Native advertising explained, and how it can increase your sales conversions.

You may have heard business associates discussing the virtues of native advertising. Perhaps the conversation went over your head; you may have figured that it was just another fad that wasn’t relevant to you anyway. However, as it turns out, native ads can make a huge difference to the success of your retail operation regardless of its size or the products it sells.

What are native ads?

Native advertisements are paid content that is blended with the organic content of a website in order to seamlessly present enhanced marketing information to customers. No doubt, you have been annoyed by banner ads that pop up on websites you are visiting and distract you from the task at hand. Rest assured, you are not the only one. Native ads can provide the same information in a much more approachable way that can ultimately lead to increased sales and more loyal customers.

The benefit of native ads.

Let’s look a little deeper into the upsides of this marketing technique and what native ads can do.

• Blend with and complement organic content so that the right audience sees the information that gels with their needs and wants.
• Circumvent ad blockers.
• Because they match the look and feel of the content that surrounds them, users aren’t as likely to experience ad fatigue or discount the content.
• Are sharable. This is especially useful if your ad contains informational content related to your products. At the same time one of your customers’ social media contacts accesses your ad, they can also be introduced to how they can purchase the merchandise.
• Have a click-through rate 40 times more than traditional display ads.

In other words, they provide you with a terrific way to boost your conversion rate while simultaneously spreading the word about your brand and instilling trust in new customers.

Types of ad platforms.

There are three platforms that you can use to feature your native ads.

• Social media. Each popular social media page has its own way to feature native ads. Known as in-feed units, these include sponsored stories on Snapchat, promoted tweets on Twitter, sponsored posts on Facebook, in-stream YouTube ads, and sponsored updates on LinkedIn. Regardless of which page you use to place your ads, be sure to keep your content updated and accurate, responding to customer feedback promptly.
• Search pages like Google. These sites often place paid search ads above organic results, enabling your website to be more prominent and recognizable.
• Open Web. This web-based platform allows you to buy advertising space from third-party vendors. You can then blend your ads with organic content on specific websites. Common types include recommendation widgets or “recommended for you” sidebars, promoted listings, and display ads.

In order for your native ads to be successful, you must understand the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target audience. Additionally, your ads should not be overly sales-focused. Instead, your priority should be to engage customers via the sharing of information that is of interest to them.

Evaluating effectiveness.

As with any marketing strategy, it is vital that you have a way to determine if your native ads are working. Take the following metrics into consideration.

• Click-through rate.
• Time on page (two to four minutes is ideal).
• Bounce rate (percentage of users who land on your site and leave without interacting).
• Social shares.
• Conversions. These don’t necessarily need to be a sale via your company’s smart terminal; signing up for a newsletter counts, too.

As you can see, there is a reason why native ads are a popular tool among savvy business owners. Take some time to further study this fascinating topic to see how it can directly benefit your current and future customers, and you are sure to see an increase in sales.