When native advertising first became popular in the near future of 2015, it was a lucrative strategy that many marketers employed to advertise their goods. But if you get the idea, you’ll find that native advertising is really affiliate marketing with a few minor variations. Are you curious as to what native advertising entails? Is it still advantageous for website owners and digital marketers?

Without interacting with the publishers, consumers can promote the products they want on the publisher’s website by using native advertising. Doesn’t that seem fascinating and a little strange? When promoting native advertising, for example, your audience will click on any random link, which will take them to the other pages of the website rather than other websites.

Like banner ads, the concept of native advertising isn’t widely accepted or easily understood, but it’s actually quite easy. Similar to other material, native advertising will be offered on the publisher’s website under the advertiser’s name.

One of the more established ways for publishers, marketers, and website owners to make money is through native advertising. It is still the greatest approach to retain visitors interested in your website, nonetheless. The rationale is that native advertising is more appealing to all audiences than those tedious banner ads that are constantly ignored.

Consider A Flat Fee Agreement 

If you have ever tried traditional banner advertising, you’ll always receive impressions when the ad banners are shown to the visitors. In native advertising, the concept is entirely different. Here, the primary objective of advertisers is their promoted content on the publisher’s site should grab the attention of the audience.

In such cases, working on a commission basis isn’t a good idea, especially for beginners. If you work on a commission or percentage basis, soon you’ll drop native advertising and consider the paid advertisement methods.

Hence, negotiate with the publisher for a flat rate, which might benefit both parties. Connect with the publisher directly and convince him/her of flat rates. If you’re good at negotiation, you’ll undoubtedly benefit from the native ads. 

Maintain Transparency And Follow FTC Guidelines

When you’re incorporating native ads with the site content, ensure you’re adhering to the FTC guidelines during ad placement. If you don’t follow the FTC guidelines, no one can help you earn money. That’s the golden rule in native advertising. 

The agreement between both parties should be 100% flexible and transparent. Plus, never prioritize everything said by your publisher. Sometimes publishers advise advertisers to run display ads and native ads simultaneously against the FTC guidelines. 

You should keep these things clear before you start promoting the native ads or sign any agreement. Yes, because further arguments will kill your valuable audience and you might end up unfollowing the FTC guidelines. 

Ensure Your Promoted Content Should Be Interesting And Valuable To The Audience 

There is no point in promoting fitness ads if your audience is interested in automobiles. Many publishers and advertisers experiment by promoting different genre ads to maximize profits. What type of content will grab the attention of your audience?

Here, you have to focus on the quality and quantity of your content. For instance, if you give your 100% to a couple of posts, there are higher chances that you might lose some traffic. On the contrary, if you’re adding multiple quality content to your site, there are chances that something will reach every visitor. 

In other words, focus more on the relevance of your posts instead of promoting your portfolio or publisher’s content. When you’re promoting any offers, create controversy, and encourage curiosity in your visitors’ brains. Such practices will keep the audience engaged with your content, which is beneficial for everyone. 

Try Different Formats As Per Your Product And Website  

Native ads might be promoted on different social media platforms in multiple ways. For example, if you’re considering Facebook and Instagram platforms, most probably the native ads will be shown in the news feed and streams. The biggest mistake that most advertisers make is keeping the native ads desktop-centric. 

There should be two different versions of the native ads. One should be ideal for desktops and another one for smartphone users. Ads can be curated in text, pictures, and audio. Nevertheless, most native ads you’ll see on social media platforms will be in the form of images and texts. In our opinion, beginners should seek assistance from social media marketers to make the most out of native ads. 

These unobtrusive adverts receive 50% more views than other ad formats because they look so natural. However, there are several things to be aware of if one wishes to get the most out of native advertising. Below are some of them:

Be Honest with the Audience

The initial issue with all kinds of advertising is the decreasing audience’s trust. Indeed, many people associate ads with deception, and their caution is partially justified. They often refuse to click on an ad, fearing viruses, misleading info, etc. How to build positive relationships with viewers, then?

Read Also: How to Get Started With Native Ads

The key is openly admitting that certain content is an advertisement. While it sounds easy, many companies fail to meet this requirement and lose the audience’s hard to regain trust. For instance, followers unsubscribe from content creators who promote goods and hide the info about sponsorship. Instead, mentioning collaborations with other companies shows that the advertiser respects their viewers. 

Moreover, a native ad should always contain relevant information. Let’s say there is a website about yoga. If it has a paid article about yoga mats or sportswear, people are more likely to read it. Such care about people’s interests increases the company’s profits and reputation!

Choose the Suitable Format

Another way to earn more money with native advertisements is to choose the best format. Generally, companies promote the product or service through:

• Articles
• Social media posts
• Videos
• Images

The main goal here is to understand the audience’s point of view to meet people’s expectations. Naturally, a person watching YouTube doesn’t expect a native ad to look like a lengthy article. Instead, a video ad has a higher chance of collecting more views and clicks. 

As an illustration, DHL, the logistics company, collaborated with National Geographic. This campaign was effective because the native ad was in the video and appeared on the National Geographic YouTube page. The creators made a documentary about DHL transporting and saving big cats. Such a move made sponsored content blend seamlessly with other similar videos. 

Why else is the format crucial for the success of native ads? Catering to viewers means considering their comfort, and adjusting advertisements to people’s devices is part of it. Since many use smartphones with small screens and limited monthly data, native ads should eat minimum megabits and be compact.

