Thomas Bellink
In partnership with
This piece may include commercial and/or affiliate links as per our editorial policy
1
Taboola
2
Dianomi
3
AdStyle
4
Outbrain
5
MGID
6
Revcontent
7
TripleLift
8
Adyoulike
9
Adsterra
10
Teads
11
Nativo
12
Sharethrough
13
Plista
14
Stackadapt
15
Joinative
Digital publishers looking to maximize their revenue should consider folding native advertising into their monetization model.
A study conducted in 2017 found that native ads could help publishers boost click-through rates (CTRs) by as much as ninefold (PDF download). More recently, native ads have become one of the dominant forms of display advertising, with 64% of the total display ad budgets in 2021 going towards native ad placements. Spending on native ads is projected to climb another 14.9% year on year in 2022 to hit $87.6 billion.
Native ad networks place ads on a site that match the style and consistency of the publisher’s existing content. The best native advertising networks make use of 100% of a publisher’s inventory, optimizing potential ad revenue.
Networks will take a cut of the ad revenue, usually around 50%. Each native ad network has its own agreements, and it’s possible that these terms may change from publisher to publisher.
Before we dive into our list of the 15 best native ad networks in 2022, let’s quickly review what native ad networks are and the various types of native advertising.
Native ad networks are the distributor of native ads, which seamlessly blend into the rest of the publisher’s content. Native ads are designed to be unintrusive and many native ad networks develop ways to integrate ads into content without disrupting the flow or the user experience (UX).
These networks provide another source of revenue for publishers without compromising their site’s look and feel. Content recommendation-based native ads can be particularly useful as they provide the feeling of scrolling through a social media platform, keeping audiences engaged.
As stated above, native ads can command higher CTRs than display ads. This lift in CTR can be attributed to the audience’s experience with a publisher’s site. Because native ads are less intrusive than other ad formats, audiences are not as frustrated by them as some other interruptive ads (PDF download).
Native ad networks can also simulate content syndication platforms, offering publishers the chance to share their content with other places on the web, while also providing a backlink back to their site. This can help optimize the original article’s search engine ranking and reach new audiences, especially as the top native ad networks help reach those audiences through features like live monitoring and A/B testing.
While there are many different types of native ads, with some ad networks creating unique varieties, four types of native tend to be used across all native ad networks: content recommendation, in-article native ads, video ads and in-feed native ads.
Content recommendations tend to appear at the bottom of an article and showcase suggested articles for individual users. They tend to appear as a list and are usually highlighted as sponsored content.
Here’s an example of a content recommendation panel pulled from a CNN article.
An in-article native ad comes between two different paragraphs in the middle of the article. It will usually appear in a list similar to the content recommendation ad.
These are useful for audiences to view ads as they scroll through the article, while still allowing them to control the amount of time they view the ad. If they want to ignore it, they can just scroll past.
Here’s an example taken from Forbes.
A native video ad doesn’t act as a barrier for users looking to consume a publisher’s content, in the way a pre-roll video would.
Instead, the videos are click-to-play, meaning they start playing at first without sound, and then a user can opt into the ad by clicking the video.
Taboola provides the following example on their site, though the original post appears to be a Microsoft social media ad.
This is also an example of the in-feed native ad as it appears in a social media setting. However, video ads can also appear natively in sidebars and in content recommendations.
The in-feed native ad appears in the middle of a social media feed. These are designed to reappear in the infinite scroll of social media and blend in seamlessly with the feed. Typically, these appear as posts sponsored by advertisers.
Here’s a typical example of an Facebook in-feed ad.
Note how it acts exactly as any other post would — people can comment, share and leave likes. The similarities between the ad and regular posts are the hallmark of native ads.
1
Taboola is the widest-reaching native advertising platform on this list, catering to more than a billion users across all its partnered publications, including USA Today, NBC, CBS News, and Fox.
The typical Taboola native ad usually appears as a set of content recommendations to different articles either in the feed or towards the end of an article. However, Taboola also has native ads that include in-feed video sponsorships. Taboola enforces a quality control policy within its content recommendations to ensure that no ads appear on the host’s site that could damage the publisher’s reputation.
Another feature of Taboola is a suite of tools that can be used to tailor the UX. Taboola provides both publishers and advertisers with actionable user data for editorial insights, and even allows A/B testing to measure content recommendation effectiveness. The latter is, however, a tool suited more for advertisers. However, tailoring content to specific users is an effective way to boost CTRs, which in turn boosts publishers’ income from their ad content.
