This article describes what native ads are and how they differ from traditional banner ads, and explains that native ads are element-based and styled by the publisher.
Native ads match the look and feel of your site or app and provide a better user experience for your visitors. Native ads are different from standard ads in that they're designed to fit neatly inside the user's path through your site or app.
Native ads are element-based ads that are styled by the publisher instead of the advertiser. They're used for a broad range of use cases, from highly custom sponsored posts to scaled native backfill. In all cases, Google receives structured elements from the advertiser and inserts them into styles that the publisher defines. These are the elements:
Ad attribution
The ad badge that clearly marks the ad as advertising. You render ad attribution in your own app code. You must clearly display the text "Ad", "Advertisement", or "Sponsored" (localized appropriately). The badge is required to be a minimum of 15px height and width.
AdChoices
An AdChoices overlay is added automatically by the SDK in the corner you specify. It's important that the AdChoices overlay be easily seen, so choose background colors and images appropriately.
Icon
The small app icon or advertiser logo with square aspect ratio (1:1).
Call to action
Button or text field that encourages users to take action (for example, "Visit site" or "Install").
Media content
The large, primary image or video.
Title
The primary headline text.
Star rating
For app install ads, the rating from 0-5 that represents the average rating of the app in a store.
From advertiser-provided elements to publisher to user
- The advertiser provides the elements for a native creative (like the headline, image, destination URL, logo, and so forth) instead of a tag.
- The publisher uses Google Ad Manager to create a native style that matches their site or app. Ad Manager takes the elements and generates an ad with an appearance that is appropriate for the context of each impression. If some elements are missing, Ad Manager may generate them as needed.
- The user sees an ad that fits seamlessly into the surrounding content.
As the above example shows, with traditional banner ads:
- The advertiser provides a completed ad (an image or tag) with a fixed size.
- Google Ad Manager hosts the ad, doesn’t change it, and serves it into the stated size.
- The user sees the ad exactly as the advertiser prepared it.
Next steps
- See how native works in Google Ad Manager
- Get started with trafficking native ads
