Native advertising: what it is, types, examples and how to label it in 2026

Native advertising is the ad that does not look like an ad: a sponsored article on a news site, a promoted post on LinkedIn or a "you may also like" module below a story. It takes the shape of the platform where it appears, which is why people read it instead of skipping it like a banner. For a marketing or communications manager it is one of the few paid formats that still gets attention; for an SEO, it is also a way into media mentions.

This guide explains what native advertising is, the three types recognized by the IAB, concrete examples, how it performs against banners according to the available research and what Chile's consumer agency (SERNAC) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ask for in terms of labeling.

What is native advertising

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau, the US digital advertising trade group) defines native advertising as paid ads that blend into the design and behavior of the platform where they run, so users feel them as part of the experience. The two key words in that definition are paid and labeled. If nobody paid, it is earned media; if someone paid and it is not labeled, it is covert advertising.

Two related concepts are often confused with it. Branded content is content a brand produces to entertain or inform without selling directly; it can run as native advertising or on the brand's own channels. An advertorial or sponsored article is a specific native format: a full, journalistic-style article published on a news site and marked as paid content.

Types of native advertising according to the IAB

The IAB Native Advertising Playbook 2.0, published in May 2019, cut the core types of native advertising from six to three. The others (search ads and promoted listings) moved to their own category.

The playbook evaluates every ad with four criteria: design, placement, behavior and disclosure. The first three change with the format; disclosure does not: the IAB wants it clear and prominent in every case.

Native advertising examples in media and social networks

In practice, a Latin American brand runs into native advertising in four places:

• Social networks. Every promoted post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or LinkedIn is in-feed native advertising: it looks like the rest of the posts and carries an "Ad" or "Promoted" tag.
• Marketplaces. Sponsored products on Mercado Libre, Amazon or Falabella.com appear among normal results with a "Sponsored" tag.
• News sites. The sponsored article labeled "Sponsored content" or "In partnership with" is the format companies use when they want more room than an ad gives them.
• Recommendation widgets. The blocks at the bottom of many news articles that send readers to third-party sites.

Of the four, only one has a lasting effect on Google and on AI assistants: the article published on a news site. A promoted post disappears when the budget runs out; an article on an authoritative outlet stays indexed, can carry a link to the brand and is exactly the kind of source ChatGPT and Perplexity cite. That is why many companies use native advertising in news media as part of their digital media advertising strategy and their organic visibility at the same time.

Does native advertising work? What the data says

The most cited effectiveness study was run by IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough in 2013, with a survey of 4,770 consumers and eye-tracking tests with 200 people. Compared with a banner, the native ad:

• was looked at 53% more often;
• produced an 18% higher lift in purchase intent;
• and a 9% higher lift in brand affinity.

+53%Looked at more often

+18%Lift in purchase intent

+9%Lift in brand affinity

Source: IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough, 4,770 respondents and 200 with eye tracking, 2013

View the data as a table

Looked at more often	+53%
Lift in purchase intent	+18%
Lift in brand affinity	+9%

It is an old study, run by a company that sells native ads, so it should be read as a reference rather than a promise. What has held up over time is the logic: a format that looks like content competes for attention on better terms than a rectangle on the side of the page.

How to label native advertising: SERNAC and the FTC

The risk with native advertising is misleading the reader, so regulators look at disclosure before anything else. In Chile, SERNAC reviewed in 2018 217 native ad pieces in media and social networks from at least 197 advertisers and concluded that the law requires advertising to be "easily identifiable". On Instagram, 22.7% of ads were not identified as advertising and 45.6% had some compliance problem; on Twitter, 11% carried no label. In July 2022 the agency also issued an interpretive circular on native advertising and influencers that repeats the same principle: paid content must be recognizable at a glance.

In the United States, the FTC published its native advertising guide for businesses in December 2015. It asks for plain-language labels such as "Ad" or "Paid content", placed before the content and not at the end, and discourages ambiguous terms.

1. Dec 2013First IAB playbookDefines six types of native advertising and requires disclosure in all of them.
2. Dec 2015FTC guideClear, plain-language labels placed before the content.
3. Sep 2018SERNAC study217 pieces reviewed; on Instagram, 22.7% were not identified as ads.
4. May 2019IAB Playbook 2.0Cuts the core types to three.
5. Jul 2022SERNAC circularCriteria for native advertising and influencers.

Source: IAB (2013 and 2019), FTC (2015) and SERNAC (2018 and 2022)

For a brand, the practical rule is simple: any paid content on a news site or social network must say it is paid. A clear label does not hurt a sponsored article's performance; what hurts it is copy that reads like a brochure.

How much Latin America searches for native advertising

Interest in the term is still niche, but it shows in which markets the format is becoming more professional.

Average monthly Google searches. For reference, "native advertising" gets 4,400 monthly searches in the United States. Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, queried on November 9, 2026.

406090110200–260

Only five countries were queried; the rest have no data.Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, queried on November 9, 2026

View the data as a table

Mexico	260
Colombia	120
Argentina	100
Peru	80
Chile	40

How to use native advertising for SEO and AI visibility

If the only goal is reach, in-feed formats are enough. If the brand also wants to show up on Google and in ChatGPT's answers, part of the budget should go to branded content published on news sites. Three criteria to choose where:

1. Outlet authority. A newspaper with history and real traffic weighs more than a blog built to sell posts.
2. Topic fit. A fintech gains more on a business outlet than on an entertainment one.
3. Indexable, permanent article. The piece must stay online, on its own URL, without blocks for Google.

That is the job of a media marketplace: choosing where and how to publish sponsored content in Chilean media with proper labeling, verified authority and an article that keeps adding value months after it was paid for.