Beginners Guide to Native Advertising

What Are Native Ads? “A form of paid media where the ad experience follows the

natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed.” Sharethrough.com

Deviate in form and function from traditional banner ads They look and act like natural content

Seamless and non-disruptive experience for users wherever they may be on the internet

Warning Labels: “Sponsored Stories”, “Sponsored Content”, etc. Ensures paid placement is 100% transparents

What Are Native Ads? Native ads have to placed on 3rd party sites

They have to be contextually relevant to the audience They have to provide helpful information to the reader Readers are more likely to engage

According a study made by CMO.com: “Consumers are 25% more likely to look at a native ad than

at a banner, and they look at them 53% more frequently. They check native ads 4.1 times per session on average, versus 2.7 times for banners.”

“Consumers are considerably more likely to share a native ad with others (32% vs 19%) and showed 18% more purchase intent after viewing them.”

Why Use Native Advertising CMO.com study:

“32% of CMOs say they have bought or are planning to buy native video advertising in the next 6 months.”

“Nearly 3/4 of polled U.S. publishers said that they already offered native advertising on their site and another 17% said they were considering offering it this year. Only 10% didn't have any native ad plans.”

“U.S. native ad spending on social sites will reach $2.36 billion, or 38.9% of total U.S. paid social ad expenditures. By 2017, social native ad spending will grow to $4.57 billion and its share of social spending will inch up a few percentage points to 41.7%.”

Why Use Native Advertising

Benefits of Native Advertising: Captures consumer attention Valuable and contextually significant content =

Shareable Build relationships between brand and target

consumers They work well with mobile platforms Deeper and richer level of engagement between

brand and consumer

What Do Native Ads Look Like?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines 6 types of native ad units:

1. In Feed Units Stories that look like they are part of the newsfeed

2. Paid Search Units Ads that appear in search

3. Recommendation Units Paid content recommendations based on what you

are reading and searching

What Do Native Ads Look Like?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines 6 types of native ad units:

4. Promoted Listings Products promoted on sites such as Etsy or

Amazon

5. In-Ad (IAB Standard) with Native Element Units

6. Custom / “Can't Be Contained”

Ten Best Practices for Native Advertising

1. Aim for 0.50% or higher CTR Click prices are determined by your CTR Higher CTR = Lower CPC

2. Make the ad relevant with bold colors Images don't matter, less is more

3. The ad copy does 80% of the work Buzzfeed style headlines work wonders

4. Reduce your max CPC or daily budget Pausing pulls your ad out of line and out of the

optimization algorithm

Ten Best Practices for Native Advertising

5. Create a new campaign for each interest you target Otherwise you won't know which interest is causing the

good or bad conversions6. Create one campaign that targets no interests

AKA “run of network”7. Always be testing multiple ads in each campaign

Examples: curiosity style copy or plain, straight-to-the-point product benefit copy

8. Treat the landing page and ad guidelines seriously Otherwise, ads will get disapproved No red borders, weird images, text images, etc.

Ten Best Practices for Native Advertising

9. Ask to speak to a managed account rep If you're spending more than $1000 per day They can offer additional targeting settings on the back

end like age ranges, re-targeting and additional audience segments

10. Send your traffic to an advertorial Not necessary, but it works best Use an educational and entertaining article Include a reason why they should buy your product that

fits with the theme of the article

What About Native Ads on Social Networks?

Facebook and Twitter ads Big networks Deep targeting options

Native ad networks do have targeted traffic Target by demographics, location, interest, etc Don't necessarily let you target keywords, hashtags,

fan pages and mobile devices

Best Practices For Social Network Native Ads

“Native ads” means they are native to the platform Facebook and Twitter ads should look and feel like

any other post on the platform Use an educational video that offers a tip and

then offers a book, course or physical product at the end Example: If you are selling kitchen knives, use a

video that teaches food preparation techniques and then offer a coupon for your knives at the end.