Online advertising

Native advertising examples: what it is, the 5 types and when it works

Famous campaigns that worked and two that blew up, the five formats in one table, what the FTC actually asks for, and a small test campaign you can launch this week.

The Notablia editorial team

14 min read
Published October 27, 2026

These native advertising examples show the idea at a glance: Netflix paying The New York Times for a feature, Taco Bell turning Snapchat faces into tacos, and the "Sponsored" products on Amazon. Native advertising is paid content that takes the form and function of the place it runs, and it works when it's useful and clearly labeled.

We built this guide on real US search data, on what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answer today, and on the FTC's own documents. Here's the stat nobody leads with: in a University of Georgia study, only 7% of readers recognized a sponsored article as advertising.

You'll learn which type fits your goal, where to buy it, how to label it and how to measure a first test. For the full map of paid channels, see our online advertising hub.

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What is native advertising (and what it isn't)

Native advertising is a paid ad that copies the format, tone and function of the platform where it appears, but is labeled as an ad. It reads like an article on a news site, plays like a video on TikTok or shows up like a result on Google. So what are native ads in practice? Ads that don't interrupt you, but don't hide either.

What it isn't:

Not a disguised ad. If people can't tell it's paid, it stops being native and becomes deceptive, like the stealth side of guerrilla marketing.
Not just branded content. A brand's own series or podcast becomes native advertising when you pay a publisher to run it in their format.
Not one creative style. In Facebook ads circles, "native ads" also means ads made to look like an organic post. Same principle, narrower meaning.

Native advertising vs display: what's the difference?

Display ads are banners that sit next to the content and look like ads; native ads sit inside the flow and look like the content. That's why native ads get more attention and why they need a clearer label.

Branded content vs native advertising: what's the difference?

“Branded content” gets about 880 searches a month in the US and around 900 questions in AI chats (DataForSEO, September 2026, estimate), and it keeps getting mixed up with native advertising. Branded content is content your brand creates and publishes on its own channels to earn an audience. Native advertising is paying to place an ad, in someone else's format, in front of people you don't own. One piece can be both: you make it (branded) and pay a publisher to run it (native).

Format	Who makes it	Where it lives	How you pay
Owned branded content	The brand	Its site, YouTube channel or podcast	Production cost
Sponsored content	The publisher or its brand studio	The publisher's site	Flat fee per piece
Advertorial	The publisher, with the brand's input	Print or the publisher's site	The publisher's rate
In-feed or recommendation ad	The brand	Social feeds and “You may also like” grids	Auction

The classic case is Red Bull Stratos. On October 14, 2012, the brand sponsored Felix Baumgartner's jump from about 39 km and made it a live YouTube event that, per Wikipedia, more than 9.5 million people watched at once. People showed up for the jump, not a pitch. That's the test: would anyone watch it without the logo?

Our rule: branded content when you want an audience of your own and can wait months; native when you need to reach people who don't know you this week. And if you pay to run a piece on someone else's platform, label it as an ad.

Native advertising platforms: the 5 types and where to buy each

There are five types of native ads, and each one is bought in a different place: social platforms, recommendation networks, publishers, search engines and marketplaces.

Type	Where you see it	Where you buy it	How you pay	Best for
In-feed	Between posts on Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn	Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads	Auction, per click or per 1,000 impressions	Getting discovered
Content recommendation	"You may also like" grids on news sites	Taboola, Outbrain	Auction, mostly per click	Sending readers to content
Sponsored content	Article, video or podcast on a publisher	The publisher or its brand studio	Flat fee per piece	Authority and awareness
Paid search	"Sponsored" results on Google or Bing	Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising	Auction, per click	Catching people already searching
Promoted listings	"Sponsored" products on Amazon or TikTok Shop	Amazon Ads and each marketplace's ads manager	Auction, mostly per click	Selling inside the marketplace

The IAB grouped native formats into three families in 2019, but when you're spending money, five works better: each one is bought and measured differently.

Fresh detail most guides miss: Outbrain's parent company has been called Teads Holding Co. since June 9, 2025, according to its SEC filing, though its advertiser help center still runs under the Outbrain name.

Native advertising examples: famous campaigns with dates

These native ads examples are real, dated and sourced, and two of them went badly.

