Before we get right to the good stuff and tell you how much online publications like Forbes, BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post charge for ‘native advertising,’ we’re going to give you a quick crash course in what  native advertising is – just to get everyone up to speed.

Native advertising is online advertising that is made to look and feel just like the normal user experience wherever it is placed. Similar to the traditional ‘advertorial,’  the ultimate goal is to make the advertising feel less intrusive.

Okay, awesome. Everybody’s up to speed now. Before you hear the insane amount of money companies are paying for these digital ads, it’s important to know how success is judged. Vice president of digital business development and advertising products at Deseret Digital Media, Todd Handy says there are four ways to measure the success of native advertising:

1. Story impressions: The number of times the story has been viewed online or in social media
2. Story reads: The number of people who have read the story
3. Display ad impressions
4. Time spent on the story (i.e. engagement)

Although there is no standard pricing, and native advertising prices fluctuate widely. Digiday reported that four to five native ads on BuzzFeed will cost a company around $100,000. Companies advertising on BuzzFeed include: Virgin Mobile, Oscar Meyer, Durex and Corona.

The report also said Forbes charges $50,000 to $75,000 per month for a minimum of three months, brands using this platform include SAP, UPS, Dell and Intel.

Gawker is said to charge between $300,000 and $500,000 for 12 to 16 individual pieces, and the Huffington Post charges $40,000 per article.

Are you for or against native advertising?

[Source: Mashable, Digiday]