Anyone who is involved in promoting a brand has heard about Native Advertising, one of the fastest growing forms of advertising internationally.

However,  for many, it’s a tactic they have not implemented yet. This is due in large part to the fact that native advertising is a break from the traditional advertising methods that we are taught when taking marketing classes in school. Not only is native a form of digital advertising, which is a stark departure from print ads, but they are also different from the typical banner ads we see on most websites.

If you are responsible for promoting a brand, you have at least considered including Native Advertising in your marketing strategy. What stops you is most likely a series of misconceptions and false information regarding this type of advertising. In today’s post, we will cover the five most common false beliefs that surround native advertising. We will break them down to help you understand why you should not let them hold you back from leveraging native ads in your next marketing campaign.‍

False Belief #1: Native Ads Are Deceiving‍

There seems to be this common misconception that the purpose of a native ad is to trick the reader into clicking the advertisement. The native ad is formed to blend into the organic content that surrounds it but clearly marked as advertisement, so that the reader is aware that they're not clicking an editorial content, but a native ad. The reason native ads are formatted to match the page they are on is to avoid interrupting the reader’s user experience.

When done correctly, native advertising is a powerful way to reach a highly targeted audience and create additional value to the readers in the form of interesting and informative content. For example, if you were running a campaign to drive traffic to your running website, you would place native ads on a website that runners often visit. When the reader clicks on your ad, they will be presented with content that falls in line with what they visited the website for in the first place. This is a highly desirable placement compared to a pop-up ad that interrupts the visitor from completing the article they were reading.‍

False Belief #2: Native Ads Are A Fad That Will Soon Disappear‍

It is understandable to want to confirm that the marketing tactic you are about to invest money into is around to stay. Some people have suggested native ads are just a new trend that won’t be around much longer. But the market has proven them wrong. The concept of Native Advertising was born nearly a decade ago in 2011. Furthermore, the fundamental idea of presenting consumers with ads that blend into the content they are consuming has been around for generations.

According to Business Insider, native advertising will drive an overwhelming 74% of ad revenue by the end of 2021. This stat makes it clear that both local and global brands are earmarking significant amounts of their budget towards this type of tactic. This would not be the case if native ads did not work or were not going to be around for the long haul. Therefore, you can rest easy knowing that your native ad campaigns will be in good company!‍

False Belief #3: Native Ads Are Unethical‍

Every native advertising placement is accompanied by a label that reads “sponsored content”. This makes it clear to any reader that the link they are about to click is of the paid variety and not a piece of editorial content. This law also requires the ad placement to present the name of the company as well. These laws are strictly enforced to ensure the reader is never deceived into clicking a link they don’t understand.

Native Advertising is a perfect way to enhance both the user experience and the publisher's presentation at the same time. It’s not a secret that most websites need advertising revenue to continue to deliver content to its readers. By allowing native advertisements, they are presenting a seamless, uninterrupted presentation of their editorial content. The reader is then left to decide if the headline accompanying the native ad is compelling enough to inspire them to click the link.‍

False Belief #4: Native Advertising Does Not Scale‍

As a marketer, you always want to invest in tactics that can scale as you do. As you grow, you want your presence across relevant publishers and platforms to grow as well. Native Advertising can and will scale along with you and works best when the ads are kept running throughout the entire campaign.

Today native ads are as scalable as any other type of advertising tactic. By using programmatic platforms built for scaling native ads campaigns makes this format more scalable than ever. With Readpeak some users have seen native campaigns achieve a much higher success rate than traditional Facebook campaigns. See our customers case stories here 

False Belief #5: Native Ad Campaigns Are Hard To Launch‍

Yes, this used to be a true statement. However, at Readpeak we have created a platform that allows you to build and publish your native advertising campaign in less than 15 minutes! You start by selecting the piece of content that you want to feature. It can be a blog post or website page that already exists. Then, you choose the publishers' sites that you want your ad to appear on. As we said earlier, you want to place your ads on sites whose readers align with your target audience. Learn how running a native Advertising campaign is not as difficult as you believe, here.
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Once you added your content and news sites to run your campaign on, our algorithms go to work targeting the right audience to the best possible results. Once your campaign is live, we work to analyze your results and provide suggestions regarding optimization including which ads and landing pages are performing best. To see our innovative platform in action, please watch our new demo video.‍

Conclusion‍

Native advertising is the wave of the future when it comes to digital marketing tactics. However, we understand that it might be overwhelming when trying to figure out aspects such as how to work it into your existing campaign and how much budget to allocate. This is why Readpeak employs a team of experts to answer all of your questions and walk you through a personalized demo of our platform. Together, we will craft a specialized native advertising campaign that will reach your target audience and push your brand forward.