Popular Science丨Full Explanation of Native Advertising! A must-read for new media!

1. What is Native Advertising?

1. Definitions:

The definition of native advertising on Wikipedia is: advertisers attempt to catch the user's attention by providing valuable content during the user experience . It is different from "soft articles" which is a form of Internet advertising that "although it is a paid advertisement, it tries to look like normal content". Native ads look more like ads, but still provide interesting or useful content, thereby reducing the invasiveness of ordinary display ads and increasing conversion rates .

The first person to propose the concept of "native advertising" was investor Fred Wilson, who described it more simply in his words: "Native advertising is a profit model that starts from the user experience of websites and apps, is driven by advertising content, and integrates the visual design of the website and app itself (in simple terms, it is an ad that integrates the website and app itself, and this ad will become part of the website and app content, such as Google search ads , Facebook's Sponsored Stories, and Twitter's tweet-style ads all fall into this category)."

Native advertising can come in a variety of forms, including videos, pictures, articles, music, or other media. " Content marketing " is also another form of native advertising. For example, at the end of the article you read, you often see "other articles you may be interested in", some of which may be paid for by companies.

In short, it is driven by advertising content and integrated with the visual design of the website and app itself. They generally won’t let you recognize their true identity at a glance, and of course they won’t disturb you with pop-ups. If they have the following three points, they are the legendary native advertising.

2. Characteristics of native advertising:

1. Visually Integrated: Building advertising into the user experience;
2. User-driven (Choice): Ads do not interrupt the user experience or cause interference;
3. Content is king: Brands should push content that is of actual value to users.

3. Two types of native advertising platforms:

Closed Platforms: In a closed platform, a brand’s content is created and confined within the platform. Examples include “Promoted Tweets” on Twitter – Sina has launched a similar app called Fantong , as well as “Sponsored Stories” on Facebook and “TrueView Video Ads” on Youtube.

Open platform: On an open platform, brands can place the same set of native advertising content on multiple platforms. In other words, the content is independent of the platform. A similar native advertising open delivery platform that is more famous is Sharethough.

4. The present and future of native advertising:

Currently, Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, and YouTube ’s video promotions are all representative forms of native advertising. Even Tumblr, which once rejected advertising, has joined the ranks of native advertising. Of course, Tumblr "will not provide them with a template or fixed format, but will give them a canvas and let them spend time to conceive it themselves." In China, Weibo’s information flow advertising and Youku’s content marketing solutions will also become pioneers in native advertising.

Coca-Cola and Disney Tumblr pages (http://disney.tumblr.com/ http://coca-cola.tumblr.com/)

Sina Fantong advertisement, the original intention is good, but the content and user preference mining are too poor...

5. The future of native advertising

Video: Brands and agencies will pay more attention to video production, which will be longer than the traditional TVC of 15 to 30 seconds.

Standards and metrics: Native advertising does not yet have new pricing models and metrics to measure it. Although the IBA has not yet set a standard for it, with tens of billions of dollars in advertising spending under pressure, they will definitely take action.

Scale: A scalable buying platform will accelerate advertisers’ ability to buy native ads across platforms, from the DSP at the top of Facebook pages, to Twitter, StumbleUpon, Linkedin, Zynga, and more.

Product innovation: Breakthroughs in design and interactive features will bring native advertising to a new level. For example, Facebook Offers.

Adoption by closed platforms: Look at Pinterest’s launch of Promoted Pins or Google+’s search ads. Instagram/Facebook mobile versions will also introduce new native advertising strategies.

Open platform adoption: Open platforms like WordPress, Forbes, and the New York Times are beginning to adopt native advertising, which will create more opportunities for marketers to deploy content.

2. The difference between native advertising and traditional digital advertising :

First of all, traditional digital advertising represented by banners, search keywords, videos, etc. has not made any major breakthroughs in advertising format and concept innovation, which has led to a certain bottleneck in the accuracy and interactivity of Internet advertising. The user experience is being destroyed and the room for advertising companies to play is becoming increasingly limited, and they need to seek breakthroughs on their own.

