Native Advertising: It’s Not About Deception, It’s About Value
The term “native advertising” makes most people feel a bit grubby. It conjures images of sneaky articles and posts designed to trick you into clicking on something you don't want—a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Frankly, that’s a fair reaction. Most native advertising is blatant.
It’s often deceptive, lazy, and a complete waste of the screen it’s displayed on. But that’s not a problem with the tool. It’s a problem with the tradesman. Blaming native advertising for this is like blaming a paintbrush for a terrible painting.
So, let's get one thing straight right now.
Good native advertising is not about tricking people. It’s the exact opposite. It’s about respecting them enough not to interrupt them.
- Native advertising should respect the audience by providing value instead of interrupting their experience.
- Successful native ads match the platform's content style while aligning with user intent.
- Genuinely valuable content builds trust and engages users rather than merely promoting products.
- Transparency about sponsorship is essential for maintaining brand integrity and audience trust.
So, What Is It, Really? A Definition That Doesn't Suck.
Forget the jargon-filled definitions you’ve read elsewhere. Here’s the simple truth.
Native advertising is paid media that matches the form, feel, function, and—most importantly—the value of the content on the platform where it appears.
Think of it like this. You're invited to a dinner party. You can be one of two guests:
- The Annoying Guest: You show up, interrupt conversations, and spend the entire night trying to sell everyone life insurance. You are a human pop-up ad. People will politely ignore you before talking about how dreadful you were after you leave.
- The Brilliant Guest: You show up, match the evening's tone, tell a fascinating story everyone wants to hear, and contribute to the conversation. You just happen to work in life insurance, and because you've already provided value and earned their trust, people might ask you about it later.
A traditional banner ad is the annoying guest. It screams “I AM AN ADVERT!” and interrupts what you’re trying to do.
A good native ad is the brilliant guest. It earns its place by adding to the experience. It delivers value first. It doesn’t scream; it speaks in the same language and tone as the content you chose to consume.
The goal isn't to hide the fact that it's an ad. The goal is to be so relevant and valuable that the user doesn't care that it's an ad.
The Zoo of Native Ad Formats: A Quick Field Guide
“Native” isn't a single thing; it's a philosophy that takes many forms. You’ve seen all of these, probably without even clocking them consciously.
In-Feed Units (The Social Chameleon)
This is the most common type you'll see. These are the sponsored posts in your social feeds on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter). They look and behave just like any other post.
You can like, comment, and share them. When done well, they feature content that feels perfectly at home on that platform, like a genuinely valuable tutorial video or a stunning image from a brand that understands the aesthetic.
Promoted Listings (The Helpful Shop Assistant)
Go to Amazon and search for “running shoes.” The first few results will likely be “Sponsored.” You're already looking for running shoes, so Amazon shows you a relevant product that a brand has paid to feature.
It's not interrupting you; it's helping you.
This is native advertising in its purest, most functional form. It matches your intent perfectly. You see the same on Etsy, eBay, and booking websites.
Content Recommendation Widgets (The “You Might Also Like…” Engine)
These are the gangs of thumbnails lurking at the bottom of news articles, usually under a heading like “Recommended for You” or “From Around the Web.” This is where native advertising gets its grubby reputation.
Platforms like Taboola and Outbrain run these. While the idea is sound—to suggest other content you might find interesting—it's often a cesspit of clickbait headlines (“One Weird Trick to Melt Belly Fat”) and low-quality articles. For a reputable business, this is dangerous territory. Your brand can end up next to some truly awful content, and that association is toxic.
Branded Content & Advertorials (The Feature Article)
This is the highest form of native advertising. It’s also the most difficult to do well. This is when a brand collaborates with a publisher to create valuable content, like a long-form article or a video documentary.
Think of The New York Times' T Brand Studio or Forbes' BrandVoice. These aren't ads; they are deep, well-researched pieces of journalism or storytelling paid for by a brand. For example, a cybersecurity firm might fund an in-depth report on the future of digital privacy.
The brand associates itself with high-level thinking, and the reader gets fantastic content for free. This is native advertising as a patron of the arts.
What Separates a Great Native Ad from Expensive Rubbish?
This is where the rubber meets the road. The difference between building a brand and burning your budget is getting this right. Most people get it wrong because they focus on the wrong things.
It's Not About the Font. It's About the Function.
Here's one of my biggest pet peeves. A client comes to me and says, “We made a great native ad! It uses the same font and colour scheme as the website it's on.
I could not care less.
Visual mimicry is the most basic, entry-level part of this. It's table stakes. The real question is: does your ad's function match the user's intent on that platform?
Someone scrolling through a beautiful interior design blog is in a state of aspiration and discovery. Slapping an ad for cheap, flat-pack furniture in their feed, even if it looks pretty, creates a jarring disconnect. It's functionally alien. It doesn't matter if you used the right font; you disrespected their mindset.
The Golden Rule: Provide Genuine Value
Your native ad must be able to stand on its own two feet. The ad's content must be helpful, entertaining, or engaging in its own right, irrespective of the product you're selling.
