Native Advertising 101: 7 Things You Need to Know about Native Ads

“Any customer can have acar painted any color he wants, so long as it is black” - HenryFord.

In 1908, Ford created arevolution in the automotive industry with the color black. To someextent banners did the same for the digital advertising industry (andby extension mobile advertising) in the early 2000s. But as thearget audience becomes more tech savvy and the competition in thedigital space burgeons, both users and developers have begun to askfor more - More options, more innovation and more bang for the buck.Native advertising is being hailed as the latest black of the mobileadvertising industry and everyone who is anyone is putting out theword on their capabilities.

With so much noise aroundhis offering, it is but normal for there to be several myths,misunderstandings and confusion around the real capabilities. Thispost digs into the truth about this latest opportunity and presentssome insights about some of the common questions that might beplaguing your mind.

1) How flexible arenative ads?

Native ads were born outof a need to present ads in a seamless form - blend the advertisementinto the content to create an non-intrusive experience for the user.So what if your mobile property has only star shaped objects? Can anadvertisement be formatted to look that way? Probably. But thequestion you need to ask is - will such an ad even be meaningfulenough for your user, to generate that elusive click and conversion.

Nativeads are generally implemented by breaking down the individualadvertiser assets and providing them to the publisher in his CMS.Maintaining the balance between a blended ad experience and ensuringhat the ad is still noticeable and informative is the main parameterhat decides how flexible the native ad unit can be.

The InMobi Native AdsPlatform feeds the individual ad assets to your CMS - icon, title,description, images (in any size you need) - making the ad layout asflexible as your app design.

2) Is demand reallyliquid? Will I get scale?

One of the biggestdeterrents to putting trust in a new ad format is the lack of demand.And with something as customized as a native ad layout where everydeveloper will have his own requirements and constraints, is thedemand really scalable?

The answer depends on thecapabilities of the platform powering the native ad solution. Askingeach advertiser to supply the individual assets for every publisher(as per their unique requirements) is of course not a scalablesolution.

The InMobi Native AdsPlatform acquires these individual advertiser assets automatically aswell as allows advertisers to edit them if they feel the need. Thisensures instant scale as well as caters to the quality requirementshat different teams may have.

3) What is the effortinvolved in building my native ad unit?

Up until recently, nativeads were implemented only by publishers with big teams, on a case bycase basis with special effort required for every advertiser thathey integrated with. Clearly, this wasn’t a scalable model. Theneed of the hour was customization in a standardized manner, whichallowed you to put in (maybe) a little extra effort and see instantresults.

For all those who believehat building a native ad unit is too tedious, we have enoughexamples of developers who have created their own custom JSON (2 minutes), integrated withhe InMobi SDK (5 lines), tested and gone live in less than 1 day.How is that for speed?

4) Do native adsperform better than banner ads?

The most frequently askedquestion for anything new is the revenue upside - after all, theeffort has to justify the result. Native ads are not new in theindustry and have already been popular on desktop for quite someime. Can you think of the most common native ad that you see, daily?

While the desktop worldboasted of 1-2% CTR on native ads, mobile users seem to be morewelcoming of this new ad experience. CTRs on native ads are 8X higherhan traditional formats on the InMobi Network and advertisers areseeing 6X higher conversions.

5) Where should Iintegrate the native ad unit?

All good things in lifecome with a caveat and native ads are no different. Great performancerequires great placement. It would be unfair to bury the native adbehind several scrolls and taps and then expect higher eCPMs. Justlike banners or interstitials, it is important to ensure that thenative ad unit should be on the most used screens of your mobileproperty, within the viewable area of the user.

6) Do I need anadvertorial team to create messaging for every Native Ad?

Traditionally, native adswere adopted and promoted by publications and brands. When the schemeof things was limited to 1:1 relationships between the publisher andadvertiser, it was probably feasible to hire a separate “advertorial”eam to craft unique messaging for every such relationship.

But with so many appcategories and properties now finding face time with the user, no onehas the luxury to craft different messaging for every advertiser, norwould it be a scalable model. Advertisers who leverage the reach andargeting capabilities of ad networks like InMobi create a commonmessaging for all publishers and use it to reach out to theirintended audience.

7) Will my users acceptnative ads or is it considered deceptive?

Not if you clearly markevery native ad unit as an “Ad” or “Sponsored” content.Since the launch of Android and the proliferation of mobile usageamongst the masses, mobile users have come to accept ads in theirapps as a small price for free usage. As long as the ad is clearlymarked and does not try to deceive the user into clicking by posingas other content, you are good to go.

While ad networks do notmandate the use of visible tags like “Ad” and “Sponsored”legally, app stores have started ousting apps which do not clearlydemarcate an ad. Ultimately, the choice is yours.