November 26, 2013: Native advertising is advertising that also functions as content. While the gross amount of ad dollars allocated to it last year was just $1.52 billion, several large sites, including Buzzfeed, Gawker, The Atlantic, and a few others have jumped on the native advertising bandwagon, creating paid areas that are indistinguishable from “true” editorial content.
Everyone who advertises online is going to run headlong into the native advertising issue. The crux of this issue relates to the actual core of ethical advertising – is my business case one of value that I can present to buyers?
If you have a good product that’s worth paying money for, you don’t need to use deceptive advertising in any form. What’s required is to make a compelling case for your product. Ultimately, this writer believes that great products — when promoted by great campaigns through various media channels, will win. “Cheating” only works for so long, because a garbage product will eventually be abandoned by buyers, no matter how clever or entertaining the advertising tactics are.
Is my content helpful?
Ask yourself the following: Is my content actually helpful? Native content should provide advice, knowledge, or some other factor that gives value, free and clear of any sales pitch for the product.
A good example of this is a recent piece I did for a client selling space heaters. I wrote an article that deals with reducing heating bills. The content dealt with the issue at hand (reducing heating bills), and included ideas on insulating one’s house or apartment, investigating competitive pricing for energy supplies and home heating products, including space heaters.
Such an article was advertising because it referenced the client’s product, but it was also relevant because the article provided independent value to the reader. The promotional aspect of the article was entirely secondary, with the emphasis being on usefulness.
Is my content honest?
Bad native advertising is essentially deceptive promotion. Examples include links positioned next to an article in those “other articles you may be interested in…” footers that lead to blaring promotions, articles that make dishonest claims, and other forms of junk advertising that will harm your brand and chase away customers. Due to the sheer volume of impressions involved, annoying or false advertising will be detected by buyers, who may spread word via social networks and do huge brand damage. Bad native advertising is regularly mocked, and is on its way to becoming the new online spam.
Is my content transparent?
Not flagging native advertising as advertising as opposed to regular editorial content is deceptive advertising. If the content is relevant and good, it doesn’t matter if the customer knows the content is advertising or not – trust the customer, and the customer will trust you.
Native advertising works best when the venue and product brands are harmonious. This comes back to relevancy, as the audience typically only wants to engage with what’s important to them. Keep your content helpful, transparent and honest, and there’s no reason that native advertising can’t be a great tool for reaching customers.
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