What are Native Ads? 7 Best Native Advertising Examples & More

Bombas is an apparel brand that worked with Taboola on a native advertising campaign. Their goal was to launch a holiday campaign for their revamped collection of slippers. Mastering any new advertising format takes trial and error—there’s no exact science to attracting new customers and convincing them to make a purchase. Native ads developed as a concept over 10 years ago and have a unique ability to evolve with media as it changes.

Use agentic AI to automatically block underperforming supply paths and refresh visuals to avoid creative fatigue. With over 50% of ad spend now on mobile, you need a flawless landing page. A slow-loading, desktop-style article will result in a 90% bounce rate. Tell a story that addresses the customer’s specific pain points (e.g., why 2026 is the year for ergonomic gardening) rather than attempting a hard sell. Start by mapping metrics to intent, then choose instruments that validate quality, not just volume.

Bidding and Optimization Sophistication

• Commit to figuring out the key challenges your audience faces, and then focus your ad copy on them.
• Expect high-quality traffic from exclusive publishers worldwide, and bid on premium ad inventory in real-time.
• You’ll get more traffic from these areas without increasing overall campaign costs.
• If you go the programmatic route through a DSP, you can just set your own bids and budgets to match your goals.
• Approval to the platform is fast and it works seamlessly with all major trackers such as Voluum, RedTrack, BeMob, Binom, and Thrive to name a few.
• A paid sponsored post by Dell, published by The New York Times, is designed to boost brand recognition.
• When advertisers know their audience and how to approach them, many good examples of native advertising appear.
• One reason for this is that native advertising offers a better user experience.
• When a user clicks your native ad, they’re taken directly to your content.
• The SSP then selects the winning bid and configures the native ad using a template for the website or app.
• Choose this model if you’re prioritizing visibility and brand awareness.
• They are non-intrusive comparatively, so even if a user doesn’t like them, he might not mind them either.
• Advertisers and publishers generally don’t have a way to determine where their adverts are going to be displayed and at what time.

Ideally, you’ll use both native and display ads as part of your strategy. Branded content needs careful scheduling, tracking, and reporting, usually with a lot of manual effort. All this management is usually supported by the publisher or the content marketing agency — it’s not typically something that’s offered programmatically. Video can be rendered natively in feeds (e.g., short videos in a publisher or social feed) or out-stream within an article where no video player existed before. Understanding your audience’s preferences and behaviors will help tailor your native ads effectively. Custom native ad units use images, headlines, and text to blend in with a site’s layout, usually powered by sophisticated ad platforms.

Brand awareness may not lead to immediate sales but builds visibility and consumer trust over time. That doesn’t mean that younger audiences aren’t open to branded content, though. There are https://native-ads.net several situations where you should consider making native ads part of your marketing mix. Follow along to find native advertising best practices and how to launch your first campaign. Users who click on what appears to be editorial content only to find a promotional piece feel misled and develop negative associations with your brand. Let’s explore the most frequent mistakes marketers make with native advertising and how to avoid them.

However, social media advertising is limited to specific platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, while native advertising extends across various publishers and websites. Many native advertising campaigns fall short because marketers don’t establish clear goals or track the right metrics to measure success. Without proper measurement, it’s impossible to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and how to optimize future campaigns. Some marketers focus exclusively on basic metrics like clicks or impressions without digging deeper into how native content influences brand perception or conversion behaviors. Outbrain is one of the leading native advertising platforms used by some of the top publishers including BBC and The Guardian.

Post-view vs. post-click windows

• However, many of your queries will come back with ads throughout the page.
• Unlike display banners that look like ads, native ads blend into the page and carry the visual and structural characteristics of the publisher’s own content.
• The examples above cover creative formats and distribution tactics.
• Native advertising blends in with the surrounding content, providing a more seamless and non-disruptive user experience, while display ads tend to be more visually distinct and interruptive.
• The main difference is that programmatic refers to the purchasing method rather than the format itself.
• It’s a method for distributing content, rather than the content itself.
• When you already know what great native advertising campaigns look like, let’s pay attention to native advertising examples you don’t want to follow.
• To drum up interest in YouTube’s new e-commerce integrations, a campaign was launched to leverage YouTube’s top talent in the gadget and fashion spheres.
• For fully-managed campaigns, once your personal account manager reaches out to you, that’s the time to discuss your advertising plans with them.
• The platform is said to show good native performance across iGaming, Dating, Utilities, Sweepstakes, and Finance verticals.
• This traces the impact of native ads in influencing customer behavior and contributing to campaign success.

