What is an advertorial? Types and examples

Advertorials have a reputation problem, and some of it is earned. Done badly, they're fake news pages with a buy button. Done well, they're some of the most useful pages in a cold-traffic funnel, because they say up front that they're an ad and then actually explain the problem. This post is about building the second kind.

What an advertorial is

The word is advertisement plus editorial. Magazines have printed them for decades as "special advertising sections": pages that look like the articles around them, paid for and written by the advertiser. The online version works the same way. A reader clicks an ad in a feed, lands on a page that reads like an article, and meets the product halfway down.

Why bother with the article? Because cold traffic is not ready for a sales page. Someone who clicked a curiosity ad in their feed expects to read something, not to be sold to. The advertorial meets that expectation, frames the problem in the reader's own terms, and hands a warmer reader to the offer. The advertiser controls every word, which is what makes it an ad, and why it has to be labelled as one.

Advertorial vs presell page vs landing page

These terms overlap, and affiliates and vendors use them differently. The simplest way to keep them apart is by where the page sits between the ad and the order.

So every advertorial is a presell, but not every presell is an advertorial. A quiz or a two-minute video can do the same warming-up job.

For cold native or social traffic I'd start with the advertorial. A reader who clicked a curiosity ad came to read, and a story gives them something to read before anyone asks for money.

When to use a presell page

A presell adds a click, and every extra click loses some readers. It earns its place only when the readers it keeps buy at a higher rate than the ones who would have gone straight to the offer. That tends to happen when:

• The traffic is cold. Native, social and display readers were not looking for you. They need the problem framed before the product makes sense.
• The product needs explaining. A new mechanism or an unfamiliar category sells better after a story that explains why it works.
• You don't control the sales page. Affiliates promoting a vendor's offer can only change what happens before the click to the vendor.
• The price is high for an impulse buy. The more the reader is asked to spend, the more the case has to be made first.

Skip it for warm traffic: your email list, retargeting and branded search already know what they want. Send them straight to the offer. When you are not sure, test the presell against a direct link on the same traffic and let sales decide.

Never assume a presell helps. It's an extra click between a paid visitor and your offer, and that click has to pay its rent in sales.

The structure of an advertorial

Most advertorials that sell follow the same arc: pain, the failed fixes, the idea that changes things, proof, then the offer. The labels change from writer to writer; the order rarely does.

1. The label and the headline. The ad disclosure sits above the headline. The headline promises the story, not the product.
2. The lead. Two or three short paragraphs about the reader's situation, in words they would use themselves.
3. The problem and the failed fixes. Why the usual answers have not worked. This is where the reader nods along.
4. The discovery. The idea or mechanism that explains why this product is different. Keep it simple enough to repeat to a friend.
5. The proof. Specific evidence: real customer stories you have permission to use, results you can back up, sources you can cite.
6. The bridge to the offer. The product appears, with one clear call to action. Repeat the same button two or three times, always to the same place.
7. The footer. The disclosures, a results disclaimer and references.

Short paragraphs, plenty of subheads and images with captions help, because most readers scan before they read.

The block I'd spend the most time on is the discovery. The story gets people reading, but the discovery is what they carry to the sales page, and if they can't repeat it the page has done half its job.

Advertorial examples: five formats that work

Most advertorials are one of five formats. The angles below are made up, for a fictional sleep supplement, to show the shape of each one.

• The personal story. "How a night-shift nurse got her sleep back." First person, one character, a turning point. The easiest format to read and the hardest to write well.
• The discovery. "Why melatonin stops working, and what researchers looked at instead." Built around one idea. Every claim in it needs evidence behind it.
• The listicle. "5 reasons you wake up at 3 a.m." Easy to scan, and each reason can lead back to the product.
• The review or comparison. "We tried four sleep aids for a month." It works only if it is honest, and if you sell one of the four, the page has to say so.
• The expert interview. A Q&A with a practitioner. The expert has to be real, qualified in the field, and saying what they actually believe.

Pick the format that fits the angle, not the other way around. Then test two angles against each other before you test headlines: the angle usually moves results more.

Disclosure: the rules advertorials must follow

An advertorial borrows the look of editorial content, and that is exactly what regulators watch. In the U.S., the FTC's position is that an ad should not suggest or imply that it is anything other than an ad (FTC native advertising guide).

• Label it as an ad, at the top. The FTC names "Ad", "Advertisement", "Paid Advertisement" and "Sponsored Advertising Content" as terms readers understand. It calls "Promoted" ambiguous at best. Put the label above the headline.
• The landing page needs it too. If the ad in the feed was labelled, the article the reader lands on still needs its own label, unless it is obviously an ad.
• No fake news sites. No invented publication names, no mastheads made to look like real news outlets, and no "as seen on" logos unless the coverage really happened.
• Real testimonials, honestly presented. Endorsements must reflect real experiences, and any connection between the endorser and you has to be disclosed (16 CFR Part 255).
• Health claims need evidence. A claim about what a product does for the body needs competent and reliable scientific evidence behind it (FTC health products guidance).

Ad platforms add their own rules on top, and they review the landing page, not just the ad. This is general information about U.S. rules, not legal advice; for claims in regulated categories, have a lawyer read the page.

A page dressed up as a real newspaper borrows trust it never earned, and the platforms you pay for traffic review the page as well as the ad. Whatever it does for this week's numbers, it's no foundation for a business.

How to measure an advertorial

An advertorial has one job: send readers to the offer ready to buy. So measure two things. Click-through to the offer tells you whether the page holds attention. Revenue per visitor tells you whether it sends the right readers. Judge on the second one, because a curiosity-heavy page can raise clicks and still lower sales.

Test on the same URL. If each version lives at its own address, changing the ad's destination can reset its learning. With a same-URL split test the ad keeps pointing at one address and the server picks the version. How to split test landing pages walks through the setup.

Building an advertorial in ElasticFunnels

An advertorial is the first page most cold traffic reads, so in ElasticFunnels it got its own treatment. The AI page builder builds any page you describe, and advertorials, presells, prelanders and listicles each have their own tuned prompt. Describe the product, the reader and the angle, and it writes the copy and lays out the page, ready to edit. You can also start from an advertorial template, or import a page you own with the page cloner.

• Check the label. The advertorial layout opens with a sponsored line and ends with a disclaimer footer. Read both before you publish, and use a label from the list above.
• Link to the offer with a buy tag. A [BUY=code] tag turns into the link to your offer and carries the visitor's UTM and click parameters along with it.
• Split test the angle under one URL, and read the result on sales. Clicks on buy links are logged, so a funnel report can show page view to offer click as well.

Affiliates will find the whole setup, from presell to postback, on the ElasticFunnels for affiliates page.

A good advertorial reads like someone who understands the reader's problem took the time to explain it, and then, honestly labelled, recommended something. That's a high bar, and it's the right one. It's the only kind of advertorial I'd put my name on.