Brand and outlet	Date	What they did	Why it's remembered
Netflix in The New York Times	June 2014	Interactive feature "Women Inmates" for Orange Is the New Black	The show is mentioned once in the body text (Contently)
Netflix in The Wall Street Journal	September 2015	"Cocainenomics," on the Medellín cartel's economics, for Narcos	Produced by the paper's own brand studio
Taco Bell on Snapchat	May 5, 2016	Sponsored lens that turned your head into a taco	224 million views in one day (CNBC)
Church of Scientology in The Atlantic	January 14, 2013	Paid article styled like news	Pulled the next day, with a public apology
Lord & Taylor in Nylon	2015	Paid article and Instagram post with no disclosure	FTC settlement announced March 15, 2016

Most native ad examples lists ranking on Google today date from 2019 to 2021, so check the dates before you cite one. The pattern holds, though: the winners were interesting even without the brand; the failures made readers feel tricked.

Advertorial: what it is, how it's built and when to use one

An advertorial is a paid ad written to read like an article in the publication where it runs. The word is a mashup of “advertisement” and “editorial,” and it gets about 2,900 searches a month in the US (DataForSEO, October 2026). It's the print-era name for what digital calls sponsored content, so it's native advertising by definition and needs the same clear label.

The Atlantic and Lord & Taylor cases in the table above are the cautionary tales. A good one has five parts:

Label: “Advertisement” above the headline, as the FTC section below spells out.
Headline: it answers a question the reader already has, not the brand's name. “How much does a dental implant cost in Austin?” beats “Smile Studio is here.” (An invented example.)
Lead: the answer, in the first two sentences, before any pitch.
Body: facts, a comparison and one honest limit of your product. The brand shows up late.
Call to action: one link, tagged with UTMs, to a page that continues the story.

Use an advertorial when a 30-second ad can't carry the argument, like a considered purchase with a long decision. Skip it when the offer is simple: a plain in-feed ad is faster to test and says the same thing. Measure time on page and scroll depth, not just clicks.

Native advertising benefits and risks: when it works

Native advertising works when the format matches what people are already doing and the content is worth their time; it fails when it's disguised.

The benefit is attention. In the Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab study (4,770 consumers), native ads drew 53% more looks than banners and an 18% higher lift in purchase intent. Sharethrough sells native ads, so treat that as a reference, not a promise.

The risk is the flip side. In the University of Georgia study, published in the Journal of Advertising, just 17 of 242 readers identified the sponsored article as an ad.

Works when...	Fails when...
The content helps even if they never buy	It's a product pitch dressed as an article
The type matches intent	You send cold widget traffic straight to checkout
The label is visible and says "Ad"	The label is hidden or says "Presented by"
You track cost per sale or lead	You only look at CTR

FTC native advertising rules: how to label native ads

Native advertising is legal in the US, but under Section 5 of the FTC Act it can't mislead people about being an ad. The FTC's native advertising guide for businesses (December 2015, checked in late October 2026) sets the bar:

Words people understand: "Ad," "Advertisement," "Paid Advertisement" or "Sponsored Advertising Content" all work. The FTC calls "Promoted" and "Promoted Stories" ambiguous at best.
Placement: in front of or above the headline, on the image if it's the focal point, and again on the click-through page.
Widgets: in recommendation boxes that mix ads and articles, each ad needs its own label or a clearly separated group.
Who's liable: the brand, not just the publisher. In the Lord & Taylor case, settled on March 15, 2016, the FTC charged the retailer, not Nylon.

What did the FTC change in 2023?

On June 29, 2023, it updated its Endorsement Guides. It defined "clear and conspicuous," warned that a platform's built-in disclosure tool may not be enough, and spelled out who's liable: advertisers, influencers and intermediaries.

How to run your first native ad campaign, step by step

For a first native ad campaign you need one goal, one useful piece of content, about $280 for testing and tracking set up before launch.