Unlike display banners that look like ads, native ads blend into the page and carry the visual and structural characteristics of the publisher’s own content. Lastly, publishing native ads on social media is a great way to add your voice to the conversation. Start with the platforms you’re already active on and consider which platforms your audience frequents the most, like LinkedIn for B2B companies. If you have a type of content in mind, start with platforms best suited to that content type. Native video ads are best for TikTok and YouTube, while image posts are best for Instagram and Pinterest.

• Users and visitors are more likely to ignore traditional advertising as compared to native ads since they appear to be the part of the experience.
• The best native ads use succinct, actionable copy to get their message across.
• Viewers trust the host they tune into weekly, so the recall and purchase intent with these ads can be higher than other spots.
• Despite offering premium features and high-quality traffic, Dao.Ad remains an affordable option for advertisers.
• Use this customer data to your advantage when running retargeted display ads.
• This native campaign by Mercedes is an example of smooth, clean content designed to pique interest and engage the user.
• When you connect StackAdapt data into Elevate, you can compare native’s incremental impact against other programmatic formats and adjust budgets based on marginal return, not just channel-level ROAS.
• Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you plan and create your next native ad campaign.
• You should know who your audience is and what kind of ads interest them.
• SmartyAds DSP tracks eCPMs, impressions, conversions, and spending in real time throughout this process.
• If you’re running native ads on a platform like Facebook, set a short duration, such as two weeks, for your first campaign.

Best Native Ads Platforms for Publishers in 2026

Because newsletter audiences are opt-in and often niche, a well-written native placement can feel like a recommendation from a trusted host, not a random banner. Outbrain is another heavyweight native ad network with a strong reputation for high-quality publishers and brand-safe environments. Taboola also builds AI tools for publishers—its Newsroom and newer products like DeeperDive help editorial teams understand which stories perform best and how to monetize them better. No single design is perfect, and different designs will perform better in different types of websites or apps, content categories, or regions.

• In a time where consumers are bombarded with ads, native advertising can offer a refreshing alternative that could drive real business results.
• The Demand Side Platform (DSP) then bids for the ad on behalf of the advertiser.
• Native often aims to change what people think and feel, so run brand-lift tests when budgets allow.
• In fact, it’s more information than any of us can handle, which is why most people have developed techniques for ignoring advertising, a phenomenon known as banner blindness.
• To find the best performing ads that also engage your users, try using Firebase to A/B test different ad designs.
• Instead, they rely on promoting their brand on a popular and one of the leading American news sites.
• If you aren’t getting clicks, you should revisit your advertisement.
• Unlike other types of ads like banner ads and other display ads, native advertising is non-disruptive; it doesn’t impact a user’s ability to enjoy or engage with the content on a specific site or app.
• Whether it’s an insightful article, a captivating video, or an informative infographic, the ad should feel natural and resonate with the audience’s expectations for the platform.
• If the traffic performs well, your revenue and eCPM might increase even with lower bids for your GEO.

How to Choose a Native Advertising Platform

It increased engagement on their Snapstory by 233% and 144k unique users. Also, since this was not formatted as an interrupting paid ad, but rather a seamless part of Cedar Point’s social media presence, it positioned the brand as a valuable content producer. Native ads have proven to surpass traditional display ads when it comes to engagement metrics. The smooth integration and contextual alignment of native ads make them more enticing to users, resulting in higher click-through rates and longer interaction duration. This heightened engagement positively impacts the publisher’s metrics and ad performance. Truly useful content increases the chances of user engagement, helping build brand recognition in the process.

Native Ad Networks Enable Device Responsiveness

When you click on a promoted story you’re taken to another website. We offer some of the most reliable ad services available to help you develop campaigns using a combination of native and other ad forms. Because of their stealthier nature, you should ensure your native content is ethical by labeling it as “sponsored” or otherwise indicating that it is, in fact, an ad. You might want to know what kind of digital ad trend you can use to supercharge your native ad campaigns. Now that you understand the theory behind native advertising, you probably want to put this new knowledge into practice.

As we discuss below, it is also a common revenue stream for publications, especially because of the underwhelming results of most display ads. Native advertising is a fusion of advertising and content, cleverly crafted to be compatible with the platform it occupies. Unlike conventional display ads that interrupt the user experience, native ads blend in with their surroundings, creating a less intrusive and more enticing appeal to consumers. Apart from your demographics, consider your budget and the type of content you want to create when choosing a format.

