Native Ads vs. Display Ads: What Every Advertiser Needs to Know

Introduction

In today's digital age, advertisers are constantly seeking ways to connect with their target audiences and drive engagement, and digital advertising offers many pathways to this goal. Two prominent approaches are native advertising and display advertising.

Both approaches offer unique advantages and cater to distinct marketing objectives. Native advertising seamlessly integrates into a user's online experience, blending with content organically, while display advertising relies on eye-catching visuals outside of the content experience to capture attention.

In this article, we’ll dive into the intricacies of these two advertising methods, examining their strengths and weaknesses, and providing insights to help marketers make informed decisions in crafting their digital advertising campaigns. We’ll also discuss why the digital advertising ecosystem is leaning more heavily into native advertising as it moves forward.

What Is a Native Ad?

In 2023, U.S. marketers are expected to spend an impressive $97 billion on native ads, more than double the amount spent as recently as 2019. The growing investment makes sense, given how well aligned native advertising is with the current momentum of the broader digital advertising landscape.

Native advertising is a strategic digital advertising approach that seeks to seamlessly integrate promotional content into the organic, non-disruptive flow of the platform or website where it appears. Unlike traditional display ads, which are clearly distinguishable from the surrounding content, native ads aim to create a harmonious user experience by blending in with the editorial or user-generated content. The key to successful native advertising lies in its subtlety, as it seeks to engage and educate users without overtly pushing a product or service. It's a form of advertising that prioritizes relevance and authenticity, ultimately fostering stronger connections between brands and their target audiences.

Native advertising comes in many different shapes, all of which are characterized by their ability to blend into the content surrounding them. Some of the most common formats include:

• In-feed ads: This format involves placing sponsored content within the natural feed of a platform, such as social media, news websites, or content discovery platforms. For example, on a social media platform like Instagram, an influencer's post featuring a product, with a subtle "Sponsored" tag, is a classic example of in-feed native advertising.
• Content recommendation widgets: These widgets appear at the end of articles or pages suggesting "Recommended" or "You May Also Like" items and provide users with content or products aligned with their interests.
• Promoted listings in e-commerce: On platforms like Amazon or Etsy, promoted listings appear alongside organic search results and blend with the shopping experience.

Native advertising's strength lies in its ability to provide value to users while achieving marketing objectives. By integrating promotional content into the user experience in a way that feels natural and relevant, brands can connect with their audiences more effectively and build trust over time.

How Do Native Ads Differ from Display Ads?

So, what sets native advertising apart from display advertising? Let's delve into the main differences between native ads and display ads and explore how well they perform in different contexts.

Integration vs. Disruption

Native Ads: Native advertising thrives on its subtlety and integration. These ads seamlessly blend into the content of the platform where they appear, mimicking the style and tone of surrounding articles, videos, or social media feeds. The aim is to provide a non-disruptive user experience.

Display Ads: Display advertising, in contrast, relies on disruption to capture attention. These ads feature eye-catching visuals—banners, pop-ups, interstitials—often distinct from surrounding content. While they seek to achieve high visibility, they can be perceived as intrusive, leading to ad blindness.

User Engagement

Native Ads: Designed to foster engagement through relevance and authenticity. Metrics include click-through rates (CTR), time on content, and social shares.

Display Ads: Aim for immediate impact with visual elements; measured by impressions, CTR, and viewability. They can deliver scale but often produce lower deeper-engagement metrics.

Ad Format Variety

Native Ads: Offer diverse formats— in-feed, recommendation widgets, sponsored articles, and promoted listings—allowing tailoring to audience and objective. For example, Spectrum used Nativo’s native article format to increase job applications.

Display Ads: Use standardized formats (banners, pop-ups). They usually exist outside core content and rely on visual prominence.

Performance Metrics

Native Ads: Success measured by engagement (CTR, time spent, shares) and downstream impact on conversions and brand metrics. Native ads are effective for brand awareness, perception, and mid-funnel consideration. For example, Nativo reportedly helped a healthcare brand boost public perception by 63%.

Display Ads: Often quantified by impressions, viewability, CTR, and conversions; vulnerable to fraud and accidental clicks.

Contextual Relevance

Native Ads: Thrive on context—align with a user’s current experience and interests. They deliver value by surfacing relevant content at the right time.

Display Ads: Rely more on targeting and visual appeal; historically depended on third-party cookies to follow audiences—a capability diminishing as cookies are deprecated.

Are Google Ads Also Native Ads?

Google offers a mix. Search ads and promoted listings at the top of results are native-style because they blend with the SERP. Discovery Ads also have a native look across feed placements. But Google also provides more traditional interruptive formats via Display and many Video Ad types.

Why Is Native Advertising Better Than Display?

Native advertising has emerged as a preferred alternative for several reasons, especially as the ecosystem shifts to a cookieless, privacy-first environment.

Seamless Integration and User Experience

Native ads blend with content and context, producing higher engagement and lower perceptions of intrusion than display ads—which can irritate users and encourage ad-blocking.

Enhanced Relevance and Targeting

Native ads target mid-funnel users with contextual content and often outperform display on metrics from CTR to purchase intent (source).

User Trust and Brand Credibility

Native ads prioritize authenticity and value, fostering trust and long-term brand-building. Display ads often struggle due to intrusiveness and fraud concerns.

Content-Centric Approach

Native formats emphasize informative, entertaining, or storytelling content—well-suited to mid-funnel objectives and privacy-first relevance based on page signals instead of personal data.

Mobile-Friendly and Responsive

Native ads are inherently responsive and adapt well to mobile, whereas some display formats (traditional banners) can be less effective on small screens.

At Nativo, we help advertisers get a handle on their mid-funnel and transform their content marketing into scalable, measurable native advertising experiences. We do this through proprietary technology and the most innovative native advertising formats available anywhere. Need help harnessing the power of native advertising for your brand? Contact us today.

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