Good advertising is the cornerstone of success in the digital environment. The way we move through the virtual world has changed dramatically in recent years. As a result, marketing teams are constantly on the lookout for new, innovative ways to appropriately address relevant target groups. One trend that is becoming increasingly established, especially in English-speaking countries, is native advertising. Here, advertising content is integrated into the natural flow of the web environment. But what are the advantages of native ads, and will they catch on in the German market?

Users Have an Increasing Awareness of Advertising

We spend around two hours a day online in social media, on news portals and other advertising websites. Colorful banners and pop-ups are still very much in evidence today. In this context, users have developed a high level of advertising awareness, especially on social media and information websites. They are aware of the mass of advertising and the tolerance level for advertising placements of all kinds has increasingly fallen in recent years.

According to GlobalWebIndex, the inhabitants of the Philippines are the absolute world champions in social media - they spend an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes in various apps. The Japanese occupy last place here with just 48 minutes a day.

Users find advertising annoying, especially when it actively disrupts the flow of reading. Here, flashing banner ads on the side of the page can be classified as negative, as can pop-ups. The younger generation is particularly relevant for advertising campaigns, but at the same time is most likely to question advertising concepts. This poses many challenges for marketing campaigns. Native Ads seem to offer a successful solution.

Native Ads Fit in Seamlessly

Native ads are seamlessly integrated into the website content. Accordingly, the ad placement has an identical design to the rest of the site's content. Thus, it is classified as a legitimate part of the page for the users. The reading flow is not interrupted in any way. This means that the presented advertising content is perceived neutrally. In addition, the concentration on the content remains at the same level. Classic banner ads are perceived but actively hidden by users. With native ads, this perceptual break does not occur.

Place Advertising in News Environments

The concept is particularly proven for news websites. A number of factors come into play here:

• Users perceive the content on news websites in a concentrated way. They take sufficient time to obtain and understand the desired information.
• Users have a high level of trust in established and well-known news portals in particular - this applies to all content on the site.
• Advertising acceptance on news portals is higher than on other websites. Users see advertising as necessary to cover the cost of quality news content.

The perception is particularly serious in contrast to advertising placements in social media. There, people focus on individual content at an average of 0.5 seconds. For news articles, the average is almost two minutes. This high level of user concentration is thus seamlessly transferred to the advertising content. Since these are additionally classified as less annoying because they are accepted as cost-relevant, the advertising effect is very high. Video ads in native form are also successful

Modern advertising campaigns rely on moving images. An image film about the company or the presentation of a new product, a video ad has a very high impact. Video ads can also be placed in native format. When the ad is clicked, the video opens on a customized background that overlays the web page but does not navigate the user away from it. When the ad is closed, the user is still on the original page. This concept also helps native content be better accepted by target audiences than banner ads and pop-ups. Since the video content doesn't open automatically, users have active control over what they want to see and what they don't. This, in turn, helps create better advertising campaigns and a seamless customer experience.

Note: Regardless of what form of native ads are served, it must always be clear that the content is advertising. The word "ad" is often integrated.

The Market for Specialized Providers is Growing

There is hardly an advertising agency that completely does without the benefit of these new ads. However, it is often the customers, especially in Germany, who want to rely on old concepts such as banners. Those who are looking for a modern alternative for high-quality advertising are well advised to use Native Ads. There are already experienced companies that use comprehensive networks for advertising partners. There is the option to completely hand over the marketing and have the ads managed by an agency. Or advertisers use self-booking platforms, such as those known for forms of advertising like Google Ads. Self-booking platforms are ideal when the advertising budget is still limited. Start-ups, corporations and medium-sized companies can secure good advertising services here at fair prices.

Conclusion - The Future is Native

In Germany, too, the market will increasingly switch to this type of advertising in the coming years. Anyone who wants to hold their own in the online environment cannot afford to annoy their potential clientele with the wrong advertising approaches. Our advice is to explore the diverse options of native advertising at an early stage in order to stand out from the competition in good time.