Native Advertising Examples People Actually Enjoyed Reading

Direct-response advertising, content arbitrage, and lead-generation campaigns that require high volume at competitive CPCs. Works well for advertisers with strong creative testing capabilities who want to identify winning placements and scale quickly. If you want to try native advertising but have no time or resources available to manage your campaigns, our native advertising agency is right for you. We’ll prepare, launch, and keep optimizing your native ad campaigns, while you’re focused on serving your new customers. Their native ads are widely spread across premium publishers’ websites. Native advertising is particularly good for promoting online courses.

Examples of Facebook Ads That Actually Work (And Why)

Another difference between the two types of ads is the level of control the viewer has over their experience. With pre-roll ads, the viewer cannot skip the advertisement and must watch it entirely before accessing the content they want to see. The other example is a playable ad — users just click to play and get rewards for ad-watching. In such units, brands normally involve external links that lead users to the landing page upon click. It’s especially powerful on mobile, where users naturally engage with video during their daily scrolls. All in all, Revcontent is a great ad network and traffic source – and that may bring you both headaches (when pleading for approval) and joy (when getting conversions).

The United States will lead the way with $93.88 billion in 2025, while mobile will dominate the channel mix, accounting for 82% of total spend by 2029. Connected TV is also on the rise, projected to hit $39.29 billion in 2025 and grow to $55.14 billion by 2029 (8.84% CAGR). Short-form video will be another major growth driver, surging from $111.01 billion in 2025 to $157.48 billion by 2029 (9.14% CAGR). Together, these trends signal a market environment primed for the scale, engagement, and ROI that native video ads can deliver.

ways to set your app business up for success in 2022

Native advertising places ads promoting outdoor gear into platforms to match the site’s aesthetics. Native advertising is a digital advertisement that blends into a website or mobile app’s natural flow of content. This type of advertising uses identifiers like “Suggested Posts” or “Sponsored Content” to distinguish itself from organic content while matching a platform’s look and feel.

Measuring success and optimizing performance

In other words, it is the integration of ads into the natural form and function of the platform it’s being displayed on. In this guide, we will clear up the concept of native advertising, discuss its benefits and challenges, and provide tips on employing it to drive success for your business. Don’t include any words, phrases, or images that could potentially alienate consumers. Use short, snappy sentences, incorporate bullet points if possible, and break up the text with relevant videos and images.

Products

Using paid ads can help you reach a wider audience while increasing brand awareness and conversions. There are several different types of ad options, such as display and native ads. Now that you know what native advertising is and what kinds of native ads there are, let’s take a look at some top native ad platforms. Since native adverts are designed to blend in with the content of the site or social network, they tend to have more contextual relevance. Moreover, they don’t appear to be preying on the user’s personal choices and preferences which helps in developing a sense of trust and loyalty. In the long run, this enables you to build a customer base of repeated and loyal buyers improving your brand cachet.

Some Native Advertising Statistics

And a few are so well executed that readers engage with them as naturally as they do with editorial content. Native advertising works best when it disappears into the experience, yet still delivers a clear commercial outcome. Native is proactive; it finds users who are consuming related content but haven’t yet searched for a solution. Use native to create that demand by educating users before they register that they need you. These ads, which are common in mobile gaming, are integrated into the game’s aesthetic or economy. The most popular format is rewarded video, where users choose to watch an ad in exchange for a life or currency.

Bad native advertising examples

These platforms will also have information about a website, including its demographics, to help you decide where to place your ads. They may look like articles or other graphics designed by the same team responsible for a digital publication. This is intentional to make consumers think that they’re reading an article or looking at a design that’s part of the website they’re visiting.

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While there are some exceptions to this (like Salesforce’s award-winning Ecopreneur docuseries), most of the time, briefer is better. Focus on telling stories, solving problems, or entertaining readers while subtly weaving your brand message where relevant. On most websites, the content recommendation advertisements are labeled as sponsored.

When you start running different formats across multiple sites, those costs pile up. For advertisers used to churning out endless banner variants, the native production model requires a total shift in mindset. Of all native formats, this one gives a brand the most room to say something with depth. A sponsored article placed in a publication readers genuinely respect carries a degree of credibility that no display unit can buy, regardless of how well it is targeted. The tradeoff is time and money — production takes longer, costs more, and the results rarely show up in a last-click attribution report.

