What is Native Advertising?

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The appeal of native advertising is rooted in the broader phenomenon of banner blindness. Also known as ad blindness or ad fatigue, banner blindness refers to the tendency of many people to ignore or overlook banners and other ads on a webpage because they’ve become used to seeing them and, therefore, subconsciously filter them out. Because native ads don’t clash with their surrounding content in the way that most display ads clash with their surrounding content, native ads have become an effective way for publishers to overcome the banner blindness of their audiences.

Indeed, according to a recent survey from web recommendation platform and native advertising specialist Outbrain, 75% of consumers trust the content of native ads. By contrast, only 54% of consumers demonstrate the same trust in conventional ads they encounter in social media posts.

It’s worth noting, however, that the appeal of native advertising hasn’t completely erased the distinction between editorial content and advertising on websites where native ads have been used. Captions for native video ads, for example, typically include the words "recommended by", while other native content is often accompanied by text such as "suggested post", "recommended for you" or "sponsored". Native ads, in other words, can still be recognised by their target audiences as just that: advertisements. It’s just that, by being presented in a way that allows them to blend in with their surrounding content, native ads can be a more effective way to overcome the ad fatigue that so many people display when exposed to conventional advertising. Perhaps this is why US advertisers, for example, are expected to spend $140 billion on native ads in 2025.

The increasing popularity of native ads has seen a growing number of native ad platforms for publishers to choose from. But there's more to native ads than simple revenue maximisation.

Read on to learn more about what native advertising is and how it can help your business.

Why Is Native Advertising Important?

Native advertising's importance lies in its ability to line up with a consumer's content preferences.

Here are just some of the key reasons why advertisers and publishers are shifting towards native advertising in such a big way.

Reduced Ad Fatigue

As previously mentioned, ad fatigue is when consumers become tired of display ads, eventually ignoring or avoiding them altogether.

Native ads can help advertisers revitalise flagging consumer engagement resulting from ad fatigue by offering content that is both interesting and new, in a context that seems natural and, therefore, acceptable.

Simply put, consumers are less likely to be fatigued by ads if they feel less advertised to.

Cultivation of Trust

Trust is critical to any relationship, and savvy publishers and advertisers know this only too well. Much of the success of native ads can be attributed to their ability to blend quality with relevance.

It's worth noting, for example, that more than 80% of news consumers have claimed that seeing ads within a news environment increases or maintains the trust they have in the advertised brands. Native ads featured on premium news sites are also considered to be 44% more reliable when compared to ads on social media platforms.

Relationship Building

Once trust has been established, it is much easier for a business to strengthen its relationship with its customers.

Effective native ads help with this by giving customers either what they want or pleasantly surprising them. Every carefully crafted native advertisement that has been strategically positioned within a specific site on a web page is a deposit in the customer relationship account.

Benefits of Native Advertising for Publishers

We’ve outlined some of the advantages that native advertising has to offer. But there are other benefits that publishers, in particular, can enjoy.

Revenue Analysis

Cost per mille (CPM) measures how much revenue a publisher earns for every 1,000 ad impressions. Programmatic native advertising's bidding process allows publishers to maximise the rates they get from advertisers. Given that native ads tend to generate better engagement when compared to other ad types, this translates into much higher revenue for publishers.

Audience Segmentation

Digital marketing and advertising are premised on the needs and wants of different audiences. By using native content to carefully curate different parts of a website according to audience characteristics, publishers can give visitors what they want.

User Friendliness

By its nature, native advertising is customer-centric and, therefore, user-friendly. This means that any website that uses such content will, therefore, also encourage consumers to spend more time there.

Disadvantages of Native Advertising for Publishers

For all their drawcards, it’s worth noting that native ads can, in some situations, also bring some disadvantages to publishers. Here’s a snapshot of the key ones.

Potential for Misleading Content and Reader DistrustWhen native ads aren’t clearly marked as sponsored, they can mislead readers, resulting in confusion, loss of trust, and negative perceptions.

Blurring the Line Between Editorial and AdvertisingNative advertising can obscure the distinction between genuine editorial content and paid promotions, potentially undermining the publisher’s credibility and editorial standards.

Risk of Decreased Traffic and Engagement
Although native ads can boost revenue, poorly planned or irrelevant campaigns may reduce website traffic and diminish audience engagement over time.

Concerns About Content QualityPublishers must carefully evaluate native ad content to ensure it aligns with their brand and audience expectations. Low-quality or off-topic ads can detract from the user experience.

Security VulnerabilitiesBecause native ads are often served via third-party platforms, they can introduce security threats - such as malicious code or malware - if not properly monitored.

Benefits of Native Advertising for Marketers

Here are some of the reasons why marketers should choose native advertising.

User Engagement

Native advertisements have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.20% across desktop and mobile platforms, according to Outbrain, while conventional non-native display ads only have a 0.05% CTR. This means that a customer is four times more likely to engage with a native ad than a conventional display ad. It’s also worth noting that native ad CTRs reach 0.3% of customers, compared to 0.12% for standard IAB ad formats (IAB Europe).

