{"id":1828,"date":"2019-02-08T10:40:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T10:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.revcontent.com\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2022-06-14T04:56:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T04:56:24","slug":"how-consumers-perceive-native-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/how-consumers-perceive-native-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"How Consumers Perceive Native Advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article appears as a guest contribution from the RevContent Thought-Leadership Network. The Thought-Leadership Network brings commentary from the world\u2019s leading digital and content marketing minds. To apply to join the network, please submit a link to published blogs or articles as well as a bio and topic ideas to pr@revcontent.com.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n By: Joshua Keller<\/strong><\/p>\n If you asked fifty different people how they defined native advertising, you would probably get fifty different answers. At its core, a native ad is an advertisement that matches the form and function of the website or platform on which it appears.<\/p>\n Native ads first became popular in the early 2010s. They were recognized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in 2014 and have continued to grow in use and popularity since then. If you look at an article on just about any website, you\u2019ll often see advertiser content at the bottom of the page. Though they look like articles, these links are often native ads.<\/p>\n These ads are usually categorized under \u201crecommended\u201d or \u201csponsored\u201d content. This still clearly denotes the content as an advertisement, but it does so while maintaining the overall look of the page.<\/p>\n Part of the reason this format has become popular is because banner ads are so distracting to site users that many have begun to subconsciously tune them out. As many as 86 percent of consumers have trained their brains to ignore banner-like content, resulting in banner ad engagement rates falling below 0.1 percent<\/a>. Eye tracking studies<\/a> indicate users are more engaged with items\u2014including ads\u2014that appear to be native elements on a webpage. In this study, audiences looked at native ads 53 percent more than they did banner ads.<\/p>\n Why are banner ads so ignored? There are a few reasons, but the biggest is that they\u2019re invasive and disruptive to a user\u2019s experience. Ads are one of the most valuable revenue drivers for many sites, especially news sites and blogs. It\u2019s understandable that organizations are looking for ways to monetize, but it becomes a problem when ads overtake the content.<\/p>\n Often this is the case with banner ads, which at worst obscure content and make a page unreadable. If users have to constantly scroll past ads and click out of pop-ups, the site is creating a negative user experience.<\/p>\n