Publisher payments through Taboola occur monthly through the Payoneer money transfer service. The portion of advertiser revenue taken by Taboola as payment for its service is reached via an agreement.
2
Dianomi is another large native ad network with a global reach of 515 million users, with the added caveat of being designed to target premium audiences, with its average user income exceeding $100,000. The publications Dianomi has partnered with are more business-oriented, including Forbes, Bloomberg and Reuters.
Dianomi claims to monetize 100% of a publisher’s inventory, with solutions across all publisher platforms including apps and social platforms.
There are six different types of native ads that can run on Dianomi: video ads, in-article ads, in-feed ads, center page ads, below-article ads and ads that appear on the right rail. Dianomi allows publishers to arrange these elements as they see fit, meaning publishers can maintain consistency in the quality of their articles.
As with others on this list, Dianomi does not reveal the portion of advertiser revenue it takes as payment.
3
AdStyle is a native ad network that serves more than 65 billion monthly ad impressions and enjoys a wide range of advertiser partnerships, including companies such as Nespresso, Estee Lauder, Booking.com, Ikea, L’oreal and Toyota. The ad network is used by publishers such as Gannet, Albuquerque Journal and Variety.
AdStyle is a particularly strong candidate for editorial, content-based publishers, as the native ad network displays content ad suggestions based on user preferences and adapts to the publisher page. For advertisers, AdStyle provides a suite of analytical tools to measure the effectiveness of creatives based on CTRs and conversions.
AdStyle claims its self-learning system delivers the most relevant and interesting content to visitors, which drives engagement and conversion rates for advertisers, while increasing revenue for publishers compared to other networks.
Native ads are displayed on a publisher’s site using a widget that the publisher can add to desired pages, including AMP pages that have faster load times. To ensure that the widget does not impede on a publisher’s load time and SEO, AdStyle’s tech loads asynchronously. This means the site load speeds are not dependent on the widget.
AdStyle distributes its publisher payments net 30 days after the end of every month, as long as the publisher has a minimum revenue of $50.
4
Outbrain puts out more than 340 billion content recommendations per year and is used by major media publications such as Hearst, CNN and MSN.
One feature that makes Outbrain stand apart from the other native advertising platforms is its integration of AI and machine learning capabilities in its native ad platform. The integration of the Smartlogic AI ensures that every user receives unique recommendations tailored to the user’s individual interest — a system that Outbrain claims raises its potential CTRs by 25%.
Outbrain’s Smartlogic even controls functions such as the format the content recommendations take, adjusting the size and structure of the recommendations to suit specific users.
In terms of publisher payments, Outbrain sends across payments on either a 60 or 90-day schedule, as long as it reaches the minimum amount of $50. As with other native ad platforms on this list, the amount of ad revenue a publisher receives is reached via an agreement.
5
MGID is a native ad network with a reach almost wide enough to contend with the likes of Taboola, leveraging its publisher partnerships to reach an audience of more than 850 million with 185 billion monthly content recommendations. Its publisher network includes the International Business Times, Newsweek and Publishing Clearing House.
MGID has three different types of native ads it can integrate into a publisher’s site, including an in-content ad and a sidebar ad. However, of most interest is the MGID smart widget.
Publishers can place this widget anywhere on the site they wish. The MGID smart widget has a few different types of rich media it can use to engage users, including both native videos and gifs.
Publisher payments for MGID occur on a monthly basis, however, the same story applies to MGID when it comes to ad revenue — MGID’s cut is worked out by an agreement with a publisher.
6
Revcontent is a Florida-based native ad network that is employed over 2,000 websites and is used by publishers such as Next Star Digital, Barstool Sports and Minute Media. However, what Revcontent lacks with its reach, it makes up for in its features — particularly for US publishers.
Revcontent provides the advertiser’s budget directly to the publisher through its publisher dashboard, meaning publishers can be informed about the best way to structure their content around Revcontent’s ad widgets.
Another feature that provides editorial insight is Revcontent’s live map, which shows who is clicking on what ad content either by state in the US or by country internationally. The network also provides data such as daily, weekly or monthly ad revenue or the average viewable cost per thousand (vCPM). The data is mostly first-party based, which helps with preparations for Google’s eventual axing of the third-party cookie.
Revcontent has monthly publisher payments that can either be done through an ACH transfer for US banks or a Wire transfer internationally. There is also the option for custom payment options such as Paypal.
