Programmatic Native Advertising Explained | Brafton

Online advertising has transformed modern marketing for businesses worldwide, thanks in major part to shifting post-COVID-19 operational and audience needs. By 2022, the global digital ad revenue reached a staggering $667 billion, cementing digital advertising as a lucrative marketplace.

While common formats like display advertising within direct online marketing are great for relationship building and brand security, the times they are a-changin’ — and fast. Now, digital marketers have to marry strategic, non-disruptive native ad techniques with targeted, programmatic ad tools to maximize their spend. Welcome to programmatic native advertising!

New to programmatic native and its efficiency in elevating digital marketing efforts? This article covers the basics and sets you up to get the best of both worlds.

Native vs. Programmatic Advertising

Before we get into the brilliance of blending the two strategically, we have to appreciate the distinct differences between native and programmatic advertising.

Native Advertising

Native advertising blends paid ad assets into their surrounding content for a seamless fit that looks and feels the part. Native ads work well because they are unobtrusive, creating a non-jarring experience for users as they consume different media and marketing materials.

With native advertising, the online ad is part and parcel of the visual display that audiences see. By using ad formats known as native ad units, advertisers match the host’s platform design for one cohesive advertising outcome. The following native ad unit types are most effective:

• Content recommendation ads: Widgets or links that appear below specific pieces of content or media (e.g., videos) that redirect the reader to a different website or ad material.

• In-feed ads: Assets that appear within or alongside the publisher’s feed, with an oftentimes almost perfect match to its surrounding content — like a sponsored social media asset (e.g., a Facebook display ad next to a picture or video).

• Search ads: Ad assets that are offered by search engines like Google, appearing at the very top of SERPs — they mimic the expected search results.

• Sponsored ads or Promoted listings: The most popular native ad assets for eCommerce, appearing as sponsored links to products and services.

You probably consume native advertising daily, without much notice at times, by interacting seamlessly with in-map content, in-game ads, in-app videos, in-search native ads and most noticeably, paid search ads. The native advertising user experience feels organic, smooth and undisrupted, with arguably more enjoyable visual engagement.

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is a whole different arm of clever online advertising mastery. Marketers buy digital ad space powered by the latest software, super-smart algorithms and data-led bidding. The delivery is ideal ad placement at ideal times, to an ideal audience, in what should be the ideal context.

The automated ad, audience and platform analysis of programmatic advertising ensures a more targeted approach versus what may be limiting with manual ad placement. And the biggest upside? Higher process efficiencies and no human negotiation. 

There are four core types of programmatic advertising and four highly effective channels.

Programmatic Advertising Types:

• Real-time bidding (RTB) or Open auctions: Ads are bought and sold via open auctions in real time. They’re open to advertisers and publishers of different ad exchanges, ad networks and ad servers.
• Private Marketplace (PMP) or Closed auction: Premium, invite-only bidding inventories between publishers and a select group of real-time advertising bidders.
• Programmatic Direct or Guaranteed: Direct, platform-based, reservation-driven ad space purchases between advertisers and publishers at fixed prices.
• Preferred Deals: Pre-auction ad deals and agreements at fixed inventory prices between publishers and advertisers before open bidding commences.

Programmatic advertising is facilitated through Demand-side platforms (like the Amazon DSP), Supply-side platforms (like the OpenX SSP) and Data management platforms (like the Lotame DMP).

Programmatic Advertising Channels:

• Display: Common types are website banner ads.
• Native: Embedded within traditional content.
• Social: Popularly appearing as sponsored audio assets that accompany podcasts.
• Video: Video assets that run alongside video content.

The programmatic advertising user experience is less organic and more obvious in its marketing mission. While these ads are overt and attention-grabbing, this type of online advertising can be less appealing to audiences who don’t prefer to be slapped in the face by clearly evident ad placement.

Benefits of Programmatic Native Ads for Advertisers

Now, when native meets programmatic, we get programmatic native advertising — which uses automated programmatic tools for the buying and placing of native ad assets that look and feel just like their host content.

This is a strategic combination of both valuable advertising techniques to tailor the appeal of ad materials so they’re merged seamlessly within the content and platform of choice. The result is an integrated media or marketing product that users can consume, engage with and respond to organically.

