Advertorial

What is an advertorial?

An advertorial is a special form of advertising that is edited in an editorial style and appears like a journalistic article. The term is a combination of the words advertisement and editorial.

The aim of an advertorial is to promote products, services, or brands without displaying the typical characteristics of an advertisement. It offers the reader added value, for example through tips, background information, or practical examples, but pursues a commercial interest. It is important that advertorials are clearly marked as advertising, e.g., with labels such as “ad” or “sponsored post,” to ensure transparency.

How does an advertorial differ from a traditional advertisement?

An advertorial differs significantly from a conventional advertisement. While traditional advertisements are usually short, striking, and clearly promotional, an advertorial is informative, explanatory, and written in the style of an editorial article.

It imparts knowledge, tells stories, and integrates the advertising message naturally into the flow of the text. This makes the advertising more credible and less intrusive.

What types of advertorials are there?

Advertorials can appear in various media formats – both online and offline. Common types include:

• Print advertorials: classic advertisements in newspapers or magazines that are designed to look like editorial content.
• Online advertorials: articles on websites, blogs, or online magazines that provide information about a product or brand.
• Native ads and social advertorials: posts optimized specifically for social media channels or content platforms that fit seamlessly into the feed.

In online marketing, advertorials are often used to increase brand awareness, build backlinks, or indirectly promote conversions. Success with advertorials in the online sector is easier to measure than in the print sector. Here, the user has the opportunity to interact by clicking directly on external links that interest them. You can monitor this and see how well your advertorial is performing.

How can I make my advertorial successful?

The content you write is essential for your sponsored post. Users expect your article to provide substantive input.

To make an advertorial truly convincing, the following points should be considered:

• Transparency: Clearly label advertising.
• Added value: The content must be informative and useful, not purely promotional.
• Editorial structure: Answer the W questions and aim for a length of approximately 1,800 characters.
• Tone and style: Adapt your text to the editorial environment of the medium.
• Target audience understanding: Address the interests of the readership in terms of content.
• SEO optimization: Use relevant keywords, meta data, and internal links.
• Appealing presentation: Incorporate graphic elements and a suitable selection of images.

Readers always appreciate quotes about the product or service. This makes the advertorial authentic. Quotes can come from the managing director or inventor, for example.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertorials?

Many users are overwhelmed by the now very large advertising world in both the offline and online sectors. In the online sector in particular, many people are bothered by flashing pop-ups and advertising layovers. So what are the pros and cons of advertorials?

According to Statista, the proportion of internet and desktop users in Germany who block ads using ad blockers is around 23% to 24% in the area of online display advertising. This figure underscores how traditional advertising formats such as banners and pop-up ads are becoming increasingly less effective, as a significant portion of the target audience either does not see the ads or deliberately blocks them.

This results in a decisive advantage for content such as advertorials: because an advertorial appears in the style of an editorial article, it can overcome the hurdle of ad blocker hiding and thus be more visible when classic banner advertising is already blocked.

What does an advertorial look like?

A classic example of an advertorial is an article such as “How to find the perfect car insurance for your electric car,” which offers useful tips on insurance coverage while unobtrusively presenting the products of a specific insurer.

Articles such as “5 ways to live more sustainably,” in which a company selling eco-friendly clothing is presented, are also typical advertorials.

In print media, advertorials often appear in magazines as special features, for example, “Healthy into Winter” with recommendations from a pharmaceutical company.

Online, advertorials can be found on news or specialist portals, where they are often labeled as sponsored articles with the note ‘Advertisement’ or “Sponsored Post.”

How do advertorials differ from native advertising, content marketing, and display ads?

Advertorials are often confused with other forms of advertising, especially native advertising, content marketing, and display ads. Although the formats are similar, they differ significantly in terms of their purpose, design, and perception.

• Advertorial: An editorially designed article that promotes a product or brand while remaining informative and relevant in terms of content. The advertorial appears in a third-party medium and must be labeled as an advertisement. The goal is to build awareness and trust without appearing to be advertising.
• Native advertising: Similar to advertorials, but usually shorter and more focused on generating traffic. It blends seamlessly into the environment of a platform in terms of visuals and content, but often redirects to a landing page or campaign page when clicked.
• Content marketing: This includes a company’s own content (e.g., blog articles, white papers, newsletters) that appears permanently on its own website. The aim is to build long-term brand competence and trust through useful information – in contrast to advertorials, which are published in a third-party medium.
• Display ads: Classic graphic advertisements (e.g., banners, pop-ups, video ads) that are immediately recognizable as advertising. They often achieve high reach, but have lower credibility and significantly lower click-through rates compared to advertorials or content marketing articles.

While display ads focus on visibility and reach, advertorials and native ads aim for credibility and content relevance. Content marketing, in turn, reinforces this effect in the long term by positioning brands through their own independent content.