NATIVE ADVERTISING, THE MOST TRENDING ONLINE MARKETING TACTIC IN 2015

 Relatively a new tool in the online marketing, developing media strategy is on the rise and showing promise of superseding traditional means of advertising. Hotly contested by some and praised by others,  many leading brands in the world has started exploring Native advertising as an efficient and effective vehicle to seed their content & reach and engage with their targeted audience. Fashion and beauty segment, which are booming industries are the early adapters of this tool. Global players like Yahoo, Adyoulike, AdZouk and Connate are already making noise in this emerging and effective marketing tool.

Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in the online medium it is placed. It is a sub division of the catch-all content marketing, meaning the practice of using content to build trust and engagement with potential customers through online platform. It’s actually a directly paid opportunity that is content based and delivered without disrupting the user experience. Native ads can be tweets on Twitter, suggested posts on Facebook or even full-page ads.

Traditional Advertising Vs Native Advertising

Traditional display ads are the boxes and banners we’re all used to seeing at the top of web pages. Native ads are an entirely different. With a design that matches the style of the page they’re featured creating a subtler and less disruptive experience for users. However, it has emerged as the most trending and growing online advertising tool of the age.


They should not be confused with sponsored content. An easy way to remember the difference is that if it’s promotional, it’s an ad and if it’s editorial, it’s sponsored content. Native advertising can have an educational component.  It aims at convincing rather than informing the audience. Native advertising uses a brand’s voice and motives to influence content. However, sponsored content is un-biased and strictly editorial; it aims to elevate a brand by showcasing subject-matter expertise.

Advantages of native advertising

The nature of the content of native ads makes it more likely to go viral online. Native ads are more likely to be shared than banner ads - 32% compared to 19%. The amount of time users view native ads is also the same as the attention they pay to editorial content.
Native ads have been shown to perform better on mobile than those of traditional design as well. This is because in order to make an effective native ad, it has to be relevant to the content in which it is featured—unlike traditional ads that are placed on screen and don’t necessarily match up with messaging.

Disadvantages of native advertising

According to an Advertising Age article, native advertising has a long way to go to outspend traditional advertising. It also points out that this new means of advertising has multiple hurdles to overcome.

One point suggests that since this is a new strategy, media and consumer hype could be clouding the metrics. On top of that, the analytics being used to monitor native ads are not up-to-par with traditional advertising.

Other concerns revolve around the fact that audience targeting isn’t accurate enough and that consumers may feel tricked into reading ads and develop a negative mind set of brands.
Transparency is also a huge issue that is being discussed by many in the industry.