As more brands are putting their resources into native advertising, which consists of long-form articles related to their product or industry, it’s becoming harder to differentiate it from content marketing. Nevertheless, there are distinct definitions between content marketing and native advertising, and you can explore them right here.
Measuring and Analyzing the Success
As a rule, native advertising tends to run on the same channels as content marketing. Again, the Ws Number List objective is to create a seamless experience for the user so they don’t feel like it disrupts their regular interactions with a company or website.
The format of both types of content can also be similar, but native advertising focuses on a core product or service. In contrast, content marketing simply tries to provide valuable information to the reader.
Another noticeable distinction is how native advertising has to be labeled. Hosts must make clear that the content is an ad for a particular brand (who has paid for the privilege). So, native advertising must have text labels stating that they’re an advertisement, not regular content.
Finally, it’s crucial to note that native advertising comes from a third-party promoter. Content marketing, however, is owned by the site or company that produces it. So, regular content can be an asset the company can use and republish as often as it wants. With a native ad, however, the advertiser owns the content and determines when, where, and how it can be published.
- Native Advertising – Must be labeled as an ad, and the advertiser owns it, not the content provider.
- Content Marketing – An asset the provider owns and doesn’t require specific labeling.
Building Brand Awareness
A big part of content marketing is to build brand awareness around the content provider. Since the goal is to establish the company as an authority or to promote value to its customers, articles will aim to be as valuable and insightful as possible.
With native advertising, brand awareness may be part of the objective but not the whole focus of the ad campaign. Sometimes, the brand runs a campaign that will let it branch out to reach new demographics. However, since the brand is often well-known, the GN Lists goal is to position the brand at the forefront of customers’ minds.
