Native advertising is one of the most effective advertising concepts. These ads blend perfectly well with the content of media where they are displayed, matching not only the make-up of the platform but also the experience associated with it. Consequently, the viewer perceives it as another piece of content and not an ad.
This way, the readers don’t tune out native ads as they do in case of traditional advertising. The ad spend of the native digital display has doubled since 2016, and the trend continues.
The immense advantage of this kind of advertising is more conversions with low spending. Let’s dive into the details!
Source- LinkedIn
There are multiple types of native ads that advertisers and marketers use to promote their brands. With the relatively older counterparts such as promoted ads, custom ads, out-stream video ads, and so on, businesses are also leveraging sponsored content, content recommendation widgets, and in-article ads now.
A native ad camouflages itself as per the design of the website it appears on, unlike display ads that stand out from the surrounding content, clearly looking like ads and users dislike it.
So, if a native ad appears on a particular website, it will match the content and look exactly like the other stories on that website.
When you start off with a native ad campaign, keep in mind that the goal here is to create content that your audience will find valuable. Storytelling plays a key role in native advertising because native ads take this story-like image and not that of an ad.
This is the primary reason why native advertising is so effective. Your ad is not another selling proposition; it is a story people like and are interested in. If you are tired of your audience overlooking your ads, it’s time you give a shot to native ad campaigns.
The website formats the text to look like its content. One thing to remember here is the ethical aspect of native advertising- the content should be related and deliver on the promise your headline makes.
With an in-depth knowledge of your audience, you can specifically address them and make your graphics or headlines call out to them in particular. This ensures your content reaches people who are relevant and maximizes conversion rates.
Source- CMI
For native advertising, you may choose from various market leaders in this domain such as Taboola, Outbrain, and Nativo. It’s the job of the partner you choose to figure out your content is relevant to which site and how to organize it in the best way possible.
So, when you display a native ad on a particular website ABC, the content of this ad will precisely match the content of ABC but it will redirect the user to your website. The fun part is it’s a relatively new mode of advertising and the users haven’t started ignoring these ads as is the case with other forms of advertising.
It’s your responsibility as an advertiser or marketer to mark these native advertisements as such. If a particular content is sponsored, it should be labeled as sponsored.
You are allowed to showcase your opinions and beliefs, but there’s no way they can be stated as facts.
Due to high relevance and intent, native advertising increases conversions with a relatively much lower ad spend. Your audience seems to trust this type of advertising.
You can use these ads on search engines, social media, as well as in-feed of websites.
Paid advertising often face one problem- adblocking. As per Statista, about 25.8 percent of internet users were blocking advertising on their connected devices in 2019. But, because the focus of native advertising is on customer experience, it doesn’t have to struggle with the ad blocking and is much more effective.
One of the most significant benefits of native advertising is retargeting. Because your brand gets an impressive exposure, retargeting becomes a remarkable marketing tool for you. As with strong CTAs, you target readers who are interested and have already read a story about you.
The secret sauce for the perfect native advertising plan is to understand your audience and put yourself in their shoes. What story do they want to hear and where do they want to hear it?
Native advertising’s primary focus is to educate and inspire your audience to convert them into your customers. You need to set user expectations but more importantly, you have to meet those expectations as well. If a user clicks on something to find something entirely different, they feel cheated and native advertising, in this case, won’t get you any conversions or results.
For effective Native Advertising, you need to experiment. Try different action words and designs to understand what works for your business and drives results. Here are a few things to consider-
Ads.TXT is an IAB initiative used by companies to list which other companies they have partnered with for business purposes. For instance, if you want to check which native advertising platforms are authorized to display ads on The Washington Post, you can add /ads.txt after washingtonpost.com to get the list.
This will help your pick the right provider for your native advertising results. In this case, we can see Outbrain is an authorized partner and can be used to deliver ads on the Washington Post’s website.
You should also check the credibility of the website you’re choosing for native advertising on Alexa.com. It also gives you an option to compare traffic metrics of various websites, so you know what you’re getting into!
Native makes so much sense when people relevant to your niche are writing about you. In that case, you can divert traffic on their website with your advertising efforts to gain credibility and convert more of this interested crowd. To keep up with the mentions, you can set up alerts on google.com/alerts.
