7 Native Ad Best Practices to Create Excellent Native Ads

Native advertising gives you access to premium publishers, including well-known platforms like CNN, Forbes, and The New York Times. Native ads can reach targeted audiences interested in specific topics or industries on high-traffic websites. Advertisers can use branded content to complement their owned content, but making branded content requires more strategy than other forms of native advertising. Typically, publishers work in collaboration with the brand or specialized content marketing agencies. The ability to scale your native advertising while targeting the right consumers is possible with programmatic native advertising. The global tire company saw great success with native ads, even outperforming their social media ads.

Advertisers can choose to run Native Ads for mainstream campaigns, with a daily budget of just $5 and a minimum bid of just 0.003$ per click. Apart from the manager setting up the campaign for you, you still get to decide how you want to filter the audience. In that case, you must discuss with your dedicated manager all about your campaign goals, the niche you are focusing on, the offer’s conversion type, what ad creatives you’d like to test, and more. They don’t have a minimum daily budget, so you can start a campaign with almost any daily limit. Setting up a native ad is super simple-all you need is a header, a body, and an image. Setting up a campaign is super quick, but make sure you check the list of prohibited ad campaigns before you get started.

Native ads are customizable and use high quality ad elements such as high resolution images. If launching pseudo-native placements quickly is your goal, you can use these tools, but they aren’t advised if you want to build a full-featured, truly native ad product. Server-side calls happen outside of the client, via a backend request.

Understanding Programmatic Data: How It Powers Automated Advertising

While newer compared to industry giants, they’ve carved out a unique position by offering something most networks can’t—exclusive access to Members Area traffic from established dating platforms. Advertisers can use keywords to get highly targeted traffic which displays their ads in relevant search results. Self-advertisers would be happy know that their platform is highly intuitive, so running your own campaigns is easy as a pie.

Outbrain isn’t closed for affiliate marketers, but in order to get there you should convince them that you, like their publishers, are the absolute top of the bunch. You can submit your creatives numerous times, but still get rejected for no apparent reason. Our first contender for this category doesn’t require big presentations, as Outbrain has been one of the top platforms for many years now. Now that we’ve talked about affiliate-friendly ad networks, let’s move to the more conventional ones – those that have defined the native ad space. For creative development, Adskeeper offers an innovative text-to-image feature that generates visual assets directly from text descriptions using AI technology.

SiriusXM Media’s sponsored article in Adweek on sports audio advertising is an engaging scrolling experience from start to finish. By sharing insights into the audiences shaping sports fandom today — women, multicultural audiences, fantasy leaguers, and more — it delivers value and expertise rather than leaning on a hard sell. Most major publishers employ journalists, and journalists love words. But to stand out from the crowd, you need your story to use a wide range of media assets, including video, illustrations, data, maps, photography, and animations.

• Develop a comprehensive measurement framework that aligns with your specific campaign objectives.
• Allbirds being able to create an experience about sustainability promotes not just their product but also their priorities as a company.
• With state-of-the-art production and a journalistic tone, the piece positioned Altran as a forward-thinking partner in technological progress while giving viewers a story they wanted to watch and share.
• Adsterra stands for no mobile experience disrupting when it comes to Native ads.
• VentureBeat promoted an article that briefly describes how AI was used to determine whether the stated name was Laurel or Yanny.
• Most major publishers employ journalists, and journalists love words.
• If you don’t have them yet, conduct extensive market research with surveys and focus groups to gather information about your target audience.
• In the long run, this enables you to build a customer base of repeated and loyal buyers improving your brand cachet.
• Short, visually compelling videos blend into the content users already enjoy, encouraging shares and repeat views.
• It increased engagement on their Snapstory by 233% and 144k unique users.
• One neat feature of the platform is the addition of the Real-Time Bid Analyzer, which allows advertisers to see the real-time system top bid for specific campaign targeting options.

Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil (Good News by The Telegraph)

Exact numbers will depend on your vertical, creative quality, and offer, but we can draw some reasonable benchmarks from recent studies and platform data. Native advertising networks operate across a wide range of publishers. TripleLift plus a DSP like StackAdapt, plugged into Elevate, can give you a very robust, cross-channel view of native vs. display vs. video performance. TripleLift is a major programmatic SSP and exchange specializing in native, video, and CTV. For advertisers, it represents a large pool of high-quality native inventory accessible through DSPs. While its publisher list is generally less blue-chip than Taboola or Outbrain, Revcontent’s reach is extensive and includes many mid-sized and niche sites https://native-ads.net where audiences are deeply engaged.

In today’s digital landscape, consumers are bombarded with advertisements. Traditional ads are often ignored or even blocked, making it more challenging for marketers to reach their target audience. It is also better to sell your native ads with display ads, exclusive promotions, and automation tools according to the advertiser’s needs. Remember not to underestimate the price and value of your native ad space. Publishers can sell ad space based on CPM, but it is also good to consider CPA and CPC options. The most important factor publishers should pay close attention to is the ad layout to ensure you’re not tricking your audience into clicking ads.

Smart algorithms now help find the right audience and place ads where they’ll perform best. Personalization is improving, too, with content that changes based on who’s viewing it, making ads more relevant to each person. Social media advertising must conform to each platform’s specific ad formats and character limitations, while native advertising offers more flexibility in content length and format. However, display advertising offers advantages in brand awareness campaigns, retargeting opportunities, and more straightforward performance measurement through standardized metrics. What separates digital marketing from traditional marketing is that you can make real-time changes based on data. By analyzing your campaign performance metrics, you can determine whether a native ad is performing well and make changes to help it perform better.

As multiple studies have shown, we not only ignore paid ads, but also ignore elements next to ads. Remember, it’s all about providing value, building trust, and creating a positive experience for everyone involved. Passionate about content creation, advertising, human psychology, carbs, and TV shows. Please make sure to visit Your AdSense Page where you can find personalized information about your account to help you succeed with AdSense.

Best Native Ads Platforms for Publishers in 2026

If you’re running native mobile ads, lean on the advanced targeting features many platforms offer. Meta allows merchants to target users accessing the platform on specific devices across both Facebook and Instagram. Much like with any ecommerce advertising strategy, targeting the right audience makes or breaks the success of your native advertising campaign. Native advertising is paid media that matches the form, function, and tone of the environment where it appears. A native ad is made to blend in with the same font and visual style of the surrounding article or social post.

FAQs on Native Advertising:

In 2024, 63% of global ad budgets went to digital channels, with native advertising seeing a 46% surge as brands discovered their power to build authentic engagement. Native ads can be effective if they are well-targeted and well-designed. They can be less intrusive and more engaging than traditional forms of advertising, which can lead to higher click-through rates and conversion rates. A paid sponsored post by Dell, published by The New York Times, is designed to boost brand recognition.

Related products

Native and social media advertising both blend into their environments. In-feed social ads mirror native ads’ integration strategy — both are less disruptive. However, compared to display ads, native ads have less control over ad design. Display ads are meant to be punchy and impactful, giving advertisers room to create more customized and attention-grabbing creatives. You can run content and creative assets across multiple platforms without needing significant adjustments.

High-trust placements on premium publishers

Without that groundwork, native campaigns almost always end up looking undervalued in performance reviews. It’s easy to underinvest in a format that’s usually doing way more than the basic data shows. Sponsored content and custom integrations are a big step up from standard banners in terms of investment. Building a long-form article, a polished video, or an interactive tool that actually meets editorial standards—and says something worth hearing—takes serious time and money. 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.

Why is native advertising important?

• It’s catchy and attracts the right audience – people who communicate over email a lot.
• Display ads are generally more effective for building massive brand awareness and reach at a lower cost.
• Before you launch your first native ad campaign, it’s essential to understand your target audience and their needs, wants, and pain points.
• This is a great example of a native campaign that, just like its title, is rewriting the rules of native in an ongoing, ever-growing, content-rich user experience.
• You get traffic from branded sources including SearchingForSingles, TrueHookup, LocalFlirt, and other niche properties.
• As compared to conventional display ads, native advertising brings a wide range of benefits for publishers and advertisers.
• That’s why it is important that you review the quality of ads being served.
• Unlike traditional ads being overtly promotional, content recommendation ads try to better align with user interests.
• They blend with the surrounding content- website content, article, social media feed, or video playlist.
• They’re designed to blend in with editorial links, giving advertisers access to readers who are already engaged and curious.
• Programmatic ad tech now powers almost every dollar flowing into display.
• Interactive features like quizzes and calculators keep people engaged longer because they require active participation.
• Native campaigns that run without proper targeting, real-time optimization, and placement-level reporting burn through budget on the wrong audiences and the wrong publishers.

