December 24, 2025
29
minutes read
Native advertising platforms are fast becoming the engines behind performance-focused campaigns, as brands look for ways to show up where audiences are already engaged. This guide breaks down the leading native ad platforms for 2026 so you can decide which deserves a place in your media plan.
Marketers are under pressure to do three things at once: respect privacy, keep user experience smooth, and still hit aggressive performance goals. That’s exactly where native advertising platforms come in.
A native advertising platform (or native ads platform, depending on who you ask) gives you ad formats that look and feel like the surrounding content: recommended articles, in-feed cards, sponsored stories, newsletter placements, and more. Instead of interrupting people, native ad platforms aim to integrate with publisher environments and social-style feeds, then use data and AI models to match the right content to the right person.
At the same time, the money is clearly moving in this direction. eMarketer estimates that US native display ad spend made up 63.1% of total display ad spend in 2024, close to $100 billion in investment from advertisers who prefer native formats over traditional banners. And because digital buying is highly automated, programmatic is now the default: about 91.3% of US digital display ad spending in 2024 was programmatic, meaning machine-driven decisions already control the bulk of display and native impressions.
This article walks through:
Along the way, we’ll also touch on how analytics layers like AI Digital’s Elevate can sit over your native advertising services to unify data, attribution, and optimization.
⚡ Think of your native advertising platform as your distribution engine, not your strategy.
Content, creative, and offer still matter. The right native advertising platform simply gives you the reach, targeting, and optimization tools to make that strategy work at scale.
Native advertising will keep gaining ground through 2026 because it solves three core problems at once: user fatigue with interruptive ads, privacy and cookieless targeting, and marketers’ need for measurable performance.
There’s a simple reason native ads platforms are so popular: people actually look at the ads.
Eye-tracking research from Sharethrough and IPG Media Lab found that consumers visually engage with native ads 52% more frequently than with traditional banner ads. More recently, performance analyses show that native ads can deliver 4–8× higher click-through rates than banners, along with better conversion rates, especially for tech-savvy audiences.
Higher attention and stronger CTR give native advertising platforms an advantage whenever you need to fill the top of the funnel with interested visitors, not just impressions.
⚡ Higher CTR is useful, but the real win is getting attention from people who are genuinely curious about your message.
Native ad networks and native advertising platforms focus on context and format:
⚡ When ads respect the shape of the content around them, they stop feeling like interruptions and start to feel like recommendations.
Because native advertising networks match the style of the surrounding content, users perceive them as part of the experience rather than a bolt-on interruption. That’s exactly why native display CTRs are so much stronger: AdYouLike, for example, reports that native display CTR can be roughly 8× higher than standard banners.
For marketers, the benefit is simple: you get attention without wrecking user experience.
The gradual disappearance of third-party cookies is forcing brands to rethink how they find audiences. Instead of depending solely on behavioural profiles, contextual and semantic targeting have regained importance.
Native advertising platforms are built for this shift:
At the ecosystem level, we also know that the vast majority of display spend is already automated, so AI models can use a mix of first-party data, contextual cues, and publisher signals to identify high-intent users without legacy tracking.
⚡ Contextual and semantic signals are quickly becoming as important as audience profiles once were.
Across digital advertising, AI is moving from buzzword to infrastructure. GroupM forecast that nearly 70% of global ad revenue in 2024 was “informed by AI”, rising to over 94% by 2029, as more buying decisions, bids, and creative choices are delegated to algorithms.
Native ad platforms sit right inside that trend:
When you layer on an AI-driven planning and optimization suite like Elevate, you add a second layer of intelligence on top of native ad platforms: AI-assisted media planning, predictive performance forecasting across channels, and optimization algorithms that align spend with your custom business KPIs rather than just surface-level metrics.
⚡ AI isn’t just buying impressions; it’s increasingly deciding which stories get told and to whom.
Native advertising platforms have also become critical to publisher monetization. That creates a positive loop for marketers: strong publisher relationships mean better placements and higher-quality traffic.
Consider:
That kind of reach means native advertising platforms aren’t a niche tactic; they’re one of the main ways brands reach audiences on the open web at scale.
Finally, native ad platforms work across the entire funnel:
Because native units lend themselves to storytelling and education, they’re ideal for complex products and considered purchases. You can attract attention with useful content, then retarget those visitors with more direct offers in search, social, or additional native placements.
💡 For a deeper strategic view, pair this article with Native advertising benefits, which explains why brands use native ads and what they gain from them.
