As we have discussed in previous Neil Walker Digital blogs, native advertising is becoming prominent on the online marketing landscape, but in case you’ve not cast your eye over those previous entries, what is it exactly?
Native advertising could be described as ads that are seamlessly integrated into a user’s feed or screen, and are nearly indistinguishable from organic content. Essentially native advertising is dressed up to look very much like the content it appears within.
Native advertising is all about the experience of the user, and gone are brash banner ads which have no relevance to the reader or their interests. They have been replaced by non-intrusive native ads which are seen as a more powerful and more targeted way to reach online audiences. Native ads are cropping up across all platforms, including: PCs mobile phones and tablets, with the biggest effect happening on mobile, but more on that later.
The rise of native advertising has essentially seen as the death of the traditional banner ad, and why not? Brands are adopting native advertising because they are more elegant and effective than traditional ad formats, like the beforementioned banners.
In this blog, we are going to move on from looking at native vs content marketing, examples of native advertising, native advertising and small business, and whether native advertising is actually worth the money. This time it’s our chance to look at native advertising within social media, meaning the many (and an increasing number of) social media platforms that we use in our daily life. This means Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, amongst others.
The time we spend on social media now occurs on mobile devices rather than desktops and is this any wonder? If you take a stroll around the city or take a ride on the train or bus, you’ll see plenty, or nearly all of the people you bump into, glued to their mobile phones. They are most likely on social media and – guess what, marketeers – brands and advertisers have noticed this and are now shifting their budgets.
Mobile advertising increases dramatically
As our usage of the internet increases, so does the potential for advertisers to find space to sell us their brand. Agencies are now using mobile websites alongside native advertising to catch customers’ attention across a variety of online social platforms. During 2013, global mobile advertising spend grew significantly, and in 2014 it is predicted to increase from £6.3bn to £7.1bn, whilst it is also going to overtake newspaper ad revenue for the first time.
The rise of the feed
To understand native advertising on mobile, you need to really get to grips with the feed and what a feed constitutes. On mobile, the ‘stream’ or the ‘feed’ is the way we now consume content. There are Facebook streams, Instagram feeds and Vine feeds for example, and to match this experience, native advertising is really the only way to target consumers.
This excellent article and infographic from Mashable looks at the feed and how it changed the way that we now enjoy our content. It’s interesting to look at the evolution of the feed and the beautiful infographic on the page demonstrates how things have changed since 1997, when Yahoo began by curating sites in a directory format. This made exploring the web easier for internet users when browsing what was essentially a primitive version of the feed we are well accustomed to in 2014.
Facebook
Love it or hate it, Facebook is the biggest social media site on the planet. Despite there being many who are disillusioned with its effect on society (not us marketeers, of course), there is no denying its cultural importance. They have jumped on the native advertising bandwagon and, through promoted posts, brands can reach users they think will be interested in their company or product. They can do this through a number of forms of content, including links to articles or photo galleries.
Twitter
Twitter is well aware of the potential of advertising through its feeds and in June (06/14), it bought out native advertising firm Namo Media. Namo has claimed to have created “An advertising solution that lets app developers easily add native advertising to mobile apps”. Bingo, Twitter and Mamo Media are all matches made in heaven and they share a vision of how native advertising can improve the state of mobile app monetisation for marketeers, app publishers and users.
I’m guessing that you’re a Twitter user, as I am. (You can follow me here if you like, no pressure though.) As a Twitter user via my iPhone, I am well aware of promoted Tweets, and you will be too, I reckon. In most cases, these promoted adverts will be relevant to your interests, and that’s not by chance.
Twitter also acquired MoPub in September 2013, which, much like Mamo Media, creates native ads within Twitter streams so that post from brands that fit into the context around the rest of the user’s Twitter updates. MoPub has been extremely successful in generating sales and increasing click through rates to websites, generating revenue for Twitter and its affiliates.
There are a number of open platforms like Nativo, AdsNative, Sharethrough and Triplelift which allow brands to include the same content in native ad placements as on multiple different publishers.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn has also jumped on the native advertising bandwagon by launching promoted updates. In July of last year (2013) they joined their social rivals in their attempt to turn their site into the ultimate publishing platform.
