Branded Content vs. Native Advertising: What’s the Difference?

Marketers and content teams often use “branded content” and “native advertising” like they’re the same thing. They’re not — and that mix-up has real costs.

Think about it: if you judge a story-led piece like a hard-sell ad, or expect a sponsored slot to do the job of a full content experience, your results will always feel “off,” even if the execution was good. You end up chasing the wrong goals, tracking the wrong numbers, and wasting budget.

Want to avoid this? You’re in the right place. Read on as we discuss the following:

• What branded content is

• What native advertising is

• How to choose which one to use based on your goal and message

At the end of this article, you will be able to quickly decide if your next idea should be branded content, a native ad, or a mix of both.

What is branded content?

Branded content is content that a brand creates or co-creates to tell a story, share a point of view, or entertain and educate an audience. The brand is clearly involved, but the main focus is on value for the viewer or reader, not on pushing a discount or sales. 

Red Bull is a classic example. Instead of talking about ingredients or price, they invest in extreme sports videos, documentaries, and event coverage—from cliff diving and mountain biking to the Felix Baumgartner space jump and full snowboarding films. These live on Red Bull’s YouTube channel, social pages, magazines, and Red Bull TV, and they all push one idea: Red Bull is about energy, risk, and adventure, even when you barely see the can.

You usually find branded content in places where people already expect stories or depth: on a brand’s blog, YouTube channel, podcast, or on a publisher’s special section or microsite. Sometimes, platforms label it as “presented by” or “in partnership with” to make the sponsorship clear without breaking the experience.

The main goal of branded content is to build trust and affinity. You want people to spend time with your brand, understand what you stand for, and positively remember you. Because of this, success is often measured by the quality of engagement: how long people watched or read, whether they shared it, and how they felt about the brand after.

What is native advertising?

Unlike branded content, which feels like a full show or feature story, native advertising is a paid placement that appears inside another publisher’s content feed. It is designed to match the look and tone of the platform so it feels like part of the regular stream, not a separate banner or pop-up.

You see native ads as extra headlines in a news site’s article list, as posts in your Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok feed, or as tiles at the end of an article that lead to a brand’s page, usually with a small tag like “Sponsored” or “Ad” so users know it is paid. Because they sit in the same spaces as normal content, they tend to feel less disruptive and are easier for users to engage with.

Native ads are short and very structured. The platform gives you a template—a fixed space for a headline, a short line or two of text, one image or video, and a link—and you work within those limits instead of building a full-length story or series from scratch.

Because native ads are built for quick actions like clicks, sign-ups, or purchases, you measure them very differently from branded content. You judge them using performance metrics like impressions (how many times your ad is shown), click-through rate or CTR (the percentage of people who click after seeing your ad), cost per click or CPC (how much you pay for each click), and conversions (how many people complete the action you want, such as a sign-up or purchase).

Branded content vs native ads: which should you use

Now that we’ve defined both, the real question is simple: when should you use branded content, and when should you use native advertising?

• Start with your main goal. If you want awareness or education, branded content is usually the better fit because it gives you space to tell a story and show your expertise. If you want quick actions like sign-ups or sales, native ads are better because they reach a lot of people fast and push a clear call to action.

• Check how complex your message is. If you’re introducing a new product category, changing habits, or talking about a sensitive topic, branded content works better because you can add context, examples, and real voices. If your message is simple, like “Sale this weekend” or “Download the app,” native ads are more efficient — a strong headline, clean visual, and direct link are enough.

• Match the format to your timeline and resources. Branded content usually takes more time and support — writers, creatives, maybe video teams or partners — plus a plan to promote it once it’s live. Native ads are faster to launch; once you have a good offer, a landing page, and some assets, you can run campaigns across platforms in a few days, which is ideal for launches or seasonal promos.

Use both together when you can.

You don’t have to choose between branded content and native ads. In a strong campaign, you let each one do a different job. Branded content carries the big story. Native ads help you put that story — and your offer — in front of the right people at scale.

Take Nike as an example. A campaign like “Why Do It?” works as branded content: a cinematic film and supporting stories that reconnect “Just Do It” with a new generation of athletes and show what the brand stands for. Nike can then run shorter cutdowns as native ads in news feeds and social feeds, using the same visuals and message but in tighter formats that drive clicks to the full film, a product page, or the campaign hub.

You can see the same logic in more interactive spaces too. When Nike launches in-game items like kicks inside Fortnite, the brand shows up in a way that fits the environment instead of interrupting it. The gameplay experience does the “warming up,” while native-style placements and follow-up ads can move players toward sign-ups, collections, or purchases outside the game.

In this kind of setup, branded content builds the feeling and the story, while native ads (and native-style placements) turn that attention into action.

Conclusion

Branded content and native advertising sit side by side in modern marketing, but they do very different jobs. Branded content is story-first—it’s built to earn attention and build a relationship over time. Native advertising is placement-first—it’s built to fit into feeds, reach people at scale, and move them toward a specific action like a click, sign-up, or purchase.

If you treat them as the same, it becomes hard to set fair targets or prove impact. The smarter move is not to pick a “winner,” but to give each one a clear role in your plan and match the tool to the job you actually need done.