If you want to boost your user engagement, drive organic traffic to your site, and build trust, native ads are the answer. You might have seen numerous native ads while scrolling through articles and didn’t even realize it. That is because they blend in seamlessly with the organic content.
Why should you use a native advertising strategy? Ask yourself, do those prominent banners and pop-up ads annoy you? They are irritating to three out of every four users. And 79% of internet users prefer encountering native ads over any other type of advertisements.
This article will teach the correct way of native advertising for business and tips to level up your native ads strategy.
Everything You Should Know About Native Advertising
What is native advertising? It is a paid advertisement that matches the look and feel of the application or website they appear on. They are ads that don’t look like ads, making native advertising different.
Native ads appear in various forms and on platforms, such as sponsored content, in-feed social media advertisements, etc. The posts or pages Facebook or Instagram recommends you are native advertising examples. Notice how seamlessly they fit in with other content on your feed.
Other native advertising examples are Instagram story filters. The audience doesn’t care if the filter is sponsored or not. If it’s fun and engaging enough, they use it. This is how brands use Instagram story filters to connect with their audiences.
Pros of Native Advertising
Here are some solid reasons you should go for native advertising for your business.
Receive Higher Click-through Rates Than Display Ads
Native ads are highly engaging because they are non-disruptive. Unlike display ads, they are not annoying, so when consumers view them as a part of the content, they are most likely to click the link. And if the destination they land on meets the user’s needs or goals, your native ad will produce even better results.
The click-through rates native ads receive are 8.8 times higher than regular display ads.
Easily Align With Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel, also known as a sales or conversion funnel, is a marketing model that enables you to track your customer's journey from having no idea about your brand to becoming a loyal customer.
There are five stages of a marketing funnel.
1. Awareness–how-to posts, online ads, SEO.
2. Interest–videos, downloads.
3. Consideration–newsletters.
4. Intent–customer reviews.
5. Purchase–free trials.
Brand awareness is called top-of-the-funnel content. That’s where native ads work. Distributing the top-of-the-funnel content through native ads will help you grab the audience’s attention to your site. Later you can lead them from the top of the funnel to the button, converting them into loyal customers.
Custom Content Helps in Building Trust
It is easier to trust branded content for consumers than the typical advertisement. Branded content tells an exciting story that piques potential customers' interest and leaves a long-lasting impression. Even if your ad couldn’t convert the users into customers the first time they saw your native ad, that lasting impression might bring them back.
Cons of Native Advertising
Nothing is perfect, and everything with pros also has some cons. Here are some downsides of native advertising that you must know before starting your campaign.
Time-consuming
Native ads must be well-crafted. To create an engaging native ad, one must go through several steps, including multiple rounds of reviews and a lot of collaboration. This requires putting in time, money, and effort.
But because of high click-through rates and a good return on investment, native ads prove to be cost-efficient.
Deception
Some native advertising strategies can be deceiving and don’t count as a good marketing practice. Make sure that your native ads don’t mislead the consumers into taking steps they might not want. Be transparent and don’t omit any information you think might be important to the user before moving forward.
Steps to Create a Well-crafted Native Ad
Here are three crucial and easy steps to create an impactful native ad.
1. Research
Researching is a crucial element for any type of marketing. Hence, you know what strategies your competitors are using and do it better. Mostly, you will find native ads on the news or on opinion sites. Go to those sites, and scroll down to the bottom. You will see suggested articles. You can point out native ads by looking for a “sponsored” tag on the articles.
Open those sponsored articles and analyze their tactics to convert readers into customers.
You can also use ad spy tools to search for the ads in your niche.
2. Creating an Advertisement
To create an ad from an existing Facebook post, tap on the “boost post” button below your post. Give Facebook the information it asks for, such as your budget, your target audience, and where you want to run your ad.
For sponsored posts, select from several native advertising network options such as Outbrain, Taboola, Nativo, etc. You can visit their websites to see the costs and sites they will publish your ads on. Search how you can start with the publishing of your campaign from the site you chose.
Fill in the details they ask for. You will be asked for your objective, targeting locations, time to display your ad, budget, and other things. Once done with the details, you will be asked for the URL of the blog post you wish to promote, the title, etc. Creating the perfect post for native advertising may take some time. But it’s better to put in time than to lose money. From that link, people will be directed to your site.
Don’t have a website? Don’t worry. You won’t be spending tons of money on it if you create one using Strikingly.
Strikingly is an extremely easy-to-use website builder that lets you create and publish a gorgeous and responsive website within an hour or two. You can select from a wide range of customizable templates and start editing.
Image taken from Strikingly
Whether it’s an online store, blog, or both, Strikingly has templates for everything. You can add blogs and stores to one page by adding them as sections.
Image taken from Strikingly
Moreover, Strikingly offers multiple features that can help drive traffic to your site and build brand credibility—such as custom domain and emails, sending newsletters, analytics tools, etc.
Once you’re happy with your design, you can move ahead and publish it in just one click.
Image taken from Strikingly
You can create a website with Strikingly for free. But there are monthly and yearly plans you can opt for to get hold of the coolest features for building and managing an online site.
Image taken from Strikingly
All you have to do now is launch your campaign and analyze it.
3. Testing Your Native Ad
Testing is a crucial step to finding out whether or not native advertising is benefitting your business. Once you’ve launched your marketing campaign, analyze the traffic and sales on your site to know how well your ad worked and what went wrong (if anything).
Tips to Level Up Your Native Advertising Campaign
When spending money on ads, ensure you’re doing it right. Here are some do’s and don’ts to get the best out of your native advertising campaign.
- Avoid Clickbait
This is part of the con of native ads we discussed above. Using click baits won’t benefit anyone, neither you nor your consumers. Because even if the users reached your website through a clickbait title, they would eventually find out the truth. Once they find out that you used a clickbait title, they will leave a bad impression in their minds.
This will also lead to very few or no sales if your objective is to sell a product or service.
- Deliver a Straight Forward Message
For in-feed or in-app native ads, we would recommend you to create a catchy, concise, and straightforward ad. Sometimes just a simple image or post showcasing the main headline, business logo, a clear call to action, and the app icon will do more than heavy and complicated graphics.
- Go With the Flow
When designing your native ad, remember that they are different because they don’t disrupt the flow. Ensure that your design matches the font style, size, colors, and mood of the app, site, or other platforms it is showcased on.
Conclusion
Native advertising is a form of digital marketing where an ad matches the mood and design of the platform displayed. Since it matches the organic content of the platform, it gets higher click-through rates and is more likely to help your business grow.
Designing, writing, and testing a native advertisement can be time-consuming, but the revenue a well-crafted native ad generates makes up for everything you put in.
A successful native advertising campaign requires authenticity, transparency with the potential customer, your time, and effort.
