Native Advertising Could Be Your “Honey” In Your Digital Marketing Campaign

native advertising concept with marketing media and tools illustrated in laptop vector

There comes a time in every digital marketer’s honest efforts to scale Google Ads display campaigns to try different platforms for scaling, especially when the vertical needs high volume due to low conversion rates. Push notifications? Yes, that could be an option. Native? Yes, absolutely, that could be an option as well. In this blog, we are going to have a quick peek at native advertising. I will cover push notifications in another blog. Happy reading!

Some verticals require millions of daily display impressions to be at scale for conversions. Keep in mind, for some verticals a lead doesn’t necessarily mean a “purchaser”. So, the purchase rate could be very low, which requires a well-scaling campaign. Google Ads smart display campaign can achieve good scale if they gain enough traction and don’t have ads disapproved. The Google ads review A.I. is extremely picky and ads can be disapproved for the smallest reasons or for no reasons at all. Believe me! If you are fighting an uphill battle with the Google A.I. even after appeals, you might need to look at other platforms since lost leads and purchases mean lost business. Not good.

What does native advertising mean? No, in this case, not an indigenous inhabitant. Digital native advertising was first heard of as concept in 2011. Ok, so, native advertising means that sponsored ads match the look, feel, and function of the format in which they appear. They feel “native” to the content. Below is an example of how native advertising can look like on cnn.com.

Did you pick out the ads? The sponsored ads are under Paid Content. They don’t stick out too much and don’t seem disruptive. They blend in. The above is one example. Ads can also appear on your mobile device for example in your news feeds in your Facebook or Twitter feed and they can look like this:

You can tell by the ad’s label if the ad is native. It would be labeled as “Suggested Post”, “Recommended For You”, or “Promoted Stories”.

What are some of the benefits of native advertising?

They capture more eyeballs than regular display ads
They have higher brand affinity lift vs. regular display ads
Purchase intent can be higher
It puts the advertiser in control to match the topic, content, and intent
They seem more trustworthy
They can be more relevant, engaging, and relevant since they match the content
They are ad-block friendly and seem less disruptive

They are many DIY native advertising platforms where you can attempt to scale your campaigns and optimize for conversions. Here are some of the biggest players:

There are also native advertising platforms for specific verticals, e.g. finance. Native advertising spend has increased consistently in the U.S. The graph below shows the development in billion of U.S. dollars:

It will require some research and persistence on your part. Not all native advertising platforms will accept your particular vertical on their platforms. Reviews can take several rounds but it’s definitely worth shot especially if you are looking for more scale in your campaigns. You should also take native advertising best practices into account. Taboola wrote an informative blog about best practices that you can read here.

Push notifications could be another option for scaling. I will cover this in my next blog so stay tuned. What are push notifications? It’s a message that pops up on a user’s device. They can be an effective way to grab the user’s attention. Here are some of the benefits of push notifications:

They can deliver more up-sales at various touchpoints
They can help you gain subscribers without asking for an email address
You can re-target and re-engage users
You can target the right users with geo-targeting

Give native advertising a chance. The results could surprise you. Digital marketing is a journey of trial and error and when a campaign sticks, it will improve your ROAS (return-on-advertising-spend). A savvy digital marketer understands that various platforms should be explored to expand scale. Your most valuable leads and purchasers could be waiting for you on native advertising platforms or good ROAS could be achieved with push notifications. Search intent is the foundational building block but display ads’ return on your advertising dollars could be hiding elsewhere.

2021 is a new year and we’re all looking forward to 2021 with great vigor. Innovation in digital marketing doesn’t stop. Voice search will be growing so make sure that your brand is voice search ready. Read my blog “Making Your Brand Voice Search Ready” to get more information on this exciting development. For now, stay safe out there. Spend time with loved ones. If your business has paid search campaign we do offer free audits. You can contact us here to get started. Cheers!