Native Advertising Best Practices
SNEHA HULL | May 21, 2021 | 486 views
The world is changing every minute and so is the structure of business and marketing tactics. Digital advertising has changed drastically over a period and is growing at a break neck speed. Although native advertising is at a nascent stage, it is a popular, creative, authentic, interactive, and engaging form of advertising.
Native advertising is also called paid content or sponsored content. Gone are the days when native advertising was just a buzz word. Today it is the new marketing reality. Native content marketing has winged its way into emails, e-commerce platforms, social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram), video sites. Social media ads, recommended ads, and promoted search results are a few examples of well-known native ads. Native ads are cohesive with the content on the page and ingest themselves very well with the design and look of the page.
Many online marketers are turning to native advertising that eases the opportunity of connecting to their users in the format they are comfortable with, such as articles, videos, and infographics. Native ads normally do not look like ads. They look like a part of the content in a user’s viewable area.
Media companies like The New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal are few examples that invest in native content advertising.
Native advertising is the driving force leveraging advertising strategy. As per the Native Advertising Institute, by 2021, the revenue from native advertising is expected to increase by 46%.
Types of Native Advertising
There are various types of native advertising that publishers may offer on their sites. They may offer a few or all of these:
In-stream
In stream ads are the ads put in before, during or after the streaming of any video, music, and animation that the consumer has requested. In-stream ads termed as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post roll. In-stream ads are most commonly visible on YouTube.
In-article
In-article are the ad formats that helps you to put native ads between the paragraphs of the pages. These articles are optimized by google for better performance. They blend well and provide a better experience of the readers.
Content recommendation
Content or product recommendation provide you with personalized content or product recommendation based on data collected about user’s online behavior. Offering better effortless customer journey.
Commerce
Native video
Native videos are the in-feed videos that are created and uploaded on various social networks. Facebook, , YouTube, and Twitter are most widely used platforms for native video.
Custom formats
Custom native ads are developed by brand itself. Custom ads are user-defined allowing you to define your variable.
In-mail
There are two ways of In-mail native advertisements, they are one-off long-form and programmatic. Native email marketing will boost KPIs.
Sponsored content
Sponsored content naturally blends in with content on the webpage but is marked as “sponsored” within the ad.
What Does Native Advertising Look Like?
In Feed Ads
In Feed native ads are slipped between the content allowing the readers to view them easily and with less effort. Example of in-feed ads are the ads that appear in your newsfeed on social media and news sites (Facebook, Buzzfeed)
Search & Promoted Listings
Search and promoted listings appear at the top of your Google search results or in the side bar increasing the product visibility and sales. Search and promoted listings are fee-based advertising services.
Content Recommendations
These are the articles that appear at the bottom of the webpage. This is a great way to increase the audience and attract new leads. Content recommendations are the personalized articles keeping the target audience in mind.
Best Practices of Native Advertising
Content is King
Content plays a key role in native ads for engaging the audience and comes in different shapes and sizes. Developing an innovative format for delivering quality content such as short snappy text, animations, infographics, videos, carousels of images, will earn you higher ROI. Customers are likely to return to your site without any native medium advertising. Successful native ads are colorful, easy to read, and stand out among other content around the same page.
Keep Native Advertising Programmatic
Partner with a top-notch premier content house to stand out. Keep native advertisements programmatic. Programmatic help brands make the most of micro-moments. In Programmatic advertising, automated technology is used for buying advertising space allowing advertisers to make native ads more relevant to potential customers. In the traditional buying media process, advertisers have less control over buying the placement. Native advertising can achieve higher engagement and conversion with the programmatic platform.
Native Ads Placement Smarter
Native ads are embedded onto the webpage much like the publisher's editorial. It is best practice to let the ad be on the same page for several days so that the potential customers come back to the website to have a look at it.
Keep it Personal
Keep your ad copy simple, interactive, and direct to connect with the audience. Try to call out the problem-solving content to make people feel identified and easily relatable with the solution. Keep content personal and relevant to increase engagement. The copy that is simple is more persuasive. Write ad copy as though you are speaking to your audience.
The Rise in Video Popularity Trend
Generating high-quality content that educates and entertains at the same time is far more effective in building long-term customer relationships. Video happens to be one of the successful formats of native content marketing. Video content accelerates the engagement of customers and the revenue earned from native video advertising. One of the successful ad trends is interactivity. Video content being interactive creates a sense of personal touch and leads to word-of--mouth marketing.
Targeting the Right Way
The success of any campaign largely depends on sites, audiences, and gadgets. Gather your user’s information through tools and analytics to decide your audience. Emphasizing the need of the audience is important to maintain the foundation of native advertising. Knowledge about the audience will ensure you target the right audience on the right native advertising platform. According to a recent study, click-through rates on native ads are higher on mobile devices.
How Does Native Advertising Work?
The most inevitable question arising to any advertiser’s mind is whether there is sustainable growth for native content marketing? Well the answer to this is very positive. Native advertising works in terms of demand and supply. Publishers fall under the supply category looking out for ads to monetize their site and advertisers fall under the demand category reaching an audience to generate promotion, sales, and lastly leads. The brand pays on a native advertising platform of their choice for the placement of their content. Selecting the right platform is an essential step of native ads. Once the content is created and approved, it will be tagged by saying something like, “Advertisements”, “Paid advertisement”, “Sponsored”, or “Recommended” to create transparency within native advertising platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is a paid content that mimics the design of the platform upon which it is published. Native ads are commonly visible on most of the social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) but are also seen on websites. They function differently from advertorials. Native advertisements blend perfectly with web page organic content therefore are not jarring.
Why native advertising is important?
Native advertisements bring brands and customers together on a single page by better targeting and using personalization technology, making it more engaging. Native advertising content has a longer shelf life and reaches the target audience through trusted channels. It generates higher CTR, boosts conversions, and creates higher sales for your website and company.
What is an example of native advertising?
Media companies like BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Instagram filter, Nickelodeon, and social media ads are a few popular examples of native advertising that have invested in the creation and distribution of native advertisements on their respective platforms on behalf of the brands.
Why is native advertising so successful?
The success of native advertising heavily depends on the relevant and engaging content, better received by target customers. Native ads are viewed 53% more than other banner ads. Native content is cohesive, blends smoothly with the organic content so they do not appear as ads, making people inclined to view them more and consume them. Native ads are worth the hype provided used correctly and created and promoted the right way.