Successful Online Marketing: Why Native Advertising?

Anyone who wants to generate online traffic and increase their brand awareness simply can’t ignore native advertising. That’s why, after ten years on the market and laying down the groundwork, we’re revealing why it’s the right time to hit the ground running with native advertising.

Holistic marketing without native advertising is like your favorite dish without a dash of salt. You can still enjoy the dish, however, without that “oomph” factor, it could easily fall short on hitting the perfection factor. Having that “salt” or native advertising sharpens and enhances the “taste” of brand campaigns within digital marketing. New technologies, algorithms, and increasingly innovative formats, for instance, hold unprecedented opportunities to really get users to acquire a taste for your brand, but where to begin? Why is it more important than ever to broaden your horizons beyond traditional marketing formats? In order to design the ideal strategy for your goals, it’s always best to familiarize yourself with the basics before diving into the depths of the native advertising world.

“Who, how, what …?”

If you haven’t jumped on the native advertising train yet, it’s really time to grapple with the gains of its development in recent years. Many target groups have long since only been available via online channels. In Germany alone, around 59 million people older than 16 have been online with their desktop or mobile device in the past three months.[i] The share of online users has now reached 90% (2018);[ii] of course, one must also differentiate here. Not every channel available online is suitable for every product, for every medium, or for every message. Nevertheless, by means of goal-oriented distributed advertising campaigns, which are placed in the different formats of the AdTech providers, your message will end up exactly where it is supposed to: with the user.

• Realization no. 1: The majority of the population can be found online.

Mobile is continuously gaining relevance. According to Statista, the most popular content and purpose for using the smartphone is looking for weather reports, using it for knowledge, and information research as well as looking for regional news.

From the editors to the response

Native advertising is not about using the mundane popularity of young influencers or intrusive ad banners to reach your goal. It’s instead about leveraging the power of the editorial environment of selected premium publisher websites to market your content and generate online traffic. You skilfully place your message in the design of relevant media and platforms to reach your target audience to evoke a sense of familiarity within the user. The foundation of the native advertising approach is voluntary. Users have the choice click and/or view native ads. This is an approach that pays off. A staggering total of 80% of German users rate native advertising as being positive.[iii]

• Realization no. 2: Voluntariness and familiarity bring you over to the finish line: the user feels that native advertising is positive.

That which brews for long …

Anyone who perceives native advertising as a new concept should reconsider this often-mistaken thought. In fact, this modern form of marketing is based on one of the most basic concepts of marketing: added value through information and relevance. Thus, advertising content cannot be advertised this way. Cunningly street-smart advertisers had already followed this simple rule to put their messages in print more than 100 years ago. Online marketers have only known this concept and used it for about ten years – but, in a whole new format.

• Realization no. 3: Ingenious native advertising is based on the targeted and tried-and-tested marketing of information and entertainment in favour of your brand.

Heading to new shores

New formats bring new possibilities. That’s why brand messages today don’t only reach users via text, but also via videos, links to landing pages, and podcasts. The result? Great success. The results of a sophisticated native advertising strategy are high performance and higher visibility for your brand. Analyzing a target group combined with a bit of research enables online marketers to reach their goal online, whether designed for performance or for branding. plista’s clients were able to, for example, generate up to 40% higher CTRs and up to 15,000 new leads using native-format content. Not only that, the brand perception of various brands could also be increased by the relevance of native ads, while customers could be won over online for offline purchases.

• Realization no. 4: Native advertising serves to increase both performance and brand recognition.

The late-night convenience store for marketing

Can anything anywhere only be found at the petrol station or at a late-night convenience store? Not quite. Native advertising is, so to speak, the “7/11” of the marketing world. Your message has the opportunity to play around the clock and on all devices. Therefore, all you need is an effective advertising message, information about your target audience, and inspirational content. Also, don’t forget to have your eye on the prize. Everything else – data-driven targeting, extensive analyses, high brand safety standards, innovative fraud technology, individual campaign optimization, a large operating range, and good placements at premium publishers – can be obtained from expert AdTech providers – like the plista team. Or, do you want to keep your native advertising reins in your own two hands? No problem. Use the wide range of self-service tools like plista’s direct booking tool, and get started on your first campaign today!

• Realization no. 5: Native advertising means sending your message to your target groups around the clock.

[i] https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/151619/umfrage/anzahl-der-internetnutzer-in-den-letzten-drei-monaten-und-gesamtbevoelkerung-in-deutschland/

[ii] https://de.statista.com/themen/2033/internetnutzung-in-deutschland/

[iii] https://www.wuv.de/medien/nutzer_akzeptieren_native_advertising