Word play aside, the NATIVE VML office in Woodstock is the ideal setting for a discussion of native advertising, as happened on 13 April, when the IAB held its monthly digital den session.
Content marketing and advertising specialist Athar Naser of Content Vine spoke through the IAB's content guideline on native advertising for brands, agencies and publishers alike with a detailed breakdown of native formats, various metrics and the importance of ‘native advertising’ disclosure.
If there’s some confusion over the difference between content marketing, native advertising, and where the two overlap within the industry, there’s definitely a grey cloud over the concept for readers. Naser clarifies: “Effectively, it’s the same as saying banner ads are all you need to know about digital advertising”. Content marketing is the overall strategic approach towards creating content that resonates with readers, especially as advertising itself shifts from a model of interruption to interaction. Native advertising is just one aspect of that.
Taking things a step further, he says it’s important to know the difference between native advertising and native content. Native advertising is when a brand or agency presents content to a publisher that’s paid for and made to appear ‘native’ – like it belongs in the environment as it’s a good match in terms of style. Native content then often involves teamwork in a branded content studio, where both the publisher and the advertising brand cocreate the content. It’s usually not about the brand itself but places them in an authoritative space on a specific topic.
Native content format can be broadly split into open and closed. Open is usually sold programmatically and is accessible by anyone on a network. Closed environments include Facebook’s native ads, which give you less leeway. These can be further split into four format subcategories: Content recommendation or discovery widgets along the top, right-hand margin or bottom of the webpage that link to third-party external content (eg: ‘More from the web’); as does native advertising on social media platforms that links to a different website or app with a ‘sponsored’ or ‘suggested’ app tag; in-stream advertising that matches the publisher or platform’s style: either as in-feed articles tagged as ‘sponsored’ or ‘partnered’ content and slotted into the news feed and tagged as sponsored/promoted or in-read content, which is the most disruptive as it’s slotted into an article you’re reading online; and custom or bespoke advertising agreements that come with unique pricing models.
Simply put, native advertising is paid-for content that’s hopefully relevant to the audience and does not result in a disruptive experience. That’s important as the focus on lowering cost per action or ‘CPA’ is a top trend in digital advertising at the moment. Naser says this ties into the native advertising model because while it’s not designed to create conversions, it does create purchase intent when done well.
From a trading perspective, Naser explained that there's programmatic and direct. The metrics for these range from dwell time to page views, social actions or CTA and traditional click-through rate. With all the ‘cost per’ metrics, native content will hopefully shift the existing thinking from purely quantitative to more qualitative engagement with the consumer. This led to a quick debate on whether the programmatic model is actually beneficial: Not for smaller publishers who lose out on a better price for their inventory, but definitely a boon for advertisers. Naser said publishers need to protect their inventory by finding out as much as they can about it and make sure that native content works for you.
While today’s tech-savvy readers enjoy good content whatever the source, attribution is hugely important as consumers can feel cheated if they discover it’s actually a form of advertising from a brand and not from the publisher’s usually objective pen. Interestingly, the onus is on the brand to ensure there’s full disclosure and not the publisher, though the publisher or platform does stand to lose reputation if this happens as you’re seen as a less trustworthy source. You can legally be found guilty of misleading your consumers without disclosure, as just happened with the Federal Trade Commission case against Lord and Taylor in the US.
As native advertising is self-regulated locally, it’s your choice whether you use terms that set off the advertising’ lightbulb like ‘advertorial’ or something more subtle, like – just ensure the content’s appropriately tagged.
Read this as a further caution on going into programmatic without first grasping how it works and click here to download the IAB's PDF detailing native advertising guidelines for brands, agencies and publishers.