A terrible native ad is a brochure for your product disguised as an article. A brilliant native ad is a fascinating article that just happens to be brought to you by your product.
A classic example is the mattress company Casper. They didn't just run ads saying, “Our mattresses are comfy.” They created an online publication called Woolly, which included articles on sleep science, how to wind down at night, and why we dream.
The content was genuinely valuable. It built trust and positioned them as experts in “sleep,” not just people who sell foam rectangles. You'd read the article, find it helpful, and think, “These people know their stuff.” That's how it's done.
Transparency Isn't a Dirty Word
The fear of labelling an ad as “Sponsored” or “Promoted” is born from a lack of confidence in your content. If you've created something genuinely valuable, you shouldn't need to trick anyone into consuming it.
Hiding the fact that your content is paid for is the fastest way to destroy trust. When readers feel duped, they don't just resent the ad; they resent the brand behind it and the publisher hosting it. It's a triple loss.
Regulatory bodies like the FTC in the US have strict guidelines on disclosure for a reason. But beyond legal compliance, it's just good business. Be upfront. The label filters out people who would never be interested anyway and sets an honest tone with those who are.
Planning Your Attack: A Native Ad Strategy
If you're considering this, you need a plan. Winging it is a recipe for disaster.
Step 1: Forget Clicks, Define Your Real Goal.
Another one of my pet peeves: clients obsessed with Click-Through Rate (CTR). “Our CTR was only 0.5%!” they'll cry.
So what?
Unless your goal is purely direct response (and for many native campaigns, it isn't), CTR is a vanity metric. You need to define what you want to achieve.
- Build Awareness? You want your brand name in front of the right eyeballs in a positive context.
- Educate the Market? You need to explain why your solution is better or why the problem you solve matters.
- Change Perception? You're trying to shift your brand from “cheap” to “premium” or from “boring” to “innovative.”
- Generate High-Quality Leads? You want to attract potential customers who are already educated on the topic and ready for a deeper conversation.
Your goal dictates the content you create and the metrics you use to measure success.
Step 2: Know Your Audience and Where They Live.
Don't just think about demographics (35-year-old women). Think about their mindset and context. Why is that 35-year-old woman on Pinterest? She's planning, dreaming, and collecting ideas. Why is she on LinkedIn? She's in a professional, career-focused mindset.
The same person needs an entirely different message and tone on each platform. Your ad must match the user's context. A casual, funny video might crush it on TikTok but die a painful death on LinkedIn.
Step 3: Craft a Headline That Demands to Be Read.
The advertising legend David Ogilvy said, “On average, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
He was right.
Your headline is a contract with the reader. It makes a promise of value. It must be compelling enough to stop their thumb from scrolling but honest enough not to be clickbait. It shouldn't reveal everything, but promise what the reader will gain by giving you their time.
- Einstein, Mara (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 252 Pages – 09/13/2016 (Publication Date) – OR Books (Publisher)
Step 4: Create the Content (and Make it Good).
This is the step where 90% of native advertising campaigns fail. The strategy can be perfect, the targeting immaculate, but if the content at the destination is a thinly veiled sales pitch, you've wasted everything.
This is the hardest part. It requires real effort, good writing, and a genuine desire to serve the audience. You cannot fake this. The content must deliver on the headline's promise. If you promise “5 Ways to Improve Your Home Office,” the article better deliver five genuinely helpful, non-obvious tips—not just five paragraphs about why your desk chair is great.
This is where expert help often comes in. A specific skill is crafting content, distinguishing between brand story and user value. If that feels like a stretch for your team, investing in getting it right is better.
That's precisely what a good marketing partner does. See our digital marketing services for a deeper dive into how this fits into the bigger picture.
Step 5: Measure What Matters.
If you're not judging by CTR, what should you look at?
- Time on Page / Scroll Depth: Did people read your article? If they bounced after 5 seconds, it failed. It worked if they stayed for 3 minutes and read to the end.
- Brand Search Lift: After your campaign runs, do more people search for your brand name on Google? This is a powerful indicator of rising awareness.
- Lead Quality: If your goal is lead generation, are the leads you get from the native ad campaign more informed and easier to convert than leads from other sources?
- Social Shares & Engagement: Are people willingly sharing your content? That's the ultimate endorsement.
Real-World Examples: The Good, The Bad, and The “What Were They Thinking?”
The Good: A Masterclass in Integration
Think of a brand like Athletic Greens sponsoring a health and wellness podcast. The host, whom the audience already trusts, will often read the ad copy in their voice, talking about their personal experience with the product. It fits the context of the show perfectly. It provides value (often with a discount code) and feels like a genuine recommendation, not an interruption.
Or look at Patagonia. They don't just advertise jackets. They fund and produce documentaries about environmental activism—the very thing their audience cares deeply about. The films are their native ads. They are pure value, reinforcing the brand's mission without ever having to say “buy our stuff.”
The Bad: Clickbait Factories
You’ve seen them. Those grids of nonsense at the bottom of a news article. “You Won't Believe What This Child Star Looks Like Now” or “Doctors Baffled by This One Vegetable.” This is native advertising at its worst.
