Do you like banner ads and popups? We bet you don’t because it’s hard to imagine a person who enjoys such intrusive and annoying advertising methods.
Digital marketing has come a long way in the last few years and you should no longer bombard the audience with direct and irrelevant online ads. According to the report, native ads will account for a whopping 74% of total US display ad revenue by 2021.
Although it’s not a brand new advertising solution, it keeps growing steadily thanks to its incredible productivity. In this post, we will explain the main facts and stats about native advertising and give you a few practical ways on how to use it for business promotion. Let’s check it out!
Native Advertising Facts
What is native advertising? If you don’t know the answer to this question, you cannot prepare a sustainable promo plan for your brand.
By definition, native advertising refers to the use of paid ads that match the look, feel, and function of the media format in which they appear. Unlike traditional ads, native advertising is harder to recognize and therefore has a much bigger influence on target audiences. Industry reports prove our statement:
- Native display ads produce a CTR that is eight times higher compared to typical display ads
- 70% of users would rather learn about products through content than traditional advertisements
- Less than 10% of consumers successfully distinguish between native advertising and editorial content
Native advertising is obviously influential, but what can you do about it? Keep reading to learn the most important tricks and techniques.
Native Advertising Best Practices
You can approach native advertising from various points of view, but some mechanisms already proved to be very productive for most companies. We narrowed down the options for you, so here’s the list of seven practical tips.
1. Native ads must suit the audience you’re targeting
The purpose of native ads (or any other advertising format) is to evoke curiosity and encourage the target audience to react. In such circumstances, it is mandatory to understand the interests of your customers and create content that perfectly aligns with their needs. Jake Gardner, a blogger who writes paper writing service reviews, says it’s the only way to make native ads look natural and relevant in the eyes of a typical consumer.
2. Stay true to the platform you’re using
You are not only supposed to analyze the audience but also the platform you’re using. Let’s say that you want to publish native ads on a highly authoritative online magazine. In this case, you have to adjust to their style of writing and use the same principles of content creation in order to make the post look credible and trustworthy.
3. Do not promote, but educate
Unlike traditional ads, native ads are not designed to be overly promotional. On the contrary, they are here to inform and educate customers. You should keep that in mind while planning a new campaign because a pushy message will look suspicious and probably chase users away. Try to be as objective as possible and you will make the most of your native ads.
4. Use appealing visual elements
Regardless of the platform, you need to enrich native ads with appealing visual elements. The human brain recognizes visual information much faster than textual content, but don’t forget to design unique images, animations, or videos for your ads.
According to the report, a surprising 40% of marketers mainly use stock photos when designing new content. It’s a huge mistake for two key reasons:
- Stock visuals are usually generic and boring
- They prove you’re not investing enough time in content creation
5. Native ads must provide value
When you write a copy for your native ads, ask yourself a simple question: What’s in there for my average customer? If you can’t give a straightforward answer, rest assured your ads won’t make the desired impact on the audience. The ultimate objective of native advertising is to help users solve real-life problems, so you ought to provide genuine value through your content, while brand promotion comes second.
6. Focus on mobile users
Do you know that 62% of users access the Internet using their mobile phones? The majority of online activities are now smartphone-driven, which means you should focus on mobile users primarily. You should do your best to adjust the content in a way that suits all platforms and devices, with a special emphasis on smartphone users.
7. Test and adjust until you get it right
Finally, you ought to know that marketers hardly ever get it right the first time. You must experiment with native ads and test multiple solutions until you find the one that aligns well with a given platform and/or content format.
Conclusion:
Native advertising in content marketing is your best chance to approach the target audience and convert lots of users into verified leads. Using the tactics we mentioned above, you can do it quickly and successfully, so do your best to market your business with standout native ads!
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