As a native of your country, you would feel a sense of belonging- that you somehow fit in, with the culture, with its people and with the general lifestyle of the population. Native advertising is quite like this, in that these are advertisements that seem as if they belong on a certain platform, and that their content, design and feel are completely aligned with one another.
Usually, sponsored social media posts and promoted search results are considered native advertising, as they provide the same results to users as organic search results and user-generated content.
This form of advertising is also called ‘sponsored content’ or ‘partner content’ and is a type of paid advertising.
How these work
Native advertising, just like economics, works based on supply and demand. When publishers
run sites that have ad space that users visit, their performance metrics will send a bid request to advertisers in the same industry who are looking to place related ads. This will result in a meeting of the ad buyer and seller, so to speak.
What it does is that advertisements are blended into certain platforms so much so that users see it as part of the platform itself. Therefore, rather than appearing as ‘placed’ on certain platforms, native advertisements appear as part of the medium’s content.
For today’s digital media user who is tired of seeing advertisements all over the place and has been trained to turn a blind eye to it, native advertisements do the trick.
LinkedIn says that native ads are now accounting for almost two-thirds of all digital display ad spends- such is its popularity.
Outbrain notes that 75% of users trust content and recommendations they come across as editorial content or native ads, as opposed to 54% who say they trust user-generated content and recommendations.
Why so popular?
It is just common sense- that consumers don’t feel like they are being bombarded with advertisements. They are also protected by laws and legal guidelines that stipulate that text such as ‘promoted by’ or ‘sponsored by’ should be accompanied by a thumbnail or banner that tells users that they are now being connected with paid content.
In-feed commerce, in-app rewarded videos and recommendations are quite popular in native advertising and are so because they provide the user with a seamless experience, unlike traditional advertising which can be disruptive and clunky.
However, advertisers should ideally know a great deal about the platform they are targeting so that their native advertising will be better and more cohesive.
While Insider Intelligence approximates that in 2023 over $68 billion will be invested in native display ads on social media, it is up to advertisers to do their job right if they want a slice of this market.
As Insider Intelligence notes, this year US consumers will, on average, spend 3 hours and 23 minutes on digital video, which makes native video advertising also a lucrative medium. Insider Intelligence further projects that native display ad spend in the US this year will be close to $100 billion.
Getting SMART
Just as with any form of advertising, you will need to set your SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) goals first. Know what you expect as your end result, whether it be increasing web traffic, increasing conversions or upping your sales.
Then, figure out who your target audience is. While understanding the factors that drive your demographic is important, don’t cater your native ads just to them. Increase the scope slightly to include newer audiences as well, because the beauty of native ads is that they can attract even someone outside your target demographic.
Knowing your audience will direct you to where you want to publicise your native ads. The sites and mediums that your target audiences frequent will obviously bring the best results. But this is not enough. Check whether the content on these pages is relevant to your audiences and is also aligned with your brand values.
Needless to say, your ads must also be appealing. There is so much advertising noise out there that you will want to stand out from the rest. Design timely, intelligent and creative ads that will make the user stop and want to read and more importantly, want to click on. You should test various ads to decide which one or ones sits well with users.
Finally, set your budgets and know from the outset how much you will spend on your native ad campaign. Knowing your cost-per-click and spending will be beneficial to the resulting success.
Measuring effectiveness
The click-through rate is the known and fallback Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in native advertising. This will show advertisers how many people witnessed the ad and clicked on it as they scrolled through the various pages of digital content.
Further metrics include cost per action, and as mentioned before, cost per click, conversion rates and impressions.
Create and compel
Advertising is such a fast-changing and innovation-driven industry that marketers have to keep finding new ways to engage with the customer. Deceiving customers doesn’t work, and it shouldn’t. The idea is to get customers to be drawn to your brand by authentic means so that they keep coming back.
Native advertising holds the key to this. Because it is part of content that is deemed interesting and genuine to your customers, they will also want to consume your advertisement as part of the information-gathering process. Working on this premise, the onus is on you- the advertiser – to be as truthful and as stimulating as possible. Otherwise, your audience is just going to move on to the next best thing. Today more than ever, the customer really is king!
(Anouk De Silva)