Why do you need native advertising platforms?
If you’re looking for new ways to reach your target audience, native advertising is a great option.
These ads are less intrusive than other forms of advertising, so your audience is more likely to engage with them.
Native advertising platforms allow you to place your ad on sites where it will be seen by people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
To help you get started with native advertising, we’ve compiled a list of the 7 best native advertising platforms. These platforms offer a variety of features, so you can find the one that best suits your needs.
But first, let’s understand what native advertising is all about and its benefits.
Native advertising is a form of online advertising that matches the look and feel of the website or app it appears on. Native ads are often less intrusive than other types of online advertising, making them a good choice for publishers who want to keep their readers happy.
Here’s a popular example of native advertising from Allbirds, a sustainable clothing company. Their article on how climate change is affecting birds was published in the New York Times as a paid post.
Image via New York Times
It looks just like any other piece of content on the website, when in reality it was a paid post. That’s the beauty of native advertising—it looks and feels like the native content of a platform.
Native ads are essentially designed to appear as part of the environment they are in. Yet, there are different ways to display native ads that we have discussed here.
In-feed ads are a type of native advertising that appears within the content feed of a social media platform, a website, or an app.
These are designed to blend in with the surrounding content and can take many different forms, such as article placements, product recommendations, or even sponsored posts.
While the content is marked as a ‘sponsored post,’ its format is similar to the content in the publication.
Here’s an example of an in-feed ad by Statista on Instagram that looks like a regular Instagram post.
Image via Instagram
These ads are designed to integrate with users’ browsing experiences on ecommerce platforms. They display sponsored products that resemble those on the page the user is viewing.
Here is an example of promoted product listings from Amazon. The first image shows the product that is being viewed, while the second image shows the promoted listings.
Image via Amazon
While search ads are similar to promoted listings, they appear on the top of your search results. These types of native ads promote businesses based on the preferences or the current location of the searcher.
You might have encountered ‘You may also like’ or “Recommended for you” sections when you finish reading an article or blog on some websites. These content recommendations can also be classified as native ads. Here’s an example from the BBC.
Image via BBC
Branded content goes beyond just sticking your brand logo on content. It's about creating high-quality SEO content that resonates with the publisher’s target audience while subtly promoting your brand.
About 43% of consumers trust in brand content when it's crafted by experts. 42% trust it even more when it clearly states who it's created by.
You can create articles, videos, infographics, or other multimedia content, to inform or entertain while still promoting your products or services. Branded content helps you build trust, brand awareness and credibility with your potential customers.
Jeep sponsors some of National Geographic's documentaries and articles showcasing breathtaking landscapes and remote destinations.
Image via YouTube
Native ads take many forms and choosing the right ones is crucial for your native advertising campaigns. Here are some advertising formats to pay attention to in 2025.
Short-Form Video
Video continues to reign, with short-form content leading the pack. You can use platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to capture your audience’s attention with quick, engaging video ads. Be sure to use the best video editing software to create polished and professional-looking content.
Interactive Ads
Tactile interstitial ads continue to gain popularity as they provide a more engaging experience. These full-screen mobile ads, often triggered during page transitions, use a combination of video, image, and text to deliver a more engaging experience than static banners.
Voice-Search Ads
As voice assistants become more common, optimizing your advertising for voice search is crucial.
This means using natural language patterns in your ad copy and focusing on local search to ensure your offerings appear in relevant voice queries. Utilize SEO best practices to enhance your website and ad visibility.
AR and VR Ads
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming more accessible, enabling immersive native advertising experiences. You can create interactive AR filters or VR simulations to showcase your products or tell compelling stories.
Shoppable Ads
Shoppable native ads allow your customers to purchase products directly within the ad unit, streamlining the shopping experience. Whether through social media platforms, influencer marketing partnerships, or dedicated shoppable ad formats, this trend is reshaping native advertising.
Before we list the top native advertising platforms, let’s understand why native ads are better than traditional ads and should be a part of your marketing strategy.
Ad fatigue is inevitable, with thousands of ads popping up across various digital channels. Unsurprisingly, 50% of the world’s internet users use some kind of ad blocker or anti-tracking system to access ad-free content.
Native ads are less intrusive than other types of ads, such as pop-ups. This means that people are less likely to be annoyed by them and more likely to engage with them.
Native advertisements are more effective than traditional ads, because they appear more trustworthy.
According to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer report 71% of users agree that they need to trust a brand before they buy products. Gen Z places an even greater emphasis on brand trust, as 79% say it's important to them.
Native ads are more engaging than traditional display ads because they blend in with the content around them.
