What is Native Advertising and How Effective is it?

At Arrow, we strive to find the best ways to help our clients reach their clients. We understand that your time and resources are valuable, and we want to use only the tools that work best for you.

Two problems advertisers face are Banner Blindness and Adblocking. People have gotten very good at either tuning out the ads fighting for their attention, or actively avoiding ads altogether by blocking them all..

“Tuning out the noise has become instinctual,” writes marketer Nishat Mehta on Forbes. “Even my two-year-old son has learned to ‘Skip Ad’ on YouTube to get to his Daniel Tiger video faster.”

The good news is, there are ways to bring your services to your community by creating ads that don’t look, sound, or act like a traditional ad.

How, you ask? Native Advertising

What is Native Advertising?

Native Advertising is, in simplest terms, ads placed within content that don’t disrupt the flow of said content.

Think candy at the checkout line. It doesn’t pop up and stop you from reaching your destination but it presents itself as an option within your already chosen path. You may find yourself looking over the selection of sweet treats, you may go as far as buying one, but the key element here is that you are still in line to your final destination, checking out.

Native advertising is structured to complement the experience of the website it is placed on, and boost awareness of your services all while making the users time on the platform enjoyable. They are structured to match the feel, content, and flow of the website they’re placed on — so they appear almost as if they’re organic content, rather than paid advertising.

For that reason, native ads are created to look and feel like the content surrounding it. They are often displayed in social media feeds and recommended on websites as content of online publications. They are subtle, non-intrusive, and helpful ads.

One thing we can all agree on as consumers is how quickly ad fatigue can set in when scrolling your favorite social media platform or when reading a blog that is so overloaded with ads that you can’t find the ingredients list to the recipe you wanted to make for dinner.

If native advertisements are noticed, they feel more like a tailored experience than their more traditional counterpart.

We go into more details here about how we can help you by developing a variety of ads that are shaped by your brand’s voice and vision while blending with the surroundings of non-advertising content. The core of Native Advertising is to be less disruptive and less abrasive, so that it’s better received than other types of marketing.

How Effective Is It?

As with all advertising, at the end of the day, the question is — But does it work? One study by IPG Media found that native ads were more compelling, registering an 18 percent uplift compared to traditional banner ads. The same study showed that consumers looked at native ads 53% more often than display ads, and that they were more shareable by 32%.

The key to effective Native Advertising is not only making it match the feel and look of a website, but utilizing the unique opportunity it presents to benefit your specific brand or business as well. Native Advertising is a great opportunity to tell your story, the way that you want it to be told.

Quality copy, engaging images, photos, and infographics — these will all help your Native Advertising piece stand out from the competition. And because the consumer doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to, they are more likely to view your content as favorable, and like they are simply educating themselves on what your business or brand can do for them.

We are confident in our ability to develop a strategy that will draw in the clients you desire while building your brand and telling your story. If you would like to speak to us about these, or any other services we offer, you can contact us here. We are looking forward to getting to know you and helping to grow your business.