Advertorial: Definition, Best Practices, and Examples

An advertorial resembles a news article. It mimics its tone, structure, and sometimes even its layout. With one key difference: its publication is funded by a brand.

At Oxygen, a communications and media relations agency, we explain why you should incorporate advertorials into your communications strategy and how to turn them into a powerful tool for visibility and credibility.

What is an advertorial?

Also known as an advertorial or press release, the advertorial holds a somewhat unique place in the communications ecosystem. More sophisticated than a traditional advertisement and more carefully crafted than a press release, it allows a company to have a voice in the media by providing content, information, and a perspective on a topic that genuinely interests its readers.

Its goal is to highlight a company, an offering, expertise, or a brand-related topic by adopting the conventions of editorial content: a angle, an informative headline, an introduction, facts, figures, testimonials, and concrete examples.

It therefore differs from traditional advertising, which generally seeks to convey a commercial message immediately. An advertorial takes more time to explain.

• An industrial company might analyze a shift in its market rather than directly promoting its products.
• A technology company might analyze new applications of artificial intelligence based on its expertise.
• A company committed to environmental transition might share lessons learned from its own initiatives.

The brand is prominently featured, but it is part of a broader topic.

And because this is content sponsored by an advertiser, this commercial aspect must be clearly identifiable to the reader.

Advertorials, editorial ads, and press releases: What’s the difference?

The three terms are often used interchangeably, and the distinctions between them remain fairly fluid.

Why Include an Advertorial in Your Communication Strategy?

A banner ad, a social media ad campaign, an interview, a press release, and an advertorial do not serve the same purposes. The choice therefore depends first and foremost on what you’re trying to achieve.

An advertorial is particularly useful when a brand needs space to explain its message.

Take the time to develop a message

Some stories are hard to convey in just a few lines.

A technological innovation, a regulatory change, an industrial transformation, or a new business approach sometimes requires more context. An advertorial provides that space.

It allows you to start with a specific issue, present data, compare different perspectives, and gradually introduce the company’s solution. This way, the reader understands not only what the brand does, but more importantly, why it deserves their attention.

Maintain control when speaking

Reaching the Audience of a Well-Chosen Media Outlet

But you still need to publish in the right place.

An advertorial aimed at CFOs will be of little interest in a mainstream media outlet, even one with high visibility. Conversely, a more niche trade publication can prove much more effective if it specifically targets the decision-makers you’re looking for.

The choice of medium must therefore be based on the target audience: Which media does it consume? What kind of information is it seeking? What is its level of expertise?

In a B2B strategy, the quality of the readership often matters more than its size.

Building Expertise Over Time

The best advertorials don’t start with “We are the leader in….” They start with a problem.

They explain what’s changing in an industry, what that means for businesses, and the questions that now need to be asked. The brand then steps in because it has the experience, data, or expertise needed to shed light on the topic.

This approach brings advertorials closer to brand content: the company no longer simply talks about itself; instead, it gradually builds a platform for its voice.

Through consistent content, it can thus establish itself as a recognized authority in certain key areas of expertise.

Raise the profile of a key event

The main risk: paying to be read… just like advertising

Advertorials also have a limitation that would be counterproductive to ignore: the reader knows that the content is sponsored by a brand. This transparency is essential, but it inevitably changes the way the message is received.

A news story published at the initiative of an editorial team benefits from the media outlet’s editorial independence. This is precisely what gives earned media much of its value: the brand has no control over the decision to publish, the angle chosen, or the journalist’s conclusions.

In an advertorial (and in paid media in general), this editorial endorsement does not exist in the same way. If the content too obviously echoes the company’s sales pitch, the reader spots it immediately and loses interest. In other words, buying ad space guarantees visibility, but not attention—and certainly not credibility.

That’s why a good advertorial must be more substantial than a simple advertisement disguised as an article. It must provide enough information, evidence, analysis, or perspective to justify the time the reader will spend on it.

The challenge, therefore, lies in fully embracing the “paid” aspect while producing content with genuine editorial value. This is also where experience in media relations becomes particularly valuable: understanding journalists’ expectations, media conventions, and the topics that truly interest their audiences enables the creation of sponsored content that does not artificially mimic earned media, but rather meets certain quality standards associated with it.

How do you write an effective advertorial?

The trap is quite simple: you’ve paid for space and, as a result, want to cram everything into it.

Company overview, history, commitments, figures, products, benefits, quotes from the CEO… In an effort to make every line count, you often end up losing the reader right from the start.

An effective advertorial, on the other hand, follows a few key principles.

1. Start with a genuine editorial question

Before discussing the brand, we need to identify what might interest the reader.

