The Difference: Native Advertising vs Content Marketing
Native Advertising vs Content Marketing
Native advertising and content marketing are valuable marketing strategies with similar goals: increased traffic, engagement, and sales. However, whereas native advertising is a straightforward, specific approach to distributing content, content marketing encompasses a much larger strategy.
Native Advertising
Native advertising is something that all of us are familiar with to an extent.
It’s a type of online marketing characterized by a streamlined and unobtrusive ad placement and the targeted and valuable information that it provides to a specified demographic.
Native ads are placed “ seamlessly” within a website so that they don’t disrupt the experience of the viewer, like in between paragraphs, and usually do not appear like a traditional ad in that they may not directly advertise for a digital service.
Benefits of Native Advertising
Because native advertising uses ads that “blend in” to the platform they’re on, users are more likely to click on the ad to learn more because they trust the website they’re visiting. In fact, recent studies show that native ads receive a 5-10x higher CTR (click-through rate) than traditional ads.
This is likely because users find native ads 62% easier to understand than other types of display ads and 31% easier to understand than social ads. Additionally, ad blockers don’t impact native ads. So, even if an internet user has one activated, your content will still show up on the websites you choose.
Native advertising works on desktops and mobile devices, so marketers can reach their target audience wherever they spend online.
Content Marketing
On the other hand, content marketing is a much bigger idea and has a wider and longer-term focused goal. Like native advertising, content marketing provides valuable knowledge to raise brand awareness while targeting a specialized group of potential customers.
However, content marketing goes further in that its primary focus is moreover to nourish the lead as part of a long-term process with the end result being sales and conversions. It is not a single piece of content but an ongoing process that integrates into an overall marketing campaign.
Benefits of Content Marketing
There are many benefits of creating a robust content marketing strategy. When you identify the type of content your target audience is most interested in, you can serve them that content across various platforms, including your website, social pages, and email marketing campaigns.
Content marketing drives traffic, engagement, and sales when done correctly. Additionally, content marketing helps to move your audience through the buyer’s journey, building trust along the way. And the more your audience knows, likes, and trusts you, the more likely they are to purchase your services or products. One study found that 67% of users rely heavily on a brand’s content when making purchasing decisions.
While more of a long game than a direct approach like native advertising, content marketing is an essential marketing strategy.
What Do Native Advertising and Content Marketing Have in Common?
Native advertising and content marketing are both ways to distribute content. Native advertising distributes content through ads on various websites. The content created through content marketing, on the other hand, lives on platforms you “own,” such as your social pages and the blog on your website. Both of these marketing strategies focus on building trust with your target audience to increase engagement and sales.