7 Native Advertising Companies You Need to Know About
If you’re having trouble getting your content noticed through all the noise that exists online today, I can’t recommend native advertising enough.
I’ve used it on both the Louder Online blog and on campaigns for my clients, and there’s simply no faster option for generating fast traffic than this new paid promotional model.
But what is native advertising? And how do you get started?
Sharethrough defines native advertising as:
As advertisers, this provides a unique opportunity for us to reach users where they consume content. When done correctly, it doesn’t disrupt their experience. Instead, it enhances it.
That said, if you want to get involved with native advertising, you need to first understand the different ways native ads are published before we can discuss the different platforms available.
The IAB Playbook does a great job of breaking down the different ad units you’ll see, including:
- In-feed
- Paid search
- Recommendation widgets
- Promoted listings
- In-ad (with native elements)
- Custom/”can’t be contained”
External tools and platforms often focus on the three main categories: in-feed, in-ad and recommendation widgets.
The following platforms all help advertisers land spots on top media outlets, increase their brand recognition, and promote high-quality, relevant content to users.
Outbrain
Outbrain built its brand by providing brands access to top publications through recommendation widgets. It allows users to promote articles, videos, infographics, slideshows and other earned media that provides entertainment or informational value.
An astounding 80 percent of the world’s leading brands use Outbrain. They operate across the world to provide real-time recommendations to audiences on top publishing websites like CNN, Slate and ESPN.
Outbrain uses a cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model, which means that you only pay when someone clicks on your promoted story. Advanced testing and conversion tools within the platform help you determine how to optimize your campaigns in order to reach your goals.
Taboola
This company started as a video recommendation service, though they’ve since pivoted to become a leading content discovery platform. In some instances, their commitment to analyzing visual content may give them the upper-hand when it comes to competing with other platforms that struggle to distribute visuals.
Today, Taboola’s predictive engine serves up content on major publishing sites like:
- Business Insider
- Yahoo!
- Mail Online
- NBC
You can get real-time insights on your campaigns using the company’s analytics dashboard, which can help your team analyze its performance and adjust its strategies based on results.
Taboola uses a similar pricing model as Outbrain (CPC), with an additional option to pay a bit more per click for access to the platform’s top publishers.
Sharethrough
Sharethrough boasts itself as the world’s largest in-feed ad exchange. With publishers like Forbes, Real Simple and People, your content can reach up to 247 million viewers through sophisticated audience targeting.
The platform also features several proprietary pieces of technology, including content quality tracking tools, content cards and a creative optimization system.
Each of these features work together to provide an enhanced experience for your native advertising goals. The company seems incredibly committed to equipping users with the tools needed to drive success, so definitely check this platform out if you’re thinking about getting into native advertising.
AdsNative
AdsNative strives to make the Internet a better place through programmatic native advertising and a wide network that includes more than 1,000 publishers across a variety of industries. With both display and video ad formats, you’ll have the opportunity to put your best content in front of thousands of people.
AdsNative uses in-feed and in-ad placement strategy, giving you a variety of different advertising options, such as:
- In-feed
- In-article
- End-of-post
- In-app
- Custom placement
Companies can also take advantage of the platform’s white-label feature, which gives you access to the system’s technology and infrastructure within your own network and apps. Develop customized dashboards, deliver reports and monitor campaigns – all with AdsNative.
TripleLift
TripleLift differentiates themselves by focusing on their image-delivery technology; specifically, their Computer Vision tool, which reads images to format them perfectly on all devices, every time.
Focusing specifically on their USP, the company uses the OpenRTB platform to access the industry’s largest ad exchange. It works pretty simply:
- Place your bid for the ad space
- If you win, the platform identifies your image and caption assets
- Rendering technology formats your content to deliver a native, high-quality image.
If your brand spends time on visual-focused content, you’ll definitely want to check out what TripleLift offers. It could be just the native advertising platform you need to get your content in front of the right audience.
Nativo
Nativo claims that their programmatic platform improves native ad performance by 300%. Because the platform serves content within a publisher’s editorial stream, each ad is guaranteed to match the look and feel of the specific publication.
This native advertising approach offers the following benefits to everyone involved:
- Non-disruptive experience for consumers
- Publishers receive premium monetization
- Higher engagement rates for advertisers
The platform automatically delivers your content through this process. In addition, you can use their native-specific analytics system to understand performance, analyze revenue and see your A/B testing results.
Instinctive
Instinctive wants to help your brand align form, function and fit to promote earned media that gets results through their innovative platform, which syndicates your blog articles and videos in real time to their network of publishers.
The company’s patented Fully-Native technology brings you several benefits:
- In-depth attention metrics
- 100 percent viewable guaranteed
- Programmatic integration
- Enterprise-grade console
Each of these platforms can help you take your content marketing campaigns from entry level efforts to native advertising powerhouses. That said, maintaining a presence on each platform gets expensive, so it’s wise to choose the one that works best with your brand’s goals, objectives and budget.