The rise of native advertising. Perspectives, challenges and regulations
Authors: NAUMOVSKA Ljupka 
Published: January 2025

In the last decade, following a massive decline in online advertising credibility and trust, Native advertising has emerged as a prominent digital marketing strategy, seamlessly integrating promotional paid content within editorial and organic context across all existing social media and communication platforms. While native advertising offers brands an effective and distinctive means to engage with audiences, it also raises at the same time, critical concerns regarding regulatory overseeing, disclosure and transparency. In recent years, regulatory bodies like FTC (Federal Trade Commission), have coped with the challenge of enforcing guidelines to distinguish native ads from editorial content clearly, to secure application of standardized advertising rules but also to protect all customers including vulnerable groups and children. Despite regulatory bodies’ efforts to establish transparency standards, native advertising often blurs the line between paid promotional and editorial content, leading to instances of consumer deception and distrust. This paper firstly investigates the diverse forms of native advertising to clarify its unique influence, exploring its evolution from product placements and branded content to immersive experiences like sponsored social media posts and influencer collaborations. Secondly, this paper examines the failure of regulations to keep pace with the evolving landscape of digital marketing, highlighting instances where ambiguous disclosure practices have compromised consumer autonomy and integrity. Thirdly, it provides a solid baseline for furthering the current understanding, dynamic and regulations of Native advertising for all concerned stakeholders: Industry, Regulators and Researchers. The researh method is based on meta-analysis of key academic and practitioner sources and data, perspectives, highlighting the evolution, effectiveness, challenges, and regulatory concerns associated with native advertising with predefined key words search and clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The publication bias is also considered, minding that the native advertising forms are rather difficult to identify. Using the previously identified key words: Native advertising, digital advertising, social media advertising, promotional content, 19 research papers are identified and consulted, out of which 7 are selected as relevant for the literature review and the meta-analyses of this study. The selection criateria are: 1) peer-reviewed studies; 2) publication date (not later then year 2015); 3) Heterogeneity Tolerance: Studies with extreme heterogeneity may be excluded unless subgroup analyses are planned; and 4) Adequate Data: Studies must provide sufficient quantitative data for inclusion. Through an analysis of regulatory shortcomings and case studies of native advertising campaigns, this paper sheds light on the existing forms of Native advertising, followed by the need for more robust enforcement mechanisms and industry-wide standards for the benefit of all involved parties. Ultimately, achieving a balance between promotional objectives and ethical transparency is imperative for the sustainable evolution of native advertising in the digital era.