A Guide to Native Advertising

Are you still not familiar with native advertising? With more advertisers switching to native formats, the demand for these solutions is on the rise. From a publisher's standpoint, native ads provide a better user experience, don't distract visitors and blend perfectly into a website's content, leading to better conversion rates and increasing ad revenues. But what does ad nativity really mean?

According to Sharethrough, "Native advertising matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears." But how does an ad become native? That's the real question. In most cases, "nativity" is simply coloring the CTA button to match the publisher's website design.

But these days there's much more to this technology thanks to technological advances in ad serving. Epom is constantly improving the algorithms that allow publishers and advertisers to create and show engaging native ads, as well as to personalize and A/B test them.

We believe customization is key when it comes to advertising and have launched an improved version of our native platform.

How does it work?

Unlike JavaScript tags, which render ads directly in a browser, Epom native ads contain metadata about the ad unit. Native ad unit perfectly integrates ads into your website's design and structure. It adopts a single banner to any placement size, both on desktop and mobile. See how ONE banner will look on the multiple ad placements:

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What's so great about native advertising for ad networks?

• The rising trend for 2018: stay ahead of the game and start offering your publishers ad formats they'd love.
• A personal approach to every publisher: give them a tailored solution without additional AdOps costs.
• Achieve 30% better performance with every native ad format. You'll be surprised how native can give a second life to banners.

How to make the most of native ads for publishers?

When it comes to native ads implementation, it can at times be difficult to set priorities. Follow them or not, these tips will help you to shorten the way to revenue through native advertising:

Clear labeling

Some native advertising critics argue this is by design–brands stand to benefit the most from consumers who read a positive article about a company without realizing it's sponsored. But as recent statistics have made clear, brands have little to lose when pushing for clearer labeling.

Brand matters

It seems that the future of native advertising may be in content that closely resembles TV commercials and other traditional forms of advertising. Stephane Printz from FreeWheel in his Ad Summit speech stressed that content in which the brand is the central focus is more effective than content that resembles news, which sometimes confuses users.

Focus on User Experience

An excellent user experience is achieved when the user's needs are met without any hassle. When a user visits a website for its content, they expect content and nothing else. All ads, including Native ads, should be integrated as part of the user's experience.

Experiment with ad formats

The wide variety of ad formats makes publishers want to try them all at once. However, we'd like to draw your attention to a couple of rising stars. Try in–feed ads, where an ad design completely matches the environment of the mobile web page. Want to double the consumer's engagement? Then use in–image ads, which appear over editorial images when the user hovers or clicks on them. It tends not to trigger accidental clicks, as banner ads can, and provides a better user experience.

The derivative effects of the native mobile ads are going to be major themes in 2018. Already feeling inspired? Sign up here.