Secondly, whether it is from the perspective of diverse hardware or different operating systems such as Windows, Android, and iOS, how to integrate media resources installed on so many fragmented devices and systems is a major challenge.

Native advertising has a large and loyal user base and can easily establish itself in small topics. Because from the ever-growing user flow, to content integration, to search results, posts, tweets, native ads are interspersed in the middle without interrupting this lively discussion. At the same time, the threshold for producers of native advertisements is relatively low.

3. Native Advertising and Branded Content:

As a guideline for content placement: the ad should appear to be relevant to the context, rather than simply cutting into the reader's reading process. The original intention is actually the same as native advertising. But for the former, there is no clear distinction between the website's soft advertisements and regular content. For example, Buzz feed has been criticized.

In contrast, The Washington Post ’s official website has opened a BrandConnect section, allowing advertisers and brand owners to produce their own content, which is marked with a blue text box that says “sponsored content.”

4. How should agencies prepare for the arrival of native advertising?

Consumers are trying to change; they are tired of being interrupted, disturbed and “marketed to”. They’ve gotten used to this approach, starting with Google search ads, arguably the first native ads. And judging from the early stages, the results are pretty good.

As publishers anchor their business models to local locations, ad placements are forcing agencies and brands to think outside the box. Now the scope that agents need to consider has also extended to areas such as in -game advertising, image push, and the capture of hot topics on the Internet.

1. Produce original, high-quality video content

Consumers watch brand videos just like they watch other videos, but of course they watch them with entertainment and curiosity, rather than clicking on them specifically to see an ad. AT&T's action-adventure short drama "Daybreak" produced five online short films, two event websites and an app for promotion.

2. The popular “cool” culture that is loved by the public is always a good marketing topic for brands.

Diversified materials, videos, photos, and images, from " imitation " to "adaptation", have become a cultural trend just like last year's "horse riding dance".

3. Spotify, Turntable.fm and MOG not only provide amazing music libraries, but are also integrating more social elements.

Brands can create and share sponsored playlists to promote topics relevant to their products or audience.

4. Professional copywriters must weigh every word, but in native advertising, an instant content editor is required.

Become part of the conversation, quickly create and edit topics, and management teams also need to track conversations and data on social networks . For example, W+k used social media and its technology team to combine ad copy to quickly get comments related to P &G's product Old Spice and quickly write a funny video response. It seems that there is a reason why Old Spice became popular.

5. Four tips for making native ads:

How to create more natural, creative and effective native ads? Consider the following four aspects:

1. Insert open advertising into a closed platform

In closed advertising systems like Facebook and Twitter, advertisers can create and promote customized content through their free platforms. But this content cannot exist outside the scope of this platform. A closed native advertising system is a great way to increase user engagement with a publishing site because advertisers can build their own pages and content, like promoting fan page posts on Facebook.

2. Use a friendly user interface

Create a layout that blends in with the ad content while still being visually appealing to the user.

1) Waterfall-style layout, tweet ads (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr)

2) Image embedded ads (e.g. Pinterest, Chill, Digg)

3) Grid-based advertising (e.g. Devour, Etsy, Imgur)

3. Deliver valuable content

To make native advertising more natural, publishers need to partner with brands that produce high-quality content and are aligned with the site’s target audience. The following native ads that were published on DamnDigital Interactive China can be used as reference:

• Intel: The Beauty Inside
• Old Spice: Muscle Music
• Volvo: Ballerina Stunt (video below)

4. Analyze data and track engagement and viral lift

Advertisers no longer simply look at simple click-through rates . The average time users spend viewing the ad, interaction time, interaction rate, user lingering rate... have all become important criteria for measuring whether an advertising effect is successful. Finding a good analysis platform to analyze complex data at multiple levels would be a good choice.

Buzzfeed's Viral Dashboard

6. Infographic: What is native advertising?