7
New York-based TripleLift is a service with a serious number of features on demand, with native ads being just one of them. It is used by websites such as Buzzfeed, The Weather Channel and eBay.
Despite native ads being one of five options — the others being online video, CTV, display and branded content — TripleLift offers quite a few more options for native ad formats than many others on this list. Its formats include cinemagraph ads, image ads, scroll ads, window ads, carousel ads, reveal ads, and pharma ads that comply with FDA standards for pharmaceutical products. Cinemagraph ads are slightly different from video ads, as they display subtler movements and don’t have features such as sound or a pause button: they function more as a gif.
TripleLift is also integrated into different ad tech software, including Google’s Display & Video 360, Double Verify, and News Guard. It is also integrated with many different demand-side platforms (DSPs) as well, including but not limited to Media Math, Adobe, and The Trade Desk. On top of all this, TripleLift also includes its own DMP.
There are three different options for publisher payments, two of which come with some financial transaction fees. The 30-day payments have a 2% financial transaction fee and the 60-day payments have a 1% financial transaction fee. However, the 90-day payments don’t have a fee attached.
8
Adyoulike is a native ad network that specializes in mobile users for premium publishers and manages a monthly ad impression rate of 50 billion. The network has partnerships with publishers such as Rolling Stone, Tech Radar and Cosmopolitan, and partnerships with advertisers such as Nikon, Dior Toyota and Rolex.
The native ad network provides data about CPMs and CTRs in real-time, allowing for rapid adjustments in marketing schemes. It also has four different native ad solutions: native stories, social, video and display — all with adjustments to the format of ads.
On November 4, Adyoulike was purchased by Open Web, adding the ad network to the company’s portfolio alongside publisher tech such as Hive Media. With the recent purchase, Adyoulike may undergo some changes as it adjusts to the new ownership.
9
Cyprus-based Adsterra has a network of 18,000 publishers providing around 30 billion impressions monthly. Adsterra has partnered with companies such as PrimeR Global Wide Media and Cyber Ghost.
This native ad network has a few noteworthy features available, such as a 100% fill rate for publisher inventory and automated processes that streamline native ad implementation. There are three levels of security to prevent fraud through Adsterra, both an in-house and third-party fraud detection system as well as a human check. On top of this, Adsterra claims to have anti-ad-block integration.
There are six different types of native ad formats that Adsterra can implement: a pop-under ad, a social bar, an in-page push ad, native banners, video ads and banners.
Adsterra has one of the most timely publisher payment systems on this list, paying out to publishers twice a month rather than the typical once a month.
10
Teads claims to reach a monthly total of 1.9 billion users across all of its partnered publications — though this number likely contains duplicate users. Some publications that have partnered with Teads include ESPN, Vice and the BBC.
For advertisers, Teads has a range of tools to help track users and show them relevant ads. One of these features is an advanced cookieless targeting system that relies on both contextual and first-party data, which Teads claims are 30% more accurate than industry benchmarks. The ad network also includes machine learning capabilities to tailor unique ad experiences to users.
Teads also has a few features for publishers, including traffic monitoring and real-time analytics. The network also supports multiple platforms including web, AMP and mobile apps. The native ad network specializes in video and includes a native, in-feed, video ad format.
11
Nativo is a “storytelling” platform that is focused on developing and patenting ad technologies. Nativo is used by publications such as Advance Local, Motor Trend and the Los Angeles Times.
Nativo’s patented technologies combine ad serving, optimization and reporting solutions that can be used to boost the performance of native ads on a publisher’s site. Its ads are designed to scale and match the feel of the host’s site, making it appear as a natural element on the page.
The ad network also has features that measure the performance of the native ad it displays, showing both the total impressions and the percentage of CTRs. It can also adjust the appearance and headline of the content recommendations as a form of real-time A/B testing.
Nativo issues out its publisher payments on a monthly basis, with a minimum of $100 for a payout. Publishers can also request their portion of the ad revenue earlier, as long as the publisher’s revenue is more than $100.
12
Sharethrough is a supply-side platform (SSP) that specializes in optimizing the performance of ad creatives in the real-time bidding (RTB) process — and one of the ways it achieves this is by providing publishers with the ability to place native ads on their sites. The SSP is used by publishers such as Yahoo!, Viacom and Vox and provides ads by companies such as Windows, Uber and T-Mobile.
As an SSP, Sharethrough integrates cleanly into multiple DSPs such as TradeDesk, Adobe and MediaMath. Sharethrough also has integrations into different ad bidding software such as Google Open Bidding.
