According to a report released by Adfusion this week, American consumers seem to respond better to article-based advertising and are more likely to act on the brand-related information they read in an article format.

The concept of article-based advertising shouldn’t be a new thing to anyone publishing niche or vertical magazine, as it’s very similar to an advertorial concept, but not as blatant.

Therefore, as your editorial team refers to brands or services in any of their articles, they are doing the world of good for those referred-to businesses’ bottom line.  The Adfusion findings state that article-based advertising effectiveness far surpasses banner ads, pop-ups, e-mail offers and or sponsored links.

The challenge now becomes, if this form of advertising is that effective; how do you go about monetizing? It is clear that consumers trust the brand information they gather in articles because it appears unbiased. So, could publishers use their current advertorial program, but yet be mindful of the advertorials need to have an ‘article like’ feel?  If you ask Adfusion, this form of ad appeasement (the advertiser versus the reader) might just work.

Other interesting article-based advertising points shared by Adfusion:

• 51 percent say they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and act upon brand or product information found in articles.

How did the other media advertising forms stack up?

• E-mail offers, 47 percent
• Sponsored links, 39 percent
• Banner ads, 25 percent
• Pop-ups, 13 percent