Digital advertising is a critical way to reach your target audience. If you want your ads to blend into the content seamlessly, native ads are the answer. Native advertising can help bring your brand front and center. Whether you realize it or not, you encounter native ads all the time. This article will discuss the definition of native advertising, the six different kinds of native advertising, and how you can use native ads for your business.
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Native Advertising Definition
Native advertising uses paid ads that match the look, feel, and function of the website on which they appear. It is also sometimes referred to as sponsored content. As consumers become more intelligent regarding digital marketing tactics, native ads blend into the editorial content on the site or app and make it less evident that ads are targeting them.
Native ads are becoming more popular all the time. According to eMarketer, US native ad spend is expected to increase by 21% in 2021 to a value of $57 billion.
Native Advertising vs. Sponsored Content
Now that you know the native ads definition, you might be wondering what the difference is between native advertising vs. branded content. Both sponsored content and native advertising are types of paid media. Native advertising benefits from having a headline designed to encourage clicks. Sponsored content is easier to identify. Media publications write sponsored content with the intent to sell a particular product or service. However, branded content focuses on selling a brand, not a specific product or service, unlike sponsored content.
Benefits of Native Advertising
There are many benefits to sponsored content advertising.
Fast Results
Native ads can result in nearly-immediate sales. It is a much faster advertising and marketing strategy than SEO or content marketing. If you want real-time results, try native advertising.
Reach Your Target Audience
Native advertising practically guarantees that you will reach your target audience.
Increase Brand Awareness
While someone is shopping for a pricier, more well-known brand, they might become acquainted with your brand when they see branded content or a banner ad for your product on the web page.
Difficult to Ignore
Most people look at and engage with native ads, more so than traditional ads, since they blend onto the web page on which they appear.
Six Types of Native Advertising
Just like other kinds of advertising, there are several different kinds of native advertising. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s native advertising playbook, there are six categories of native ads.
In-Feed Units
In-feed native advertising units are sponsored posts that show up in your social media feeds or on a publisher’s website. They are paid ads that show up directly in line with other articles, posts, or content. They vary from site to site because they fit into each website’s own user experience.
Paid Search Units
Native advertising is also a popular advertising method for search engines. These kinds of native ads are popular because they look so similar to organic search results. That’s right: the top-of-the-page results at the top of Google are paid ads.
Recommendation Widgets
You will also see native ads on publisher websites, social media platforms, and search engine results pages in recommendation widgets. These ads are typically off to the side on a web page or at the end of the article under a heading recommending additional content you might like.
Promoted Listings
If you like to shop online, you most likely see promoted listings regularly. For example, if you search for a book on Amazon, many listings will appear. However, some of the listings will likely be paid media placements that look just like organic results.
Display Ad with Native Elements
This kind of native advertising looks much like any other ads you see while browsing the web. It might even appear in an ad container or banner. Then, you might ask, what makes it native? It is contextually relevant to the website on which it appears and the content it appears near.
Custom Native Ads
Because of the rapid pace of advancement in digital advertising, the IAB’s final kind of native advertising is simply custom native ads. For example, creating a Snapchat filter is a custom native ad. It is paid media, and it fits within the app’s user interface alongside the other regular filters.
Why Native Advertising is Important
When you stop to think about it, content is a regular part of our day. We spend our days looking at a variety of screens for both work and pleasure. Americans spend 17 hours and nine minutes looking at digital devices each day, according to one study.
With so much time spent looking at the internet, consumers have learned how to ignore many ads. They may even block them from their phones and computers altogether.
Native advertising integrates with the content we all look at daily. It’s much harder to ignore than a typical ad. Consumers look at native ads 53% more than display ads. Native ads might even increase your conversions.
Native Advertising and Programmatic Buying
Programmatic advertising is also rising because of programmatic ad-buying software’s speed, accuracy, and intelligence. Type in your campaign goals and key performance indicators, and the programmatic algorithm will evolve based on audience behavior. The marketplace can change in a second. Programmatic ad buying ensures that your campaigns are ready to adapt.
When you combine programmatic buying and native advertising (aka programmatic native advertising), your ads have a greater chance of reaching specific audiences. The programmatic algorithm will help optimize your native ad campaign by doing what works and stopping what doesn’t.
The Future of Native Advertising
Just like any digital advertising trend, native advertising is sure to evolve. But you can stay ahead of the curve with a digital advertising agency like SEO Design Chicago.
Social Media
When you think of native ads, most likely search engines, publisher sites, and shopping sites first come to mind. However, native ad spend is quickly moving to social media sites. More and more brands are spending their native advertising budgets on Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat filters, Instagram sponsored content, and other social platforms. In short, the number of native advertising platforms is increasing. This only increases the importance of hiring a native advertising agency. An excellent native ads agency will understand how to navigate the various benefits of these different platforms.
Mobile Native Ads
These days, the majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Native mobile advertising is on the rise, and native mobile ads will continue to grow.
Native Video Ads
As video ads become increasingly popular, so will native video ads, particularly on social media sites.
User-Generated Content
Consumers love authenticity. User-generated content helps build brand loyalty and creates a deeper connection between the brand and the audience. Be on the lookout for additional user-generated content in native ads.
Ethics Disclosure
Yes, native ads do blend in with regular content. However, no one likes to deceive or be deceived. More and more platforms will create ad disclosures, even on native ads, providing additional user transparency.
Tips for Creating Effective Native Ads
Here are some tips for how to create the best native ads. It also helps to look at some of the best and worst examples of native advertising.
Set Your Goals
The first step of any successful advertising campaign is to set a goal, or several goals, at the beginning. Then choose which KPIs you will use to measure your success.
Create the Right Message
Next, think about what message you want your ads and content to convey. Be sure you know your target audience and what valuable content they want and need.
Choose the Right Platform and Format
The next step is to consider which platform and website your target audience uses because this is how you will choose where to run your target ads. Then, you can choose which kinds of ads you would like to run. There are various ad formats available for native advertising campaigns. For example, Google allows you to create native ad units for your mobile app.
Generate Your Content and Ads
Next, it’s time to write and design your ads. Keep in mind that you will want to use a visual, keep it short and sweet, write in the second person, and include a well-written call to action.
Post Your Content Organically
Before running an ad campaign, consider posting your content organically on social media. See how it performs. You can promote the posts organically to see what your audience responds to before deciding on your campaign’s content.
Promote Top Performers
Once you know which posts perform the best, sponsor the posts or create a new native ad campaign across various platforms with the most successful content.
Measure Your Results
Finally, go back to the first step and measure your KPIs. Check and see how your ads are performing and how you measure up to the goals you set for your campaign.
Test, Optimize, Repeat
Advertising is never one-and-done. Instead, it is a rinse-and-repeat process. You can test, make adjustments, and run new ads all the time. The beauty of digital advertising vs. traditional advertising is the ability to make quick changes. It’s much easier than changing a whole billboard!
Retarget
Finally, take advantage of retargeting. Once your target audience visits your website or clicks on an ad, you can retarget your audience with an even more specific ad based on that interaction to encourage them to visit you again and complete the desired action.
How Much Does Native Advertising Cost?
Native advertising costs depend on a variety of factors. A native advertising campaign can be as inexpensive as $100 or as expensive as $1 million.
Native Advertising with SEO Design Chicago
When it comes down to it, native advertising beats out traditional advertising. Contact SEO Design Chicago today to create your native ads campaign. Leave native advertising to the experts. Our digital advertising team is ready to help you create a campaign. Native ads can work for nearly any kind of business, brand, or company.
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