It's a race to the bottom, preying on morbid curiosity. It devalues the publisher, annoys the reader, and offers zero long-term brand value. It's the digital equivalent of a screaming market hawker.
The Ugly: The Sales Page in Disguise
This is the most common mistake small businesses make. They pay for a “Sponsored Content” spot on a local news site and submit an article titled “Why Widgets Inc. is the Best Widget Maker in Manchester.”
Nobody cares.
Nobody wakes up wanting to read a press release. The reader clicks, expecting an interesting story, and is instantly hit with a wall of self-promotion. They feel cheated. They close the tab. The brand has just paid to annoy a potential customer—a total failure.
Is Native Advertising Just for the Big Boys?
Yes and no.
Creating a documentary like Patagonia or a bespoke series with The New York Times is phenomenally expensive. That's not a game for small businesses.
However, you are likely already doing a form of native advertising. Boosting a genuinely useful or entertaining post on Facebook or Instagram is native advertising. Promoting a well-written, educational article on LinkedIn is native advertising.
You can start small on these platforms. The key is that the investment isn't just in the ad spend; it's in the time and effort to create the quality content in the first place.
This is not a direct-response vending machine like Google Search ads. With a search ad, a user types “buy red shoes,” and you show them an ad for red shoes. They click, and they buy. It's a simple, direct transaction.
Native advertising is a long game. It's for building a brand. It's for educating customers who don't know they need you yet. The ROI is measured over months and years in brand loyalty and market position, not just last-click attribution.
My Final Word: Stop Interrupting. Start Contributing.
The digital world is not short on noise. It’s short on value.
Every ad you run is a choice. You can choose to be the annoying guest who interrupts the party, or you can choose to be the one who makes the party better.
Stop thinking about how you can hijack your customer's attention. Start thinking about what you can contribute to their experience. Frame it that way, and you'll understand native advertising better than 99% of marketers.
If you're tired of marketing that feels like shouting into the void and want a more intelligent conversation about building your brand, we can help you figure that out. You can see our approach to building brands or request a quote if you want to talk directly.
FAQs About Native Advertising
What's the main difference between native advertising and content marketing?
Content marketing creates valuable content (blogs, videos, etc.) on your properties. Native advertising is paying to place that valuable content on someone else's property, matching its look and feel. They are two sides of the same coin.
Is native advertising unethical?
Only when it's deceptive. If you clearly label your content as “Sponsored” or “Promoted” and provide genuine value, it's not unethical. It's a transparent exchange: the reader gets good content for free, funded by your brand. Deception is the problem, not the format.
How much does native advertising cost?
It varies wildly. Boosting a post on Facebook could cost you £50. A comprehensive branded content campaign with a major publisher could cost £50,000+. The cost depends entirely on the platform, the audience size, and the scope of the campaign.
What are the best native advertising platforms for a small business?
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most accessible starting points. The targeting is powerful, and you can start with a small budget to test what content resonates with your audience.
Does native advertising work for B2B companies?
Absolutely. LinkedIn Sponsored Content is a powerful B2B native ad format. A well-researched whitepaper, case study, or insightful article targeted at the proper job titles can generate high-quality B2B leads.
What is an “advertorial”?
An advertorial is one of the oldest forms of native advertising, common in newspapers and magazines. It's an advertisement written in the style of an editorial article. The term is a bit dated, and today it's often used interchangeably with “branded content” or “sponsored content.”
How do I write a good headline for a native ad?
Promise value without resorting to cheap tricks. A good formula is to state the benefit and create curiosity. For example, instead of “Our New Software,” try “The Productivity Mistake Most Teams Make (and How to Fix It).”
Do I need a big team to do native advertising?
You don't need a big team, but you do need a commitment to quality. One person dedicated to writing excellent, valuable content is better than a team of five churning out mediocre sales pitches.
Can I reuse one of my blog posts as a native ad?
You can, but it needs to be adapted. A blog post on your site might have a different tone or structure. You must ensure it perfectly matches the context and audience expectations of the platform where you place it. A simple copy-and-paste job often falls flat.
What's the biggest mistake people make with native ads?
Making the content all about themselves. The content must be about the reader's problems, interests, or desires. Your brand or product is the solution or the guide, but it should never be the story's hero.
How does the FTC regulate native advertising?
The FTC requires that advertisements be identifiable as such to consumers. This means using clear and conspicuous disclosures like “Ad,” “Advertisement,” “Paid Advertisement,” or “Sponsored.” The goal is to prevent deception.
Is influencer marketing a form of native advertising?
Yes, it is. When an influencer posts about a product in their natural style on their feed, it's a classic example of native advertising. The content matches the form (the influencer's typical posts) and the platform's function (providing recommendations/entertainment).
This article is one of many observations about what works in modern marketing. You can find more on our blog.
If you’re looking for direct input on applying these principles to your brand, our services are for that. We help businesses build brands that earn attention, not just demand it. Explore our digital marketing services or request a quote to start a conversation.
Last update on 2025-07-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