Before comparing specific native advertising platforms, it helps to understand the different types of tools in the ecosystem. Broadly, you’ll encounter four categories:
An analytics layer like Elevate can sit on top of all of them, giving you a single, cross-channel view of campaign performance and how different channels are contributing to your results.
These are the classic native ad networks you see at the bottom or side of articles, under labels like “Recommended for you” or “You may also like”.
Their role in the ecosystem:
These native ad platforms are ideal when you have content to promote (articles, advertorials, quizzes, listicles, product comparison pages) and want a large volume of traffic at predictable CPCs.
On the programmatic side, you have DSPs (demand-side platforms) and SSPs (supply-side platforms) that specialize in—or strongly support—native inventory.
Their role:
A programmatic native advertising platform like StackAdapt will:
When you plug this into Elevate, you can compare native performance directly against your display, CTV, paid social, and search campaigns, then reallocate budget based on marginal returns instead of siloed reports.
Some platforms focus less on widgets and more on full-page branded content experiences:
These native advertising solutions help brands:
For instance, Nativo reaches more than 220 million monthly unique visitors in the US with native display, video, and article formats, emphasizing premium experiences that behave like content. It also offers cookie-free ad delivery and analytics that surface how users actually engage with your stories.
Pressboard plays a complementary role: it’s a leading analytics and workflow platform used by major publishers to plan, track, and report branded content campaigns, letting both sides see views, engagement, and outcomes from sponsored stories in one interface.
These native advertising platforms are ideal when your strategy leans on story-driven campaigns and you need to prove that branded content is doing more than just looking good in a media kit.
Native isn’t confined to web pages. Email is going through a second boom, and newsletter advertising platforms make it possible to place native-style ads inside high-engagement emails.
In practice, you can:
These channels behave like native placements because the message is integrated into the content the subscriber requested, and often written in the same tone they already trust.
Let’s look at ten of the best native advertising platforms for 2026, focusing on performance, reach, features, and industry relevance. These aren’t the only options, but they’re the ones most marketing and media teams will encounter and seriously consider.
Taboola is one of the world’s biggest native advertising platforms and content discovery engines. It powers the “from around the web”-style recommendations on thousands of publisher sites.
Scale and reach
For US-focused campaigns, this gives you truly mass-market reach across news, lifestyle, finance, entertainment, and niche verticals.
Formats and features
Taboola also builds AI tools for publishers—its Newsroom and newer products like DeeperDive help editorial teams understand which stories perform best and how to monetize them better. Those same data insights feed back into ad optimization.
Where Taboola shines
Paired with Elevate or another analytics layer, Taboola campaigns can be evaluated against paid social and search on an equal footing instead of living in their own silo.
Outbrain is another heavyweight native ad network with a strong reputation for high-quality publishers and brand-safe environments.
Scale and reach
Outbrain has historically positioned itself as slightly more selective in its publisher relationships, which is attractive to brands sensitive to context.
Formats and features
Because of its emphasis on premium inventory and stricter publisher thresholds, Outbrain’s CPCs can be higher than some competitors. However, advertisers often see commensurate gains in quality and brand fit.
Where Outbrain shines
⚡ Think of Taboola and Outbrain as two halves of the same open-web coin. Running both often gives you better coverage and more reliable testing.
Nativo is a native advertising platform focused on premium, in-feed branded content experiences. Instead of just running widgets, it lets your story appear inside publisher feeds and article templates.
Scale and reach
Nativo’s emphasis is less on pure reach and more on quality placements and engagement. Their own data suggests that their formats can drive multiple-times higher engagement than traditional ads, because the units behave like content.
Formats and features
On the tech side:
Nativo is a strong option if you care about how people experience your advertising as much as how many conversions you generate.
Where Nativo shines
With an analytics suite like Elevate on top, you can tie Nativo’s content engagement data to downstream outcomes, proving that sponsored stories are driving qualified users into your retargeting pools and sales pipelines.
Pressboard, now part of impact.com, is not a native ads network in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s a branded content analytics and workflow platform that powers native advertising services inside major media companies.
Role in the stack
Pressboard gives both brands and publishers a shared environment for:
Why it matters for advertisers
When you buy custom native content from a publisher (e.g. a mini-site or a sponsored series), you need more than impressions. Pressboard helps prove:
Although you don’t “log into Pressboard” as a self-serve advertiser in most cases, you benefit from the data and reporting if your media partners use it. It’s a key part of the infrastructure that’s making branded content more measurable and accountable.
Revcontent is a performance-oriented native advertising network and recommendation engine that connects advertisers with highly engaged audiences on a large number of sites.
