Looking for the best native advertising examples?
These might not be the best of all time, not even the best on the internet right now. But certainly, they can help you tap into your creative genius. I´ll show you why they´re good and what could make them even better.
These ad examples serve to illustrate a point and are based on my personal preference. Also, they´re not in any specific order of importance, just alphabetically.
Below every image, you´ll find the landing page belonging to that ad. So you can have a deeper understanding of the user journey and maybe model their landing pages too.
All it takes is one good idea and your native campaigns can soar like an eagle. So, let´s get you thinking about creating native ads that take off and fly high.
Native Advertising Examples From A To Z
These native advertising examples are ordered alphabetically based on the advertiser´s name – to avoid favoring one vs the other in terms of performance or creativity. I don´t want you to get too fixated on the ads themselves but more on the appeals behind them.
Once you understand the appeals, you can let your subconscious mind go to work to come up with situations in your own work where you could apply these successful appeals perfectly.
The right appeal combined with a strong offer can work together to fuel a winning native ad strategy that ultimately drives meaningful business growth.
Babbel: Expert
If you´re all about modeling success on native, this is one the best company to follow. The ad headline uses two proven appeals: “secret” and “expert.”
It has a branding component and explains what the product does. This makes the ad more trustworthy and congruent with the landing page.
Speaking of the landing page, you´ll notice it looks very much like an editorial piece you would find on a publisher´s site. Also, it doesn´t say “blog” but “magazine” – that´s brilliant.
All of these elements work together to build a very congruent and more familiar user journey.
What could make it even better?
- The headline, although very good, gets cut off on some placements (97 characters) – testing shorter, punchier ad titles between 50 and 60 characters could help drive more clicks
Cat Health Club: Mistakes
Besides the fact that cat photos get high engagement, no human being likes to make mistakes. Avoiding mistakes is exactly what this ad promises, hence its brilliance.
A strong appeal is paired with a close-up shot, which we already know to work well. “Top Vet” gives the advertisement a sprinkle of credibility.
The user journey flow is a classic for native ads. A multi-step process, starting with a video to expose the problem and present a solution, followed by a survey, and lastly, the order page.
What could make it even better?
- Redesign the advertorial page with a more modern feel, the current design could be hurting conversion rates
- Update the copyright text on the pages to the current year – a small detail that can make a big difference in building or breaking trust
Daily Stuff: Curiosity
Native isn´t just for brands. Publishers also use them to generate more traffic and monetize their content. The best publishers know how to create attention-grabbing content. Their ads are just an extension of that expertise.
As someone who grew up playing soccer, the ad caught my eye (not the Argentinian fans, I swear). The point is there´s a level of familiarity in the image and that drove me to click. It´s almost as if the ad creates an open loop, closed by the content itself.
What I like about this and most of the publishers´ ads I see is the curiosity element. Both ad headline and image work together to create a mystery appeal that you can´t help but click. You can see they pre-qualify the audience in the copy (Americans). Also, “These” is a proven copy word, include it whenever you can in your headlines.
With ads like these, it´s very easy to get sucked into a story and end up 20 minutes later wondering what happened, as you got so carried away by the mystery.
What could make it even better?
- Testing images of travel destinations could help to drive more qualified clicks and increase time on site
- Testing numbered headlines, as they´re proven to work on content-driven advertisements
Guardio: Ego
Here we have a mix of curiosity and fear. “What´s hiding on my computer” – you wonder.
The fact that most users don´t know about this is a very strong motivator for the click. Humans are driven by the ego´s need to know more than others.
They keep it simple – one security tip. Add value with the free scan. And drive users to act now with a strong call to action.
The image is also part of what makes this native ad a great example. The gentleman has the look of someone who´s about to get attacked from behind, potentially by a person who´s hiding somewhere, triggering an automatic fear response that drives the click.
What could make it even better?
- Test pre-qualifying the audience in the headline, for example, “Edge Users: Remove Hidden Malware On Your Computer”
- Could say in the description that it is for personal laptops, helping to filter out part of the unqualified clicks
Ka´Chava: Objections
“What is this breakfast all about?” – you wonder. A very good combination of imagery and copy makes you want to click. Notice how close the image is. Close-up shots tend to work better on native placements, as they grab more attention.
It´s worth mentioning the congruency between the image and the landing page. When people land on the website, they can see what looks like the exact same product. In their minds, everything makes sense and that helps to build trust.
The landing page strategy is also very smart. They start with a Q&A, eliminating most of the prospects’ objections before they get to the product page.
What could make it even better?
- A video on the Q&A page, showing someone preparing a smoothie to help prospects imagine themselves doing the same and creating a greater sense of ownership, which often leads to more sales
Saga Insurance: Simplicity
The whole ad is congruent but the best part is the text.
This is one of the best ad headlines I´ve seen so far on a publisher´s site. You don´t need a science degree to understand what it is all about. The ad is so simple yet very effective.
Remember, don´t overcomplicate your native ads. Here, we can see an image that represents the product (travel insurance), a headline with “Fast claims” (one big benefit), and “busy travellers” (who it´s for).
Notice the level of detail here – “travellers” is not an accident. The ad is targeting people in the UK so it´s familiar with the way they write over there. It speaks to British folks.
What could make it even better?
- Test capitalizing the first letter of every word, with such a small, punchy headline, some capitalization can work wonders
- Reinforce who this ad is for in the headline, in this case, over 50 travelers (Fast Claims For Over 50 Busy Travellers) – the extra copy could help to bring more qualified leads
Velasca: Product
Here´s an ecommerce classic. If you sell a physical product, why not show it in the ad?
It´s a lot easier to do it with some products, apparel is one of those. In this ad, the product takes center stage.
I like the branding component here, as well. This isn´t a brand for low-cost enthusiasts. So they use a strong benefit that pre-qualifies a certain audience – people who appreciate higher-quality shoes.
The brand name in the ad and the destination page suggests this is part of a brand awareness effort. Native is certainly the perfect channel for it.
What could make it even better?
- Test capitalizing the first letters of every word, which could help to capture more attention and drive higher click-through rates
- Testing a picture of a person smiling, perhaps tying the shoes and looking straight at the user
Wild Nutrition: Bundle
An example of a laser-focused ad. Very friendly and inviting. You can see the avatars in the image, which happen to be represented by the co-founders. To top off the creative side, we have a clean background with a color scheme that appeals to the target market.
When it comes to offering itself (the most important), they´re doing it right. Bundles are the best offer strategy for any ecommerce brand, especially running traffic from native networks.
What could make it even better?
- Sending traffic to a pre-sell page, diving a bit deeper into the subject of Perimenopause – the title could be: What Is Perimenopause And Why It´s Time To Talk About It
- The pre-sell page or article would have a call to action at the end, to the product page
Takeaways From These Native Advertising Examples
Already have ideas for your next campaign or maybe to optimize an existing native campaign? I hope this has been helpful.
Besides referring to this and other articles, you can also try using ad spy tools to gather insights and get even more ideas.
Let´s recap the main insights from these examples of native advertising:
- use the secret appeal to generate curiosity but be careful with too much curiosity, as it often leads to higher bounce rates
- people listen to experts and they don´t need to be celebrities
- show your audience what mistakes they can avoid regarding your product
- use associations to create mystery and the word “these” whenever you can
- people want to know what others don´t
- close-up shots tend to work better on native
- make your copy simple and to the point for products people are already familiar with
- try to showcase your product if you´re running native ads for ecommerce
- use bundles to boost average order value and make sense of the native ad spend
Alright, it´s a wrap. What was your main takeaway? Let us know in the comments below.
