In June, The New York Times published a native ad that was not terrible. It was investigative journalism plus sponsored content at its best. Many said it meant that the corporate sponsored news piece model might not be a bad thing after all. If pieces like this could come out of it, maybe there was hope for native advertising after all, right?

Jon Oliver disagrees, with lots of colorful language.

Yes, native advertising can be done well.

This can occur because some people have integrity and honor, and don’t want to trick people into believing a lie.

But, native advertising will not always be done well.

What we have seen throughout history is that many people who make it to the top of the food chain do not share those values, and will trick you right out of your dollars without a second thought. If native ads can be done right, and we can all rejoice when that happens, that means the expectation is that they will often, if not almost always, be done wrong.

Misleading and advertising should not go together, and we have current laws in the US that are designed to protect citizens from this. In fact, the blogger disclosure law was updated in the past few years to become more stringent.

My thoughts on native ads – It’s complicated…

So, if it’s not clear, I’m not a big fan of native advertising, unless the markings are blindingly clear. As a content marketing agency though, you might wonder how I align this respect of a free and unfettered press with content marketing, which is, by it’s very nature, designed to impact the buying decision and is clearly corporate sponsored. In fact, native ads are just content marketing in a channel that is not owned by the corporation. So, what’s the difference?

Permission

When a prospective customer searches for advice on creating a content strategy via a search engine, and they click on one of my blog posts, they have given me permission to both teach them and to market to them. They understand that while I do want to help them with their current marketing needs, I am a content marketing agency so I ultimately hope they will use my services.

When a news reader is on the Atlantic, and they see this native ad, is it clear that it’s an ad, or a story – because in this case, it’s both.

Awareness

It’s clear that I am a marketing agency so it’s also clear that my point of view may come with bias. I’ll help and educate, and I often give out free advice, but my aim is to sell content services, and that is abundantly clear, thanks the calls to action (CTA) that are in my sidebars and at the bottom of all my posts.

When a news reader is looking at their LinkedIn feed, which is typically full of research reports and the like, will they be aware that this is an ad?

Intent

If I have a client who is a landscaper, and his content is primarily focused on teaching homeowners and businesses how to care for their yard, it’s fairly clear to anyone who lands on his page that he is a landscaper and he’d like to sell his landscaping services. The intent is clear, and the agenda is not hidden.

The Scientology article that ran in the Atlantic is probably the worst example, thus far, of native ads, because the intent wasn’t clear. Take a look at the full pdf archived by Poynter.

Saving Journalism Costs Money

Of course, these tactics wouldn’t be necessary if we were willing to pay for news, but obviously, we are not. Advertising has to be used to pay for news, and it has to improve for companies to be willing to buy it. Display ads are useless and even PPC ads are only clicked 3% of the time. Advertising has to get better, but it doesn’t have to be misleading be effective.

Native ads are content marketing pieces that end up in a place where people expect news, so there has to be a barrier of some sort.

To be clear, I’m not fully against native ads, but I think some sort of regulations are in order. If bloggers are regulated, then corporations should be too. A tiny ‘sponsored’ is not sufficient. Full branding and overwhelming logos have to accompany the article, and each post should begin with clear, mandatory language that protects the uninformed reader from guile. Native advertising is extremely effective, but has to be done with caution.

I’m biased, certainly, but I think content marketing is the smartest way to spread your marketing message while delivering value to the consumer. Content marketing allows businesses to share valuable content, without stepping over the line.

I’d love to see most businesses offer a content resource center as a service to their customers. The benefits to both customer acquisition and rentention are fantastic. Talk to your content marketing agency to explore your options for increasing revenue through content.