Today, native advertising is common knowledge among marketers and many are already implementing it into their strategies. Spending on native advertising was over $47 billion in the US in 2020 or 63.2% of all digital advertising.

Translation? Six out of every ten online advertisements last year were native advertisements.

In a world where people were increasingly isolated from one another, online shopping became increasingly popular in 2020. Researchers at the United Nations found that "the COVID-19 pandemic has permanently impacted online shopping behaviors."

Something major is happening in eCommerce marketing, as evidenced by the rise of online shopping and the rush to embrace native advertising. Those that are in the e-commerce business but aren't currently employing native advertising would be wise to familiarise themselves with the concept, its implementation, and its potential for increasing sales as part of a broader digital marketing plan.

For those unfamiliar, what exactly is "Native Advertising"?

Have you ever gotten to the bottom of a page and then read the suggested article? You may have engaged with a native ad without even realizing it.

When adverts on a website are designed to look like journalistic material, they are considered "native advertising," a form of paid digital advertising. Native advertisements, as opposed to more traditional forms of online advertising like banners and pop-ups, are created to blend in with the page's content and aesthetics without interrupting the user's experience.

There are many advantages to using Native Advertisements

Think of a standard billboard ad. Its purpose is to advertise a good or service by making use of the time-honored sales presentation. "25% off right now," "Special deal," or "Everything you need for your favorite sport is right here" are all examples of advertisements.

The effects of native advertising are more covert. A native ad's main goal isn't to make a sale, but to aid the target audience in some way, either by answering their questions or by pointing them in the right direction. Advertisements in the shape of native formats either amuse, instruct, or teach readers, thereby capturing the attention of potential buyers.

Another key difference is that native ads rarely make direct references to the brand or product, opting instead to provide context or background information about it.

Consider a billboard ad for a new lawnmower as an illustration. There's a picture of the mower, the name of the brand and model, and the sale price, all in big, bold red letters. Everyone who uses the internet sees dozens, if not hundreds, of these adverts every day. Banner blindness, also known as ad weariness, is the marketing industry's worst nightmare since it occurs when customers stop paying attention to advertisements because they see them so often.

Picture now a native ad for the same brand of lawnmower. The headline of the ad states:

Easy steps to a perfectly even lawn in 5 easy steps...

The user is directed to the lawnmower company's blog upon clicking the native ad, where they can read an article providing advice on how to better care for their lawn. The article may make passing reference to the new lawnmower or a useful feature, but that is not its primary focus.

Both the native advertisement and the associated information are created with the client in mind, with their wants and interests prioritized over those of the lawnmower manufacturer. And therein lies the defining difference.

To what extent does Native Advertising succeed?

When it comes to native advertising, there are essentially three partners:

In this context, "advertisers" refers to the businesses marketing their namesake goods and services. The marketer leases web real estate on which their native adverts can display.

A publisher is a website that displays native advertisements. Native advertising is featured on thousands of websites, ranging from popular news outlets like CNN to specialized blogs.

Website visitors who interact with native advertisements by clicking on them.

Why are these three participants working together? Native advertising networks including Outbrain, Taboola, Revcontent, and others. These networks supply the adtech required for native ad integration on publisher sites' web pages. Advertisers can utilize the native platform's sophisticated targeting options to reach the most relevant audiences and consumers when they purchase ad space on publisher sites.

Let's shift gears and examine native advertising companies from the point of view of the people viewing the ads online. What occurs is as follows:

A web surfer reads up on current events and plays videos from their favorite entertainment sites. An ad that looks like part of the page the reader is on appears as they read.

The commercial did not spring up out of thin air. Based on the user's browsing history, it was personalized just for them.

The user is drawn to the native ad because it provides immediate value by providing access to interesting and relevant content on a subject that they care about.

When a user selects the ad and clicks through to the native content's host URL, the ad is immediately replaced by the content. Let's pretend it's the "5 recommendations for wonderfully flat lawn" piece from the lawnmower company's blog that was cited before.

The customer peruses the content. There are a lot of possible outcomes. Maybe they'll learn about the company, and then remember to visit the site again. Perhaps they found the blog so interesting that they wanted to sign up for email updates. In the best situation, the reader will click over to the product page and end up purchasing a mower.

It takes more than simply ad design to create a successful native campaign. Only when marketers have an in-depth knowledge of their target audience's interests and pain concerns can they use that knowledge to create content that attracts relevant, high-potential customers.

Rise of Native Ads in E-Commerce — native advertising companies

Evolution of Native Ads

Despite first impressions to the contrary, native advertising's underlying concept has been around for quite some time. Native ads may have debuted as early as 1885 when Buffalo Bill's vaudeville act featured Native American leader Sitting Bull in promotional materials. Native advertising's goal, from the old west to the world wide web of today, is the same: to attract an audience with useful information.