The fact that these ads use a trust-based approach minus the annoying hard-sell attracts higher engagement.
This trust-based, less intrusive approach has a much higher CTR (click-through-rate) than a harder conversion-based approach.
Image via Outbrain
That’s not all. Native ads increase purchase intent by 18%.
Native ads can be better targeted than other types of ads because they can be matched with specific content topics.
For example, if you sell hiking gear, your ad might appear on a website or blog about hiking and camping. This ensures that your ad is being seen by people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Native advertising is generally more affordable than other types of advertising, given the ROI it can deliver. This makes it a great option for small businesses or businesses with limited budgets for marketing and advertising.
You might now be wondering how to create native ads that blend in with their surroundings and promote them on the right channels. This is where native advertising platforms come into the picture.
It’s time to look at the top 6 native advertising platforms that help you run targeted native ad campaigns.
Native ads are considered to be more trustworthy and impactful than traditional ads. When your ad campaigns are more relevant and targeted, your audience will likely engage with them and take the desired action.
Let’s take a quick look at the best practices for crafting a solid native advertising strategy that yields higher ROI.
Quality content is the core of a successful native advertising plan. Step into your audience’s shoes to identify the content that is valuable to them. Invest in creating content that is rich in information and easy to process.
Say no to click baits and craft ad content that will capture the reader’s attention. Connect with your audience emotionally, whether you provide a tip or a light-hearted video ad.
Move away from the conventional native advertising formats and test creative approaches to enhance your brand's visibility. Rigorous testing is necessary to understand what works with your audience.
When testing different native advertising platforms, always try their latest formats. They will add freshness to your ads and help you stand out in the crowd.
The use of robotic and technical language in your ads may turn off your audience. Instead, use a friendly, inviting, and conversational tone to encourage your readers to check out your offerings.
The headline, ad copy and CTA should all flow like a conversation. Present value to the readers and nudge them to visit your landing pages to explore your products or services. However, avoid slang or casual language and always maintain your brand voice.
Focus on creating targeted, personalized native advertising based on region, audience age, and cultural influence. This personalization will make your ads unique and help the readers connect better with your content.
Now that we have a good overview of native advertising, it’s time to look at the top seven native advertising platforms that help you run targeted native ad campaigns.
These native advertising platforms connect advertisers with leading publishers who already have a large user base. They also give users a range of tools to discover content, create ads, and track their ads’ performance.
Here are our top seven picks for the best native advertising platforms.
Image via Nativo
Nativo is one of the most reliable native advertising platforms that help brands reach their audiences through native ads.
By leveraging Nativo’s native ad networks, brands can create and publish beautiful, engaging ads that blend in seamlessly with the look and feel of a website or app, making them more likely to be seen and interacted with by users.
Key Features
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Pro Tip: Leverage Nativo's data analytics platform provides valuable insights that you can use to improve your campaigns.
Image via Outbrain
If you are looking for the best native advertising platforms that help marketers reach their target audiences with relevant content, you can’t go wrong with Outbrain.
As one of the best programmatic native advertising platforms, it provides a suite of tools to help marketers plan, create, and measure the performance of their native advertising campaigns.
The native advertising platform only accepts publishers who get million-plus visits per month, which is one of the reasons behind the high volume of daily views and clicks the platform delivers.
Additionally, Outbrain leverages advanced advertising technology to provide insights and guidance to help marketers optimize their campaigns for maximum impact.
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Pro Tip: Use Zemanta for strategic delivery: Zemanta, Outbrain's DSP, can help you target audiences across different platforms.
Image via Adsterra
Adsterra is one of the best native advertising platforms for marketing your brand to the masses. It is a great choice for brands, affiliates, agencies, and SSP or DSP partners. Adsterra partners with over 35,000 publishers, generating over 35 billion impressions monthly.
The platform provides three-layer security for advertisers and publishers. Using advanced filters, you can estimate traffic and explore new markets.
Key Features
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Adsterra offers different pricing models like CPA, CPC, and CPM. Pricing will be fixed based on your native advertising requirements.
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Pro Tip: Adsterra provides two free courses to help you learn about SEO and affiliate marketing. Enrol today for free and get access to lectures and resources prepared by experts.
Image via Sharethrough
Next up in this list of the best native advertising platforms is Sharethrough. The platform helps brands reach consumers through native ads on high-quality sites and apps.
With Sharethrough, brands can target specific audiences with relevant content, and measure the performance of their ads with detailed analytics.
Let’s see how it compares to other native advertising platforms.
