Should you “Standardize” Your Native Ad?

In the past few years, native advertising has gone from an emerging concept to a widely repeated buzzword, and today, to a mainstream online marketing practice – yet many advertisers and publishers are still figuring out how to define native advertising. The native advertising category and industry is convoluted at best.  Advertisers, marketers, and publishers are still trying to decide the most effective ways to deliver marketing content to audiences via evolving native advertising formats.

Questions surrounding the native advertising space are abundant.  For example, what are some typical formats for native advertising? How can advertisers develop native ads that suit the needs of the publishers’ sites while still being clearly identifiable as advertising? Which types of native ads work best for different types of audiences, publishers, and industries?

There are many flavors of native ads and all are certainly not created equal. Marketers and publishers need to make sure they’re on the same page and speaking the same language when it comes to offering inventory for native ads – or creating content for native ads. This is what we mean by “standardization” of native ads. The native ad space is becoming more mature and sophisticated, it requires a standard set of concepts and language to create and implement native advertising for maximum clarity and effectiveness.

In December 2013, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its first-ever IAB Native Advertising Playbook as a way to build a consistent framework for native advertising, and identified six core native ad formats including in-feed units, paid search units, recommendation widgets, promoted listings, IAB standard ads with “native” elements, and custom native ads.

One type of native ad that has attracted the most attention from the publishing industry is the “sponsored content” native ad, which broadly speaking, falls under the IAB’s category of “custom” native ads. These types of custom native ads are something relatively new to the world of advertising, because brands are creating their own content (such as articles, video, etc.) which is then published alongside the “native” editorial content of the publisher’s site. The challenge today, is that many advertisers are not yet taking advantage of the full possibilities of custom native advertising.

If advertisers want to get better results from native ads, they need to move past the old mindset of a “one-size-fits-all” approach, and start creating more custom content that suits the unique needs of each publisher’s specific audience and the broader context of each publisher’s site.

For example, there are some native ad platforms that offer programmatic serving of native ads – what could be described as one-size-fits-all approach. This type of programmatic ad serving is more restrictive in fitting with the native publishing site. These programmatic platforms might be able to match the color, style and placement of the ad on the publishing site, but they struggle to match voice, writing style, and article format if a person actually clicks on the native ad. Ideally, native ads should match the style, voice and tone of the “native” editorial content that surrounds them. Advertisers should strive to make their native ads  just as engaging, entertaining and credible as editorial content – even if the native ad is clearly labeled as a sponsored message.

Unfortunately, many native advertising buyers don’t seem to understand this. In some cases, advertisers are taking display banner ads and converting the same old format ad to serve in-stream. This is like putting lipstick on a pig – and most users are not fooled or engaged when they see this tactic. Native ads require a new mindset and a new type of creativity, but too many advertisers are still thinking with old ways. Display ads and programmatic buying are about scale – trying to reach as many people as possible. Native ads are about building trust and creating a deeper relationship with a highly targeted audience. This requires a change in mindset from advertisers and publishers.

Instead of the misguided one-size-fits-all approach of developing one native ad to be served on multiple sites (regardless of those individual sites’ unique audiences, perspectives, styles and voices), more advertisers should invest in custom production of native ads. A native ad/sponsored content advertorial article has much more flexibility to match the voice, style, format, and look and feel of a site at both the summary and detailed article level.

The custom branded content approach is more likely to drive higher levels of user engagement as it mirrors a typical article or news story on the site. Publishers can help advertisers get better native advertising results by helping advertisers understand the audience, style and voice of the publication – instead of the old days where publishers merely had to supply advertisers with sizes and specs for placing ads, today’s publishers need to be ready to work more closely with advertisers so that the native ads are a better fit with the needs of the publishers’ audiences. This kind of collaboration will prove to be a win-win – more effective advertising, more engaged audiences.

Below are a number of best practices for driving higher levels of native advertising user engagement:

• Use precise interest targeting so the desired audience most likely to engage with the content is targeted. People are more likely to read native advertising if it’s focused on a topic that they care deeply about.
• Use responsive design for the advertorial – so the article is readable and a great user experience on mobile devices and tablets.  We find that 80%+ of the audience engaging with advertorials is using mobile devices.
• Produce engaging content that truly matches the publishing site. Your native ad content should look and feel just as informative and credible and “fun to read” as the editorial that surrounds it. Don’t reformat prior display ads and attempt to make them native. What might have worked in another format won’t work as custom native ad content.
• Select the optimal placement for the campaign. In-feed and mobile targeting drives higher engagement than right-sash placement.
• Select the right type of campaign. For example, on Facebook a boosted post will gain more comments and shares within Facebook. A website link campaign will drive higher levels of traffic to an article on a website.
• Test multiple creative and copy options and optimize ads within a campaign based on performance (e.g. highest CTR, lowest cost per engagement).
• Use analytics to measure campaign results and adopt continuous improvement practices for what methods work for your site and target audience.

Native ads have gone through some growing pains, and some advertisers are still looking to find the most effective way to present this type of marketing content. As the media landscape continues to become more fragmented, native ads offer will offer an opportunity for brands to connect on a deeper level with highly interested audiences versus having them beg for attention from any pair of eyeballs. Native ads will continue to mature as a category, but the need for specific targeting and deeper credibility will become all the more important.

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