How Can Publishers and Advertisers Harness the Power of Native Advertising

Authored by Ievgen Kushnir, Regional Business Development, Director of MGID Global

If there is anything positive that came out of the pandemic last year and the ensuing lockdown, it is that the potential of digital was revealed. With everyone stuck at home, digital media was the only way advertisers could connect with their customers most efficiently and it led to a new revolution in the use of programmatic and native advertising.

Over the years many different approaches and formats have been used to get the best results and ROIs from digital campaigns. Starting from standard banners to video advertisements, brands have made use of a mix of approaches to reach their target audience. Today, advertisers do not look at only the reach of the campaign but also relevance of the audience and brand safety. As more and more stress is laid on ensuring that digital marketing campaigns reach the right audience and keep the brand name safe, native ads have emerged as the preferred choice.

The appeal of native ads

Traditional methods of advertising like OOH, TV ads etc largely adopt a one-to-many approach which is completely linear in nature. Digital advertising forms such as standard banner ads are similarly linear in nature, which is one of the reasons advertisers choose these when their target is to communicate a message to the masses. With such an approach, however, the scope to measure the feedback from the user or accurately calculate ROI to see if the marketing strategy worked is rather limited, unless one is looking at CTR as a measure of success of the campaign. With native advertising, advertisers can adopt a one-to-one session based bilateral conversation with users. Brands can get appropriate feedback on their messaging and accurately measure the ROI of the campaign to see if their KPIs have been met, and even optimise the on-going campaign in real-time.

Attract genuine interest from the audience.

One of the first reasons why brands choose native ads is because they do not stand out as an ad and can combat ad fatigue. They are non-intrusive, do not interrupt the experience of the user and thus have higher engagement than banner ads and many impact properties. They are marked as sponsored and so cannot be categorised as a deceptive form of advertising.

Result in an overall lower CPC.

Native ads allow advertisers a much better control over the audience they target as compared to other types of digital advertising options which cost wise makes them more efficient. Relevant audience means more clicks on the ad and higher response rate.

Today native ads have emerged as the third most used publishing strategy, along with video ads, as per a poll conducted by Salesforce where they took responses from over 4000 marketers[1]. Apart from advertisers, publishers find native ads attractive as well since they can monetise their sites without compromising on the quality of user experience.

Way forward with native ads for optimum monetisation

Clear Labelling

Native advertising is often confused with advertorials since they are similar in terms of style, design, and functionality. Clear labelling of the ad or content is the first step to ensure its success and to make sure that users do not feel betrayed. It also creates trust and positive recall in the minds of the users for the brand.

Distribution and targeting

When working with native ads, distribution is as important as the selection of the target audience. Distribution refers to the network of publisher websites and apps where AdTech companies such as MGID would be placing the ad. Choosing the right publisher is important because this would determine the quality of the users that are targeted and whether the ad has been shown to a contextually relevant audience.

Data collection and privacy

Over the past few months, new laws and regulations have passed to ensure that user data remains secure and there is no threat to privacy of internet users. AdTech companies have responded to these changes by leaning towards the use of first party data to run the brand campaigns which includes native ads. Accurate data from publishers and AdTech companies go a long way for the success of the native ad campaign. The data from publishers can also reveal the mindset of the user which helps in customizing the native ad for the audience[2].

Native Ad Led Solutions by AdTech Companies

In the face of the ongoing pandemic the digital advertising universe realised a dire need for new ad products. Publishers saw a huge dip in network revenues and to compensate that they needed to employ these new ad products. AdTech platform MGID responded to this change with a new dedicated approach called Native Yield Optimisation. Within its yield optimization system, it combines different types of demand in one ad placement, which enables publishers to efficiently monetize their inventory, providing their audiences with an enhanced user experience.

Native Yield Optimisation helps publishers in three ways – real time selection of ad type for placement on the website, get better value of their inventory and better user experience. The AI-based tool incorporates both direct and programmatic demand. At MGID the yield optimisation ecosystem sees different types of demands – native ad campaigns, direct and programmatic video ads, native programmatic demand from premium exchanges and PMP deals with advertisers and agencies, and programmatic display demand from direct partnerships with top local and global DSPs.

Native ads work well for publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers can unlock the full potential of the inventory on their website through this approach while also ensuring good user experience. For advertisers, native ads are a great way to reach out to relevant audience and engage more efficiently with them. Native advertising is exploding in popularity and it will be interesting to see how it evolves in future to meet the demands of all concerned parties.

[1] The Future of Native Advertising for Brands and Publishers, Enterpreneur.com
[2] 6 reasons why you need to take data seriously when doing native ads, Native Advertising Institute

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and Adgully.com does not necessarily subscribe to it.

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