An advertorial is an ad written as an article: a brand pays an outlet to tell its story with the style and structure of a news piece, and the outlet publishes it labelled as sponsored content. In online press it costs a median of €280, according to the prices of 7,757 outlets in our press price index.
In this guide you'll find a complete advertorial example, how it differs from a sponsored post or a press release, what it costs depending on the size of the outlet and how to tell whether it paid off.
What is an advertorial?
The word blends advertisement and editorial. The format was born in print and now lives mostly in online newspapers and magazines, where it is also called sponsored content, paid content or branded article.
Three traits set it apart from an ad:
- It looks like journalism. Headline, standfirst, data, sources and quotes, laid out like every other article on the site.
- It informs before it sells. Readers stay because they learn something: a trend, an industry problem, how to choose a product. The brand shows up as part of the answer.
- The brand pays for it, and says so. It carries a label such as Sponsored, Advertorial, In partnership with or Presented by.
Advertorial or native ad?
A native ad is any paid placement that matches the look of the platform around it, from a promoted post in a feed to a recommended-content widget. An advertorial is one kind of native ad: the long, article-shaped one that sits inside an outlet's editorial pages.
Advertorial, sponsored post, press release and branded content
They get mixed up because all four put a brand in front of an outlet's readers. What separates them is who pays and how the piece is presented.
| Format | Is the outlet paid? | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Advertorial | Yes | A report about the brand, labelled as advertising |
| Sponsored post | Yes | A useful topic with a mention of or link to the brand |
| Press release | No | News the journalist decides whether to run |
| Branded content | Yes, or the brand produces it | A story or entertainment built on the brand's values |
If you want the outlet to publish you for free, you need a press release: there are examples and a free generator in this guide. If you need to guarantee the publication, the date and the link, you have to pay for it: an advertorial or a sponsored post.
Advertorial example
This is a made-up example from a fictional company, so you can see the full structure. A bike repair shop in Valencia wants to get known and pays for an advertorial in a local daily:
Sponsored content
E-bikes overtake scooters in Valencia: how the neighbourhood repair shop has changed
A Ruzafa workshop that used to fix city bikes now spends half its time on e-bike servicing, and shares five tips to make a battery last twice as long.
Five years ago, Taller Ruzafa Bikes mostly replaced inner tubes and brakes. Today one in two bikes coming through the door is electric, and the most common fault is no longer a puncture but a battery that dies too soon.
"People charge the battery to 100% every night and leave it in the sun on the balcony. Those are the two things that wear it out fastest," says Marta Gil, the shop's founder.
[Body: the five tips, each with a figure or an explanation, and a mention of the shop's service check as one option for readers who would rather not do it at home.]
Presented by Taller Ruzafa Bikes.
Notice what makes it work:
- The headline is news, not a slogan. It talks about a change the outlet's readers care about, not about how good the shop is.
- The standfirst promises something useful, the five tips, which is what keeps people reading.
- The brand appears as the expert source and its service as one option, not the only answer.
- The label is at the top and the sponsor line at the bottom. Readers know from the start that it is advertising.
The same structure works for other common angles:
- A product launch told from the problem it solves, with industry data.
- The company's story on an anniversary or an opening, with the local or market context.
- A practical guide to the sector in which the brand shares its experience.
- An interview with the founder about a trend, with questions the reader cares about, not just the brand.
How much does an advertorial cost?
The price depends above all on how many people read the outlet. These are the rates of the 7,757 press outlets in Growwer's catalogue across 95 countries, as of 5 October 2026:
| Monthly visits to the outlet | Median price | Usual range |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 visits | €210 | €71 to €568 |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | €294 | €132 to €900 |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | €468 | €190 to €1,800 |
| 100,000 to 1 million | €1,246 | €357 to €4,101 |
| Over 1 million | €3,600 | €709 to €10,920 |
An outlet with over a million monthly visits costs 17 times as much as one with fewer than 1,000. And what buyers actually pay tends to sit below the rate card: across the last twelve months of orders, the median was €181, against the €280 outlets ask. The breakdown by topic and country is in the full report.
Those rates include publication. If the outlet writes the text, the placement is on the home page or the article stays pinned for a few days, the price goes up.
How is an advertorial labelled?
Outlets usually mark it with a label such as Sponsored, Advertorial or Presented by, and each one chooses the format to suit its editorial line. A clear label does not make it less effective: readers who reach the end do so because the content interests them, and that is what they remember about the brand.
For SEO, an advertorial's job is mainly to bring you visibility, traffic and branded searches. If you want to build authority with links, plan that separately, with sponsored posts on outlets.
How to create an advertorial in 6 steps
1. Decide what you want to achieve
Awareness in one city, sales of one product, mentions in the trade press or searches for your brand. Pick a single goal and its metric before you write, because it decides which outlet you choose and how you measure afterwards.
2. Choose the outlet for its readers, not its size
A regional paper read by your customers sells more than a national outlet nobody in your industry opens. Look at the topic, the audience, the real traffic and whether the outlet runs sponsored content regularly and labels it properly.
3. Find a news angle
Ask what that outlet's readers care about this week: a new figure, a change in the industry, a problem everyone has. Your brand comes in as the one that knows how to solve it.
4. Write it like a news story
An informative headline under 80 characters, a standfirst that sums up what matters, an inverted pyramid body, a quote from someone at the company and, at the end, who it is presented by. 600 to 900 words are usually enough. If the outlet has an in-house team, ask whether they will write it: they know their readers' tone better.
5. Use few, well-chosen links
One or two links, to the page you really want people to visit, with a UTM-tagged URL so you can track the visits in your analytics. More links distract and make the text read more like an ad.
6. Measure the return
ROI is calculated like this: (profit it brought you minus what it cost) divided by what it cost, times one hundred. If you pay €294 for an advertorial and the sales it brings leave you €600 of margin, the ROI is 104%.
Beyond direct sales, look at the visits with your UTM, branded searches in Search Console over the following weeks and whether other outlets or sites mention you afterwards. An advertorial rarely pays for itself with first-day sales alone.
Mistakes that sink an advertorial
- Writing a long ad. If every paragraph says how good the brand is, readers leave by the second one.
- Dressing it up as news. Readers who find out it was advertising stop trusting both the brand and the outlet.
- Choosing the outlet only on price or authority. A cheap outlet your audience does not read is wasted money, and so is an expensive one.
- Not measuring. Without a UTM and a metric decided beforehand, you won't know whether to repeat or switch outlets.
- Publishing one and stopping. Awareness is built through repetition: several outlets, or the same outlet several times a year.
On Growwer you can filter outlets by topic, country and traffic, see each one's price before you order and publish your advertorial with no fees or commitment.
