Five Different Approaches to Native Advertising
by Eric Berry
1) Sponsored Links
The most successful form of native advertising is google's AdWords. Other prominent forms of sponsored links include Zemanta's sponsored links, and Vibrant's paid contextual links.
A campaign with sponsored links aims to insert hyperlinks, often with some contextual relevance, into the body of a piece of content. In Google's adwords, this means links in the list of results are paid. With Zemanta and Vibrant, which we call "Inline Links", the effect is often a set of hyperlinks for topics like "cellphones" that lead to a particular manufacturers homepage.
With sponsored links, the branding effect may be less significant than the direct response impact. With AdWords, the appeal is largely based on relevance to the searched keyword, and with Inline Links, the branding is often not known until after a user hovers over the length for a period of time or clicks. Thus in both cases there is little upfront branding impact. But both forms do offer a strong direct response appeal and should be considered for advertisers seeking this sort of goal.
2) Promoted Content
Content marketing is an increasingly important piece of the marketing pie. Brands have been producing high quality on-brand content for years, but the tools and forums to promote this content are growing each year.
Within the context of brands writing articles that may have some branding impact, which we call "Promoted Content", there are several important players. Most significantly, Taboola and Outbrain offer cost-effective channels to drive clicks to promoted content. Both of these companies work through widgets that a huge number of publishers have placed at the end of their articles, recommending related or suggested content. Buyers to purchase traffic through a CPC model. The important part for promoted content is the question of whether an advertiser sees commercial lift. Many pieces of promoted content have subtle brand mentions, and limited commercial calls-to-action, so the true ROI of these efforts for a brand may be difficult to measure. But a publisher that wants to drive a larger audience may see immediate impact assuming sufficiently compelling content for the promoted content.
3) Integrated Video
Brands have invested heavily in self-contained marketing videos. These contain a complete brand message and often do not require too much context with the page to be effective. A number of companies have invested in developing adaptable formats for video that sit in the feed of various publishers. Examples include Sharethrough and Federated Media. For brands that are looking for additional audiences for their marketing or other video content, this is an excellent form of native advertising.
4) Integrated Microsite
Larger publishers integrate native advertising in a more extensive format, by creating full microsites within their site. An example may be a large food publisher creating a whole section about oranges, sponsored by Tropicana - and with articles by and about Tropicana. This generally requires custom work with the publisher and a significant investment. The Purina Pet Park at walmart.com is one example of a successful implementation of an integrated microsite.
5) Integrated Display
Brands have long used display advertising to drive brand awareness, clicks and conversions. It is a well-known phenomenon that users don't see or meaningfully engage with conventional banner ads. TripleLift is the leader in providing analogs of display advertising that are more directly integrated into the flow of a traditional website.