High Return on Investment (RoI)

Increased user engagement results in increased conversion, meaning that marketers generate more revenue for every ad dollar spent. The RoI for native ads thus is better than that for conventional display ads.

Variety of Placement Options

Native ads are versatile, blending seamlessly into a variety of content formats - from lengthy sponsored stories and social media feeds to individual social posts and everything in between.

Such variety affords marketers and advertisers the opportunity to find ad placements that align well with their native ad campaign goals

Disadvantages of Native Advertising for Marketers

As is the case with publishers, native advertising can also bring disadvantages for marketers, depending on the specific circumstances of their use. Here are some key disadvantages that marketers should keep in mind.

High Costs: Native advertising campaigns often come at a higher price than traditional display ads, especially on platforms with large audiences.

Demanding in Time and Resources: Producing effective native ads that seamlessly align with a publisher’s content requires substantial time, creative effort, and resources.

Difficult to Measure: Evaluating the success of native ads can be challenging due to limitations in tracking and attribution, making it harder to determine ROI.

Limited Placement Control: Advertisers may have little influence over where their ads appear, which can be problematic if they’re shown alongside controversial or misaligned content.

Risk of Being Misleading: When not clearly distinguished from editorial content, native ads can come across as deceptive, potentially harming brand reputation and audience trust.

Challenge of Content Alignment:Ensuring that native ads match the tone, style, and standards of the publisher’s content can be difficult but is essential for maintaining authenticity.

Types of Native Advertising

Native ads are constantly evolving to meet customer needs. However, while the popularity of some types waxes and wanes, others continue to be widely used from year to year, including those that advertisers use through programmatic platforms to improve campaign efficiency. Here are some of the more popular types, along with examples of each.

Brand-Specific

Sponsored posts provide their target audience with interesting, often practical, information that's also related in some way to the brand that's sponsoring the article. In this sense, they can attract a target audience that extends far beyond the brand's target market.

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Source: MSN

Advertorials

This type of content is somewhere between a long-form text-based ad and an editorial piece. Compared to other native ads, the advertorial's focus is to completely win consumer buy-in on the publisher's platform before sending them to the advertiser's landing page.

A great example of such content can be found in The New York Times article ‘Why our Future May Depend on Birds’, which was sponsored by the shoe company Allbirds. The article focused on the importance of different bird species and how climate change threatens their continued existence.

The article's sophisticated layout and design mean it adheres to the NYT's quality standards while promoting Allbirds's message of sustainability.

Social Media Ads

Another common type of native ad can be found on Facebook, Instagram and other popular social media platforms. These ads appear in the news feeds of social platforms, and lend themselves well to the constant stream of posts that fill such feeds. Their key features include the following.

Paid Posts

An ad on someone's Facebook or Instagram feed is invariably flagged with either a “Sponsored” tag or “paid post” hashtag

Brevity

Given the brevity of many social media posts, a native ad in someone's feed will also be relatively succinct. This will help it to blend into its surroundings.

Audiovisual Flexibility

Unlike sponsored articles and other native ads, ads in social feeds can include a variety of audiovisual material. From video footage to single images to collections of images that can be viewed in a scrolling carousel-like fashion, native content in social feeds offers consumers a variety of material.

An example of effective native audiovisual advertising is Land Rover's Dragon Challenge video. This ad is a 6-minute film of a Land Rover scaling a long staircase in China and is tailor-made for sharing on social media where native content typically consists of exciting, interesting, or unusual videos shared by users.

Audiovisual Flexibility — *Source:* *YouTube*

3. X (formerly Twitter) Hashtags

Another way in which native advertising can blend into everyday conversations is through X (formerly Twitter) hashtags. An extension of social media feed ads, hashtag-based native ads are even more malleable to their surroundings, given the ubiquity of hashtags on social media.

Similar to the ads we've already mentioned, X hashtag-based ads are accompanied by a brief mention of the business behind the ad, often in the form of another hashtag or the business's X username.

Depending on the subject matter, hashtag-based ads can encourage audiences to engage with the ads in their own way, either by adding their comments or forwarding an ad to others.

Tequila manufacturer Patron Tequila was able to harness the effectiveness of hashtag-based communication when it launched an X ad to promote its brand of Tequila on International Margarita Day.

Using the hashtag #MargaritaOfTheYear, Patron was able to encourage Margarita lovers to vote for the best Margarita recipe of the year.

How Does Native Advertising Work?

As with other forms of digital advertising, publishers supply the native ad space that advertisers bid on. A match between the two is arrived at using programmatic advertising and real-time bidding (RTB).

Here's an example of native advertising at work.

John visits a website that publishes articles on backpacking around the world. As John browses the section of the website that focuses on France, the website owner's supply side platform (SSP) submits an ad request, along with data on John's interests, to interested advertisers running native advertising campaigns.

