In the crowded online world of ecommerce, it can be hard to get a potential customer’s attention. After all, banner ads debuted nearly 30 years ago, and their click-through rates these days are less than half a percent. Today’s consumers are savvy, but there must be a better way to spread the word about your business than traditional ads.
And there is: native advertising. This form of advertising began before the web as “advertorials” in periodicals that blurred the line between editorial copy and ads. Native advertising is now one of the most important ways for businesses to reach a wider audience. One particularly compelling type of native advertising is sponsored content.
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is a type of paid media that appears on a website or publication in the same format as editorial content. Native ads can be anything from full articles on a news outlet’s website to promoted search results (a.k.a. sponsored ads) on search engine results pages. Native advertising is typically produced by the client or its marketing agency, but some publications create native advertising content in-house.
Types of native advertising
Native advertising can be any type of marketing material that appears in the same format as the content it’s served alongside. Here are some examples of the most common types of native advertising:
Sponsored content
While native advertising and sponsored content are sometimes differentiated, sponsored content is actually a type of native advertising. Sponsored content is native advertising that is developed in conjunction with (or wholly by) the publisher, with the financial support and editorial input of the client or advertising business.
In-feed social media ads
Social media ads look almost exactly like user-generated social media content, but you pay to have the post appear in the feed of your target audience. In-feed ads are available across social media platforms. For example, an in-feed ad on Instagram might feature an aspirational image and intriguing caption—but it would also have a “Sponsored” tag and a button to “Shop Now.”
Promoted listings or search results
Paid search ads typically show up at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and are tied to specific keywords that describe a product. Promoted listings might be targeted to searches related to a type of industry (such as legal services or arts and entertainment events), or to a location (for instance, “bakeries in my town,” or “nearby accountants”). These are a popular type of paid advertising and can be an effective tool in your digital marketing strategy.
What is sponsored content?
Sponsored content is a type of native advertising. With sponsored content, the advertiser is typically not the one responsible for content creation. Instead, the publication is paid to produce the content entirely—or the advertiser works with the publication and its writers, finding a message and tone that fits with the surrounding content.
Sponsored content is intended to be mutually beneficial. The story contains information that is helpful or interesting to the publisher’s target audience, and it also spreads the word about the company to potential new customers. This type of content tends to be high-quality content, which, in turn, is rewarded by higher click-through rates than other types of advertising. Sponsored content can also get around ad blockers.
Because sponsored content is specific to the publication, it can be more expensive than some other types of advertising.
Examples of sponsored content
Sponsored content is common across a variety of platforms, from magazines on the coffee table in your dentist’s office to the sponsored posts you scroll past on Twitter.
Influencer posts
To engage your target audience on social media, you can work with influencers to create content that fits your brand. For example, health product brand Healthish incorporated influencer marketing to reach new audiences without disrupting each user’s experience. The influencer created a video showcasing how they worked the brand’s product (a bottle that tracks your daily water intake) into their morning routine.
Sponsored articles
BuzzFeed has possibly perfected the art of sponsored content. Sponsored articles like “10 Colorful Clothing Picks From Target For Anyone Who’s So Ready For Spring” leverage BuzzFeed’s recognizable listicle style and appear alongside the rest of the brand’s content. The sponsored article aims to fit the interests of the site’s readers, and aside from the “Paid Post” and “Brand Publisher” tags, the article is nearly indistinguishable from the publisher’s non-paid website content.
Native advertising vs. sponsored content
Sponsored content is a type of native advertising. Like all types of native advertising it appears in the format of the publisher’s editorial content. A key difference between sponsored content and other types of native advertising is who creates the content (your company versus the publisher). It’s the publisher who creates sponsored content—usually with input or guidelines from the sponsor.
Other types of native advertising can be more effective for generating leads, because clicks can go directly to your blog or ecommerce platform. Alternatively, sponsored content may be more effective at raising brand awareness; it’s designed to appeal to its audience more genuinely, but since there isn’t always a clear call to action, it may not lead directly to sales.
Native Advertising Vs Sponsored Content FAQ
How does native advertising differ from sponsored content?
Native advertising blends into the format of the platform it's on, while sponsored content refers to specific pieces of content publishers create and label as paid promotion. Both are designed to feel like part of the surrounding content rather than a traditional ad, but sponsored content is one specific type of native advertising, not a separate category. It's typically a full article, video, or post produced with input from the publisher.
Why should I use native advertising?
Native advertising helps a brand's message reach customers who often ignore or scroll past traditional banner ads and pop-ups, since it matches the platform's format. Because it doesn't feel like an interruption, native advertising can build brand awareness while still giving you a clear path to bring in traffic and generate leads through clickable formats like in-feed ads or promoted listings.
How do you know if content is sponsored?
Sponsored content usually carries a clear label near the headline or byline, such as "Sponsored," "Paid Post," or "Brand Publisher," so readers can tell it's paid promotion. Social platforms follow the same practice, displaying a "Sponsored" tag above the post. Influencers who accept payment for content often mark it with a hashtag like #ad or #sponsored to disclose the paid relationship.