Focus on Variety

Everyone can agree that native advertisements are the best solution for banner blindness. Indeed, they hook people’s attention better than display ads. However, no advertisements are immune to the fact that the human brain gets used to them. It happens even to top-tier ad campaigns and has nothing to do with their quality. How to earn money from native ads if they gradually become invisible to viewers?

Novelty is the answer to this question. In practice, even small changes help to regain people’s interest. Start by playing with these parameters:

• Text or image placement
• Fonts 
• Colors
• CTA buttons

Also, using several ad networks is a perfect strategy for an effective campaign. Due to multiple approaches, native ads can gain new characteristics that make them stand out. Sometimes, a different color scheme or banner placement increases views and clicks. 

Overall, earning money with native advertisements is possible. The only requirement is a little effort. Stepping into the viewers’ shoes helps to understand their point of view, establish trust, and boost engagement.

In the world of digital marketing, native advertising is still very popular, but many advertisers are unsure of how to profit from it. It may surprise you to learn that many publishers and advertisers are extremely wealthy, but it all comes down to how you handle your native advertising.

What is The Best Content For Native Ads?

The goal of native advertising is to seamlessly integrate into the available media and content, without interfering with the viewer’s experience. Through a third party with an established following, native ads engage new audiences. It’s not the substance itself; rather, it’s a means of distribution. Although the goals sound similar, they are not the same.

1. Altran Engineering in the Financial Times

This native advertisement combines some of the best elements of digital advertising: video, a human interest story, and classy hi-tech with an Elon Musk connection.

Produced by the Altran engineering company, and published in the Industrial Tech section of the Financial Times, the above video, “Hyperloop: designing the future of transport?” tells the story of a group of students from the Technical University in Valencia, Spain who are competing in the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition run by Musk’s SpaceX company.

This native video ad has a palpable human component — the students and the Altran staff who are supporting them in the tough competition. This brings in its futuristic aspect — the best and the brightest working to design the fastest transport pod that will transform the future of transportation. And it’s presented as a news story, not as a promotion or ad for Altran or the SpaceX competition (although it’s actually promoting both).

2. Land Rover — A Mini Suspense/Action Movie

Land Rover uses diverse outstanding content marketing campaigns to promote its vehicles. These native content strategies are in full form in Land Rover’s Dragon Challenge video, shown above. It’s eye-catching, slick, and suspenseful. It’s everything a native campaign can and should be.

This nail-biting ad shows the world’s first attempt to scale the stairs leading to the Heaven’s Gate landmark in China — by vehicle. A specially fitted Range Rover SUV successfully drove up the 999 steps to Heaven’s Gate, at a frightening angle of 45 degrees.

This native campaign perfectly captures the brand essence of Land Rover — daring, excellence, adventure, and ultimately, success. Promoted via social Land Rover’s networks, it’s much more than an ad. It’s a record-breaking event and a story of its own.

3. Eni Energy on CNN

Here’s an example of graphic, luscious storytelling, ripe with green landscapes, promoted by oil and energy conglomerate Eni. It focuses on the Green River Project in the Niger Delta, an Eni development program for farming and livestock to improve the livelihoods of local communities. The campaign is promoted with native ads on CNN.com, linking back to the Green River Project. It’s a truly impressive example of native content.

The site is designed as a story, divided into three sections: Past, Present, and Future. The content is a mix of just about everything — text, imagery, audio, video, personal stories, animations, and illustrations. The complete look and feel is reflective of an environmental agency, rather than an oil company.

In this native campaign, Eni succeeds in distancing itself from the criticisms faced by energy conglomerates. They also manage to create a brand image as a 21st-century social and environmental force for good, and a beacon of corporate responsibility.

4. Mercedes in The Washington Post

This native campaign by Mercedes is an example of smooth, clean content designed to pique interest and engage the user. The campaign is called “The Rise of the Superhuman,” and it focuses on various technologies that are turning people into “superhumans,” such as robotic exoskeleton suits, virtual reality in medical settings, and the Mercedes Benz E-class series that integrates the new Intelligent Drive system.

The native content above is highly interactive, featuring quiz questions and hot spots the user can click to get more information. But one of the best things about this campaign is how it effortlessly creates a connection between Mercedes and the “superhuman.” It’s reminiscent of one of the oldest native examples, the “Penalty of Leadership” ad by Cadillac, which enhanced the Cadillac’s image as a prestigious leader. That simple print ad, published in 1915, is credited with reviving the Cadillac brand and boosting flagging sales that plagued the company at the time.

The major draw of this native ad is the powerful connection it creates between the car and the concept of cutting-edge excellence. It establishes Mercedes as a company that is about more than just crafting cars.

5. Viral Meme on VentureBeat

Nothing beats a viral meme in terms of sheer stickiness, and it’s a great way to promote brand awareness. Recently, during the famous “Laurel or Yanny?” dispute, we saw VentureBeat take advantage of the meme in native content to promote the upcoming Transform conference on artificial intelligence and analytics. How? By using an artificial intelligence (AI) device to settle the dilemma of Laurel versus Yanny, once and for all.

VentureBeat promoted an article that briefly describes how AI was used to determine whether the stated name was Laurel or Yanny. The native article discusses some of the problems that arose, and how the engineers had to adjust the algorithms to get an accurate result.

Using a viral meme is a smart move because it capitalizes on a large audience that already exists. It’s attention-grabbing and exposes you to a wider pool of viewers.

These days, many native ads that we see online are truly spectacular. Some are eye-catching, others are original, and yet others offer inspiration for new ways to promote compelling content and capture mindshare.