Native Advertising – High Quality Traffic Strategy

Native Advertising may sound foreign to you.

But believe me; you will want to know all there is to know about this powerful traffic-generating strategy.

It’s one of the easiest ways to send a swarm of high-quality traffic to your websites.

Don’t worry, native advertising is an ‘evergreen’ strategy.

You see, native advertising based campaigns will send your click-through rates through the roof.

Because not only are they highly targeted. But they are designed to look like killer content rather than traditional ads.

Hence the word ‘native’. Your content will look and feel like the platform that it’s being hosted on.

Let’s begin with understanding the top 3 ways of building incredibly powerful native advertising based campaigns.

Native Advertising -The Top 3 Strategies

There are many different ways to incorporate your advertising message into native advertising campaigns.

Three major types of ads that you are likely to encounter with native advertising:

1.)Sponsored Content

The most effective type of sponsored content is when you cleverly design ads that educate and inform.

Rather than directly sell. In turn, you are maximizing brand exposure, and consistently building brand recognition (which will automatically increase sales).

Sponsored content doesn’t look like your typical advertising.

At least not to the average visitor, or reader.

If done correctly, your sponsored ad will blend in with the existing website content. Providing real value to its readers, while giving them an authentic, and positive user experience.

Many people think of sponsored content as just blog posts or articles.

In reality, sponsored content could also include Pinterest posts, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, or even BuzzFeed listicles (list articles).

One of the most important elements of a successful sponsored content ad:

Is to make sure that it is created so that it feels natural on the platform that it’s featured on.

Native ads always look and feel like the host website.

Which in turn will feel far more authentic to website visitors.

I’ll show you a few examples of highly successful native ads that use this very format below.

So you can see for yourself just how easy they are to build, and how incredibly effective they are.

Tip: When considering sponsored content opportunities. Don’t overlook the popularity of micro-blogging websites such as Instagram, Pinterest and twitter.

Instagram has over 500 million users on their platform. And offers sponsored content spots throughout their website.

Image based websites work particularly well for infographics, recipes, and cartoon-based campaigns.

2.)Recommended Content

With recommended content, your brand appears as a recommended resource by prominent websites and networks online.

Including content discovery networks (more on that below).

Publishing networks make money by offering campaigns that typically run on a PPC model.

These ads are embedded into the content or theme. In some way as to provide a more authentic experience for readers.

3.)Social Ads

This method of advertising on in-feed social ad networks is one of the easiest places to start if you’re new to native advertising.

In-feed ads are those you’ll find on places like your Facebook News Feed.

Where box-type advertisements are shown right along with updates from friends and family.

You can also find in-feed social ads on Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

The Quick Start Method to Native Advertising

Do you know what the easiest method is for creating a high converting landing page for your native ads?

Create a high quality blog post!

Start by deciding on the topic you want to write about. Then, create (or outsource) a killer content piece. Ultra-focused on your market. Make sure it’s informative, entertaining or fun (or all of the above!).

Your content doesn’t have to just be textual. Perhaps you have video content you can implement into the blog post.

Or you have a PowerPoint presentation that you’d like to feature.

Whatever you choose, make sure that it provides exceptional value to your target audience.

Just remember:

-Provide exceptional value.

Don’t be afraid to over-deliver on content. Give your best advice, your insider strategy, your best tip.

-Make sure it's relevant and targeted.

You should know your audience better than anyone. Make sure your native-ad landing page provides the kind of information they are hungry for.

-Call to Action.

Don’t forget to motivate visitors and remind them of the value in subscribing to your newsletter or mailing list. Weave your CTA within your content, adding it once more for a strong finish.

This high quality material will form the basis of your landing page. This is where your native advertisements will bring visitors.

Make sure you implement a strong call to action into the post.

This includes an opt-in form where visitors can sign up to your newsletter. And you can collect leads. Add more content after the opt-in form.

Ensuring that you over-deliver on killer content. For best results, weave your call to action into your content.

