Native Advertisement… Something for Everyone
Online world is very dynamic. Trends keep on changing, especially in internet marketing. The techniques which are hot favorite of everyone may become dead in few years or in few months. And, how can we not talk about up and coming trends. And one such trend, which is rising high is Native Advertisements. However, this form of advertisement is not new; but the way it is evolving is really interesting.
To put it simply, native advertisement is a piece of content published in exchange of money or call it paid content. This content could be an article, blog post, video or infographic. Well, native advertising is very different from advertorial. The best part is, a reader can never judge if he is reading a promoted piece if he does not notice ‘sponsored’ tag.
Some experts in the industry believes that this form of advertising is overrated and it plays with the credibility of the publisher. The point is completely valid here. You never got to know if the editor is actually advising you to buy ‘xyz’ brand or has he got paid for this recommendation. One such example is when The New York times published a story by Dell in exchange of money. Though, there is always discretion notice, but at times things can be hidden.
If we look at the flip side, native advertising is good for readers and publishers. Remember those days when we get to see tonne of advertising banners distracting our attention from the content. Now we can see just content and how does it matter to us if the content is paid or not… as long as we are getting the expected information. So now, there is no distraction… only happy readers. And we should be feeling good if the publishers are earning few bucks.
One big advantage of such type of advertisement is emphasis on the quality of content. As this paid content need to engage user, so publisher and editor will focus on curating content in interest of reader. This involved money and sometimes huge money, so it is imperative to attract large set of audience to increase the conversion rate, be it about selling or just making a brand present.
As long as it is about content, I don’t see anything bad about native advertisement. And, I religiously hope that it won’t get exploited to an extent so that it starts eroding the readers.
