The UnEthics of Native Advertising
There is a fine, distinguishing line between unethical advertising and native advertising. It is a method consistently growing in use, and a very profitable one at that. But is it worth the risk of deceiving your audiences?
What is Native Advertising?
By definition, native advertising is “material in an online publication which resembles the publication's editorial content but is paid for by an advertiser and intended to promote the advertiser's product.”
There are three main types of native advertising, according to the Native Advertising Institute:
Branded Content/Publisher Partnerships
In-feed Native Distribution/Native Display
Content Recommendation/Content Discovery
Branded content and publisher partnerships are utilized by companies like BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. In these sponsorships, a publisher creates content for a brand under the same voice natural to the publisher, and still fulfills the audience’s expectations for the website/publisher. This type of native advertising blends into the existing content, having a title, description, and thumbnail as well as a similar format to an article, but should also disclose that it is an ad by saying “Sponsored by” or “Promoted by."
In-feed native distribution and native display take shape in photo or video in-feed advertisements, adapting to the dimensions of all devices. It is very similar to social media advertising, but fit into a wider variety of publications.
Content recommendation appears at the bottom of websites with headers of “Related Content” or “Promoted Stories.” Viewers who are already reading a piece of content or browsing the Internet click these to be led to third party websites, and read content from a different publisher.
Highlights of Using Native Ads
Due to the currently cluttered digital environment, native advertising has become more and more commonplace, especially due to its sheer effectiveness. Branded content integrates smoothly into the website’s content, which is preferred over traditional ads by 73% of readers, as stated by Steve Olenski of Forbes. It is laid out naturally, leading people to view native ads 53% more frequently than traditional ads. Native advertising has immense benefits for companies as well, increasing brand lift by as much as 82%, and increasing purchase intent by consumers 53%.
When Integrative Becomes Deceptive
But, while native advertising is so profitable, it is not as comparably ethical. Choosing to use native advertising, you run the risk of confusing your audience, portraying false messages, and losing their trust.
This begins with the motives and ethics of the publisher, and how far they are willing to go.
14% of an average audience cannot distinguish whether native advertisements are advertisements or other normal content. This is a high enough percentage in journalism to raise questions, as it is important that readers understand what they are being shown. Which means, native advertising puts this percentage in danger of being tricked. Reader confusion in these areas crosses boundaries of authenticity and trust between a company and their audiences.
Bloggers and content creators who utilize native advertising also choose to reject the label of journalist, because journalists have different levels of obligation to authenticity and truth. By avoiding this title, they are able to put other motives such as increased engagement, traffic, and profit over the audience’s best interest.
That is the main focus here, the audience’s best interest.
While native advertising is fantastic for boosting metrics, audience engagement, click throughs, and even purchases, if it is not executed ethically with the proper motive and labeling, it is deceptive and cruel.
Impact on Brand Content Strategy and Image
When poorly done, native advertising leads the audience to quickly develop negative feelings and thoughts about a brand, which can echo throughout long-term purchasing and use behaviors. A loyal audience can feel taken advantage of and discontinue use for another platform or publisher who they feel supports their needs.
An example of the negative effects of native advertising occurred in 2013, where The Atlantic posted sponsored content from the Church of Scientology on their website. The audience of The Atlantic had expected a piece of journalism regarding the religion, but instead was served a poor excuse for content marketing. The readers expressed their disappointment, and The Atlantic had to do damage control as a result, improving their branded content.
Though they worked to mediate the problem, their audience either never gave them their full trust again or took a while to gain it back.
Concluding Thoughts
Native advertising is a popular method to put out integrative content that aligns with the publisher’s current brand and voice. While it may improve the purchases and views for a website, it also chooses motives of personal gain over the audience’s best interest. It is unethical to take advantage of consumers presence and attention to falsely promote products, websites, or ideals.
Companies who use native advertising should consider the way in which they are presenting themselves through their advertisements, and whether it will provide long-term growth and loyalty, or merely short term profit spikes.
Sources:
Conick, Hal. “6 Ways to Make Your Native Advertising More Ethical.” American Marketing Association, 5 Nov. 2019, https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/6-ways-to-make-your-native-advertising-more-ethical/.
Farid, Hany. “The Dystopian Digital Future of Fake Media.” Quartz, Quartz, https://qz.com/1383619/the-dystopian-digital-future-of-fake-media/.
Jamie IndigoAugust 14, 201914 min read VIP CONTRIBUTOR Jamie IndigoSenior Technical SEO Lead at DeepCrawlBioFollow / August 14. “What Is Ethical Seo?” Search Engine Journal, 20 Aug. 2019, https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-ethical-seo/318483/#close.
Lovell, Dale. “The Main Types of Native Advertising Everyone Should Understand.” Native Advertising Blog by the Native Advertising Institute, https://blog.nativeadvertisinginstitute.com/types-of-native-advertising.
Olenski, Steve. “6 Types of Native Advertising and How Each Can Benefit Your Business.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Nov. 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/11/12/6-types-of-native-advertising-and-how-each-can-benefit-your-business/?sh=488a1adb4455.
Parmelee, Ali. “The Pros and Cons of Native Advertising: Is Sponsored Content for You?” IMPACT Inbound Marketing Agency, 5 Feb. 2021, https://www.impactplus.com/blog/the-best-and-worst-of-native-advertising.
“Research: Native Advertising Raises Ethical Concerns, Suggest Interviews with Journalists and Advertising, PR Executives.” College of Media, Communication and Information, 12 Oct. 2020, https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/2016/11/18/research-native-advertising-raises-ethical-concerns-suggest-interviews-journalists-and.
“When Content Marketing Gets Ethically Murky.” Digiday, 1 Apr. 2015, https://digiday.com/media/content-marketing-gets-ethically-murky/.