Find bloggers who will write honest reviews about your brand. Sometimes people would do it all by themselves but most of the time you need to build a strategy to incentivize these bloggers to write about your business.
Now that you’ve understood what is Native Advertising and how does it work, we will get into further details to show how an advertising platform like Taboola works. So, when you finish reading this blog, you’ll have all the knowledge at your disposal to kick start your native advertising campaign.
The native ads will only work if you design and promote these ads in the right way. Having already discussed the design part, here’s how to use one of the most popular native advertising platforms Taboola to promote your ads.
The process is easy and straightforward. If you want to start with your campaign, you must be ready with the content you want to promote.
Once you’ve set a budget and the amount you want to pay per click, you have to specify the type or audience segment you want the advertising platform to reach for you and target. These native ads will then bring traffic to your website or landing pages.
Cost per click (CPC) shows the amount you want to pay per click. The higher you set your CPC, the more often your ads will be shown.
How to use Taboola for your Native ad campaign
– Sign in to your Taboola Account using backstage.taboola.com
– On the left, you’ll see Campaigns, Taboola Pixel, and Billing Options.
The Campaign section has three features- Campaign Summary, Top Campaign Content, and Campaign Management.
Campaign Summary gives actionable insights on the campaign you’ve run and has optimizable tools for future campaigns. It also segments campaign for you by day, campaign name, site, country, and audience.
In the top campaign content, you modify or make adjustments in your current campaign inventory. Campaign management is where you build and manage your campaigns.
In the campaign management, you’ll also see four icons next to each campaign. The first one lets you start or stop campaigns at any time you want, the second (pencil) icon allows you to view campaign properties and adjust target settings, the third one contains your campaign inventory, and the fourth one helps you copy a campaign as it is.
The Pixel section has two portions- Conversions and Custom Audiences.
The Taboola pixel is a code snippet you put on your website to track users’ actions and their path through your site. It can also be used to create custom audiences. The base code has to be applied to the head of every page on your website.
In the Pixel Management option on your dashboard, you can define conversions by various types- URL (Whole or Partial URL) or conversion by Event to track specific activities.
In Audiences, you will have two options- Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience. When you click on Lookalike Audience, it will allow you to upload an email list. Once you’ve uploaded your list, Taboola will generate five new custom audiences for you.
The billing section will give you details about your payment history and billing management. This is where you add your credit card details or change those.
Craft this process to give your prospects a good brand experience and seamlessly convert awareness into a purchase. The goal is to make your customer feel you’re not just selling and treating them as another item to check off on your list.
The title and placement of your ad play a decisive role here. Once readers click on the headline, make sure they like the experience. If you fail to create good content, no matter how much you spend on native advertising, it won’t work for you.
The topical relevance matters as much. If you’re publishing your content on a website that is all about finance, your story should be about finance as well. It’s as simple as that! Remember, the people who are reading your content are busy, so design it in a way that even when they skim through, they get a gist of your story.
Just the idea of putting your content in front of a lot of people isn’t enough. There’s a great deal of work to put in to generate profits from native advertising.
Your ad should deliver value and good customer experience. Users shouldn’t feel deceived by clicking on your native ad. It won’t do anything but harm your brand reputation.
Native advertising should complement your overall performance marketing efforts. The publishers have the reach and audience that you can benefit from, and in turn, they get to monetize their websites as well. This is definitely a win-win situation when done right.
As per Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC, by 2021 native in-feed ads will make up 74% of total display ad revenue in the United States. You can run these native ads manually as well as programmatically. The crux here is placing your native ads is a relevant environment where they fit naturally.
Don’t just learn how to do native advertising, but also how to do it right. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of comprehensive research before your launch your campaign. Try comprehending the challenges associated with your market and get to understand your audience as well as you can.
As in the case of any marketing or advertising activities, setting goals is crucial. If not weekly, set goals every month to take stock of the entire situation. As mentioned, this is just one part of your marketing plan. Optimizing and tracking performance will help you align these campaigns with your marketing goals. It will also help you understand what can be improved in your future campaigns.
Have the mindset of a good marketer- be open and flexible. Try different channels, audience, and content pieces to make the most of it and find your best performing areas.
The point here is that the ads you’re creating aren’t for everyone and don’t have to be seen by everyone. It’s for your audience and you can only know how to best target your audience if you know the audience. Now go on and create ads that grab your audience’s attention and boost your revenue!
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