Next, the content is created to mimic the look and feel of the content that surrounds it on the platform. What brands are actually paying for is the ability to “rent” the platform for their own distribution. Instead, people don’t want to see disruptive ads that hurt the user experience. In short, ads should complement people’s browsing experience, not detract from it.

• This campaign definitely has a goal – it drives website traffic that is monetized with tons of ads displayed on the landing page.
• Unlike in-your-face ads, native advertising blends seamlessly into the content.
• Native ads can help increase engagement and improve click-through rates because they don’t disrupt the user experience.
• It’s a reasonable cost for working with a new network with low competition, after all.
• Meta Audience Network is a natural starting point for small businesses already running Meta campaigns.
• This integration can create a more compelling and trustworthy narrative for the brand, which can help to build brand credibility and authority.
• After reading a blog post about travel tips, you might see a section titled “Recommended for You” featuring articles from a travel booking platform.
• These ads are placed between paragraphs or after, ensuring they complement the narrative of the page.
• Native ads offer an approach that feels like a natural extension of the user’s journey.

GroupM forecast that nearly 70% of global ad revenue in 2024 was “informed by AI”, rising to over 94% by 2029, as more buying decisions, bids, and creative choices are delegated to algorithms. Your formula of success may very well be different from the business next door, so it’s important to make up your own strategy to maximize your ROI from your campaigns. Here are our top picks for the five best native ad platforms in 2026 (in no particular order). The process can be almost entirely automated if you wish, as DSPs are great at automatically locating appropriate publisher websites based on user attributes that align with your campaign criteria. The content that performs the best for brands is relatable, informational, interactive, and joins in with cultural moments.

Cost-Per-Mille (CPM)

Through the use of native ad styles you can aggregate native demand across thousands of advertisers. You can use this technology to implement highly custom renderings that take full advantage of the native code on Android and iOS. Brooklinen is a brand that sells luxury bed products through their direct-to-consumer website. The Federal Trade Commission enforces Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans deceptive or unfair advertising practices.

Particularly suited to affiliate marketers, lead generation in non-regulated verticals, and advertisers targeting emerging markets with competitive CPCs. Lead-generation advertisers in regulated or high-consideration verticals, such as finance, healthcare, and insurance, that need premium publisher brand safety alongside performance optimization. Also suited for full-funnel campaigns that blend awareness-stage video with lower-funnel conversion objectives. Because native ads match the look and feel of surrounding content, users perceive them as less disruptive and more aligned with their browsing intent.

Best Native Ads: 2017

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. Run a native advertising campaign, targeting high potential audiences. As adtech becomes more sophisticated, there are many more native ad formats available to advertisers.

Realize and Teads are both premium open-web native platforms with AI-driven optimization, but they serve different primary use cases. Publishers using AdPushup optimize native ad placements alongside header bidding and layout testing, which affects ad quality and viewability for advertisers purchasing that inventory programmatically. Advertisers seeking broad reach across long-tail publisher inventory with strong contextual relevance. Works best as part of a broader Google Ads strategy, rather than as a standalone native campaign. CPC typically ranges from 20 cents to 50 cents for campaigns in the United States, with variation by vertical and targeting depth. While the content should integrate seamlessly, it’s essential to clearly identify it as a native advertisement.

