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The publisher's role in native advertising

The native advertising model raises a number of important issues for publishers. What kind of advertiser is best to work closely with? Is the advertiser's brand complementary to the publisher's? Will the audience find the content engaging? How and where should it be labeled on the site? The list of questions can seem endless. And that doesn't even include the often uncomfortable clash that can arise with the editorial department.

This trial by fire process is giving publishers a reason to create a universal set of guidelines for their organizations. These guidelines will help the sales team determine not only which brands to work with but how to work with them. It will also help them adapt to the native concepts lurking around the corner -- Gawker's "commerce journalism."

When experimenting with new native concepts or choosing a new partner for an established native placement that you've already been running, what are the rules? This places publishers in an ideal position to lead. Here is a list of questions to consider when producing a set of guidelines for native advertising.

Who needs to be involved in ideation?

While the precise mechanism may vary from publisher to publisher, native placements are still bought and sold as ads -- with an extra creative layer. A good native program doesn't wrangle with a publisher's audience, but rather enhances the customer experience on the publisher's site. For ads to be truly native and unique to a publisher's brand, a degree of imagination is required. Who at the organization is ideating on native concepts? Is that a function the person is well suited for? To achieve a seductive native program within a company, some inter-organizational cooperation between creative and business forces may well be needed.

What is the experience going to be like for users?

What will users see after their initial click and where do they engage with the content -- behind a wall, login or takeover, or below the fold? When it comes to user experience, publishers know good design and good execution. They should leverage this knowledge to help the advertisers maximize engagement with their content, which in turn benefits everyone.

Where should it appear?

When native ad placement comes up, the conversation is usually about how well the unit is integrated into the look and feel of the site. What has yet to be defined this early in the game is where on the page -- and by extension, the site -- the native ad will best perform.

Since native ads often become another piece of content in the editorial experience, this is a question best suited for publishers to answer. Even then there's no science to it. Or is there? In these uncharted waters, taking a data-driven approach to how the publisher's regular editorial performs on various parts of the page can help inform an optimal native placement.

Native ads represent an opportunity to breathe new life into under-used or under-appreciated portions of a site. Through great content, publishers can retrain readers to engage with placements they may have previously ignored.

How do we choose bedfellows?

In regards to what happened to The Atlantic, the industry is on high alert for incongruous publisher and advertiser relationships. But let's not forget the factors that led to the outcry -- the quality of content and the overall controversial status of the advertiser. How about less risky partnerships? For example, a parenting site would shy away from a violent video game producer, but what about a major CPG with sugary cereals in its portfolio? If the advertisers have great content -- not to mention dollars -- at what point does the risk of backlash outweigh the potential rewards?

Setting up guidelines to address these questions can save you the headache for later, but don't be surprised if an unexpected scenario creeps up. As challenging as this may be in the current economic environment, choose the side of value for the user over short-term monetary gains.

Who is on the hook for performance?

Selling impressions is a fairly cut and dry exercise for publishers. However, when it comes to more nebulous things like engagement, helping advertisers to satisfy their goals can become complicated for publishers. Both roles have a stake in understanding what works, what doesn't work, and why.

This is a two-pronged process -- measurement and info sharing. In the age of display, publishers sold pre-defined inventory, and it was either fulfilled or it was not. In digital, what matters is increasing page views after the click followed by sharing and time spent with content.

To what extent is the publisher on the hook for native ad performance? Or perhaps a better question is should publishers even be on the hook? If anyone is starting to better understand the above mentioned metrics and the number of factors that contribute to them, it's the publishers.

The publisher's expertise is needed for the success of branded content. In an ideal world, the publisher and advertisers should share and be transparent about the metrics for their native advertising experiment. This practice will only benefit everyone involved and provide for future success.

Brandon Carter is a marketing manager at Outbrain.

On Twitter? Follow Carter at @sleepchant. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

"Businessman in front of a choice" image via Shutterstock.

iMedia Connection: All Feed

The publisher's role in native advertising

Who needs to be involved in ideation?

What is the experience going to be like for users?

Where should it appear?

How do we choose bedfellows?

Who is on the hook for performance?

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