What Is Native Content? Is It Important?

There is no denying that people no longer trust traditional forms of interrupted advertising ie. pop-up ads which are proving to be quite ineffective. Most often than not, we fail to even realize that we are surrounded by native advertising. The reason being that native content blends with organic traffic, making it difficult to spot. It is considered a better way to reach the target audience. 

What Is Native Content?

Native content is created that fits seamlessly with the website page without looking like an advertisement and ruining the website’s design. The cohesiveness and consistency not only makes the viewer believe that the content belongs to the page but also encourages them to read the advertisement further. It is so closely incorporated into websites that anyone can hardly tell that it’s a brand message. However, they should meet the criteria of curating it for the audience, organically displaying on an external website, and most importantly designed to fit in the flow of the publication.

Even though native content falls under advertising, it isn’t like the traditional advertisement as they are a lengthy form of content created to be as informative and engaging as possible. With the advent of infographics, content is still considered as the king as it has been since the era of the printing press.

With native content being on the rise, it acts as a supplement to native content marketing. Native advertising and content marketing are considered the best practices in marketing. The most non-intrusive ways of getting close to customers. While content marketing requires building their audience towards their channels, native advertising pays to access another platform’s audience. To put it into simpler words, native advertising leans more towards impressing the audience while content marketing creates engagement.

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

Howard Gossage

Which brings us to the question

Is It Really Important?

Increases viewership through awareness – Native ads tend to have a significantly higher click-through rate than their display ad counterparts, and that alone is often worth the cost. They also benefit brands that need to infuse authenticity into their media. They bring relevance to the customers without disrupting their experience on social media. It brings brands and people together in an authentic manner only if the strategy of targeting is successful.

A neatly created and successful native advertising where Netflix partnered with the wall street journal to promote the original series – “Narcos”, which provides insight into the multibillion-dollar global drug trade, something that a reader would be interested in learning about leading to an increase in the viewership, making it beneficial to both advertisers and publisher.

Another native ad that Netflix brought ran on The New York Times that was based on the experiences of women in prisons to promote Netflix original series ‘Orange Is the New Black’. However, the aim of this ad was not for the readers to watch the show but delve into the topic of women in prison.

User experience – Consumers look at native ads 53% more than display ads because the visual engagement is higher than the original editorial content. They are considered welcoming as customers are aware of being targeted and have instilled more faith in custom content over traditional advertising.

Native advertisements run across search engines that lead to content distribution. While it comes to social media platforms, Instagram has taken the social media realm by storm. This has made the advertisers grab the golden opportunity of promoting their content.  Since it has a much younger audience and the users are continuing to grow at no sight, it is the most viable platform for native advertisements. Hence, proving beneficial for marketers as they simply need to expand their authentic, personalized content and engaging content. Linkedin pulse being another medium where long-form articles appear on the news feed, gaining wide exposure.

Brand building – Now we all have experienced ad fatigue. The recurring ads easily tire the audience which eventually leads them to stop paying attention. Native ads are brand exposure cloaked in editorial content, so there’s absolutely no way the audience gets tired, infact, it engages them further. 

For business enterprises focusing on brand building and staying competitive, social media allows users to relate to brands more intimately and directly than ever. The only key to attain this strategy is by following practices of native content. Just like rewarded video experiences, native advertising is two-way communication between customers and brands where there is a give and take situation. This helps the marketers to build and enhance their presence.

Native advertising can be explored as a strategy but it is only successful if it provides value to its users. It is considered the best way to attract a bigger audience, unlike conventional methods.