Every digital marketing agency will testify and endorse content writing as the best chosen weapon to build a good SEO ranking in Google search engine and in social media marketing, and that quote “Content is king” has been thrown all around digital marketing.
What if there is another more interesting method to add to SEO content marketing?
Content marketing is definitely the main selling point in the inbound marketing strategies to draw online public attention, but this is not the only proven method which is most effective. The not-so good part of content marketing is that, your article can also be lost in a massive search result clutter amongst the other content articles as well. Because of this, although your article has gained the 1st page ranking, but that doesn’t actually determine your content has been a successful hit.
In order for viewers to be interested to open up your content marketing blog posts, digital marketers also can consider this as the engagement boost for readers to further look up for the content you have posted. Often seen as a clutter of intrusive ads, or the very topic that raises controversies on its credibility due to its infamous ability to violate the ethical advertising methods, this method is none other than the advertising method named:
NATIVE ADVERTISING
What we are going to say is going to get into far more interesting facts to boost article readership rate.
Ever since the rise of native ads in 2011, the internet has been blasted with native ads than blog contents or social media posts. Due to the bad track record of the native ads plague on internet, people had the wrong concept about native ads as falsehood advertisements and only made to make readers leave the site feeling cheated.
That judgement not entirely true, because turns out, native ads are the victims of themselves, or rather, people make victims out of the native ads, because people have been misusing these ads to even turn it into some online scam websites or some silly hipster ads. Turns out that in the digital marketing prospect, native ads can be a great tool to increase visibility, brand identity, brand loyalty and attract more CTR (click thru rate) from readers if native ads are done right with the secret recipe: trust.
Instead, this inbound marketing method that has been long overlooked and heavily ridiculed by most people, and what most digital marketers didn’t know is that native ads are the blessing in disguise and the million-dollar opportunity for digital marketers to evolve in their marketing strategies. In digital marketing, native ads can also be the content marketing catalyst whereby the SEO content writers can sell their contents like hot cakes which increase the ease of reading, lessen distraction and reduce doubts or annoyance among readers who can be the potential target audience too!
CHARACTERISTICS OF NATIVE ADS
Native ads (branded content), is what people have mistaken as ads that disguise themselves like content marketing. People feel cheated after reading native ads is because when they try to look for genuine article that sells credibility, but in the end, it turns out to be some promo ads with trash talk, which will cause the trust factor of viewers to go downhill instantly.
The way native ads look like is usually on social media pages like Facebook and Instagram promo ads, or blog contents like Forbes and Huffington Post whereby sponsored stories are placed under “suggested articles” sections in a popular website. These ads are often described as a paid media whereby the ad does not look like an ad, so that the ad will look more natural blending in of the content page and has the non-ads features on webpage, for all intents and purposes.
Some native ads are also created in the form of email marketing ads, in which many of them fall into the spam folder due to its nature of being overly intrusive, yet appearing as too good to be true in an unusually attractive manner.
HIDDEN TALENTS IN NATIVE ADS: HOW TO FIGHT THE PREJUDICE, AND TURN IT INTO A MARKETING FUTURE?
Flipboard, the online magazine app that is sometimes a built-in app in many smart phone devices, is one of the examples of native ads done right. The reason why people trust Flipboard native advertising is because of the credible marketing content in the ads and it has the focus to educate the audience. Don’t get it all wrong; native ads should not be a substitute of content marketing!
Rather, native advertising functions to introduce your business, where it serves as a preview or foretaste of your content marketing on another site that you have posted on. It is just a stepping stone for readers to get hooked with the native ads so that they will be more likely to have a longer attention span on your content articles. Basically, native ads should play the role of an appetiser starter before giving them the big meal, which is the content marketing.
Taking advantage of its attractive and high performance visual contents, in other words, if marketers were to use native ads to boost sales, they must be sure to be credible and only use relevant messages that are in sync with the pictures, just like what Flipboard did by giving short and simple articles in sync with the ads, and it leaves readers wanting more information, thus tempting them to hit Google for the native ads being promoted to the readers. By this, it can increase the brand awareness in readers.
So, if the native ads marketing strategy is not utilized ethically, it can create negative perception in readers, thus affecting the performance of the company itself which is marketing a brand. The tips to good native ads creation are being clear, precise, accurate, relevance and most importantly, be honest and don’t use dirty tactics to mislead readers into something else! You want your native ads to come clean, it all depends on how you decide to sell.
