By Christopher Klosowski, the president of Easy Digital Downloads, a leading platform that makes selling digital products a breeze.
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Native advertising is gradually transforming people’s perception of ads. It’s an advertising strategy I’m seeing businesses around the globe utilize to get more traction and generate quality leads.
Since I’ve never been a fan of in-your-face advertising, native ads have always been a go-to option for me to maximize my company’s reach and connect with a relevant audience.
The beauty of native ads is that they blend well with organic content. This sets them apart from other paid advertisement formats, which affect user experience in one way or another.
So, if you haven’t considered running native ad campaigns already, here are a few reasons I would encourage you to.
1. User Experience
This had to be at the top of the list because it literally sets native advertising apart from other advertising strategies.
Businesses readily use platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for running paid ad campaigns. And no matter how well thought out the ad placement is, these ads tend to affect the overall user experience.
On the other hand, native ads convey a message that’s smartly embedded in organic content. You can use them to generate awareness and present the intended audience with a fitting solution.
2. Budget
Native ads in general don’t always demand a huge financial investment. Since there are many ad formats to choose from, it can be easier for you to pivot your advertising strategy in response to budgetary constraints. This makes native advertising a strategy that growing businesses should consider irrespective of their scale of operations.
3. Customization
With native ads, you can take custom targeting to a whole new level. As I said earlier, there are many forms of native ads for you to consider. You should use this fact as an opportunity to personalize your ad campaigns to match your audience’s characteristics. Consider whether partnerships, in-feed ads or content recommendations would be the best fit for your audience and tailor a targeting strategy right down to the smallest details.
4. Lead Generation
To get the best results from a native ad campaign, you have to integrate it with the content that best serves the interests and preferences of your target audience. So technically, you’re killing two birds with one stone: generating awareness via personalized content and promoting your brand.
Since native ads are paired with relevant content, the likelihood of your message reaching the right target audience is high. So people who click the call to action are likely to be genuinely interested in what you offer.
5. Audience Acceptance
A couple of years back, it seemed like it was totally normal for people to make impulsive buying decisions. And that’s the type of environment in which paid marketing really flourishes.
Over time, many people have learned that making purchase decisions in the heat of the moment isn’t a good idea, as you’re likely to end up buying something you don’t actually need.
So people have become research-oriented and have started finding the right solutions to fulfill their needs. And this behavioral change could lead people to be less receptive to advertisements. In fact, according to 2017-2018 Google/Ipsos research, 53% of customers always do research prior to making purchase decisions. So to get traction and engage a relevant audience, you should help people find the best-suited solutions for them.
And since native advertising leverages content to educate people and tends to pitch fitting solutions in a subtle way, the campaigns may receive more acceptance from audiences that represent diverse niches.
6. Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is a very important metric that businesses use to gauge the effectiveness of their respective ad campaigns. It represents the percentage of people who saw an ad and actually clicked on it.
With each passing day, it seems to be becoming more challenging for businesses to increase the click-through rate of their respective ad campaigns. A majority of companies rely heavily on ads to promote their products or services. However, they fail to realize that the excessive use of ads can lead to advertising fatigue. That’s when people can become indifferent to your ads, which could cause a drop in the CTR.
Native advertising, however, is unlike other paid marketing strategies. Here, you don’t put your gains above the user experience. And that’s one of the reasons why I think native ads have the potential to perform better than conventional advertising campaigns. According to a ShareThrough/IPG Media study, native ads register an 18% higher lift in purchase intent compared to standard banner advertisements.
That’s about it: the six reasons for growing businesses to consider native ads. If you haven’t run a native ad yet, try it out the next time you design a paid marketing campaign.
There are a variety of native ad formats you can try, such as in-feed ads, article recommendations, promoted listings and so on. You should select the best format for your business by looking at the audience profile and the intent of your advertisements. However, trial and error is often the best way to see what works for you and drives optimal results.
Remember, the core purpose of running native ads is to ensure an uninterrupted user experience. So be as subtle as you can when conveying your message.
