Native is currently the darling of the ad world. Alex Aspinall investigates its relevance in B2B
For many years content producers and consumers have accepted that in order for easily consumable content to exist, you need a certain level of advertising knocking around too. But as the internet en masse has taken more ownership of the process of content consumption, people have become less impressed by context-free shouty ads interrupting their content experiences.
Enter: native advertising. The idea is that instead of advertisers trying to make their content stand out from that which surrounds it, an attempt is made to create ad content that fits in with the look and feel of the content users are actually trying to consume. It can then, in theory at least, genuinely add to the user experience.
However, some argue this is nothing particularly new. Jonathan Beeston, director, new product innovation, EMEA, Adobe, says: “Native advertising is as old as the hills – advertorials are not new. Online, established formats such as paid search ads, are also native. SEM will be a key pillar in any B2B company’s media plan.”
Forms and formats
As Beeston highlighted, some of the most basic forms of native advertising appear on Google’s search pages. The sponsored links, marked ‘ads’ that appear at the top, and to the right, of Google’s search returns list are native to the platform; they look like ‘real’ returns, but are marked as ads for clarity. The promoted returns found on Amazon fall into a similar category.
In terms of the social platforms, a promoted tweet is native advertising, as are suggested posts on Facebook. In both these examples advertisers are able to see their content featured on a user’s stream, nestled amid posts from the friends, acquaintances and brands people have chosen to follow.
With the correct use of data and targeting it should be possible for a brand to ensure its posts are served to the groups of people most inclined to be interested. If the posts do prove to be of interest, users are then free to share and respond as they would to any other post. The possibility for well-crafted brand content sitting on social platforms to go viral is clear. But in truth, the majority of these native ads still feel like advertising, with obvious intentions and brand messages.
More sophisticated examples of native advertising have been popping up on publishers’ websites. It’s hard to miss the growing number of publishing solutions seeking to give brands their turn at the editing desk. It is this native solution most likely to resonate with B2B marketers already investing heavily in the creation of higher quality content.
In this context, advertisers pay to publish their brand-generated content alongside news and features published by the newspaper, magazine or blog outlet in question. Again, attempts are made to both ensure the context box is ticked as well as to provide something that might actually be of interest to the reader. After all, if this content isn’t read, it provides little benefit to the brands paying for it.
As a result, brands are investing in well-written, well-researched pieces offering genuine editorial worth. This represents a step on from more traditional advertorial solutions. Traditionally publishers always sought to distance themselves from advertorials, as they tended to be poorly written, poorly designed and of questionable integrity. This is exactly the image publishers (and advertisers) are trying to move away from as they develop their own native solutions.
And there is no shortage of publishers looking to leverage native advertising to their benefit. There are an increasing number of publishers establishing what, essentially, amounts to their own inhouse content marketing agencies, designed to help create and distribute native content for partners. Publishers offering native ad solutions exist in the very largest media brands, as well as in the most niche B2B trade outlets.
Exploitation and expectations
While it’s obvious what the publishers and advertisers stand to gain, there are voices questioning whether it is really as good as it’s sometimes billed for the average reader. Unsurprisingly, those with a vested interest eagerly line up to promote the merits of native advertising, and their arguments are not without foundation.
For example, if we accept – which we must – that content and advertising are two inseparable entities, it makes sense if the ads we do see online are broadly in line with the things we might be interested in. And if the content is labelled properly – meaning an effort has been made to clearly highlight it as being brand-produced – complaints should be relatively few and far between.
However, there are some that remain rather cynical about publishers accepting advertising in through the backdoor. Doug Kessler, creative director at Velocity Partners, says: “Consumers love to discover great content but resent it if advertising is disguised as editorial. I fear that the whole premise of native is predicated on disguise. ‘Going native’ is to dissolve into the editorial to earn a click. If it’s transparent, isn’t it just (content-based) advertising?
“I worry most for the publications selling their souls – and their reader’s trust – to break into content marketing budgets.”
This point is interesting, and it carries relevance for both the publisher and the advertiser. Regardless of how good the content is, if people feel they are being duped into consuming mislabelled content it’s unlikely either the publisher or the advertiser will gain.
In a bid to address this issue, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently published a ‘Playbook’ detailing its position on native advertising, including a section covering recommended industry guidance for advertising disclosure and transparency’.
Clare O’Brien, senior industry programmes manager at the IAB UK, emphasises that the CAP code makes disguising advertising as editorial illegal, and that the Advertising Standards Authority can act in cases where rules have been broken. But she also thinks it shouldn’t need to come to that: “Why any brand, supplier or publisher, would want to disguise paid content as editorial is a mystery. It’s so easy to discover and once exposed it undermines both brands.”
This view finds support from Jeremy Arditi, UK general manager at Ebuzzing. He says: “Native advertising is not designed to trick the viewer but simply provide a relevant, engaging experience. Native advertising formats are not forced; users are free to scroll away or skip the video.”
Making it work
So, assuming those B2B brands eager to dip their toes in the native waters are prepared to steer clear of the issues described above, where should marketers look for high profile best practice examples?
Unsurprisingly, the well-coined B2B tech brands are leading the charge. SAP has received a fair amount of praise for its partnership with business bible Forbes, while Adobe has been working with both Mashable and, closer to home, The Guardian on sponsored posts and sponsored website sections. There are also plenty of B2B brands making use of opportunities offered via LinkedIn’s sponsored content and Twitter’s promoted tweet options.
The degree to which all these native offerings resonate with their intended audiences depend largely on the quality of content, targeting and positioning of the content served. Adobe’s Beeston explains: “Like all advertising, it’s about relevance to the audience. Provide something useful, timely and worth sharing with colleagues. Don’t interrupt or intrude.”
While debate does exist regarding the ethical and business considerations surrounding the execution of some native advertising solutions, it seems there is significantly more agreement regarding the benefits it can offer B2B marketers. There is a very clear tie in with the current enthusiasm for inbound techniques.
Even those skeptical about native acknowledge the potential it offers, at least to some degree.
Velocity’s Kessler says: “For B2B brands, native is an opportunity that shouldn’t be ignored. It’s an opportunity to exploit the short-term thinking of desperate publishers to get your content discovered. I’d seize it while there’s still some trust left to exploit.”
Others go further, highlighting that native advertising should reasonably expect some longevity. Piers North, strategy director at Yahoo, a company to have heavily invested in providing native advertising opportunities on its platforms, firmly believes the solution isn’t going to disappear any time soon.
He says: “Native advertising is here to stay because it has grown from the evolution of the digital ecosystem and one that fits in with the need state of users, in that it provides advertising that is relevant to the editorial experience.
“First came display, then came search and in a sense you could say that native is born from search. Search now towers over display and native brings these two together, working as a powerful hybrid. Native advertising is an entirely new revenue stream and one that will be a key growth area in online advertising.”
Regardless of your position on consuming advertiser content while browsing less partisan offerings, it’s difficult to disagree with North’s logic. There are many ways in which B2B marketers can benefit from leveraging native advertising solutions, particularly the publisher-focused content solutions that sit so well with inbound marketing strategies. The challenge, as ever, is to find the right messages and deliver them to the right people at the right time.
Want to know more? Read our five top tips for a winning native advertising strategy >>