What problem are they facing? What changes are transforming their industry? What information might be useful to them?

The angle should still work even if we temporarily remove the company’s name. This is often a good test: if the topic loses all interest without the brand, it’s probably still too sales-oriented.

2. Adopt the conventions of the medium

An article intended for a business publication is not written in the same way as content for a lifestyle magazine or a highly technical professional journal.

Paragraph length, vocabulary, level of expertise, emphasis on statistics, and headline style: the content must blend naturally into the publication’s editorial context without attempting to pass itself off as an independent journalistic article.

This adaptation plays a major role in the perceived quality of the advertorial.

3. Provide evidence

A statement becomes much more compelling when it is backed by something tangible.

Studies, internal data, market figures, customer examples, feedback, testimonials, and field observations: evidence brings content to life and avoids generic statements.

Simply saying that a market is “undergoing a profound transformation” ultimately provides very little information. Explaining what is changing, when it started, and what the consequences are is already much more useful.

4. Resist the use of superlatives

“Innovative,” “unique,” “revolutionary,” “must-have,” “leader”…

These words are tempting. They are also often the first to make an advertorial sound artificial.

Expertise is more convincing when it is demonstrated than when it is simply proclaimed. It is therefore better to show what the company does differently—using an example or a concrete result—and let the reader draw their own conclusion.

5. Choose the media before finalizing the content

The media should not merely serve as a platform for distribution once the article is finished.

Its audience, positioning, and editorial line directly influence the angle to be taken. The same topic can therefore result in two very different pieces of content, depending on whether it is intended for a national business publication or a specialized trade publication.

This is also where the support of a public relations agency adds value: knowing the media, their audiences, and their editorial worlds helps avoid purely opportunistic coverage.

How much does an advertorial cost?

What Role Does Advertorial Content Play in the Age of GEO?

The key is to increase the amount of solid, consistent content that helps people understand who the brand is, what it does, and in which areas it has genuine credibility.

And in this regard, it’s in the best interest of public relations, branded content, and media partnerships to work together.

Example of an advertorial: Turkish Automotive

A concrete example helps illustrate the logic.

For Turkish Automotive, the Oxygen team at the Paris-based PR agency was tasked with reaching decision-makers in the automotive industry through a message that went beyond a simple presentation of the organization.

The team opted for an advertorial focused on the economic ties between the two markets: “Turkey–France: An Automotive Partnership at the Heart of Europe.”

The content was published in ZePros and Le Journal de l’Automobile, two specialized publications that directly reach industry professionals.

The angle was deliberately broader than the brand itself. Rather than listing services, the article focused on economic issues, industrial synergies, and the relationship between the French and Turkish automotive sectors.

Turkish Automotive thus naturally found its place within the topic: no longer merely as an organization to be promoted, but as a key player capable of shedding light on the market.

This is often where an advertorial becomes interesting: when the brand’s messaging and information useful to the reader ultimately serve the same narrative.

Advertorials or press relations: Do You Really Have to Choose?

Not necessarily. In fact, it’s rarely the best way to frame the issue.

Press relations fall under the category of earned media. The company provides journalists with news, expertise, or a spokesperson. The media outlet remains free to cover the story or not and retains control over its content.

Advertorials, on the other hand, fall under paid media. Visibility is purchased, so the brand has greater control over its message.

This difference changes everything, but above all, it makes the two approaches complementary.

Press relations help build credibility and legitimacy that buying ad space, by definition, cannot produce in the same way. Advertorials follow a different logic: securing visibility, giving more space to showcase expertise, or precisely targeting a media outlet’s audience.

It is therefore not a matter of replacing one with the other, but of knowing which lever to pull, when, and for what purpose.

This is precisely the role of a communications and media relations agency like Oxygen: to strike the right balance between editorial coverage, sponsored visibility, branded content, and amplification so that every action supports the overall strategy.

Turning advertorials into genuine brand content

Advertorials work when you forget for a moment that you’ve purchased ad space.

From there, the right questions come back: What do we really have to say? Why would this topic interest the readers of this publication? What expertise can we offer? And how prominent should the brand be to maintain a presence without overshadowing the content?

A good advertorial doesn’t try to hide its commercial nature. Instead, it aims to ensure that, despite this commercial aspect, the reader has a good reason to read it all the way through. It is precisely because the reader knows that the space has been purchased that the editorial quality of the content becomes crucial.

Would you like to identify the most relevant media outlets for your target audience or create an advertorial that showcases your expertise without sounding like a sales pitch?

Contact the Oxygen teams to develop a content strategy tailored to your needs.