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Create a Winning Native Advertising Campaign Using These 6 Tips

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Some may argue that advertising is no longer useful, thanks to ad blockers, consumer fatigue, and so forth.

However, consumer behavior has proved the opposite to be true.

It's not advertising in general that customers hate; it's the over-salesy, too loud, and disruptive, low-quality ads they hate being bombarded with.

So while some forms of advertising don’t pack the punch they used to, customers welcome native advertising, on the other hand, with arms wide open.

Advertisements and content marketing that offer real value or are engaging in nature can actually entertain and engage your customers. So much so that as a result, revenue generation has steadily been increasing and projected to increase by 46% by 2021.

The revenue potential that native advertising provides should excite marketers around the world. However, it's imperative to call out a caveat to this statistic - native advertising will only work when done well.

Exceptionally well.

Poorly executed native advertising campaigns are terrible for everyone around - marketers, consumers, and publishers.

Read on to learn what you can do to ensure your native advertising campaign is set up for success.


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What is a Native Advertising Campaign?

In the simplest of terms, a native advertising campaign is a cohesive sequence of paid content, otherwise known as sponsored content or advertorials. They are paid ads, often found on publishers' websites, or in social media feeds and search engine results.

But unlike your typical digital ads, such as banner ads or display ads, native ads don't look like ads. The key to native advertising is the "native" part - they look like they belong there. They match the look, feel, and tone of whatever media format they appear on.

Your business can use native advertising campaigns for brand awareness or to promote a specific product or initiative.

Many of them have interactive elements, and you can repurpose your content across multiple platforms to get the most bang for your buck.


Components of a Successful Native Ad Campaign

Like all marketing campaigns, different components collectively add together to make a successful native ad campaign complete. Here's a quick overview of the various parts:

Budget - this includes your actual budget allotment for running the ad and the investment it takes to create the content and ad and ongoing management.

Content Strategy - the content you choose to create and show via native advertising should coincide well with your overall content strategy.

Ad Creatives - this includes all the elements of the ad that viewers will see before clicking on it, such as images, headlines, and powerful call to actions.

Distribution Strategy - the when and where of your advertising campaign. Not all platforms are alike, nor is the timing the same. Optimizing your ad campaign to the best time of day/week for conversion and finding the right publishers is crucial for a successful campaign.


6 Tips for Creating a Native Advertising Campaign That Converts

The first thing you want to do is thoroughly flesh out your native advertising strategy. Your overall plan will include a few subcategories, which we've outlined in 6 tips below.

Don't rush through this process - take the time to build the native advertising campaign most likely to succeed.


Tip 1: Determine Your Goals

All marketing campaign goals, including your native advertising goals, should align with your overall business strategy and growth goals. Without clearly defining goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and metrics, you'll never know if your investment is worth it, so don't rush through this step.

Do not launch a campaign without knowing what you will measure.

Click-throughs are an obvious metric to track, but other key performance indicators are equally important, for example, time spent on a page, content sharing, and newsletter subscriptions.

Goals will usually fall within either branding (page views, time spent on a page, engagement, etc.) or performance (product sales, lead generation, newsletter subscriptions, free trial sign up, etc).

Native advertising, when done well, can accomplish both branding goals and conversions. Depending on your business, industry, and offerings, it may make sense to create primary and secondary objectives that all holistically contribute to your overall business goals.


Tip 2: Focus On The User

Get crystal clear on your ideal audience

User Experience (UX) is not just a term for designers - your end-user should be the driving force behind every business decision you make, including marketing. Every touchpoint a user has with your brand is an opportunity to blow their experience out of the park. But to do so, you need to understand the user first.

Start with the basics and make sure you've identified your customer personas. This includes demographics - profession, income, other - but it also includes behavior and their stage in the buyer's journey.

For example, do certain customer segments share certain types of content more than other types? Do they tend to purchase your products after reading specific blog posts?

If you're a beginner with native advertising, it may be useful to start with broader targeting and collect data over time. Once you have a good pool of data and insights, you can more accurately define your audience, behavior, and purchase flow.

This approach also allows you to expand your audience outside of your existing customer base.

Whether you're intentionally looking to expand in other markets or just curious to see the possibilities, native advertising is a great way to test the waters and explore the options, all while identifying the most receptive audiences and reducing CPC over time.

Get in your user’s mindset.

Understanding your user’s mindset at each stage of the buyer's journey is crucial for your campaign’s success. But it's also essential to understand their perspective as it compares to the other marketing campaigns you run.

For example, users who view and respond to native advertising on a blog or other publisher’s site are in a completely different mindset than those seeing paid search results. For example, search audiences have a clear motivation and end-goal: they have a question and need an answer.

In other words, they know they want to find you. That could be in the form of information, reviews, product pages, or similar brands.

Social audiences don't necessarily have an immediate goal in mind. They know they like brands like you and are more interested in content and recommendations from those they've already identified with or those that fall in the same vein as those they've identified with.

