it in search results. It is for this reason companies hire content marketing firms to create content relevant to their products and/or service, place a link to their web site within the article, and get it published on a high-ranking blog or web site.
For instance, this article on BusinessResearchGuide.com is about professional athletes who became businessmen after their playing days. But notice in the Magic Johnson section how it speaks of the former Los Angeles Lakers point guard being a spokesman for American Express. A link to an AMEX business card hub is provided for readers. Though its not known for sure that this article was written for American Express, it certainly fits the description of a native ad. Regardless, the article itself is full of useful information that will likely compel sports fans to share it. That is the aim of the content marketer in this situation.
Native Ads For Mobile
Companies spent $9.6 billion on mobile advertising in 2013, up from $4.4 billion in 2012, according to an analysis by eMarketer.com. This trend can be attributed to the fact 65 percent of Americans now own a smartphone. But marketing teams aren't spending these dollars on the banner ads desktop users are accustomed to. Native ads are best for mobile platforms because people simply interact with their phones differently than laptop and desktop computers.
A study by Marin Software entitled "The 2014 Facebook Advertising Playbook" found that ads placed in Facebook news feed (native ads) had a 187 percent higher click through rate on mobile devices than on desktop computers. When Facebook users are scrolling through their news feed, a sponsored post will look exactly like something their best friend posted. It doesn't strike them as an ad because Facebook strategically places specific ads into news feeds of those who are most likely to click on and share the content based on the company's internal analytics. If you were looking at used cars or even mentioned car buying on your Facebook feed, you may end up with an a post from used car dealer DriveTime. The same can be said for sponsored tweets on Twitter.
Future of Native Ads
BIA/Kelsey, a Virginia-based consulting firm, predicts that spending on social media ads alone will top $10 billion by 2017, with 40 percent of that going to native ad creation and dissemination. Consumers are simply more savvy nowadays, and marketers realize native ads can keep their attention much longer in a world of instant gratification.
Despite native ads clearly being the wave of the future for mobile marketing, an effective campaign requires research and strategy. No single approach is the correct one, but native ads engage consumers like no other advertisement can. Knowing what your customers/audience wants will put your campaigns in the best position to be successful.