Ayaz Nanji says, “Do consumers believe that native advertising pieces on media websites are written by companies—or journalists? Does the presentation of this type of content change how it is perceived? To find out, two researchers, Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Eduard Meleshinsky, showed a simulated blog page containing three articles to 598 consumers. One of the articles was an advertorial for diet pills labeled “Sponsored Report” in a font similar to other elements on the page. Respondents were then asked questions about the blog content. The complete findings were published in... [...]

Christian Mongillo says, “You’ve heard it a million times, native advertising is the next big thing. But what exactly is native advertising, and why is it causing such a stir for brands, agencies, and publishers alike? For publishers in particular, native is a chance to put editorial expertise to work for advertisers and brands. This provides a more trusted and valuable, channel to reach readers as compared to banner or traditional display advertising. In fact, according to our most recent research, 54% of publishers cite sponsored content and native advertising as the revenue streams... [...]

Ben Davis says, “There are many articles out there defining what native advertising is and what it should look like. There are native formats (simply in-stream ads, like expanding video), sponsored content (shaped by the publisher), content syndication (related content promoted through platforms such as Outbrain) and advertorials (often written by the advertiser). There are blurred lines between some of these formats but what they have in common is a terribly misleading descriptor. This sort of advertising is anything but native, it is invasive, lurid, and can only survive as such. Native... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “With ad blocking being such a talking point in the digital marketing world at the moment, there has been much debate around what advertisers and publishers could do to help tackle the problem.  One thing that has almost certainly contributed to the rising popularity of ad blocking software is the fact that many publishers insist on using hideous or intrusive ads in the form of giant flashing banners or autoplay videos. I covered some examples of this in my post about ad blockers a couple of months ago, but here’s a quick reminder of the type of nightmare I’m referring... [...]

Heather Marano says, “On a recent trip to New York, I took the opportunity to attend a digital publishing summit that brought together key digital players including The Huffington Post, The Onion, Buzzfeed and others to discuss trends in publishing. I was interested to learn more about how the media landscape is changing as a result of digital. Changing reader habits, geared towards a preference for consuming media online and through devices, have led to the decline of print and a subsequent decline in revenue for media outlets. Unsurprisingly, the number one issue up for discussion at... [...]

Greg Brown says, “With clickthrough rates of 1% to 5%, mobile banner ads are a sad savior for publishers looking to drive advertising revenue. But they can’t ignore this, as people are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to consume content. Consider this: Elite Daily saw a 61% drop in desktop traffic between January 2014 and June 2015, said Nicole Goksel, vice president of revenue operations, at the Digital Publishing Innovation Summit. Rory Brown, chief content officer at Bleacher Report, said at the same conference that he has seen points in time where 90% of the site’s traffic... [...]

John Moyer says, “Native advertising is a type of online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. When content is designed to match the style of the publication, it provides a tremendous boost to your web traffic. When you see a sponsored or featured post on a blog, magazine or newspaper site, the post is most likely an example of native advertising. In addition to sending leads to your website from a trusted and valuable source, native advertising gives you high-quality inbound links to your domain. Inbound links from a high-authority website to... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “In an effort to reach consumers amidst multiple assaults on their ads, many marketers have embraced native advertising. But the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has concerns, and markets and publishers could soon find themselves at risk if they aren’t careful. At the Clean Ads I/O conference in New York last week, Mary Engle, the FTC’s associate director of advertising practices, told attendees that the FTC is uneasy with native advertising that users can’t distinguish as advertising, making them deceptive. “An ad is deceptive if... [...]

Chow says, “Advertising on the Internet takes on so many different forms these days. You’ve got the regular banner ads that have been around since the very early days. You’ve got sponsored content on nearly all the social networks. You’ve got pre-roll ads in YouTube videos, you’ve got email marketing, and you’ve got sponsored links on your search engine results page too. And while reports of the death of the traditional banner ad have been greatly exaggerated, its relevance in this modern age of the Internet may be waning. Click-thru rates on these banners may not quite be what they... [...]

Ginny Mrvin says, “Marketers are planning to increase investment in native advertising. Sixty-three percent of marketers say they’ll be spending more on native advertising this year. That’s according to a survey of 127 client-side marketers by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Native ads reflect the look and feel of the editorial environment in which they appear. Publishers have been rolling out native advertising opportunities — and adding editorial and creative staff to create sponsored content — as a way to increase ad revenue, and often charging higher rates for... [...]