How to run Meta ads
Objectives, audiences, creative, and testing on Facebook and Instagram.
Read the guideGuide/ Paid media
How to run
native ads.
Native ads appear as recommended content on publisher sites, matching the look of the articles around them. Used well they reach audiences cheaply. Used carelessly they are the easiest way to buy worthless traffic.
What native advertising actually is
Native ads are paid placements styled to match their surroundings — typically the "recommended for you" blocks at the foot of news articles.
The main platforms are Taboola and Outbrain, which between them cover a large share of publisher inventory, plus smaller networks and direct publisher deals.
The appeal is cheap reach at scale. The catch is that this traffic is far colder than search — the reader was reading an article, not looking for you.
Native suits content, not hard sells
Sending native traffic straight to a product page rarely works. The click came from curiosity, not intent.
What works is a genuinely useful article, a comparison, or a case study that earns interest first and offers the next step second. Native is a top-of-funnel channel, and treating it as a bottom-of-funnel one is the most common way budget disappears.
Headlines and images do the work
Curiosity beats description, but curiosity that misleads produces bounces you paid for. Aim for specific and intriguing rather than vague and clickbaity.
Images that look like real photographs outperform polished stock and graphics, because they fit the editorial context around them.
Test many headline and image combinations — the spread between the best and worst performers on native is wider than on most channels.
Manage supply sources aggressively
This is the single most important native skill. Your ads run across thousands of individual sites and apps, and the quality varies enormously.
Review performance by publisher site regularly and block the ones producing clicks with no engagement. Some sources generate volume that never converts, and they will happily consume your entire budget.
Watch for suspiciously high click-through with near-zero time on site — usually accidental clicks on poorly placed widgets, or worse.
Track properly or do not run it
Pass sub-IDs so you can attribute performance down to individual placements. Without that granularity you cannot block bad sources, and blocking bad sources is the entire optimisation.
Measure engagement past the click — scroll depth, time on page, downstream conversions. Click metrics alone will mislead you badly on this channel.
Set realistic expectations
Expect low cost per click and low conversion rates. The economics work through volume and downstream value, not immediate conversion.
Native is best used to fill the top of a funnel that already converts. If your retargeting, email capture and nurture are not working, native will amplify a leak rather than fix it.
FAQ/ Before you ask
Common questions
How is native different from display advertising?
Display ads are banners that look like ads. Native placements match the format of surrounding editorial content, which generally earns higher engagement — though intent remains low on both.
What budget does native need?
Enough to gather placement-level data across many sources, since the optimisation is blocking poor publishers. Very small budgets spread thin cannot identify which sources to cut.
Is native traffic real?
Largely, but quality varies enormously by source, and some placements generate accidental or low-value clicks. Rigorous supply-source management is not optional on this channel — it is the work.
Should I run native before search or social?
Usually not. Search captures existing demand and social has better targeting and measurement. Native makes most sense once those are working and you need additional top-of-funnel reach.
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