Content Marketing and Native Advertising have emerged as two important forms of online marketing with more and more marketers turning to them to generate better results.
However, marketers often confuse one for the other.
What is Native Advertising and what is Content Marketing and how are they different?
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Let’s start with two important definitions first.
Europe’s Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines Native Advertising as an: Advertising format that matches the look, feel, and function of the media environment in which it appears. Compared to other forms of advertising which try to stand out and force attention, Native Advertising is the exact opposite in its attempt to fit in seamlessly with its environment.
The key words here are advertising that matches the look, feel, and function of the media environment in which it appears – the media environment being a website where the Native Ad has been placed.
This gives Native Ads an advantage over standard digital advertising formats. They blend seamlessly with organic content and are not disruptive or intrusive.
Further, IAB Europe defines Native Advertising as “commercial content that is advertiser-controlled or jointly publisher/advertiser controlled (e.g. online advertorial, advertiser funded content or advertisement features) and is designed to fit with the format and style of the surrounding editorial content.”
The keywords here are commercial content that is advertiser-controlled or jointly publisher/advertiser controlled.
As against this, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), America, defines Content Marketing as: “Content marketing is the marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience.”
The keywords here are “the technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content”. And the purpose of this activity is to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience.
According to IAB, America, “Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant, and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. The originator of the content is a consumer- or business-facing brand that traditionally communicates with consumers via advertising, public relations, or a retail sales channel. Within this paradigm, content assets, experiences, strategies, and tactics are adopted by a marketer who is ultimately pursuing the more traditional marketing goals of brand preference, brand equity, and brand awareness.”
Differences between Content Marketing and Native Advertising
The following are the main differences between Content Marketing and Native Advertising:
# 1. Location: Content Marketing is primarily conducted on owned media which is the company’s website, blog or social media handle. The company designs and displays content as it desires.
#2. Purpose: Content Marketing creates content to educate and inform customers, build trust and loyalty. The purpose of Native Advertising is to create advertisements to generate sales.
# 3. Costs: The cost in Content Marketing is largely limited to the cost of creating content though at times content marketers also use paid advertising to promote content. Native Advertising is much more expensive as every Native Ad is published on third party sites, and publishers charge according to their reach, standing and audience deliverables.
# 4. Format: Content Marketing uses one or more of the following formats to publish content: blogs, newsletters, white papers, case studies, podcasts, videos, infographics, how-to guides, social media posts etc
Native ads are published as video ads on a third-party website, paid ads on social media platforms, email ads placed in third party newsletters, and recommendations promoted by recommendation widgets such as Outbrain or Taboola.
#5. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Content Marketing is dependent upon the way search engines rank content. Therefore, all content has to be search engine optimised.
Native Advertising is based on direct transfer of customers from the ad to the company website. It therefore does not need search engine support for generating organic traffic.
Summary: The differences between the two are clear. It is for the marketers to decide which form of online marketing to adopt – Native Advertising or Content Marketing – based on their objectives.
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