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Pro Tip: Explore data integration options: Since data export features are limited, explore potential workarounds for integrating Sharethrough data with your marketing and web analytics tools.
Image via Taboola
As a leading native advertising platform, Taboola allows brands to reach new audiences through its extensive ad network. Taboola's native ads are served to users in the form of recommended content and can be customized to match the look and feel of a brand's site.
Taboola's native ads are effective because they are highly visible and relevant to the users. When a user is reading an article on a website, they will see recommended articles from Taboola at the bottom of the page.
These content recommendations are based on the user's interests, and allow brands to reach new audiences who may be interested in their product or service.
Native advertising on Taboola is a cost-effective way to reach new audiences and can be customized to match the look and feel of a brand's site.
Key Features
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Pro Tip: Optimize your creatives: While Taboola offers creative services, consider creating high-quality ad copy and visuals in-house.
Image via RevContent
Next up on our list of the best native advertising platforms is RevContent. Featuring an intuitive platform, RevContent promises high-quality ads and authentic results.
Apart from a fully automated process of native ad placement, the native ad platform offers deep insights to help you tweak your marketing campaigns.
Let’s look at the native advertising platform’s features.
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Pro Tip: Leverage account management: Take advantage of RevContent’s dedicated account management to get expert advice and guidance on campaign optimization.
Image via TripleLift
In an increasingly crowded digital advertising landscape, TripleLift has emerged as one of the best native advertising platforms. It provides an effective and user-friendly interface to connect advertisers and publishers.
Not only does the platform ensure that ads blend seamlessly into the content, but it also prioritizes the quality and aesthetics of the ad creative. TripleLift places a strong emphasis on visual storytelling, enabling brands to deliver impactful messages.
The best part is that TripleLift uses advanced computer vision technology, dynamic templating, and predictive modeling to help advertisers optimize the results of native advertising.
Take a look at the features, pros, and cons to know if it’s the right choice for your business.
Key Features
Pros
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Pricing
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Pro Tip: Utilize computer vision technology: Leverage TripleLift's computer vision to optimize ad creatives for placement and maximize impact.
Q1. What are native advertising platforms?
A. Native advertising platforms help marketers design and run targeted native ads campaigns.
Native ads are online advertisements that are designed to blend in with the content on the website where they are displayed.
They can take many different forms, such as articles, videos, or images, and are typically labeled as “sponsored content” or “promoted posts.”
Q2. What is an example of native advertising?
A. One example of native advertising is how Netflix promoted “Narcos,” a show on drugs by creating a portal in collaboration with Wall Street Journal. The interactive map on the portal traces the international drug trade’s history and the cartel featured in Narcos.
Q3. What are native ads in advertising?
A. Native advertising is a type of advertising that is designed to blend in with the surrounding content on a website or app. This means that native ads are less intrusive than other types of ads and can provide a better user experience.
Q4. What are the various types of native advertising?
A. There popular types of native advertising are search advertising, social advertising, and content recommendations. Search ads are those that appear in search results and social (or in-feed) ads are those that appear on social platforms.
Content recommendations appear on websites and apps as recommended content.
Q5. What are the best native advertising platforms?
A. The native advertising platforms that we recommend are Nativo, Outbrain, Taboola, Sharethrough, RevContent, TripleLift, and Adsterra.
These native advertising platforms offer a variety of features, such as campaign management, reporting, and optimization tools. These can help marketers get the most out of their campaigns.
Q6. What is the most effective platform for advertising?
A. There is no particular most effective platform for advertising. The best platform depends on your specific marketing goals, target audience, and budget. However, native advertising platforms are a great place to start.
Q7. What is the future of native advertising?
A. The future of native advertising looks bright. As consumers become increasingly accustomed to blocking traditional ads, native advertising is expected to continue growing in popularity. Native advertising platforms will likely offer advertisers more sophisticated native ad technology to create engaging ad experiences.
Q8. Are native ads profitable?
A. Native ads can be very profitable for your brand when implemented correctly. Since they are less disruptive and more relevant to user interests, native ads often generate higher click-through rates and conversion rates compared to traditional display ads.
Q9. How do I start native advertising?
A. Here is how you can get started with native advertising:
Q10. How can I improve my native ads?
A. To improve your native advertising, consider the following strategies:
We hope that this guide has given you a better understanding of what native advertising is and which native advertising platforms will help you reach your target audience.
Whichever platform you choose, make sure to test it out and see how it performs before committing to it long-term.
To get the most out of your native advertising campaign, get in touch with Attrock's digital marketing team. We will work with you to develop a comprehensive solution that meets your specific needs.
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