Native advertising as we know it now was first discussed in detail at the Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising Conference in 2011. It was also that year that Facebook began displaying "Sponsored Stories" in users' news feeds, which were essentially paid advertisements. Within the subsequent decade, native advertisements have evolved into "Promoted Stories," "Articles You Might Like," and "Recommended for You" that display in native "widgets" integrated into a web page.

Videos, carousel-style 'catalogs' with multiple images, in-app mobile ads, and in-article ads positioned in between paragraphs so the user sees the best cpm ad networks as part of the reading experience are all examples of native ads that are possible today thanks to advances in adtech and audience targeting methodologies.

The first is publicly accessible, user-customized feeds on the web.

Consumers have grown accustomed to browsing through personalized news feeds that include material chosen for them based on their previous activity and behavior on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Native advertising allows businesses to appear in "content feeds" of their target consumers that mimic the look and feel of the medium but are hosted on the much broader and more accessible open web. Additionally, depending on the underlying platform, advertisers can acquire access to ad space on some of the world's premier websites, including those of the world's foremost news and entertainment organizations, sports networks, and publishers in international markets.

The Value of Native Ads for Online Stores

The value of the worldwide retail e-commerce market increased to $4.28 trillion in 2020, as reported by eMarketer. Every e-commerce business owner knows from first-hand experience that today's industry is very competitive and that every advertising dollar must demonstrate its return on investment.

The primary responsibility of an e-commerce marketer is to maintain customer interest throughout the whole digital shopping process, from first impressions to repeat purchases. A summary of that trip is as follows.

The target audience is unaware of the company or its offerings. They start to recognize the name as a result of repeated exposure throughout their web browsing sessions.

Take into account the fact that the consumer has interacted with the brand or product online. Now they are delving even further, discovering new information, and forming stronger ties to the material they are studying.

At this point, the customer has shown they prefer your brand to others. Maybe they look for the brand's online material or interact with it more frequently (by clicking ads, visiting the website, etc.).

Consumers who have built a strong emotional connection to a brand over time are more likely to purchase after considering it for some time. A conversion could be the completion of a lead form or the request for a sales call, but it could also be the actual purchase of a product or service.

Once a consumer is converted, the brand must try to keep them as active customers by doing things like getting them to make repeat purchases or otherwise interacting with the business.

Native advertising for e-commerce has a lot going for it, including its adaptability to suit different sorts of customers at different points in the customer journey, from initial brand recognition and trust building to final conversion and purchase persuasion.

Let's examine how native advertising might improve e-commerce performance across a variety of KPIs and objectives:

More people are Familiar with the Brand

Recognizing a brand takes time. Native advertising is an easy and affordable strategy to reach highly interested consumers.

Brands may dramatically and successfully raise awareness when and where it matters by purchasing native ad space on publisher sites that their target audiences frequently visit, or by retargeting previous customers with native advertisements during their regular surfing.

Trustworthiness

Today's consumers place a premium on being able to trust the businesses they do business with, and this is especially true in the digital realm, where there is little opportunity for direct human interaction between merchants and customers. Eighty-one percent of respondents to the Edelman Trust Barometer survey agreed that they must have faith in a company's products or services before making a purchase.

By using native advertising, e-commerce businesses may pick and choose which publisher sites their advertisements appear on, including the BBC, ESPN, Time, and many more of the world's most popular and influential media outlets. To ensure a trustworthy and credible advertising environment for their products, e-commerce firms should only feature on high-quality websites.

More Participation

They don't stand out as advertisements because native ads look and act much like the rest of the page. That means consumers are more likely to engage with them than with traditional advertisements.

25% more individuals glanced at in-feed native ads than display ads, according to a study that employed eye-tracking technology to measure how people respond to native ads.

Furthermore, compared to display advertisements, 32% of respondents stated they would share a native ad with relatives and friends. In conclusion, native ads receive higher levels of attention and interaction than non-native ones.

Lessening the Time Needed to Make a Purchase

The most promising native advertising systems furnish sophisticated channels for focusing on specific audiences. What this means for marketers is that they may target very specific subsets of consumers with highly tailored material. Optimizing and maximizing the effectiveness of the customer journey is possible when the right content is delivered to the right audience at the right time.

Lookalike Audiences are one common approach to targeting. This function examines a preexisting group of users that have shown to convert at a high rate and then creates new audience segments tailored to their demographics, interests, and online behaviors.

Lookalike Targeting audiences based on demographic characteristics, as opposed to more broad categories like age or gender, increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. E-commerce businesses can improve their conversion rates and eliminate inactive customers by narrowing their attention to the most appropriate demographics.

Increased Revenue

Engaging content directed at the right audience, and promoted on authoritative sites known for their high-quality traffic—these are the three ingredients that make up the ideal storm that is native advertising. If native advertisements lead to an 18% rise in purchase intent, is it any wonder that eCommerce marketers are increasingly turning to them to boost revenue?

Rise of Native Ads in E-Commerce