Are you nescient in native advertising? Do not worry. You’re not alone. Native advertising has caused a sensation and you’ve might have heard about this term more frequently from your industry peers, tech buddies, digital marketing consultant. Native advertising is all the rage in digital marketing now. If you’re in the marketing industry, native advertising is something you should know about. Discover what native advertising is, types of native ads, and why you should care about them?
What Is Native Advertising?
The term native advertising can sound confusing the first time you hear it. It is one of the most popular and hottest methods that has taken the advertising world by storm. To help you understand this mysterious advertising strategy, we will start with an example.
Envision you are surfing your favourite blog and reading on a topic, once you are finished, you find the website recommending you the other topics which you might be interested in. What if that content was not from the current blog and it is actually from another website altogether? If this inspires you and creates trust in you, then it means you’ve fallen for native advertising.
Native advertising is information-rich and visually appealing promotional or sponsored content that conceal the existence into the form and function of the platform they are displayed on. It helps the brand display the content in a non-salesy way. In simple words, native advertising is the ones that are native to the environment they appear on so that they don’t look different from the content surrounding it on the page.
Native ads are not intrusive but it sends an invitation to the user to engage with the valuable content if they feel compelled. Native ads are usually user-centred and focus mainly on the quality of the content.
Native Advertising vs Content Marketing
Now, when you hear native advertising and content marketing, do you get confused with both these concepts? To be successful in digital marketing, you need to have a clear idea about what each is. This is why we would like to clarify the differences between the two.
Native advertising is a paid content that is disguised as organic content and inherently non-obtrusive. Content marketing, on the other hand, refers to creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to reach out to the target audience.
Native advertising is a content marketing strategy. Whereas, content marketing is a broader concept with a sales pitch.
Content marketing is personally owned by the business that is sharing it, while native ads are paid media that run on platforms that the business does not own.
The goal of content marketing is to raise brand awareness and position you as an expert in your field. Whereas, the ultimate goal of native advertising is to keep customers interested, build trust, and lead them to the type of content that the business owns.
Understanding the difference between these two concepts help you in choosing the right one for your business, investing in them, and marketing your business better.
3 Defining Principles Of Native Advertising
If your native ad looks, feels and talks like an ad, then it’s not done right. Listed here are 3 key principles that will help you create a successful native advertising campaign.
1. Information-based rather than product-focused content
When it comes to native advertising, the first and foremost thing is to choose the direction of your content. Any content can take two directions – promotional direction and informational direction. Promotional direction focuses on highlighting a product or service. Whereas the informational direction focuses on entertaining and informing the user that is independent of the product or service. Content created for native advertising should be interesting, fun, and useful to the audience, which is the informational direction.
2. Adaptation
Native advertising content can take any form like text, video, or others. Ensure that you choose the right platform for your native advertising based on the format of your content. For example, if you choose a video format for your native ad, then choosing a platform that hosts the same format will be the ideal choice. So, in this case, you can choose YouTube to display your native video ad. This way, you can make the content look more adapted to the platform and will increase its credibility.
3. Transparency
Irrespective of the platform and format you choose for your native advertising, you should not forget to inform the readers with terms like “Sponsored”, “Recommended”, “Promoted”. Ensure that you include your brand logo and name. These features must be visible to the readers to help them identify and it should also appear on all pages viewed by the user.
Why Do Digital Marketers Prefer Native Advertising?
In general, many marketers say that native advertising is more effective than traditional display advertising. But, in what way? The following points can give you the answer to this question
1. As advertisers know that users already enjoy the format in which the native ad will be presented, native ads offer a great opportunity for unique exposure and high engagement.
2. Due to their adaptability, native ads receive 5-8 times higher CTRs than banner ads. This, in turn, leads to lower costs per click and cost per customer acquisition.
3. Native ads are considered to be more compelling when compared to banner ads.
4. Personalized targeting through programmatic native advertising is another key advantage of native advertising that could win more new customers.
5. Beyond the native ad, the click-through content receives a high engagement, which in turn increases brand loyalty.
Types Of Native Ads
Similar to any other form of advertising, native advertising has different formats and each has its own set of benefits. Previously, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has discovered 6 core types of native ads, but in their latest playbook, they have featured 3 core types of native ads. And any native ad that does not fit into the below three types of ads is called a custom ad.
1. In-Feed/In-Content Native Ads
2. Content Recommendation Ads
3. Branded/Native Content
In this section, let’s have an in-depth look at all types of native ads.
1. In-Feed Ads
In-feed ads are sponsored posts that appear within a website’s natural environment. These are paid placements and appear in-line with the similar formats of all the other content of the publication. They differ from site to site as they adapt and adjust to each site’s unique user experience.