• By matching a site’s fonts and layout, native ads bypass banner blindness and attract higher engagement.
• Once you’re running across more than a handful of placements, the operational overhead compounds.
• The format’s effectiveness depends on having the right targeting infrastructure behind it — not just good creative placed in random contexts.
• In addition, publishers should try out different ad types to see which produces the most revenue.
• When brand safety and association are critical, native ads allow you to align your brand with the authority and credibility of top-tier publishers.
• Is there any ad more ‘native’ than turning a product into a real life 3D hotel?
• In our State of Inbound Marketing Trends, B2C brands reported that native advertising drove one of the best ROIs.
• Google and Bing label these ads “Sponsored,” but their typeface and layout mirror organic listings.
• While these tools allow you to insert native-esque placements, they are nonetheless flawed, with client-side integration that relies on JavaScript tags or bulky in-app SDKs.
• They don’t want their experience interrupted by distracting ads; instead, you must design your ads as if they’re an extension of the medium they appear on.
• Native ads can reach targeted audiences interested in specific topics or industries on high-traffic websites.
• The Supply Side Platform (SSP) sends bid requests on behalf of the publisher.
• 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.
• The benefits of display ads shine in top-of-funnel brand awareness campaigns and mid-funnel retargeting, where the goal is reminder and reach.
• This type of branded article also appears in printed magazines and newspapers.

The campaign targeted users in Maryland and Washington DC likely to be in the market for engagement and wedding rings. A poorly targeted placement is still a wasted impression, and running campaigns across multiple platforms gets complicated fast. Native ads help brands and businesses engage their audiences with relevant, compelling content via high quality websites, targeted to users who are most likely to be interested. The finer details of a native campaign will depend on the goal, whether it be to get customers to buy a product, download an ebook, request a demo, or watch a video. Native advertising works by creating content that aligns with the style, tone, and format of a platform, then integrating it for maximum reach and impact. Brands choose relevant audiences and placements to make native ads feel familiar and useful.

D. Benefits of Native Advertising for Marketers

A notable example is Kia’s sponsorship of the “New Music Friday” playlist, where the Kia logo appears on the playlist cover and occasionally in audio messages between songs. The creatives you use in your native ads shouldn’t be distracting, but they should capture the user’s attention and make them want to click on them. Native ads need clear headlines and visual elements to grab a reader’s attention.

It still uses Rules, but rather than you thinking about what rules to set to achieve your target CPA, Adskeeper prepares it for you with just a little information. You can even choose the Optimization Rules Set, which allows you to optimize the campaign automatically based on your target CPA. This dedicated support is especially beneficial for newcomers to the platform, instilling confidence and providing an added layer of campaign management. They go beyond responding to questions by proactively monitoring campaigns to ensure that advertisers achieve their goals. Upon creating an ad account, advertisers are immediately contacted by several support members through their preferred messaging app.

Recap of the benefits and challenges of native advertising

As we discuss below, it is also a common revenue stream for publications, especially because of the underwhelming results of most display ads. Apart from your demographics, consider your budget and the type of content you want to create when choosing a format. High-authority news websites may be the first to come to mind, but depending on your audience native ads can also be very effective on social media and multimedia streaming.

Types of native advertising platforms

Get the latest digital advertising trends and insights delivered straight to your inbox. Effective CPM is based on the number of impressions and the number of conversions. If the traffic performs well, your revenue and eCPM might increase even with lower bids for your GEO. The actual, final cost of a campaign varies wildly and is largely dependent on the perception and popularity of the publication that you wish to host your native ad on.

Brand awareness and reach

As internet users, we’ve trained ourselves to largely ignore these ads in a phenomenon known as ad blindness. A native advertising platform is similar to other digital advertising platforms except it serves native adverts instead. This type of ad platform relies on advanced advertising technology to publish adverts that blend in with the content. The operational side of native campaigns — setting up placements, configuring targeting, managing bids across publishers, pulling reports — is where most teams lose time. Linking a native ad exposure to a later conversion—especially when users are jumping between devices—requires a real investment in analytics.

The Bottom Line: How much does native advertising cost?

To top it all off, JuicyAds know that providing excellent support is just as important as delivering great campaigns. You can then proceed to payment and uploading of ad creatives, and you’re done. One of the most significant advantages of using JuicyAds is the ability to buy ad placements directly through their Marketplace.