Programmatic native advertising meets both the publisher’s and marketer’s needs in a balanced manner — without neglecting the much-desired goal of amplifying user experience. 

How Does Programmatic Native Work?

This process might involve a marketing DSP for the ad selection and purchasing phase, followed by a publishing SSP for the ad sale phase. For the all-important merge, marketers and publishers will use native ad platforms or networks to match up in real time to conclude this unified display, search and native advertising process.

Why Opt for Programmatic Native Advertising?

There are a host of benefits that make programmatic native ads a winning solution for forward-thinking advertisers who want to be ahead of the curve. The leading benefits include:

• Ad control: Marketers get more control over their paid ad placement.
• Consumer experience and engagement: Programmatic native ads attract more brand engagement and often lead to a wider audience reach.
• Cost-effectiveness: Programmatic native opens doors to more efficient ad buying systems, which trump opting exclusively for either one of these advertising methods alone.
• Flexibility: Both marketers and publishers can enjoy more scope for creativity, adaptable testing and experimentation with their digital ads.
• Relevance: Advertisers can customize their ad products and be more pointed in their targets to entice, enthuse or appease audiences using refined automated ad placement.
• Reliability: The combination of native and programmatic is a more reliable joint solution in which advertisers can make up for the weaknesses of one method over the other and vice versa.
• Traffic: Programmatic native ads attract more clicks and tend to lead to better performance results, enhanced buyer trust and longer-lasting customer loyalty.

How Programmatic Native Improves Ad Performance

Marketers can experience greater ad performance returns when they adopt programmatic native advertising, and there are five main areas of improvement to note:

1. With a combined, consolidated, tech-driven approach, advertisers can bypass ad-blockers.
2. Programmatic native advertising delivers more value, both on the advertising and customer sides.
3. The combination of automated tools and organic ad content integration maximizes what’s possible for device responsiveness, which has direct positive impacts on user experience.
4. Better-performing ads that enhance user experience and garner more traffic are a surefire way to secure heightened brand awareness.
5. By reshaping and improving the user experience, marketers who combine the native and programmatic approaches into one solution are more likely to experience higher click-through rates on their ad content.

Best Practices for Running Programmatic Native Campaigns

No good introductory guide is complete without a set of best practice tips to ensure that every keen marketing team and digital enthusiast has the insights they need — not just to adopt a new tool but to implement it expertly. 

Here are the helpful practices that’ll help streamline your programmatic native ad campaigns:

• Understand the marketplace and execute precise targeting with your ideal audience’s needs and preferences in mind.
• Set advertising goals so that you have healthy milestones to aim for and surpass over time.
• Make this kind of advertising part of your bigger, broader marketing strategy. Stay clear of adopting programmatic native advertising as a one-off or side project.
• As with all advertising, don’t neglect appealing to human connection and compelling storytelling.
• Prioritize quality ad content. It’s not just about flash and attention-grabbing tactics. Consumers and potential customers still need high-value material for the taking.
• Remain authentic, uphold honesty and advertise with integrity.
• Guard against programmatic ad fraud and employ automated tools that integrate performance tracking and monitoring.
• Track your ad performance and optimize your ad content where necessary.

Future Trends in Native Advertising

Like many automatic and AI-driven digital marketing tools, programmatic native advertising does have its kinks. The following are areas of scrutiny as we look to see how future digital trends will unfold and possibly affect programmatic native:

1. Measuring the metrics and performance of programmatic native ads long term.
2. Maintaining ethical standards.
3. Balancing the interests of advertisers, publishers and online consumers.
4. Projecting what kind of big spending will be dedicated to technology investments for improvements over time.

Improve Your Ad Performance With Programmatic Native

In short, programmatic native advertising is a marketer and publisher’s consolidated, tech-driven method for clever, targeted advertising that elevates ad performance and the user experience for next-level digital and business marketing.

Keen to learn more about what kind of marketing feats should form part of your advertising campaigns in 2025 and beyond? Keep reading more insightful Brafton blog content to fine-tune your marketing.