Scale and reach
While its publisher list is generally less blue-chip than Taboola or Outbrain, Revcontent’s reach is extensive and includes many mid-sized and niche sites where audiences are deeply engaged.
Formats and features
Revcontent’s pitch is straightforward: performance and flexibility. CPCs are often lower than on more premium networks, and the platform gives you levers to push more budget into placements that convert and pull back from those that do not.
Where Revcontent shines
An analytics layer such as Elevate can help ensure that cheap clicks from Revcontent are actually contributing to business outcomes, not just top-line traffic numbers.
MGID is a global native advertising platform with a strong presence in the US and extensive reach across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. It is popular among performance marketers who want international scale.
Scale and reach
Formats and features
MGID’s “brandformance” positioning emphasizes both branding and performance: you can run awareness-driven native creatives while still monitoring conversions and ROAS.
Where MGID shines
Because MGID is so widely used in performance circles, it’s essential to pair it with strong fraud controls and an analytics hub (again, Elevate fits well here) to ensure you’re getting real users, not just volume.
TripleLift is a major programmatic SSP and exchange specializing in native, video, and CTV. For advertisers, it represents a large pool of high-quality native inventory accessible through DSPs.
Scale and position
Formats and features
On the optimization side, TripleLift focuses on creative and format innovation, giving DSPs and advertisers:
Where TripleLift shines
TripleLift plus a DSP like StackAdapt, plugged into Elevate, can give you a very robust, cross-channel view of native vs. display vs. video performance.
Criteo is best known as a commerce and retargeting powerhouse. Criteo Native extends that capability into native product ads across publisher sites.
Scale and reach
Formats and features
On the technical side:
Where Criteo Native shines
For performance-focused advertisers, Criteo Native often behaves like a native extension of your shopping campaigns, and Elevate can help judge how its incremental value compares to other remarketing channels.
Paved is a native advertising platform for newsletter sponsorships—a marketplace where brands can buy placements in email newsletters and sometimes podcasts.
Scale and reach
Formats and features
Paved provides:
Because newsletter audiences are opt-in and often niche, a well-written native placement can feel like a recommendation from a trusted host, not a random banner.
Where Paved shines
If you route data from Paved into Elevate, you can compare newsletter native performance against other top-of-funnel channels, then build retargeting segments from people who clicked or signed up.
StackAdapt is an AI-powered programmatic marketing platform with deep strength in programmatic native advertising. It acts as a DSP where you can run native, display, video, CTV, and audio from one interface.
Scale and reach
Formats and features
What makes StackAdapt especially useful:
Where StackAdapt shines
When you connect StackAdapt data into Elevate, you can compare native’s incremental impact against other programmatic formats and adjust budgets based on marginal return, not just channel-level ROAS.
With so many native advertising platforms and native ads networks available, it helps to make selection criteria explicit. Here’s a practical framework.
Ask:
For example:
Look for:
Different native ads platforms favour different formats. Be clear on what you want to show people and where you want them to land:
Map formats to funnel stages:
Then pick platforms that have native advertising tools tailored to each stage.
Given how automated display has become, the quality of a platform’s AI and optimization logic is as important as its reach.
Consider:
Platforms like StackAdapt explicitly highlight their AI engines and real-time bidding algorithms, designed to identify high-value impressions and allocate budget efficiently. Many native ad networks also now offer their own flavour of smart bidding and creative optimization.
This is also where compatibility with AI-driven tools like Elevate matters. Elevate can:
So you’re not limited to each vendor’s version of “best performance” in their own silo.
Native advertising networks operate across a wide range of publishers. Quality varies.
Key questions:
For performance-heavy networks like Revcontent and MGID, this transparency is crucial. It allows you to:
Again, feeding data into Elevate or a similar analytics hub lets you evaluate quality across platforms in a consistent way (e.g. comparing bounce rates, time on site, and downstream conversion rates by source).
⚡ Treat placement reports as a diagnostic tool, not a formality—your best and worst inventory are usually obvious once you look.
Strong reporting enables better decisions. When comparing native advertising software:
Platforms like Nativo and Pressboard stand out here for content-centric metrics, while StackAdapt and Criteo excel on conversion and ROAS reporting.
Finally, consider how your team likes to work:
If you’re just starting with native ads platforms, a managed pilot on one of the larger platforms can be a smart move. Once you understand what works, you can bring more activity in-house or into your own DSP and Elevate environment.
⚡ The right native advertising platform is the one your team can actually operate well, not just the one with the longest feature list.