You can use your existing buyer personas to help guide your advertising strategy. If you don’t have them yet, conduct extensive market research with surveys and focus groups to gather information about your target audience. This can take the form of articles, blog posts, opinion pieces, videos, podcasts, infographics, or anything else that resembles the platform’s editorial content. When searching for the right native ad platform, you should consider factors such as your advertising budget, web traffic, content you serve, and the pricing model of the native ad network.

• Realize+ is a premier choice for agentic (currently in Beta), outcome-based buying on the open web.
• Most popular trackers are supported and advanced macros are available to help you optimize your campaigns.
• Your User Agent shows basic information about your browser and device.
• It supports multiple types of ads and allows you to insert code anywhere on the page.
• Think of testing as the opportunity to get the ad as close to perfect as you can.
• Along with highlighting plant-based ingredients that are good for your skin, the writers also offer relevant Clarins products containing this or another ingredient.
• You can use this technology to implement highly custom renderings that take full advantage of the native code on Android and iOS.
• Can you tell which of the articles under “Recommended” is the native ad?

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

In 2025, Whole Foods placed in-stream audio and video ads on Spotify India as part of a campaign built around music and a non-generic lifestyle message. The creative avoided gym-culture clichés and matched the rhythm and tone of the music content around it. A beverage brand launches a TikTok challenge asking users to film themselves making their best summer drink using the brand’s product. The challenge format spreads because participation is easy and the results are shareable. The Scientist magazine offers brands the ability to run sponsored quizzes for their readership — an audience of researchers and science professionals. A reader finishes a quiz, gets personalized results, and sees product recommendations that follow logically from their answers.

Advertisers can identify and blacklist specific widget UIDs (unique identifiers) that aren’t performing well, providing granular control over placements. This allows advertisers to segment users based on their device value, which can be a useful proxy for spending capacity. Adskeeper has been steadily building its reputation in the native advertising space since 2013. 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. EZmob delivers an all-encompassing platform with robust, secure ad tech solutions solidified by high-quality traffic and innovative features. EZmob provides excellent functionality and a friendly entry barrier, making it an ideal starting point for those venturing into native advertising.

Popular video types

Brands have the opportunity to establish authentic connections with their target audience, fostering trust and loyalty. Publishers reap the rewards of diversified revenue streams and heightened user satisfaction. Native advertising examples catalyzes creativity and innovation, propelling the industry forward while fostering economic growth through collaborative partnerships. Now that we’ve clearly understood native advertising and the various types of native ads let’s get familiar with some of the leading native ad platforms out there. Native advertising has skyrocketed in popularity owing to its remarkable capacity to captivate audiences seamlessly.

Featuring well-designed maps, timelines, articles, and even a quiz, this is a great example of native advertising generating interest and value. Scroll-based effects — sometimes called scrollytelling — are a powerful way to capture and keep the attention of your reader. If you have a development team on hand, you can build something bespoke. If not, or if you want to create immersive reading experiences at scale, you can try a no-code digital storytelling platform. Let’s start with the abysmally low click-through rates (CTR) of most traditional advertising, such as display ads.

Best Native Advertising Examples of 2023

To maximize the benefits of native advertising, prioritize strategic partnerships with experienced publishers and technology providers to ensure that your content meets high editorial standards. Your brand “script” should focus on storytelling and solving customer pain points rather than a hard sales pitch. Native ads sit in the center of the page where users are already focused. Because they don’t look like traditional clutter, these ads bypass the mental filter.

Native paid search ads appear in search results and are designed to look like organic search listings but are clearly marked as sponsored. We hope native ads can help you unlock more revenue growth for your app and will continue to improve this new ad format. With a vast network of more than 500 thousand direct publishers and select suppliers, it offers quality traffic and extensive reach. The network provides native teaser ads that integrate seamlessly into website content for engagement-focused campaigns. With a variety of ad formats, including banners, pop ads, and native ads, the customization options are endless. The platform has an upgraded Anti-Fraud system that blocks fake traffic in real time.

