Native advertising continues to grow and is now being leveraged by both brands and publishers across the globe. In this nascent space the question of disclosure and transparency is an important topic of discussion and debate.
The effectiveness of native content and native advertising is the ability for brands to provide their desired audience with valuable information, while blending seamlessly in with the reader’s existing content discovery experience. This is fundamentally opposed to traditional methods of online advertising, such as banner ads, which have a primary objective of interrupting the user experience.
Native can be divided into 2 categories. The content itself, and the ads used to drive people that content.
1. Native Content – This is the end content the brand is promoting, whether it be an article, video, infographic etc. This content, in Pressboard’s case, lives natively on the partner publisher’s site.
2. Native Advertising – These are the promotional units that direct readers to the Native Content. Native Advertising can take many forms, including sponsored Facebook posts, promoted tweets, sponsored LinkedIn updates, promoted YouTube videos, paid search listings, e-newsletters, in-feed native ad units and content recommendation units.
At Pressboard, transparency is a core company value and therefore a mandatory requirement of every single article that is created and published through our marketplace. In fact, our platform technology ensures that every article clearly discloses the advertiser involved and is labeled according to industry best practices. The stories that are created through our marketplace are intended to be entertaining, engaging and interesting for readers and brands are proud to show their involvement in their creation.
Pressboard Native Content Labelling:
Here is a sample layout of Pressboard sponsored stories:
In addition to the Pressboard automated labelling, individual publishers may have their own labelling conventions that appear on the article page as well. The labelling of promotional units (see definition of Native Advertising at the beginning of this post) is at the discretion and best practices of the individual publisher.
Both the IAB and the US Federal Trade Commission have provided their own guidelines on labeling of native content and we encourage you to read their findings via the links below:
IAB – Native Advertising Playbook
Federal Trade Commission – Native Advertising, A Guide For Business
Social media is one of the most effective ways for brands and publishers to promote paid content and each social network treats posts differently. Below are resources for how the major social networks label their paid promotional units:
Facebook Ads Guide
LinkedIn Sponsored Content – Advertising Specs
Twitter Ad Products – Promoted Tweets
As a practice, content marketing is intended to serve the reader, instead of interrupting them. Labelling helps to showcase the amazing brands and influential publishers that have spent the time, effort and creativity to create these compelling stories.
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