Media types

Native advertising

in-feed ad · native ad

Definition

Native advertising is paid inventory designed to match the form around it: in-feed units, recommended-content modules, branded tiles. The IAB has defined native categories for years. Match-to-feed is not a license to skip disclosure.

Programmatic native is still paid media. “Taboola-style” modules at the bottom of a news article are not earned just because they sit near journalism.

How it works

Buy it as distribution, measure it as paid (view, click, conversion). Keep it off the earned clip list. If a native unit links to a study, the study can still be cited as owned; the unit is paid reach.

Worked example

A native module on a news site sends 22,000 clicks to a study at $0.18 CPC. None of those URLs are journalists. The study’s earned write-ups that week are a different report.

How it differs

Sponsored content is usually a full article the publisher’s commercial team made. Native is often a unit in a feed. Both paid. Earned is still unpaid third-party publishing.

Common errors

Calling native “earned amplification.” Hiding disclosure in grey-on-grey. Mixing native clicks into referral-from-coverage.

Sources