Outbrain, reaching people while they read.

Outbrain is a native advertising platform that places sponsored content on publisher websites, typically in recommendation slots near articles. Ads appear in a format that matches the surrounding page, so they feel like a natural next read rather than an interruption. Advertisers use Outbrain to reach new audiences, drive traffic to content, generate leads and sell products. Because people see the content while they are reading, it rewards brands that have something interesting or useful to say rather than a simple product shot and a price.

An Outbrain agency plans and runs your campaigns so they bring in valuable customers rather than cheap clicks. At Vertical that includes audits, campaign structure, content and creative, landing pages, tracking, targeting, bidding and placement control. Because we also manage search, social, display and email, we make sure Outbrain plays a clear role in your wider plan and that the people it reaches are followed up properly. You work with a senior team that knows the platform and focuses on commercial results.

Outbrain suits brands with a story to tell or a product that benefits from explanation, such as subscriptions, financial products, education, health and wellness, home and lifestyle and many ecommerce categories. It is particularly useful when you want to reach new people who are not yet searching for what you offer. It is a weaker fit for offers that depend entirely on existing search demand. We look at your margins, audience and sales cycle before recommending it, and will say plainly if another channel would serve you better.

Both are native recommendation platforms that place sponsored content on publisher sites, and they work in broadly similar ways. The main differences are the publishers each one works with, the audiences those publishers reach and how individual campaigns perform for your brand. Many advertisers run both and compare them directly. We manage them side by side using the same definitions of success, then move budget to whichever is delivering better results for your goals rather than splitting spend by default.

Creative that is honest and genuinely interesting. Headlines should make a clear promise, images should feel relevant to the reader and the landing page must deliver on what the ad suggests. Misleading headlines can win clicks cheaply, but those visitors rarely convert and the results fall away quickly. We test angles, formats and visuals continuously, learn what attracts the right readers and use those lessons across content, landing pages and other channels where the same audience is reached.

Yes, and we recommend it. Native visitors arrive cold, often without knowing your brand, so the page they land on has to explain, reassure and guide them towards the next step. We write and design advertorials, guides, comparison pages and product pages specifically for this kind of traffic, then test them alongside the ads. Treating the ad and page as one journey is usually the biggest single improvement we can make to native campaign performance.

We install the Outbrain Pixel, set up conversion events for the actions that matter and check them against your analytics so the numbers line up. Campaigns are then optimised towards those real outcomes. Reporting shows cost per lead or sale, results by placement and creative and how Outbrain visitors behave after their first visit. Where Outbrain introduces people who convert later through another channel, we look at assisted results as well, so its role is judged fairly.

Native campaigns usually need a learning period while content, placements and pages are tested and data builds up. Early weeks are about finding the angles and publishers that work, then concentrating spend on them. We agree a clear test plan with measures of success before launch, so you know what good looks like and when decisions will be made. Once winning combinations are found, results tend to become steadier and easier to scale with confidence.

Start with a conversation about your goals, audience and current channels. If you already run Outbrain, we usually begin with an audit of campaigns, creative, placements and tracking, then share a prioritised plan. If native advertising is new for you, we scope a focused test with clear success measures. Either way, we will tell you plainly where we think the opportunity is and how we would approach it together.