Through ad exchanges - platforms that connect publishers and advertisers - and their demand-side platforms (DSPs), advertisers place their bids for the backpacking website's ad space. The site owner's SSP then evaluates the advertisers' bids, picks a winner and facilitates displaying the creative.

This entire process occurs in milliseconds and ends with John seeing an ad for a sponsored piece on a backpacker's positive experience with a certain type of hiking boot.

‍How to Choose the Right Native Platform

Choosing the right native ad platform can be a little daunting, particularly for those who are new to native content. But with the right pointers, it needn't be so difficult.

For publishers, there are a variety of ad networks that can help them display high-quality native ads.

For advertisers, here are three tips to keep in mind when choosing the right native ads platform.

Targeting

Depending on how specific their advertising content is, advertisers need to ensure that the platform they choose will reach their audience.

Some platforms, for instance, may offer narrow categories that clearly reflect the purchase intent of consumers, while others may target users of specific technologies, such as mobile device users.

Then there are platforms that target audiences according to the type of ads that are used to reach them, such as interstitial ads.

Pricing

Native advertising cost can vary considerably, so it's crucial to identify the best pricing model and then match it with the right platform.

To maximise the return on ad spend (ROAS), advertisers also need to clarify the pricing model for their native campaign, then find a platform that will offer their chosen pricing model.

For advertisers pursuing a CPC model, we’ve created this guide to the best CPC-specific platforms to choose from.

Reporting

Advertisers need to consider what KPIs will be used to assess the performance of paid content as well as the availability of customised reports and whether they cover in-feed ads, news feed ads and promoted listings, or only other native content.

Best Native Advertising Units for Publishers in 2025

Here are some of the best native advertising units for publishers.

In-feed Ad Units

In-feed ads are a top choice for publishers because they seamlessly blend with the surrounding editorial content, providing a natural and non-disruptive user experience.

Promoted Listings

Promoted listings offer advertisers a prominent position within a publisher's website or app. They generate additional revenue while enhancing user experience by featuring products or services at the top of relevant search results or category pages.

In-video Native Ads

In-video native ads capitalise on the visual appeal of videos. By seamlessly integrating ads directly into video content, publishers can provide a non-intrusive user experience.

Native Display Ads

Native display ads resemble traditional display ads but match the look and feel of a publisher's platform. They are less disruptive and more engaging for users. Native display ads offer higher CTRs and increased brand recognition for publishers while reaching target audiences effectively.

Native Search Ads

Native search ads appear within a publisher's search results, aligning with a user's search query. They provide a non-intrusive way for advertisers to promote products or services while generating additional revenue for publishers.

In-app Native Ads

With the increasing popularity of mobile apps, in-app native ads have become a crucial revenue stream for publishers. These ads blend seamlessly with the app's user interface, whether in-feed, interstitial, or rewarded ad formats.

The best native advertising units for publishers are those that seamlessly blend with the publisher's content, offer a non-disruptive user experience, and maintain the trust and interest of their audience. By leveraging the native advertising units listed above, publishers can attract advertisers, generate revenue, and achieve long-term success.

Recommended Widgets in Native Advertising

In native advertising, widgets are ad units that are crafted to integrate smoothly with a website’s surrounding content, often recommending related articles or products. Commonly positioned at the end of articles or embedded within content feeds, they feature compelling headlines, descriptions, and visuals to capture user interest and encourage clicks. Here’s a snapshot of some of the more popular types of widgets that could be beneficial for your business.

Content Recommendation Widgets

These widgets showcase sponsored content or paid links positioned alongside a publisher’s editorial material, often styled to resemble sections like “Recommended for You” or “You Might Also Like.” Their purpose is to boost user engagement by presenting content aligned with the user’s interests, encouraging further exploration of the site or promoting related products and services. They are commonly located at the end of articles or embedded within content feeds. Common captions for such widgets include "Recommended for you," "You might have missed," and "From around the web".

In-feed Ads

These ads are seamlessly embedded within a website’s content feed—such as a social media or news feed—appearing as a natural part of the content stream. This integration makes them less disruptive than conventional banner ads. Examples include ads within a Facebook or X (Twitter) feed.

Promoted Listings

These native ads are displayed at the top of search results pages or within product listings on e-commerce sites, providing advertisers with prime visibility to promote their products or services to users actively looking for related items. A common example is Amazon product listings.

‍Final Thoughts

Native ads are increasingly the medium of choice for many publishers and marketers, thanks to their ability to connect with audiences in a personalised, natural way.

As with other aspects of online advertising, the deft use of native ads requires detailed knowledge of consumer interests and an up-to-date understanding of their ever-changing interests.

Publift helps digital publishers get the most out of the ads on their websites. Publift has helped its clients realise an average 55% increase in ad revenue since 2015, through the use of cutting-edge programmatic advertising technology paired with impartial and ethical guidance.

If you're making more than $2,000 in monthly ad revenue,contact us today to learn more about how Publift can help increase your ad revenue and best optimie the ad space available on your website or app.