Lindsey Komson

Have you ever been tricked into clicking on an ad? Have you ever seen a piece of content that looks like a regular old article or video, but it’s really an ad?

In this digital world we live in, especially fueled by AI nowadays, native advertising has become a big question mark in the industry in terms of what’s ethical and what’s not.

Let’s look into what native advertising is, how and why it works, some relevant examples, and ways to avoid this big question mark as AI and other technologies continue to take over every corner of the internet.

What is native advertising?

According to Semrush, “Native ads are a type of paid advertisement that blends with the look and feel of the content on the platform where they appear.”

For example, if you’re scrolling through articles on the CBS News website, you’ll eventually come across a post that says something like “10 Fall Activities to Enjoy with Your Family in New York.” It could be formatted just like every other article on that page, but it’s an ad. You’d never know unless you clicked on it and saw a sponsored message, but even then, sometimes it’s not that visible.

“Native advertising lets you engage your audience across different channels, such as search engines, social media feeds, and content discovery platforms like Google, Discover, Feedly, Reddit, Quora, and more.”

Native advertising can be found in several different formats. As I mentioned before, articles are probably the most referenced, but they are also commonly found as social media posts, images, and videos.

On social media, it’s very common to see a few posts labeled “Sponsored,” “Promoted,” or “Ad” within your feed. We all usually scroll past them, but that’s native advertising. We come across a native ad every few seconds and might never realize it.

How and why does it work?

As Tequia Burt, Editor in Chief at LinkedIn explains, it works because “native advertising is designed specifically not to look like an ad, making it harder to ignore. Instead, it’s designed to look like the rest of the content on the page.”

For example, if you are scrolling on LinkedIn and see a post highlighting ChatGPT’s newest features, unless you’re connected with someone who works at OpenAI, that’s probably a form of native advertising on your feed. It’s formatted like any other post and it’s related to professional development, so some people might engage without knowing it’s an ad.

Burt backs this claim, explaining that native ads have the potential to increase conversions. A Taboola study found that native ads were more effective than the industry average at raising brand favorability, message association, and customer consideration.

What’s the problem?

The problem with native advertising is that it can be deceptive if it doesn’t follow the right guidelines or ethics. Some people find it unethical because they’re being fed advertisements in a place where they don’t think that’s the case.

The American Marketing Association published an article explaining how to make native advertising more ethical, and they began with a story of a native ad that was rejected by Entertainment Weekly’s advertising department because it was too similar to the rest of the magazine and it would be too confusing for readers.

The problem with native ads in an article format is that it looks too similar to the journalistic content that exists on the same platform. Journalism exists to inform the public for their own good in an ethical way, and native ads could be created and published with not always the most ethical intentions. People’s trust in journalism could be threatened by the hosting of native ads on the same platform as real news articles.

My take: ethical or unethical?

I think native advertising is ethical as long as publishers and other companies make their intentions known.

If a company’s intention is to trick people into clicking links to make money, that’s not ethical. These people don’t care about the content they’re advertising, they just want revenue.

If your intent is to advertise a product or service and drive conversions, that’s ethical. As long as the company makes it clear that they’re advertising on a platform where their content might blend in with the rest.

So, on that note, how can we make native advertising more ethical?

According to the American Marketing Association, these are 6 ways to make native advertising more ethical:

• Follow FTC guidelines: be transparent and clearly label your content as an advertisement
• Clear labeling: sponsored content labels must be obvious
• Research more: study how an audience interacts with native ads
• Make the brand part of the byline: for example, “Written by LinkedIn”
• Never hard sell: it’s native advertising, don’t throw the content in people’s faces
• Stay out of the news: leave the journalists to the newswriting

Native advertisements can be seen as both ethical and unethical in today’s digital landscape. By following these tips and understanding your intended audience, native advertising can be a great source of revenue for your business if done ethically.