5 Tips to Boost Native Advertising Effectiveness

There’s good news for marketers when it comes to consumer acceptance of contextual advertising. Consumers have come to terms with these ads... but only if the content is relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy.

According to a study Edelman/Berland, Getting In-Feed Sponsored Content Right: the Consumer View:

» 86% of consumers feel that online advertising is necessary to receive free content online.

» 60% of consumers are more open to in-line ads that tell a story than ones that simply sell a product.

» Relevancy (90%) is the top factor in sparking interest in in-feed sponsored content, it is the top factor in the ultimate success of this type of native advertising.

Online entertainment company, Netflix has embraced the concept of native ads in a big way with a series of campaigns that has presented different content applicable to targeted audiences in varied media. It ran a contextual native ad campaign which discussed the popular TV show, “Orange is the New Black” on the New York Times website. Based on the positive results of the New York Times campaign the company decided to ramp up on native ads with an initiative on Wired which discussed TV viewing habits over the years. Netflix is using the articles to reach digital audiences looking for good storytelling—and then reinforce the message of a subscription-based entertainment service. 

Both campaigns had the intended result—shares that helped the company reach an even larger audience beyond the original viewership. And while there is some discussion over which outlet ultimately netted the bigger catch, both avenues together resulted in approximately 140,000 shares. But that is not the whole story, because the posts were also viewable on social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. The average time spent on the ads topped a desirable 3 minutes.

5 Takeaways to Boost the Effectiveness of Native Advertising

1. Be Transparent; Own up to owning the sponsored content. There is a fine line between the “advertorial nature” of native ads and actual in-your-face in-line ads. But customers are just beginning to understand the concept of native advertising so to earn viewer trust, brands need to be upfront that the content being published, while relevant, is advertising with a message.

2. Fit In; Understand the look, feel, and format of the media you are using, so that your native ad fits what viewers expect to find on the site. As mentioned earlier, being disruptive rather than informative is a sure fire way to ensure that your native ads won’t work.

3. Keep VoC Front and Center; As in all marketing listening and understanding what customers want from you is key to delivering content that will be accepted and embraced. Fill a need with your native ads or be entertaining in a manner that fits the personality of your key customer.

4. Be a Good Storyteller; You want your native ad to go viral, so present a good story that viewers will want to share.

5. Be You; consistency across all media is key. When you are not true to your core brand message (no matter where or how it is presented) it is confusing to consumers who know you for who you are. If you are going to go in a new direction then be upfront about it so readers can go with you.

4 Tips for Earning Consumer Preference Data

The Challenge: Marketers everywhere are fighting an uphill battle: trying to deliver more personalized communications but lacking the accurate data to do so. Without that information marketers are still stuck sending ‘Spray and Pray’ blasts of email.

According to Toronto-based anti-spam filtering and web security services provider, Perimetic, “roughly 130 billion spam emails are sent, worldwide, per day, accounting for roughly 70% of global emailing activity.”

The goal of consumer-provided preference data is to deliver personally relevant offers, communications, and experiences. However instead of making consumers comfortable with sharing personal information, the ‘Spray and Pray’ practices of marketers have caused consumers not to trust them. This certainly applies to providing them with personal information.

Based on Voice of Customer research conducted by our firm, we have learned that there are 4 ways that brands can earn consumer preference data. These findings were consistent across B2B and B2C research.

4 Key Takeaways for Marketers:

1. Demonstrate to Consumers That You’ll Safeguard Their Information and Use it in a Responsible Way.
Successfully doing so requires that you follow two important steps:

•  One, promise consumers that you’ll safeguard their personal preferences by assuring them at each stage of the sign-up process and in all subsequent messages.

•  Two, follow through on that promise.

Violating these steps can do serious harm to brands. Conversely, demonstrating that you’re trustworthy will only help to strengthen the consumer-brand relationship.

2. Assure Consumers That “Responsible” Means That You’ll Never Rent or Sell Their Information to Third Parties.
This assurance cannot be subtle: it must be undeniable.

Email Marketing Services Provider, MailChimp, offers a great example of this. The message on their website support page is plain and unmistakable: “MailChimp does not provide, sell, share, or rent lists. Ever.”

It’s that kind of conciseness that puts consumers’ minds at ease. Do it.

3. Honor Consumer Expectations That Preference Data Will Be Used to Drive Increasingly Targeted Offers.
Aligning your brand with this expectation requires that you demonstrate your commitment to honor expectations from the outset of a relationship.

Boston Store’s Fashion and Sales News email sign-up form requests customers to provide the store with 10 essential preference criteria, thereby assuring customers that they’ll only receive relevant offers.

We applaud Boston Store for using detailed preference criteria to deliver a more personal experience.

4. Clearly Demonstrate to the Consumer That You’re Working to Provide an Improved Experience With Their Preference Information.
If value is not obvious, consumers will assume that you’ve betrayed their trust.

This expectation of relevance applies to both online and offline experiences and communications. Be sure that you’re demonstrating the value to the consumer consistently and over time. There’s a lot of bad history you need to overcome.

We urge you to test these 4 Tips. Per the experience of our clients, your customers will reward you with increased loyalty and sales.

Google Remarketing: Combine the Reach of Display with the Precision of Search

The Challenge: Display advertising has significant limitations when it comes to high impact branding. However, it’s worth evaluating Google's innovative "Remarketing" Campaigns which can achieve double-digit click-through and conversion rates, if used carefully.

Many marketers feel that display ads are the "brand awareness black hole" of online marketing. They have extremely low click-through and conversion rates, and their effectiveness as a brand awareness tool is questionable. Google Remarketing is different.

Remarketing allows you to track what visitors view on your site, and display ads to them accordingly. Rather than seeing generic banners about your product, visitors will see ads based on the specific pages they were viewing. This results in more relevant ads for users, and greater revenue for advertisers.

Important caution: what some will regard as highly relevant ads, others will see as invasions of their privacy. Therefore, it is crucial to be proactive about explaining how people can opt-out of Google Remarketing Ads. (Unfortunately, Google has not gone so far as to make remarketing opt-in.) Customers can disable ad targeting in their settings, and Google “removes all of your historical ad targeting information if you opt-out and then opt-in again.”

4 KEY REMARKETING SCENARIOS

» Abandoned Shopping Carts

Many customers abandon the conversion process without making a purchase. With remarketing, you can target these customers directly and encourage them to come back and complete the conversion process. The results are dramatic: "On average, 8% of customers return to a site to buy if the company does no remarketing. With a remarketing program in place, however, that average jumps to 26%."

» Repeat Customers

Repeat customers already know the value of your offer, and they’ve converted in the past. If you run a home goods site, for instance, you may expect customers to make purchases on a monthly basis. With remarketing, you can place ads across the display network reminding your loyal customers to come back.

» Saving Impressions

Some business are not looking for repeat customers: once somebody has subscribed to a magazine, for instance, there may not be another offer to make. In that case, advertisers can reduce their costs by not showing ads to these customers. Save your impressions for people who haven't yet converted.

» Unattributed Benefits
Not every benefit of remarketing campaigns can be directly attributed. In some cases, customers who don’t click on your ads might still search for your offer, or interact with your business in some other way. This is much more similar to traditional “branding” campaigns on display networks, and should be tracked and attributed similarly.