Finding the best method to deliver the message to your consumers efficiently and unobtrusively can be a hassle. Most advertisers are now trying to find an efficient strategy to achieve their goals and connect with their customers. With the increasing number of savvy consumers and the cluttered advertising world, advertisers are struggling to stand out and deliver their message to the right audience at the right time. So, How can advertisers overcome these obstacles?

Native Ads are the answer!

Here in this article, you will get the chance to learn about native ads and why they are essential for your business.

First, you need to understand. What native ads are?

Native ads can be defined as a type of paid media designed to fit and match the content of a media source they are placed in. In short, we can say that they’re ads that fit in.

They usually don’t look like advertisements. Instead, they appear as informative and fun content as they blend well with the rest of the page and help users experience a seamless transition from consuming organic content to consuming advertising content. This unique feature of native ads reduces the risk of consumers’ frustration or clicking away. 

Moreover, native ads are usually used to target users, keep them engaged, and connect with them emotionally. They provide consumers with relevant and valuable information that doesn’t appear as an ad or spam. According to Statista, it was found that 41% of consumers have a positive perception of the ad when it is placed around a relevant content. Using native ads in your advertising strategy could be a clever move as it was proved by many studies that native campaigns beat banner blindness. 

To show you the effectiveness of native ads, let’s have a look at some vital statistics:

It was found that:

•  53% of consumers look at native ads more frequently than display ads.
• 70% of the people would like to know about the products from the content of the website articles, rather than traditional ad methods. 
• Native advertising spending is expected to rise by 372% from 2020 to 2025, according to a global analysis. 
• 72% of customers only engage with ads personalized to their interests, and native ads enable you to make more personalized ads in a personalized context.

As you have been introduced to what native ads are, it’s time to know more about their different types!

Types Of Native Ads!

According to The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Native ads can be classified into 5 types:

In-Feed Units

In-feed native advertising units are ads that appear in your social media feeds, such as sponsored posts or on a website. They’re paid placements that appear directly in line with other articles, posts, or editorial content.

Paid Search Units

Native advertising is also a popular advertising method for search engines. When you bid on ad placements on top of the search engine results pages, you are technically using native ads cause these ads are designed to look like the organic search result.

Recommendation Widgets

Another spot where you’ll find native ads on publisher sites, social media, and even search engine results pages, is in recommendation widgets. These ads usually appear at the bottom of an article or at the sides of a web page; they usually appear as recommendations for additional content that you might like.

Promoted Listings

This type of ad usually appears on e-commerce websites; they are presented in a list to match the rest of the site’s organic listing. The main difference between them and the rest of the site lists is that when a consumer clicks on them, he will be redirected to an advertiser’s landing page. 

Display Ad With Native Elements

This type of native ad looks like a standard ad; consumers may even see them in an ad container or banner. However, what makes them native is that they are contextually relevant to the site they appear on or the content they appear next to. For example, a restaurant or a food company might place an ad containing their recipe on a recipe website or a blog.

Now, you know the basics, so let’s get down to business!

Why native ads might be beneficial for your business?

Delivering the message at the right time and at the right place to the right audience is considered a dilemma for most advertisers, they exert an effort to achieve that. This is where the role of native ads comes. Using native ads can enhance your targeting process, as it will help you place your ad in a context that you know it’s relevant to your target audience. In addition, integrating native ads into your strategy is capable of improving your brand awareness and will make you connect with your consumers on a personal level. Many studies have shown that native ads generate higher engagement than traditional ones, although people are aware that the content was paid for.

Exploiting their distinctive disguise feature will eliminate the risk of intrusiveness that most traditional ads face. In addition to this, the ad’s contextual relevance means that native advertising can produce a high Click-Through Rate (CTR) and boost conversions, as it was found that native ads are likely to convert consumers more than twice than traditional ads. This could be because The content can be consumed naturally and intuitively by users’ regular media consumption. Till now, we’ve mentioned bits and pieces of native ads’ benefits, so let’s dive deeper into its advantages and get into more details!

1- Increase purchase intention

Native ads have an impact on consumers’ purchase intention, according to a study conducted by Stanford University. It drives 18% higher purchase intent compared to traditional display ads. This might be because of the smart placement of the ad, the added value it gives, and the non-intrusiveness.

2- Grabbing attention

Advertisers compete to grab their audience’s attention, and native ads can give you that on a plate. Because of its soft approach, Native ads can capture your audience’s attention, as when done well, it is purposefully relevant content that fits within the page’s content. According to Acquisio, It was found that native ads generate 53% more views than traditional ads.

3- Higher conversion rate

Converting potential customers is very important for any advertiser, Native ads don’t just increase audience engagement and your brand presence, they also can give you a hand in increasing your conversion rate, as it was proved that they can drive a 40X higher CTR than traditional display ads.

4- Ad-block Friendly

37.5% of global internet users block online advertising with an ad blocker tool, according to Hootsuite. Also, Statista reported that  71% of people use ad blockers because they find websites more manageable without banner ads. So, with so many ad blockers on the rise now and many users are becoming less forgiving of ads, Native ads come to the rescue. As they are unobtrusive, read like standard content, and don’t disrupt a user’s experience. They actually offer an excellent way to reach and not irritate your target audience.

5- Building trust 

Building trust with your customers is a very critical point. Native ads can aid you in this aspect, as Adweek reported that 90% of consumers like custom content from brands and over 65% of Gen X and Z consumers trust branded content more than they do with traditional ads.

Programmatic native ads:

Native advertising is one thing. But what if we told you that there is more than that?

Programmatic native advertising is using the full potential of native. Using programmatic native ads can enhance your ROI and reach. Native ads are built and then are shown to a site’s visitor after a process called Real-Time-Building (RTB).·

 So how exactly does it work?

When a visitor enters a website, a request is sent to an ad exchange with information on the website and the visitor’s data. This information is then matched against available advertisers, and a real-time auction takes place.

It might sound complicated, but Let’s explain it more: for example, if you are a beauty and cosmetics retailer, you can target your consumers through different websites. If a consumer visited your website then visited another website, let it be a news website, you can display your ads based on the information that this visitor previously visited your site, but how?

You can state that you only want to display your native ad on this news website but only to the visitors who previously visited you. Then the news website starts collecting data on its visitors and does a real-time auction among different advertisers; the winning bidder gets to display his ad on the website after it takes the feel and look of the rest of the website. This process happens in a matter of seconds while the website is loading at the user’s end.

Affiliate marketing and native ads

According to the Interactive Agency Bureau (IAB) 2020 survey, 59% of advertising agencies in the Middle East are shifting into performance-based campaigns. Combining affiliate marketing with native ads can give you the best results you are aspiring for. In addition, many affiliates now are using native ads to have a more effective strategy to boost their sales, Utilizing those affiliates in your marketing strategy can maximize your profits.

Conclusion

Using native ads that mimic the look, feel, and function of a medium’s content can be your best practice to reach your audience, make them trust you, and increase the purchase intention. Applying that in your strategy, along with getting the best out of affiliate marketing, can guarantee you the best results. Here at affsquare, 40% of our affiliates integrate native ads in their strategies.

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