Native advertising: ads dressed as content, and where the click should land

Where native ads turn up, and why they work at all

Native advertising is any paid placement made to match what's around it. A sponsored article on a magazine's site. A post in your Instagram feed that looks like the posts either side of it. A row of recommended stories under a news piece, one of them yours. A sponsored listing sitting in a marketplace's search results like everything else.

It works because people skip anything that looks like an ad. Dress the ad as the thing they came to read and they'll give it a few seconds. That's the whole trick. It's also the catch: the person who clicks was reading, not shopping.

The UK rule: a native ad still has to be obviously an ad

Matching the format is fine. Hiding that you paid isn't. The advertising code the ASA enforces says marketing has to be obviously identifiable as marketing, and it gives advertisement feature as an example heading for advertorials.

So expect the label and don't fight it. A good piece still works with an ad label on top, because people stay for a story worth reading. If it only works when nobody notices you paid, it doesn't work.

Catching the reader before the curiosity wears off

Somebody who clicked a sponsored story about sleeping badly hasn't decided to buy a pillow. They've decided to read about sleep. Drop them on the homepage and they're gone, along with what you paid for the click. It's the same handoff problem as sending Meta ads to the homepage.

• A landing page that carries on the story the ad started, in the same words
• A sign-up offer that suits a reader, like a guide or a quiz, before any discount
• A property on the Klaviyo profile saying which placement they came from
• A welcome flow that picks up the same argument, not the generic one

That last one is where most native budgets leak. The article earned a bit of trust, then the welcome flow opens with a brand story the reader's just been told. Write email one to finish the article's point.

Measuring native advertising past the first session

On a last-click report, native ads tend to look weak, and for an honest reason. Readers rarely buy on the first visit, so the sale lands weeks later under email, search or direct.

Judge a placement by the group it brings in: how many signed up, and what they spent once the welcome flow had done its work. Tag the source at sign-up, while you can still see it. Later, it's gone.