Native advertising audiences are entirely different in the sense that they most likely have no clue who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Not only will your native advertising
need to capture their attention (see tip 5 below), but it will also need to meet them where they are in the buyer's journey.


Tip 3: Choose the Right Platform

A crucial step in a successful native advertising campaign is choosing the right platform.

While there are distribution tools that can automate the process for you somewhat, it might also be helpful to partner with native advertising experts like StoryStudio, who have experience distributing content and an in-depth knowledge of the industry.


Where Your Customers Hang Out

You'll want to pick a platform that caters to your audience. However, you still need to do some work in identifying which segments of your audience.

Look at the site's audience demographics and visitor numbers to see if it's worth your investment. Depending on the campaign, you may also want to pick platforms based on their targeting capabilities.

The most important thing is that you do this in real-time - don't rely on old data. This is another good reason to partner with a third party agency specializing in native advertising metrics and conversions.

They're also on top of trends and predictions, which helps you stay ahead of the game.


Compatibility with Your Content

Not only do you want to pick a publisher that reaches your target customers, but you also want to choose a platform that works with your content. If the site isn't relevant to your brand, product, or service, don't bother with them.

You should also consider the ad's actual placement and where it will appear on the publisher's site across all devices.


Tip 4: Choose the Right Content

When determining the content type you want to display in your native advertising campaigns, think about what the reader would enjoy most.

Remember - native advertising audiences don't know you, and while this might sound counter-intuitive, keep the focus off of you. Make it about them instead.

First impressions matter a lot, so don't be too salesy and instead keep it genuine and authentic.

As long as you're providing real value, the audience will most likely respond in your favor.


Tailor it to the Buyer's Journey

The content you create should cater to the various stages of the marketing funnel or the buyer's journey.

For instance, top-of-the-funnel should be useful information that builds awareness.

In comparison, the bottom-of-the-funnel should be content that leads directly to a purchase or some other conversion.


Think About Platform and Audience

The platform and audience should heavily influence the content type you choose to create. If your target audience primarily prefers video and images, don't give them a long-form article or white paper.

If you need to convey a lot of information with little text, try playing around with infographics or videos. Also, keep in mind that the tone and feel should also resonate with the audience and fit the platform.

When creating the headline and other ad elements, make sure the style meshes with the surrounding content.


Tip 5: Invest in Creativity and Quality

Building effective advertising is an investment. The first four tips matter very little unless you succeed in grabbing the viewer's attention.

You want to strike a holistic balance of creativity, relevancy, and authenticity. It's a tough formula to execute, which is what makes partnering with a content marketing agency so beneficial, but without it, your ad campaigns will flop.

Depending on the platform, the elements of your ad can include any of the below.


These are crucial to nail down.

You want to aim for headlines that evoke curiosity, grab the users' attention, and incorporate keywords, but doesn't sound too salesy or, worse, disingenuous.

Keep them short with the most appealing or main points at the start of the headline. Depending on the platform and audience, you may use headlines as a chance to call out specific products or services offered but again, don't make it sound like a hard sell.

Thumbnails & Images

Images are powerful for various reasons, and considering 90% of what the brain retains is visual, you don't want to miss the opportunity to impress your potential customers.

The best images that convert are photographs of real people (as opposed to illustrations) and don't include any text overlay.

Trends continuously shift, so make sure to test out what works and what doesn't.


Video creatives are more expensive and challenging to make but are worth it if you can pull it off.

Again this largely depends on the platform and audience you cater to.

Still, how-to-videos, informational videos, and other creative video storytelling can work well as long as you provide real value for the viewers.


Tip 6: Test and Optimize

Testing and optimizing should be done throughout all stages of the native advertising strategy.

Before you launch, make sure you identify and adjust any bugs and errors - technical and design. This includes the obvious, apparent stuff like the headlines and visuals, and also the "behind the scenes" like the landing page.

After it's launched, it's essential to keep an eye on your native advertising campaign to ensure you're meeting your goals and expectations you set out at the beginning.


Never Assume Anything

You may think you know your audience well, but even the best marketers in the world could understand their audience better.

To avoid relying on assumptions, assume you know less than you do and let the data speak for itself. If you're starting out, keep your targeting wide so you can collect more data.

Also, allow enough time to pass to see varying results and always, always test to see what converts and debunk assumptions.

Don’t Forget To Be Responsive

It should go without saying, but all content created, including the ad itself, should be optimized and compatible across all devices and browsers.




Creating a Native Advertising Campaign: Key Takeaways

When you get ready to put together your next advertising campaign, here are some takeaways for you to walk away with:

  • Native advertising works but only when done well.

  • Avoid being too focused on getting the sale and remain authentic and valuable.

  • Always keep the reader in mind when creating your campaigns.

  • Invest the time and, if necessary, partner with a third party content marketing agency who know how to implement effective native advertising campaigns.