Best way to create the excitement in readers is to post the ads in social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram and so on. Posting native ads in social media is effective because viewers tend to spend around 1-5 seconds scrolling through contents. So, it will be ideal to place short content of native ads in SNS.
Moreover, make the information useful but let it be incomplete so that readers will have the desire to find out more. In this, way, viewers will be keen to know more about what your company is selling by adding your content marketing website links into your native ads contents.
That’s where the content marketing comes in after that as the ultimate breakdown which includes clear CTA (call to action). Both native ads and content marketing are different, but they complement each other when both are incorporated in tandem.
So, if you make the native ads into a content marketing site, it will in fact downplay your SEO ranking because when you feed them with sufficient information in the native ads, people will just be satisfied with reading from the native ads and it defeats the purpose of selling your content in your content article on Google search results itself.
Take note, DO NOT turn your native ads into content marketing!
Another reason for native ads to be a useful digital marketing apparatus is its ability to generate leads by user-generated content (17% value increase), which are authentic contents that have been previously uploaded by users on online platforms like SNS and Wikipedia. Once your content creates positive impact, native ads have the uncanny ability to make readers search for the brand you are advertising, whereby it uplifts the marketed brand up to 82% increase. Additionally, it increases the website engagement and CTR by 60% when video marketing in native ads are added in, in which video marketing is also part of lead generation in SEO content marketing as well.
This type of contents will build trust among the audiences and encourage the readers to be interested to contact your company for further information. This is because once they see your article provide useful and helpful information, it can even create the desire to invest in a brand, even with the short and concise details, so once the customers are convinced, there is no need to write so much to persuade them more. So if you build your content well with value, the content itself will be engaging.
As the society shapes itself into mobile consumption, and digital marketing teams are converging to mobile marketing in digital marketing, native ads have the same characteristics whereby the ads fit much better into smart phones as compared to tablets and laptop screens. The problem with native ads is they cannot have the full display on laptop screens, but somehow better in tablet. So, smart phones are the ones which can fully stream the native ads with their smaller screens, creating a seamless and non-obstructive experience when users run through the ads, where it also improves quality of performance, an upgraded experience for users.
This is also a good direction to consider because if everyone is shifting into mobile experience, they will have the tendency to be hungry for native ads more than any marketing platforms. This advantage is also a considerable alternative to gain the higher frequency of audience outreach in higher speed and less time, which is also a way to boost the SEO ranking of your produced contents, coming in terms with the fact that people enjoy reading up social media contents. Therefore, much more the native ads should be marketed in these SNS platforms to increase readability.
Furthermore, as people prefer to go online these days, such as online shopping, so native ads has similarly replaced the use of traditional paid ads such as banners and billboard ads. As native ads have the ease of access for consumers everywhere they go, as they always carry their smart phones everywhere, this makes native ads become a thriving and prevalent marketing strategy that has swept over the world in a tidal wave of technology shift, where everything gets portable, lightweight, easily reachable and convenience-oriented. In average, users take notice and have higher engagement with native ads from 20-60% surpassing traditional ads, in which it increases 18% of buying intentions more than the conventional display ads. In last year 2018 record, it has been observed that native ads have a higher traffic especially from smart phones. In year 2020, mobile marketing expenditure will go up to 26.5% and 63% of display ads will become native.
One more powerful nature of native advertising is that it has the brand positioning ability whereby it can break through the clutter of ads or articles and stand out distinguishing itself from others, being highly visible to readers. Since native ads always go by the tactic of being conspicuous and outstanding, it will gain positive ROI (return of investment) in high outreach frequency whereby the SEO ranking of the native ads will skyrocket in supersonic speed, and of course, it has to be highly entertaining in order to gain a high traction of online visitors. This is also a good way to turn online visitors into purchasers or loyal customers too.
In 2017, Google AdSense had launched AdSense Native Ads to strengthen the credibility and value of native ads campaigns. Moreover, Google AdSense Native Ads also aims on giving a seamless user experience so as to propel the mass digital marketing penetration. At the same time, this campaign has the focus to create better customer engagement and draw potential customers closer to the brands that are advertised on the native ads powered by Google.
Read more on https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/07/15/why-google-s-adsense-native-ads-are-the-tipping-point-native-advertising
Therefore, if you want to drive fast-paced sales, native ads will be your medicine and your brand’s highway to spotlight!
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