Pick one goal and one number

Decide which number rules: cost per lead or cost per sale. If you sell a $600 service at a 40% margin, you can't pay more than $240 per customer.
Choose the type by intent

Already searching for you? Paid search or promoted listings. Never heard of you? In-feed or content recommendation. Need authority? Sponsored content on a niche publisher.
Build content that helps even if they don't buy

A guide, an honest comparison or a quiz that delivers what the headline promises. Sending the click to your homepage is burning money.
Write three headlines and two images, with the label

Be specific: "What a small bathroom remodel costs" yes, "You won't believe this trick" no. For sponsored content, get the "Ad" label in writing.
Set up tracking before you spend

Tag every link with UTM parameters, for example with our UTM builder, and install the platform's conversion pixel. Without it, you won't know what sells.
Launch with a test budget

$20 a day for 14 days: $280. That's the minimum daily budget per campaign in Outbrain's help center (checked late October 2026).
Measure and decide after 14 days

Compare your cost per result with the cap from step 1. Pause what doesn't convert and move that money to what does.

Run the math first. With $280 and an assumed $0.40 CPC you'd get 700 clicks; at a 2% conversion rate that's 14 leads at $20 each. Plug in your own numbers in our CPM calculator, which also works out CPC and CPA.

What does native advertising cost?

It depends on the type: in-feed, search, recommendation and marketplaces run on auctions, while sponsored content is a flat fee each publisher sets. There's no official public rate card, so be wary of CPC tables with no source or date.

Copy-paste prompts

Act as a native advertising specialist. I sell [what, to whom] and want [sales, leads or readers] at no more than [amount] per result. Write 5 headlines for a content recommendation ad that promise only what this page delivers [paste a summary], with no clickbait, and tell me which ad label to use and where to place it.

If you sell physical products, promoted listings inside a social marketplace are your next move: here's how to sell on TikTok Shop.

Frequently asked questions about native advertising

How does the FCC define native advertising?

It doesn't, really: the agency that polices native ads online is the FTC, not the FCC. The FTC treats them under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans deceptive practices, and spelled out its view in a 2015 policy statement. The FCC's sponsorship identification rules cover broadcast TV and radio, where paid content has to be announced as sponsored. If your ad runs on websites, apps or social media, the FTC guidance is the one to read.

Native advertising vs sponsored content: what's the difference?

Sponsored content is one type of native advertising: an article, video or podcast a brand pays a publisher to run in that publisher's own format. Native advertising is the umbrella term, and it also covers in-feed social ads, content recommendation widgets, paid search results and promoted listings on marketplaces. So all sponsored content is native advertising, but not all native advertising is sponsored content. Both need a clear label.

What are the four types of advertising?

There's no official list of four. In digital marketing, people usually split ads into search, display, social, video and native, with audio growing fast; offline you still have TV, radio, print and outdoor. Native isn't a separate channel competing with the rest: it's a way of presenting the ad so it fits the place it runs. That's why you'll find native formats inside search, social and publisher sites alike.

How do you spot native advertising?

Read the label first, then check where it sits. The FTC expects words people understand, such as "Ad," "Advertisement" or "Sponsored Advertising Content," placed in front of or above the headline, and it calls "Promoted" ambiguous at best. Other clues are a brand studio byline, a "Presented by" line, or a click that lands on the advertiser's own page. A quick test: cover the label and ask whether you'd mistake the piece for the publisher's own content. If you would, the label isn't doing its job.

What is an advertorial?

An advertorial is an ad written and designed to look like an editorial article: headline, body copy and photos in the publication's style, paid for by a brand. It's the print-era ancestor of sponsored content, and it's still common in magazines and on news sites. The rule hasn't changed: it has to be labeled as an advertisement, clearly and before people start reading, or the FTC can treat it as deceptive.

What is Taboola?

Taboola is a native advertising platform that places content recommendations on publisher sites: the "You may also like" or "Sponsored" grids you see under or inside news articles. Advertisers upload a headline, an image and a link, usually pay per click, and Taboola's algorithm decides who sees each ad based on what they read. Its main rival is Outbrain. It's best for sending readers to useful content, not for cold selling.

What are in-feed ads?

In-feed ads are native ads that appear between the regular posts of a feed: a sponsored post on Instagram, a promoted video on TikTok, or a sponsored update on LinkedIn. They copy the format of the posts around them and carry a "Sponsored" or "Ad" label. They're the most common native format for small businesses because you buy them yourself in the platform's ads manager, with small daily budgets.