Ever been drawn in by engaging content or imagery on a site, which turns out to be an interesting form of advertising? This is the beauty of native advertising.
NB: This is an article from Sojern
Native ads blend into the content of a site, which grasps a user’s attention in an engaging way. With nearly 20-60% higher interaction rates than traditional display, native is an effective ad format for connecting with users.
There are plenty of ways to create successful native ads, here are some of our top tips we shared in IAB Europe’s white paper Programmatic Native Advertising.
1. Be Thoughtful About Your Native Ad Copy
Unlike other ad formats, native allows you to provide more context with a longer ad copy. Spark a connection and pull the audience in by including a call to action (CTA), using words that evoke emotion or fear of missing out (the dreaded FOMO), or asking questions.
A great example of this in action is Think Iowa City, who asks ‘Feeling inquisitive?’ The question is accompanied by creative of people exploring all there is to do and see in the Iowa City area—great for inspiring viewers of the ad to visit the website.
2. Make it One Part of Your Larger Digital Marketing Strategy
As with any marketing effort, you can’t expect to place all your hopes on one tactic. Native can be a strong performer when used for branding campaigns, or campaigns focused on the high-to-mid funnel product categories. Whatever your ultimate goal, native is most effective when used as part of a more comprehensive marketing effort.
An exceptional instance is where one of Sojern’s clients, Los Cabos tourism, took advantage of Sojern’s multi-channel approach and saw over 22,900 visitors to its website. Its Video and Native assets created a sense of wanderlust for those who were looking for a holiday, but who hadn’t necessarily thought of Los Cabos as a destination.
3. Combining Native and Content Marketing Efforts
A successful native ad should be able to drive content or specific call to action to potential clients. According to Nielsen and IPG Media research conducted on behalf of Sharethrough, native ads are more likely to be read and shared by their audiences. In addition, users are twice as likely to click on a native ad as they are to click on a traditional banner. With that in mind, native advertising serves as an additional tool to content marketing. Utilising this ad format in the upper funnel with unique content that blends in with the web content can bring positive returns on your branding.
The perfect illustration is where Zürich Tourism partners Sojern, with the aim of highlighting Zurich as a food paradise. Zürich Tourism had a creative way to drive engagement – by invoking interest with a food quiz. Leveraging on Sojern’s billions of traveller data points, together with native ad format, Sojern drove over 2,319 visits to the to the quiz landing page—and achieved an 84% quiz completion rate.
