{"id":3419,"date":"2019-07-11T09:19:26","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T09:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/?p=3419"},"modified":"2025-05-22T08:50:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T06:50:53","slug":"what-is-native-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/digital-marketing-blog\/what-is-native-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"What is native advertising?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe core [to good native advertising] is a clear understanding of the target group\u2019s interests. If you know these, it is much easier to define the right content, the channels, the formats you need for a successful campaign.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Karsten Kr\u00e4mer, Director, C3<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The term \u2018native advertising\u2019 is about using <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/courses\/paid-advertising-and-web-analytics-course\/\">paid advertising<\/a> that matches the look, feel and function of the media format in which they appear. You can often find native advertising in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/how-can-businesses-use-social-media-marketing\/\">Social media<\/a> feeds, or as<\/li>\n<li>Recommended content on a web page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As opposed to display or banner ads, native ads don&#8217;t have the look and feel of typical advertisements. These ad types look like part of editorial on the page.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3422 size-shop_single\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_405910444-600x401.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital school of marketing - native advertising\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" \/><\/h2>\n<h2>The key to native advertising<\/h2>\n<p>The crucial aspect to native advertising is that it is non-disruptive. In theory, if an ad is \u201cdisruptive\u201d it is effective because it\u2019s unexpected, breaking through all that noise. However, if an ad is non-disruptive it does not \u2013 or tends not to \u2013 cause a disruption.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Native advertising is paid content<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Examples of native advertise are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Articles,<\/li>\n<li>Infographics, and<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/creating-videos-for-your-business\/\">Videos<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If a content producer can make it, companies can buy it and publishing platforms can promote it then the content has the ability to qualify as native advertising.<\/p>\n<p>How does a native advertisement differ from an advertorial that appears in a print magazine or newspaper? The <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/blog\/what-does-a-content-marketer-do\/\">content<\/a> must align with the publication or site\u2019s editorial style. This is if it\u2019s to be considered a true native advertisement. \u00a0It addition it must also provide the kind of information that the publication\u2019s audience typically expects.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Native advertisements are often difficult to spot<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This is because these types of advertisements often blend in with the \u201corganic\u201d content extremely well. Trying to spot native adverts is made even more challenging by the fact that there are no defined rules or guidelines on how publishers must label native ads. Transparency standards vary from one publication to another.<\/p>\n<h2><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3423 size-shop_single\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/shutterstock_696096955-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital school of marketing - native advertising\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong>A great native advertising example<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Together with Upworthy, BuzzFeed is the most effective viral hit factory on the Internet. They have recently opened their platform up to advertising. Here\u2019s an example of BuzzFeed \u201cCommunity\u201d pages, featuring brands like publishing giant HarperCollins:<\/p>\n<p>As it is possible to see for the above picture, posts made to the Community section of BuzzFeed have \u201cnot been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed\u2019s editorial staff\u201d. This means that HarperCollins (and Mini, and Pepsi, and the other brands that publish content at BuzzFeed) have simply paid for the privilege of getting their brand in front of BuzzFeed\u2019s audience. Apart from the prominent HarperCollins logo above the social share buttons, there\u2019s little to set this apart from BuzzFeed\u2019s regular content.<\/p>\n<h3><em>Why It Works<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>Time factors into why this native advertising example is so successful. Firstly, the post was published in late June, coinciding well with graduation season. Secondly, the basis of the post was teacher David McCullough, Jr.\u2019s famous \u201cYou Are Not Special\u201d commencement speech, which itself went viral.<\/p>\n<p>The post adheres strictly to BuzzFeed\u2019s popular animated .GIF\/listicle post format, making it easily digestible, and the headline is impeccably crafted for BuzzFeed\u2019s audience, as you\u2019d expect. There\u2019s very little obvious connection between the client (a major publishing house) to the content, aside from the implied relationship between college graduates and books. This means that the advertisement is seen as a \u201csoft sell\u201d. This is easier for audiences to stomach than forceful product placement.<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/contact-us\/\">Contact DSM Digital School of Marketing<\/a><\/h2>\n<p>Want to learn more about digital marketing and how it can help your business? The Digital School of Marketing\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/courses\/digital-marketing-course\/\">Digital Marketing Course<\/a> will teach you this and so much more. For more information about this and our other online digital marketing courses, please follow this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\">link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/courses\/digital-marketing-course\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-759 size-shop_single\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/DSM_Footer04-600x96.jpg\" alt=\"DSM Digital School of Marketing Digital Marketing course registration\" width=\"600\" height=\"96\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Advanced Digital Marketing Course - Digital School of Marketing\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JoEwCXKahVc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe core [to good native advertising] is a clear understanding of the target group\u2019s interests. If you know these, it is much easier to define the right content, the channels, the formats you need for a successful campaign.\u201d Karsten Kr\u00e4mer, Director, C3 The term \u2018native advertising\u2019 is about using paid advertising that matches the look,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-3419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-marketing-blog","tag-native-advertising"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23420,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions\/23420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalschoolofmarketing.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}