Now more than ever, consumers are much more aware when they’re being sold to. Ads come at them from every different direction these days. And as a consequence, responsibility rests on advertisers to deliver the right solution.
One way businesses can do this is with native advertising. They’re different from standard ads in that they follow the natural function of where they’re placed. The fluidity of native ads allows them to take on many different forms including:
In-stream
In-article
Content recommendations
Commerce
Video
Custom Formats
In-mail
Sponsored Content
Native advertising is a growing sector of the digital ad space. It’s an area that more advertisers are turning to with each passing day. According to AdsYouLike, native advertising may grow into an $85-billion industry by 2020. And per Verizon, more than 66 percent of advertisers consider native ads key for them.
Verizon released a report on the State of Native Advertising with quite a few takeaways. Here are some things from it you should know if your company plans on diving into native advertising.
Pay Attention to Your Consumer’s Problems
It should go without saying, but listen to your consumer before diving into a native ads campaign. This doesn’t always mean giving them what they say they want. Rather, it means understanding their pain points and offering solutions to fix them. When you do that, native advertising can work in your favor.
As a result, you may see increased engagement around your brand. Ads that enhance your customer’s experience often encourage better engagement.
Context Matters
Ads work best when they don’t feel different from the content. This is what makes native-ads a game-changer. They integrate into the content they’re placed in with ease. According to Verizon, they found that 79 percent of consumers want ads to blend in with the page they’re viewing.
When ads are out of context, the opposite occurs. They don’t perform as well and you lose your audience as a result.
Video Is a Booming Channel For Native
It’s no secret how popular online video is. With 5G internet soon set to launch in the U.S., video consumption will only increase as a result. Native video is a channel primed to capitalize on this.
People engage more with native video ads than those displayed on traditional placements. Since native ads are adaptable, their video format appeals to advertisers and consumers.
More than 80 percent of all mobile display ads are already of the native variety. More than 184 billion video viewers were on mobile in 2018. And as a result, native video ad spend grew to over $11 billion according to eMarketer.
Premium Editorial Content Works
The Association for Online Publishing and Newsworks found lasting value in premium editorials. It also discovered that brands have a 50-percent higher engagement rate.
This is despite the popularity of social media as a native ad channel. From 2017 to 2018, native ads on non-social media grew three-times more than on social media. According to Verizon, year-over-year spend on non-social native ads grew by 81 percent.
Don’t be a nuisance to your customer. Instead, be an asset. Native advertising is a powerful way to do so. If done right, it can help your company build a deep connection between your audience and brand.