There’s information about the country, including which cities to visit, and also important information about the current travel restrictions – something that’s very important to all travellers right now. What better place for a travel company’s ad than a flight comparison site? This native ad appears on the homepage so that everyone searching for flights can instantly see this beautiful view and might consider booking a trip to Portugal. When there is a shopping intent behind a user’s search, ads are also featured in an easy-to-scroll carousel (as seen above).

• You can bid CPC, CPM, or CPE, set frequency caps, and optimize to engagement or attention signals with event tracking and privacy flags supported in the spec.
• Native ads have proven to surpass traditional display ads when it comes to engagement metrics.
• Fans who hack through the online clues receive backstage concert tickets and access to special tracks and an exclusive clip of Goldroom’s latest video.
• Although you may not have heard of this platform, if you are an ad publisher for a media website then Nativo can be a great alternative.
• Programmatic native advertising takes this even further and lets you target native ads to specific consumers in real-time.
• For instance, if you’re using content recommendation block native ads, you want visitors to click on them to access your content.
• A native ad must offer useful information, entertainment, or practical solutions.
• It complements traditional ads without detracting from their ability to capture attention.
• Keep a close eye on click-through rates, engagement metrics, and conversion data to fine-tune your strategies and approaches.
• A major difference, and arguably the defining feature of successful native ads, is that they do not require a drastic change to the immediate customer experience.
• Native advertising refers to a form of advertising that blends in with the surrounding content so that it appears to be a natural part of the user’s experience.
• Broadly speaking there are six universal types of native advertising, with specific advantages, disadvantages, and strategies of use.

Native advertising looks like normal content and can capture your reader’s attention, but at the same time it identifies itself as an ad so they can ignore it if they want. Native ads are seen rather than ignored, which is exactly what you want for ads on your website. With programmatic native advertising, the Supply Side Platform (SSP) sends bid requests when a user visits a website. The Demand Side Platform (DSP) then bids for the ad on behalf of the advertiser. The SSP then selects the winning bid and configures the native ad using a template for the website or app.

Another tactic that works great with native advertising is humor, and this is evident in a native social ad promoted by True Classic Tees, the company reinventing men’s t-shirts. The ad features a chat conversation between a guy and his lady, which takes a hilarious turn when she realizes that the chat might not be sweet talk, but an ad for True Classic Tees. Besides fitting in so comfortably with the context of the social feed, making it a very readable and relatable experience, the native ad is clever, simple, and just works on every level. When you’re creating copy for your native social ads, use this as a guide for how to do ‘funny’ the right way. Maryland-based MGM National Harbor hotel created a lovely interactive native experience in conjunction with the Washington Post to celebrate the Cherry Blossom season.

And what metric will you use to determine whether or not your native advertising is successful? Nativo specializes in customized native advertising solutions for both publishers and advertisers. Their native advertising platform offers various ad formats like native articles and display ads. Their platform is designed to prioritize user experience, ensuring that ads blend seamlessly with right content and publisher sites rather than interrupting it. Native advertising is a form of paid media that blends naturally into content without disrupting the user experience.

#5 — Washington Post & Mercedes-Benz

The old ads vs new ads paradigm is being replaced by a more intelligent, integrated approach. Looking ahead, the most successful strategies will not choose between formats but will leverage their combined power, driven by data and technology, to navigate a privacy-centric world. The most successful modern marketers understand that the choice isn’t native vs display ads, but how they can work together. Viewing them as an integrated system, rather than competing options, unlocks their full potential. When brand safety and association are critical, native ads allow you to align your brand with the authority and credibility of top-tier publishers. A “Partnered Content” unit on a respected industry website like Forbes or The Wall Street Journal carries an implicit endorsement and places your message in a context that audiences already trust.

Keep tabs on how your native ads are doing after they’re up and running in your app. A post-implementation plan might include when and how you review the ad placement and performance using AdMob reports, and a schedule for any updates. Native ads match both the form and function of the user experience in which they’re placed. Nativo consolidates native campaign management for advertisers who want unified trafficking.

Outbrain reports that native ad campaigns benefit from 28% higher time spent and 180% higher leads. The examples we’ve given you are just a few of the best native ads from some of the top brands in their niches. First, however, you should determine which strategy is right for you and continue testing your content to increase clicks and conversions. The level of customization and integration with publisher content also differs.

