A recent study was performed by Contently on how native ads are seen by consumers. Native ads are effectively sponsored content that is written and published in a way that looks similar to the other articles or posts on a site. They will include a disclaimer or other item on or near the post to indicate that it is paid content.
In the study 509 people aged 18 and up were shown a piece of sponsored content in either the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Onion or BuzzFeed or else they were shown a real article about Whole Foods, which was published in Fortune.
After reading the content they were asked whether they would describe it as an ad or an article. The sponsored content published in the Atlantic and The Onion were largely seen to be ads, which is good because that is what they are. In all the other publications, however, these pieces of sponsored content were seen as actual articles.
In the New York Times, the piece of sponsored content was thought to be a normal article by 71% of people in the survey. The Wall Street Journal was worse, with 80% of people thinking it was real content. Even more people thought the sponsored content in the Wall Street Journal was real than thought the actual real content on Fortune was. 31% of people identified real content in Fortune as an advertisement.
There are many things you can take away from this study. For marketers, one of the most important points to see is that consumers largely see sponsored posts as actual content. This means that they can be very effective at conveying information about a brand. This can not only lead to direct sales but also help to build brand recognition and respect, which are both extremely important.
You can see the screenshots of the different articles and ads that were used in the study HERE.