Ending your blog post with a secondary call to action. Make it feel as authentic and natural as possible. More content than calls to action!

Once you have a high quality landing page. It’s time to use In-feed social sites to generate exposure and get that traffic pouring in!

The easiest way is to post on your Facebook page. Include the same headline that appears on your blog post. Enough content to capture attention and keep visitors engaged. And then a photo or image that is relevant to your landing page (make it as interesting and evocative as possible!).

Feel free to expand on your content. Adding in an extra punch to your ad, giving readers no choice but to click-through.

Content Discovery Networks

One of the easiest ways to take advantage of native advertising is by going to the leaders in the industry, namely the top 4 CMD networks.

These guys connect advertisers with publishers, making the process very easy.

Can you imagine just how much traffic you’d be able to generate if websites like CNN or NBC recommended your content to their users?

Well, there’s great news! Content Discovery websites can make that dream a reality!

Here are some of the most popular content discovery networks for Native Advertising:

Taboola: Taboola.com

Taboola started as a video recommendation network. And have grown tremendously over the last few years. With Taboola, you can create native ads for all devices, and mobile. In addition, you can end up featured on Business Insider, Mail Online, NBC or Yahoo!

RevContent: RevContent.com

Known as one of the most selective content discovery networks online. RevContent provides you with the opportunity to give your readers exactly what they want. Using their advanced technology. you are able to enhance user experience by providing them with the content they are most interested in. This is a very good network to start with.

Outbrain: OutBrain.com

One of the largest content discovery networks. Outbrain features many popular brands including People magazine, Bills.com, and even Forbes.com. OutBrain allows you to geo-target, but does not allow you to choose which publisher websites your content will appear on. Instead, their system will analyze your content and match it with the best publishers based on your market.

Yahoo Gemini Native: Gemini.Yahoo.com

This platform is increasing in popularity with ads that appear alongside actual news stories featured on Yahoo.com.

With each of these networks you are able to design a campaign optimized for your industry. And most importantly, put it in front of hundreds of thousands of visitors in a matter of a few minutes.

But before you go off and design a campaign. It’s important to know exactly how to create one that is destined for success.

Native Advertising Proven Strategies

The objective is to educate and inform potential customers of your brand and brand message.

You are not building these ads to hard-sell. That’s not the purpose, and it’s important to keep that in mind when creating your ads. So that they feel authentic, and are tailored to what your target audience is actively seeking out (quality content, informative posts, etc.).

Create your ad correctly and readers will find it very difficult to differentiate between what is sponsored content. And what is informative content or impartial journalism.

How do you do this easily?

Always focus on over-delivering exceptional value in the form of highly engaging content. That matches the editorial style and tone of the website it’s on.

Here are a few examples of highly successful native campaigns on BuzzFeed:

13 Things You’ll Miss Most From Your Twenties

Source: Buzzfeed.com/YoungerTV/ThingsYoullMissMostFromYourTwenties

This advertisement strongly promotes the TV Land brand message. Without being too in-your-face (even though the entire page promotes their brand with links to their Facebook page, twitter and website).

The content is entertaining with different videos. Animated cartoons and engaging content that keeps readers browsing the page. This is native advertising done right.

15 Bands That Probably Wouldn’t Exist Without Led Zeppelin

Source: BuzzFeed.com/H2/Osmo/Spotify/BandsThatWouldntExistWithoutLedZeppelin

Spotify is the sponsor of this highly engaging piece. And what they’ve been able to do with this page has been nothing short of amazing. By tapping into a huge audience of rock fans. They lure in readers with a captivating title. Then slam them with great content while casually (and effectively) building brand awareness.

By analyzing these examples of successful campaigns. You should have a better understanding of how native advertising works, and how you can make it work for you.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that your native ad doesn’t have to be too extensive, or even lengthy.

The most important component is that it’s informative, and highly entertaining.

The more you can engage readers while reminding them of your brand and products. The more successful your native ad will be. So put on the thinking cap, and get to work!

To Your Success,

Joshua