Native ads should blend in with the existing content and not disrupt the user’s experience in any way. The Guardian is a popular and reputable news source, so it’s no wonder a brand like General Mills wanted to partner with them on this sponsored article. 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. Visit our native ads gallery to see examples of native ads in action. With Google Ad Manager, native ads can run both in traditional banner slots and a new, responsive flexible ad slot in the Google Publisher Tag and the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

With plentiful images of the local community — impressively structured around blocks of text — Johnson & Johnson does a great job in transporting readers to the everyday struggles of Rwandans. Native advertising is paid advertising that is similar — in tone, form, and appearance — to the content of its host publication. The average internet user sees thousands of ads every single day — and most of us have become extremely adept at ignoring them. This ad integrates with the viewing experience, often featuring high-quality production and storytelling to capture the viewer’s attention.

For example, a sponsored video on YouTube that matches the style of your favorite creators is a prime example of native advertising. Commonly visible in the shopping tab, these types of native ads appear while searching for a product on an online platform. Some of these ads have a Sponsored tag at the top that highlights the recommendations based on the user’s search. Native video ads are gaining traction because, while requiring more effort to create, these ads boast better engagement. The key to successful native video advertising is valuing users’ attention. Provide genuine value to users, be it through entertainment, information, or utility.

That’s what we feel the 20 native advertising examples in the list have in common. Native advertising is sponsored material that blends in with the organic content it appears alongside. Native ads appear natural – and are highly targeted – so they are more likely to appeal to their target audience. Overall, it’s not a question of where you can insert ads, but of what parts of your content can become ads.

To help with this, they’ve adjusted how advertisements are presented. Many of the world’s largest platforms have moved to native advertising. In this article, we’ll look at native advertising, see why it works, and learn how to implement it. Native marketing can remain ethical with the right approach, but it’s important to remember that native ads often look much like the content around them. Because it’s a more narrative-focused form of advertising using native content, the industries that benefit most from this type of advertising are those with a focus on storytelling and visual elements. If you have already begun a strong content marketing campaign, congratulations!

This reputation — for independence, expertise, relevance, or trust —  is hard-won. Unlike banner ads, native advertisements are experienced as being ‘part’ of the host publication, which means that they grant brand association and brand awareness benefits to advertisers. Remember, transparency is key in the world of native advertising, and reputable advertisers will clearly disclose that their content is sponsored. While native ads aim to provide value, they often have an underlying marketing message. After reading a blog post about travel tips, you might see a section titled “Recommended for You” featuring articles from a travel booking platform. These articles, while promoted, are relevant to your interests and provide additional value to the user.

• That’s why they’ve integrated ads on their homepage almost unnoticeably, and you can see Squarespace’s logo and tagline on the Unsplash homepage.
• While native ads aim to provide value, they often have an underlying marketing message.
• Because the user has just typed in a query, the ad lands at exactly the right moment — intent is already there.
• Follow these simple native advertising tips, and you’ll be on your way to converting your audience and rocketing your revenue.
• Understanding these pitfalls before launching your campaign can save you time and money and help you avoid damaging your brand reputation.
• Whether the goal is to inform, entertain, or educate, native ads must serve the same purpose as the surrounding media.
• If you want to get more technical, you can view the traffic volumes tab, which will give you daily impressions and recommend rate for each Geo for your chosen ad format and targeting.
• Below, you’ll find native advertising examples that show how companies are turning these digital marketing strategies into measurable engagement.
• Native video ads are served to readers as part of the flow of their online browsing experience.

When there is a shopping intent behind a user’s search, ads are also featured in an easy-to-scroll carousel (as seen above). In this partnership with Pukka, a native ad shows a selection of relevant products along the top of the product results page. This is a good choice for sophisticated app developers who want full control of their rendering in apps. Ad Manager also supports mediation via this method, allowing you to add additional demand.

Programmatic advertising uses automated technology to buy and optimize digital advertising, including both display and native formats. The main difference is that programmatic refers to the purchasing method rather than the format itself. Native advertising can be bought programmatically, but not all native advertising is purchased this way.

Recommended content typically appears below an article or other content, like the CNN example below. There are many publishing platforms for your content — so where do you start? If you’re already active on social media, start with those platforms you have a presence on. If you’re already creating great blog and website content, promote your content through search or programmatic advertising. 36% of Gen Z turns to social media over search engines to search for brands, and 39% say that social media has influenced them to buy something.