What are native ads and their relevance in today’s age of digital advertising 

Native advertising refers to the practice of creating advertisements that seamlessly blend with the content of a webpage, fit in with its design, and aligns with the behaviour of the platform to the point that the viewer perceives the ad as a natural part of the page.

Native ads are frequently found on websites as recommended content, appearing adjacent to or below the article that was just read. They can also be seen as "in feed" advertisements, integrated within the news feed on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Native ads take the form of search and promoted listings that feature prominently at the top of Google search results or in the sidebar. These various forms of native advertising offer a less intrusive means of advertising that blends in with the user's browsing experience, increasing the likelihood of engagement and fostering a positive impression of the brand.

Popular examples of native ads include promoted search results and sponsored social media posts. These ad formats offer users the same kind of value as organic search results and user-generated social media content.

Common native ad platforms: Taboola, Outbrain, MGID, Colombia, Nativo, Criteo

Taboola: Taboola is an international platform for native advertising that focuses on providing users with tailored content recommendations. It offers a variety of ad formats and serves over 1.4 billion consumers each month.

Outbrain: Over 1 billion people globally receive personalised recommendations from Outbrain, a top native advertising platform. In-feed, search, and video are among the ad formats available.

MGID: MGID is a native advertising network that provides display adverts and widgets for content recommendations. It supports both CPC and CPM pricing models and offers a broad variety of targeting possibilities.

Colombia: Colombia is a native advertising network that serves display adverts and content recommendations to more than a billion consumers worldwide. There are numerous ad forms available, such as in-feed, search, and video.

Nativo: Nativo is a platform for native advertising that focuses on sponsored content. It has a variety of targeting possibilities and its ad formats include in-feed and content suggestion widgets.

Why is native advertising different from other ad platforms? 

Native advertising is a form of paid promotion that matches the style, feel, and functionality of the surrounding material. Instead of interrupting the user's engagement like  banner or display advertisements do, native ads appear smooth and natural on the web page. Native advertising is distinctive in that it is less invasive and more engaging. Native advertising essentially acts as promotional editorial content that is presented to the reader in an unobtrusive way and doesn't immediately stand out as an advertisement.

Common types of ads across different companies: 

Native ad units are ad formats that blend into the user's content experience by taking the form of the content on the page. The four common types of native ad units are Story Ads, Video Ads, Product Ads, and App Install Ads. The format of a native ad unit is determined by its placement type, and the assets required for native ads are generally similar. These assets may include images, animations, and/or videos.

The four placement types of native ads are: in the feed of content, which appears as an item inside the organic feed/grid/listing/carousel; in the atomic unit of the content, which appears in the article page or single image page; outside the core content, which appears in the ads section on the right rail or as a banner-style placement near the content; and recommendation widgets, which are commonly presented below the article content.

Benefits of working with a Native Ads Agency

A Native Ads Agency will be able to set up campaigns for your unique business objectives and campaign type. Since the assets, which include images and videos are chosen from the platform, or custom ones, scaling campaigns quickly is equally easy as running ads on any other ad platform. What makes native ads unlike any other type of digital ads is the user intent is quite different and typically user volume can vary as the websites visited by users from different targeting options tends to vary. A Native ads agency can help you navigate these changes by optimising the campaigns regularly. By working closely with each ad platform team, the performance over a period of time can be driven for deeper funnel events, and acquisitions. 

When to use Native Ads?

Native advertisements are a powerful advertising tool for businesses wishing to interact non-intrusively with their target market. These advertisements are less intrusive and more engaging to viewers because they mix in perfectly with the website or app where they are displayed. For promoting goods or services that need additional explanation, such as in-depth articles or tutorials, native ads are very helpful. They can also be used to build brand recognition, increase website traffic, or produce leads. Native ads give marketers an opportunity to engage with their audience more deeply as consumers grow less receptive to conventional advertising techniques, which eventually results in increased conversion rates.

When to use Native Ads?

As "banner blindness" and ad-blocking continue to plague advertisers, it is becoming more and more obvious that making ads that viewers truly want to see is the secret to effective online advertising. This is where native advertising comes in. It is a less intrusive form of advertising that blends in with the appearance, form, and purpose of the user experience in which it is set. These advertisements are intended to be discrete, beneficial, and non-intrusive; they are frequently seen in social media feeds or as suggested reading on websites. 

Case Study from a Native Ads client

We ran native ads campaigns for a crowdfunding client. Typically, customers are not excited about the idea of donating funds for causes. Often, the ads for these causes also tend to be very distressing and typically lead to reporting, or ad quality issues on the most popular ad platforms. This is where we were able to leverage insights from a leading native ads platform. We set up campaigns to drive donations, which targeted vernacular audiences who would be more inclined to donating. While the client was already spending on leading ad channels, this native ads campaign added another source of user acquisition, wherein the cost of acquisition was approx 30% lower than the norm.