An advertorial is a paid advertisement written and laid out to look like the editorial content around it, such as a magazine feature, a news story or a blog article. The publisher is paid to run it, and the advertiser usually writes it or approves what it says.
How an advertorial works
The word joins “advertisement” and “editorial”, which is a fair summary. Instead of a banner, the brand buys space for something that reads like an article: a guide to choosing a heat pump from a heating installer, a feature on flexible working funded by a recruitment platform, or a round-up of spring breaks paid for by a tour operator.
The arrangement varies by publisher. Some sell a fixed slot, write the piece in their own house style and send it to the brand for sign-off. Others print copy the brand supplies. Online packages often bundle a newsletter mention, a social post and a link to the advertiser’s site.
What makes something an advertorial is payment plus control. If the brand paid and had a say over the content, it is advertising, however much it looks like journalism. That is the difference from digital PR, where a journalist decides whether to cover a story and owes the brand nothing.
Why it matters
In the UK, advertorials are treated as advertising. The CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces, requires marketing to be obviously identifiable as marketing, and it expects advertorials to carry a clear label such as “advertisement feature”. A vague tag in small grey type at the foot of the page is unlikely to meet that standard. The same principle covers paid posts by creators, which is why ASA and CMA guidance on labelling influencer content sits alongside the advertorial rules. Consumer protection law also lists paid-for editorial that hides its paid nature as a banned practice.
There is an SEO angle as well. Google treats links that were paid for as part of a link scheme unless they carry rel="sponsored" or nofollow. Buying an advertorial mainly for a followed link puts that link, and possibly your site, at risk. The value of a good advertorial is the readers it reaches, not the link it carries.
Done well, an advertorial can earn its cost. A specialist trade title or a well-read local news site reaches people who may never search for you, and a genuinely useful piece builds familiarity before they are ready to buy.
Common mistakes
- Labelling the piece so faintly that a reader would not realise it was paid for, or using a phrase like “in association with” when the brand wrote every word.
- Buying placements for the backlink rather than the audience, then asking the publisher to remove the sponsored attribute.
- Making claims you could not back with evidence, on the assumption that editorial styling puts the piece outside the advertising rules. It does not.
- Writing a sales brochure in article clothing. Readers notice within a paragraph and leave.
- Agreeing no measure of success up front, so nobody can say afterwards whether the money was well spent.
How to act on it
Before you buy, ask the publisher for its readership profile, exactly what the package includes, how the piece will be labelled and how any links will be marked. “Advertisement feature” or “paid promotion” at the top of the piece is the safe default for a UK reader.
Write for the publication’s reader first. An article that answers a real question, with your offer making a short appearance near the end, tends to be read to the end. Keep the evidence for every factual or comparative claim on file, exactly as you would for any other ad.
Then measure it. Tag every link with UTM parameters so visits and enquiries from the placement show up separately in GA4. Weighing advertorials against search, social and email for the same budget is part of the digital marketing strategy work I do, because the right answer depends on where your buyers already spend their attention.