• First, avoid using company logos directly in the ad to maintain an air of seamless integration.
• Instead of having pop-up ads that can frustrate users, they allow them to continue enjoying an app, publication, or other forms of media without disturbing them.
• At least 50% of the network’s traffic comes from Tier 1 countries, which makes Taboola a definitive source of high-quality traffic.
• We recommend including the word “native” in the ad unit name, so you can easily distinguish it from non-native ad units.
• They’re specified in the IAB ad portfolio and are typically bought and trafficked as discrete placements.
• While this native ad doesn’t directly promote any KPMG services, it helps readers to form a positive association with the brand.
• Less directly applicable to performance advertisers, but worth understanding as context for the publisher-side quality optimization that shapes inventory across native networks.
• Google search results often include native ads in the form of listings that appear at the top or in the sidebar.
• In this native campaign, Eni succeeds in distancing itself from the criticisms faced by energy conglomerates.
• Now that you know what native advertising is, let’s look at some of the different native advertising platforms out there that you can use.
• It’s the number one place for watching video content and many brands – like HBO Max – now even upload snippets from their TV shows and movies to encourage people to purchase and watch the whole thing.
• Pressboard, now part of impact.com, is not a native ads network in the traditional sense.
• Server-side calls happen outside of the client, via a backend request.

“Hanami” is the traditional Japanese custom of enjoying the beauty of blossoming flowers, and this native ad let Washington Post readers do just that. With the help of Augmented Reality technology, readers could enjoy “Hanami at Home”, and watch a cherry blossom bloom virtually through all the phases of growth. Combined with loads of information about cherry blossom-themed events at MGM National Harbor, this native experience brings the unique beauty of the flower and the hotel brand to life. Even though ads in sidebars and on other places within websites have become less effective, you can still successfully implement ads on your website by utilizing native advertising.

• Digital ad spending keeps climbing, but so does the share of users who ignore ads entirely.
• That’s why it is important that you review the quality of ads being served.
• While other states are considering similar legislation, New York’s law takes effect June 2026 with monetary penalties for violations.
• The native advertising meaning, reduced to its practical function, is an ad that works with the user’s attention rather than competing for it.
• Some are eye-catching, others are original, and yet others offer inspiration for new ways to promote compelling content and capture mindshare.
• Another thing we liked about Dao.Ad is that setting up a campaign is a breeze, thanks to its user-friendly interface.
• These aren’t paid ads, Denny’s is counting on Twitter users to be interested enough in their content to actually follow their account.
• Reacheffect is not just limited to a single form of advertising; it supports an extensive variety of ad types, making it versatile for different marketing strategies.
• Even guests of the platform can select five jams to submit for their results.
• Either way, you can expect your campaign to work better than when you’re testing a new traffic network on your own.
• Content Recommendations is a form of native advertising where users can find featured articles from different sources under the heading “Recommended for you”.
• There’s usually a small label telling me if a post is sponsored content, but that’s less important to me than the quality of the content.
• When using native ads, advertisers have the option to bid on a CPM (Cost Per Mille) or CPC (Cost Per Click) basis for these ads.
• While you should mention your brand name in native ads, don’t make it the focus.

What is an Example of Ineffective Native Advertising?

Native ads often boost brand recall more effectively than banner or display ads because they integrate into content consumers are already engaged with. The reason that native content outperforms other forms of marketing is far more about the nature of attention than it is about misleading your potential customers. Constantly switching focus back and forth between different tasks or “modes” can rapidly lead to mental fatigue. Native ads work well because the audience’s attention isn’t interrupted – They can move smoothly through the advertisement and on to other content with only a minimal shift in focus and attention.

Your ads will connect with people who are more likely to be interested in your offerings, mainly because the ad content will match the surrounding content. If you’ve used native ads before or you want to start from a blank slate, feel free to jump straight into our documentation for Native (Android, iOS). If you’re looking for an easy way to get started, check out our Native Templates for Android or iOS. You can use them as-is, or customize them to better match the look and feel of your app. Your ads shouldn’t get in the way of what users are doing in your app.

Understanding the platform’s audience as an affiliate is crucial, and EZmob ensures that its traffic aligns with the caliber of its advertisers’ offerings. The platform offers quick campaign moderation, ensuring that your ads go live as soon as possible. Advertisers can choose the quality of traffic they want, tailoring their campaigns to meet specific business goals. If you want to test different images and ad messaging, you’d be happy to know that UngAds allows advertisers to have up to 10 creatives in a single campaign.