Content Marketing VS Native Advertising: Where Is The Difference?

Content marketing and native advertising are both extensively used by businesses both big and small to successfully execute complex digital marketing campaigns. However, the big mistake many marketers still make is using the two terms interchangeably as if they refer to the same technique.

In reality, it’s a bit more complicated. Knowing what both mean is crucial for amateur and experienced marketers alike. Hence, here are the similarities and differences between content marketing and native advertising – and how you can use them.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is an umbrella term that refers to a number of digital marketing techniques where content plays a key role. These include blogging, guest posting, social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, and others. The content you use can vary from short blog posts to infographics to e-books.

Content marketing can be used for a wide variety of goals, including raising brand awareness, improving brand recognition, generating site traffic, building trust and loyalty, growing an online following, and so on. In other words, content marketing is quite versatile while also being relatively cost-efficient.

What Is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is a digital advertising technique where the ad is formatted the same way other content looks like on the platform where you publish the said content. For example, ads on Instagram that look like regular Instagram posts rather than traditional ads. Native advertising is commonly used on different social media platforms.

The aim of native advertising is to avoid disrupting the user’s experience on the platform while still advertising a product or service to them. The FTC says native ads must be recognizable as advertising, with necessary disclosures clear and prominent.

What Are Their Similarities?

So, how are content marketing and native advertising related? Here are the main similarities between the two techniques:

• Native ads can appear on publisher sites, in search and on social media. Social media is not their defining primary channel. See the FTC’s examples.
• Both native advertising and social media marketing rely on high-quality content in the format of regular social media posts. Different types of content can be used, including text, visuals, audio, etc.
• Social media marketing is primarily used to build an online presence and connect with your target audience. However, it can also be used for other purposes that native advertising is used for (e.g.: native advertising for lead generation).

What Are Their Differences?

While there are some similarities between content marketing and native advertising, there are still quite a few differences between the two, including:

• Content marketing focuses on marketing while native advertising focuses on advertising, even though both use content formatted as social media posts.
• Content marketing is more of an umbrella term than native advertising. Thus, content marketing refers to all kinds of techniques that are used on very different marketing platforms and channels.
• Content marketing is about owned media (you are in control and you aim to direct your audience to the platforms you own, such as your website); native advertising is about paid media (you use the content on a third-party platform to advertise in the audience on that platform).

Both techniques need content that serves the audience and communicates accurately.

How Can You Use Them?

So, how exactly can you make the most of both content marketing and native advertising? While using them separately can already yield great results, combining the two techniques in your strategy will maximize the results of your efforts.

Content marketing can be used across different marketing channels and platforms to improve brand awareness and recognition, attract new customers, keep current customers engaged, and so much more. On social media, it can be particularly useful for building trust and loyalty and connecting with your audience.

Use native advertising in combination with your social media marketing to spread the word about your brand even more. You can also launch targeted campaigns with native ads to get more followers, build your mailing list, generate leads, and so on. Just make sure to align your activities of both types to be consistent with your marketing.

Conclusion

All in all, both content marketing and native advertising are essential for successful digital campaigns in our day and age. Knowing how to use them correctly will help you maximize the results of your marketing activities. Use the tips in this article to help you get started with content marketing and native advertising.

Guest Writer:
Frank Hamilton.