Advertorial

What is an advertorial?

The term “advertorial” comes from the combination of “advertisement” and “editorial” because it is a mashup of the two. It is created by an advertiser to reach consumers, and they pay for the content to appear in a magazine, newspaper, or online—which makes it an advertisement. However, they are specially created not to look like an advertisement. Instead, they look like the regular editorial content that the magazine, newspaper, or website would normally publish—which also makes it an editorial. They can contain images, video, written content, and links, depending on where the content is published.

Benefits of advertorials over other types of advertisements

The main benefits of creating an advertorial as opposed to a traditional advertisement is the fact that consumers are more likely to pay attention to the images and read the content because they don’t realize they’re looking at an advertisement. When many consumers will flip by an advertisement in a magazine or simply not look at an ad in the margin of a website, they are much more likely to look at an advertorial, and 76 percent of the people viewing the ad are likely to find it interesting.

Advertorials are considered more interesting and more effective because they contain more information than a traditional advertisement. They often contain pictures, quotes, customer reviews, and much more content than traditional ads. An advertiser can spend more time providing consumers with information about a product or service’s benefits than they can with a traditional ad that focuses on images instead of content.

Tips for creating an effective advertorial

Advertorials aren’t always successful because they have the potential to alienate consumers. A study by Contetly found that two-thirds of readers felt deceived when they discovered that the content they were viewing was actually sponsored by a brand. A website or other publication also runs the risk of losing credibility with their audience by allowing sponsored content.

The quality of the advertorial matters. If it contains useful information, the reader is less likely to feel upset at discovering it’s an advertisement.

Tips for creating a great native advertisement include:

• Make sure it includes informative and relevant content
• Stay true to the media and format where the ad appears
• Include a call to action that gives the consumer something to do after they’re done reading

It is also important for the advertorial to be clearly labeled somewhere on the page. It should be labeled as “sponsored”, as a “special advertising section”, or some other language that clearly states that the product or service it is discussing was paid for by the company to be displayed or printed. That way, consumers don’t feel like they have been tricked into reading the content.