Native ads match the look and feel of a site or app and provide a better user experience for visitors. Native ads are different from standard ads in that they're designed to fit neatly inside the user's path through a site or app. Visitors still know they're ads, but they look great next to publisher content.
Native ads can serve on mobile app, mobile web, and desktop websites. You can assign them to any display line item.
Benefits of native ad campaigns
- Better consumer engagement than other ad types
- Effective at increasing brand awareness
- Opportunity to tell a product or service's story
- Less disruptive experience for the consumer than other ad types
Limitations
Third-party ad serving is not supported for native ads.
Native ads are based on flexible components
Native ads are broken up into separate assets or components that are styled by the publisher instead of the advertiser. You provide a collection of images, text, and a link, and these assets are inserted into components styled by publishers.
How a banner ad is served
As the above example shows, with traditional banner ads:
The advertiser provides a completed ad with a fixed size.
Display & Video 360 hosts the ad, doesn’t change it, and serves it into the stated size.
The user sees the ad exactly as the advertiser prepared it.
How a native ad is served
With native ads:
One creative, many layouts
Native ad assets can be inserted into many different layouts, depending on the type of device where the ad will appear, how the content on the page appears, the amount of space available, and more.
In the above example:
1. The advertiser provides the assets (such as “10 Makeup Tips” for the headline). These assets are stored in a single native creative.
2. For an impression in a mobile app content feed, Display & Video 360 sends the assets to the publisher, and they get filled into a responsive layout that fits in with their app content.
3. For another impression on desktop web, Display & Video 360 sends the assets to the publisher, and they get filled into a layout appropriate for a 300 x 250 display ad slot.
This example shows how a single native creative can flow to two completely different native styles for different inventory. Both native styles use the same assets, but show them to users in different ways.
Types of native creatives
Learn about the types of native creatives below.
Native site creative
Square or rectangular native display format for promoting your website.
Native video
Promote your website with an in-banner video. This display format is similar to the native site creative, but uses a video instead of an image.
Assets required to bid
Display & Video 360 will not bid with a creative unless the bid request includes the minimum assets for the format. This means your native ad will only run on publishers or exchanges that use a minimum of one of the following combinations of assets.
Native site
At a minimum, native site inventory must include one of these combinations:
| Combination 1 | Combination 2 |
|---|---|
| Image | Image |
| Headline or Body text | Headline or Body text |
| Logo or Advertiser name | Call to action |
Native video
At a minimum, native video inventory must include one of these combinations:
| Combination 1 | Combination 2 |
|---|---|
| Video | Video |
| Headline or Body text | Headline or Body text |
| Logo or Advertiser name | Call to action |
Ad badging, transparency, and reporting for native ads
Since native ads are rendered and served by publishers, the publisher renders the ad badging, transparency, and reporting information.