Now to the question everyone cares about: what performance can you realistically expect from native ad platforms?
Exact numbers will depend on your vertical, creative quality, and offer, but we can draw some reasonable benchmarks from recent studies and platform data.
As mentioned previously, studies consistently show that native ads outperform standard display on attention and interaction:
For your campaigns, that often means:
Higher CTR doesn’t guarantee success on its own, but it does mean you’re paying for more visits from people who have actually chosen to engage with your message.
Because native advertising platforms are built around content, you typically see:
Sharethrough’s research on native video, for example, showed that younger audiences often find autoplay native video convenient and are more likely to watch those units than interruptive pre-rolls.
This is where analytics layers like Elevate pay off. Instead of stopping at CTR, you can measure:
Because many native ads networks auction inventory that’s less saturated than big social feeds, CPCs can be relatively low. While exact figures vary widely by niche, it’s common to see:
Case studies across platforms regularly show native campaigns delivering meaningful CPA reductions versus baseline display or social, particularly when:
Here, AI-targeted advertising plays an important role. Platforms like StackAdapt use predictive modelling to decide which impressions are most likely to result in a conversion and adjust bids accordingly, making budgets work harder.
Native advertising platforms tend to perform best when they are part of a coordinated funnel, not a standalone channel. Typical patterns include:
When you measure ROAS across the entire path, native often:
An analytics solution like Elevate helps here by attributing value beyond last click, so native doesn’t get under-credited just because other channels take the final touch.
Finally, native advertising platforms increasingly support rapid creative testing:
StackAdapt describes this shift clearly: AI turns programmatic bidding from a reactive process into a predictive one, identifying high-value opportunities and improving overall campaign efficiency. The same principle applies across many modern native ad platforms.
The effect for you:
⚡ Native isn’t just another placement. Done well, it becomes a feedback loop for your entire content and creative strategy.
Native advertising platforms are no longer side projects. They sit at the centre of how brands:
To recap:
The right choice depends on your audience, formats, internal capabilities, and measurement stack. Aim for:
If you want support building and orchestrating this kind of native strategy—across multiple platforms, with AI-assisted planning and optimization—explore AI Digital’s services. That’s where native advertising platforms stop being one-off tests and start acting as a durable part of your growth engine.
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Inefficiency
Description
Use case
Description of use case
Examples of companies using AI
Ease of implementation
Impact
Audience segmentation and insights
Identify and categorize audience groups based on behaviors, preferences, and characteristics
Automated ad campaigns
Automate ad creation, placement, and optimization across various platforms
Brand sentiment tracking
Monitor and analyze public opinion about a brand across multiple channels in real time
Campaign strategy optimization
Analyze data to predict optimal campaign approaches, channels, and timing
Content strategy
Generate content ideas, predict performance, and optimize distribution strategies
Personalization strategy development
Create tailored messaging and experiences for consumers at scale
Any brand that needs to reach people online without relying only on interruptive display or social ads can benefit from native advertising platforms. That includes consumer brands, B2B companies, publishers, apps, and agencies that want more engaged traffic and story-driven campaigns that still deliver measurable performance.
E-commerce, finance, technology, education, healthcare, and subscription services often see strong results because they either sell online or rely on education and trust. In general, any industry that can turn its expertise into useful content—guides, comparisons, calculators, stories—tends to do well with native ads.
Reputable native platforms use a mix of publisher vetting, content policies, category and keyword blocks, and third-party verification to filter risky placements and invalid traffic. On the advertiser side, you can refine this further by reviewing placement reports regularly and excluding sources that don’t meet your brand or performance standards.
Most native advertising platforms support both self-serve and managed or hybrid models. If you have in-house expertise or an agency, you can run campaigns directly; if you’re new to native or running complex programs, a managed service team can handle setup, optimization, and testing for you.
Simple campaigns that use existing creative and standard formats can usually go live within a few days, assuming tracking and approvals are in place. Custom sponsored content or multi-publisher programs can take several weeks to plan, write, design, approve, and schedule.
A native ad network primarily aggregates inventory from many publishers and sells it to advertisers, acting as the connector between the two sides. A native advertising platform is broader: it may include a network, but it also covers planning, buying, optimization, analytics, and sometimes content tools for creating and measuring native campaigns.
Key KPIs include click-through rate, on-site engagement (time on page, pages per session), cost per lead or acquisition, and return on ad spend. Over time, the most useful view is how each native platform contributes to revenue, pipeline, or other business outcomes compared with your spend, not just surface-level metrics like impressions or clicks.