2. Content Recommendation Widgets
When you’re reading a blog and at the end of the page you find a few more blogs posted under the headings like “Recommended for you” or “You might also like” or “Sponsored Stories”, then you’re looking at content recommendation ads. These recommendations are paid links administered by content amplification networks. These networks help in boosting your brand’s content by placing them on the site with like-minded audiences.
3. Paid Search
Paid search ads are a more popular type of native ads. Paid search ads appear at the top and bottom of the search engine results page that is made to look like organic search results.
4. Promoted Listings
Also known as in-feed product ads, these ads appear mostly on eCommerce websites. These ads let the sellers promote their products based on the search query without interrupting the shopping experience of the users. These ads generally appear in category, product, or search results page.
5. In-Ad With Native Elements
These ads look like any other ad that you see online, but it has great contextual relevancy to the site they appear on and the content they appear next to. You can also see them in an ad banner or container. For example, a health blog would publish ads by brands in the healthcare or food industry.
6. Custom Ads
The IAB has defined the term “custom ads” for all the other types of contextual native ads that don’t fit in any of the above specific formats. For example, creating a new filter in Snapchat is an example of a custom native ad. can appear within your app interface, such as a new filter in Snapchat.
Native Ads On Social Networks
Unlike other forms of advertising, native ads on social networks can build social proof through likes, comments, and shares. This increases the credibility of your brand and brings in more new opportunities for your business.
Not all ads posted on social media platforms become native ads. It is the content and furnished that makes it a native ad. If a social ad promotes content and if it blends in with the surrounding content, then it is called native ads on social media.
How to use native ads on social media platforms can seem confusing because each social media network differs from one another. Each has its own way of creating and presenting ads. Listed below are a few examples of native social ads in different social media networks.
1. Facebook Sponsored Post
A sponsored post is a paid post to show up your content in followers’ news feed the next time when they are active.
2. Twitter Promoted Tweets
Through promoted tweets, you can present your best content to your followers as well as to other people. The promoted tweet will appear in the user’s timeline if Twitter finds it relevant to the user.
3. Youtube Trueview Ads
TrueView ads are another example of native ads on social media platforms. These ads appear very naturally on the YouTube platform and they generally play before, after, or during a video on YouTube.
4. Linkedin Sponsored Updates
LinkedIn’s sponsored update looks like a regular one except for the tag “Sponsored”. It brings highly qualified traffic and serves as a great way to expand your reach and connect with the target audience.
6 Steps To Create A Successful Native Advertising Campaign
Native advertising is not an onerous process. It’s as simple as you create any other digital marketing campaign. So let’s dive in and look into these 7 steps to create an awesome native advertising campaign.
1. Set Your Goals
First things first. Set your campaign goal as building brand awareness or generating leads or increasing website traffic or any other goal that suits your business purpose and objectives. Once you determine your goals, choose the right KPIs for measuring your success.
2. Define Your Audience
Now that you’ve set the goal, know who your target audience is. You should define who wants to see or read your content. This will help you in delivering the right content to the right people at the right time and in the right place. You can target ads based on age, gender, location, and more.
3. Choose The Platform
There are various platforms that provide you access to different websites that run native ads. There are a few things to consider when choosing a platform like the relevance of the site, the amount of reach of your content, audience demographics, and others.
4. Generate The Right Content
Like in any other marketing, content plays a crucial role in the native advertising campaign. Develop content with the audience in your mind. Craft content that is relevant, attractive, informative, problem-solving, and unique to attract a huge audience.
5. Allocate Budget
Know how to strategize your budget on native ads. Decide whether you should choose Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM) or Cost Per Click (CPC). Once you have decided on CPM or CPC, find out your ideal CPM or CPC, and allocate your daily spending limit and your overall budget. Always it is advisable to start with a higher CPM or CPC.
6. Measure Results
Track your results to know how your ads are performing. Learn about your page views, engagement, impressions, and other metrics. Measuring your results helps in knowing how you are progressing towards your goal.
7. Test
To ensure that you are getting the most out of your native ads, continue testing, and optimizing the different elements of your native ads. Try a new call to action, a new title, or a new image.
Get Started With Native Advertising Now
Native advertising is a trending marketing tactic. It’s a great way to steal more audiences and develop online credibility for your brand without burning a hole in your pocket. To make your native advertising more successful, study each platform, adapt and diversify your content, along with transparency for the users. It requires great time, patience, and effort to create a native ad campaign.
If you require the help of an expert in developing a successful native advertising campaign, don’t hesitate to contact a digital marketing consultant.
