Native advertising. A format that makes sense.

In today's world of information overload, it is difficult to get attention. The human brain even lacks the capacity to absorb the thousands of advertising messages it is exposed to every day. That’s why there’s an increasing phenomenon called banner blindness – people tend to ignore online ads and mostly want intriguing content. This is precisely what native advertising can offer.

As a result, the use and presence of the format have been growing steadily. It’s enough to have a look at the social networks where it is riding high in popularity. The clickthrough rate of native ads in Facebook’s News Feed is 44 times higher than from the traditional placement on the right, and the conversion rate is five times better. It is also a format that is beneficial to all three parties involved, and hence sustainable in the long run:

Some interesting statistics about mobile advertising

Native advertising is not a traditional banner

As a traditional banner

Emphasis on information

As can be seen through examples from the financial sector, the clickthrough rate of native advertising differs significantly across campaigns and even within industries. Although Bank X (name changed) chose a clean and effective creative message that perfectly captures what the corporate brand is about, its CTR was not as high as when Akcenta (a large Czech foreign exchange company) provided answers to user questions concerning the end of the Czech central bank’s intervention mode.

This is because a native ad requires a different approach from a banner, given its placement in an environment where readers expect content. Consequently, with native advertising, readers need to be attracted by intriguing content.

Here is some data from a survey by Sharethrough (a software solutions provider for native advertising) that compared native adverts with classic banner advertising:

• 25% more people take a look at native adverts as compared to banners;
• 32 % of the respondents indicated they would share such adverts with their friends and family (as compared to 19% for banner advertising);
• About 18 % more respondents showed an intention to purchase.

What does a native ad on Seznam.cz look like?

Here some native ads shown in article excerpts:

• on the main page of Seznam.cz, in fourth position in the section "Další zajímavé články z českého internetu" (Other Articles of Interest from the Czech Internet);
• on the Zprávy (news) page of Seznam.cz, in fourth position in the details of the article;
• on the Novinky (current news) page of Seznam.cz, in fifth position in the details of the article;
• on the Proženy (for women) page, in fourth position in the details of the article;
  
• on third-party sites (in some cases also in product details);
• in the Sklik advertising system on the Novinky.cz, Sport.cz and Seznam Zprávy pages.

PR Articles

Another type of native advertising is PR articles that can be published on the Novinky.cz, Proženy.cz, Sport.cz and Super.cz pages. Article snippets are visible for a few days, but their URLs remain available even afterwards. To maximize performance, we recommend supporting these articles with native adverts.

We will be adding native advertising across other Seznam.cz services as well. We will also continue working with our clients towards offering formats that appeal to site visitors.

If you’re not using native advertising as yet, allow yourself to be inspired by our clients' examples and join the many successful advertisers who are already benefiting from all the advantages of native positions.

Native advertising as part of the STDC model

It can best be used in the first two stages of the buying process:

Examples from Our Clients

How to Work Effectively with Native Advertising

This will draw attention to a native advert:

• A relevant image that fits the environment.
• A headline that captures the visitor’s needs.
• A text that works as a story teaser (arouses visitor’s interest in captivating content).