In its suite of technology, Sharethrough has three different smart ad formats including enhanced banners, video, and native ads. They also have many different options for native ads, including in-feed recommendations, content widgets and even the ability to custom-create ads.
Sharethrough pays its publishers on a monthly basis, with the exact share of the advertiser revenue decided via an agreement.
13
Plista is based in Berlin and is one of the smallest ad networks on this list with only 60 million monthly users and 12,000 publishers. Some notable advertisers and publishers that use this native ad network are Inno Games, Trotec and Freenet.
Plista serves content recommendations using audience data based on 40 different algorithms. Some of the different types of data points they use to target audiences include behavioral, semantic and geographical. While Plista still relies on third-party cookies to gather data, it has started to invest in some other forms of tracking software — such as hash identifiers.
Plista’s pricing structure is based on CPCs, which benefits publishers. Plista also pays its publishers on a monthly basis.
14
Stackadapt is a Toronto-based DSP with native ad capabilities, which LinkedIn named one of the top Canadian start-ups in 2019. Some of its partnered publishers include The Stable, White Spider Media and the AdVenture Media Group.
Stackadapt offers a lot of dynamic opportunities in audience targeting, relying mostly on first-party data and second-party data obtained through B2B relationships. The DSP features a system of dynamic retargeting, remembering targets with a high intent to purchase and showcasing the content that originally engaged them.
There are three different types of native ads that Stackadapt can employ — in-feed native ads, content recommendations and in-ad natives — display ads that copy the elements of native ads, including using native images, headlines and body texts. Interestingly, Stackadapt prices its ads on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis, which is more of an advantage for the advertiser than the publisher.
15
Joinative is a Berlin-based native ad service that can help manage, optimize and launch native advertising campaigns. Unlike the others on this list, Joinative is not a native ad network, but a tool that can be integrated into native advertising networks — namely the two largest platforms, Outbrain and Taboola.
Joinative can import data from both Outbrain and Taboola and build a report from both data sets. The service is able to group ad campaigns together to measure the performance of individual campaigns from both services, providing publishers with an easy way to be able to see the highest-performing campaigns.
Joinative can also be a useful service for publishers because it can set the conditions for when a native ad will be displayed. Therefore, a publisher will be able to target native ads with more adaptability.
Joinative can be a handy option for larger publications that are looking to expand their use of native ads. Because this is a paid-for service, it may be less useful for smaller publications.
Native advertising brings consistency of style to advertising that display ads simply cannot achieve. Publishers can place native ads on their sites to optimize their revenue without compromising their aesthetic. They attract user attention much higher than regular display ads and lead to more audience clicks.
While they are an important addition to a publisher’s website, they are not the be-all and end-all of digital advertising. A marketing campaign should make use of both styles of ads, as despite native ads having a higher CTR, display ads can raise brand awareness.
It is important for publishers to have a comprehensive view of the digital landscape, which is why it’s worth checking out our lists on some other publisher-essential software. For example, we have lists on the 11 best digital publishing platforms and the 17 best subscription management software.
Learn proven strategies to maximize traffic to your digital publication by leveraging tried and tested technical and content SEO strategies.
Related posts
Subscribe to receive a recap of our top stories in digital media.
State of Digital Publishing is creating a new publication and community for digital media and publishing professionals, in new media and technology.
PUBLISHERS, THESE 20+ TOOLS WILL SUPERCHARGE YOUR GROWTH
Subscribe to our newsletter and receive the ultimate list of smart technologies and free resources to boost your publisher SEO and content efforts.
Join 3,000+ publishers around the world and get exclusive tips and resources delivered to your inbox.
Being a part of the SODP Community has made a real impact on my problem-solving at work. From bouncing off paywalls solution ideas to thinking about an SEO strategy for my paywall, it’s the most value-adding professional community I’m a part of.
Yvette Dimiri, Head of Growth, Stears
PUBLISHERS, THESE 20+ TOOLS WILL SUPERCHARGE YOUR GROWTH
Subscribe to our newsletter and receive the ultimate list of smart technologies and free resources to boost your publisher SEO and content efforts.
Join 3,000+ publishers around the world and get exclusive tips and resources delivered to your inbox.
Being a part of the SODP Community has made a real impact on my problem-solving at work. From bouncing off paywalls solution ideas to thinking about an SEO strategy for my paywall, it’s the most value-adding professional community I’m a part of.
Yvette Dimiri, Head of Growth, Stears