In a statement released on July 22nd 2013, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions said:
Marketeers are increasingly leveraging content to inform, educate and inspire their current and prospective customers. But the high quality content they’ve produced – slideshows, articles, videos and whitepapers – does not always achieve enough reach and engagement on their own channels. With Sponsored Updates, marketeers will be able to distribute this content directly to relevant professionals in a place their customers and prospects are already consuming professionally relevant content. Marketeers can target Sponsored updates to any segment of our premium audience based on professional profile data across more than 225 million members.
Paid-for Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn mean that marketeers will be able to reach their audience in a much more effective way, whilst LinkedIn will also be offering them a native platform. This is because their sponsored ads will appear alongside non-sponsored content but looks very similar, essentially mimicking the environment in which it appears.
Instagram
Instagram is another social networking platform that has joined the native party, and with around 43% of global internet users having shared a photo in the last month, Instagram is cashing in on the fact that photos and videos are the most shared content on the web. The Instagram ad format is exactly the same as the standard post from any other user, they are the same size and are no more obtrusive, making them completely ‘native’.
The ads also feature a subtle icon in the top right hand corner, which signifies that the post is sponsored. In a regular user’s post, this would be where a time stamp would appear. This is how ads will look on Instagram, with information about how it will work in greater depth.
Instagram offers a hashtag feature which is an excellent way to improve click-through rates. This, alongside the crisp imagery that you can upload to the site, makes it a very attractive platform for businesses that want to make the most of photography and imagery being an extremely popular form of online content, and perhaps being the most popular.
Snapchat
Brands are now using Snapchat to push native marketing content to fans. Their native content will last for 24 hours, meaning that over that period, customers and potential customers will be able to see the content, with brands hoping to increase click throughs and conversions from thousands of users.
With the prediction that the future of the internet will be more inclined to be photo and image heavy, it’s predicted that sites like Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest will benefit from the monetisation of native advertising and sponsored content. As the web moves increasingly towards mobile, photo sharing platforms will grow, as will audiences and potential for marketeers or brands.
Pinterest
Pinterest has recently launched Promoted Tweets, which looks to target businesses, helping users all over the world who are looking to buy or plan things. Take a look at the link above to see what you or your business can benefit from using native advertising on this platform.
Tumblr
In June of this year, Tumblr struck a deal with Yahoo to have native ads or ‘sponsored posts’ on the blogging site. Tumblr hopes to capitalise on the strengths of Yahoo and the huge traffic they receive, linking this with the levels of engagement of Tumblr’s platforms.
Yahoo will offer ads to marketeers through its Gemini platform, which launched in February, and CEO Marissa Mayer has commented on the move, saying:
Through Yahoo Gemini, now the same posts – articles, images or videos – can be promoted through native ads across Yahoo’s content streams, article pages, image galleries and digital magazine, on desktop, mobile and tablets.
Yahoo has also stated in a release.
Yahoo’s data makes it easy for brands to reach the right audiences at scale with seamless, impactful native ads that drive engagement.
Tumblr hopes to stem the levelling off in traffic and by aligning with Yahoo, so that the site can reverse these fortunes. Tumblr was bought by Yahoo in 2013 for $1.1 billion in cash, and this purchase remains the biggest of Mayer’s many purchases during her two-year tenure as CEO.
Which is the most popular social channel for native advertisers?
If you look at and read this report from Hexagram, you’ll discover a few key findings about native advertising. But in a nutshell, here are the main points:
- 85% of content publishers believe that native advertising represents a new and viable revenue stream
- 84% of content publishers believe that native advertising adds values to their audiences
- 62% of content publishers are already offering native advertising
- 10% of content publishers expect native advertising revenues to increase by 10% within one year
Native-social ads are proving to be incredibly effective, gaining a great number of clicks and shares. It’s estimated that native advertising could account for over half of social ad spend. Photo-centric sites look like they will benefit the most, based on analysis by BI intelligence.
Here’s how BI thinks native-advertising is transforming digital advertising, both now and in the future:
- Estimates that native advertising will be at least 40% or more of over $10 billion on social media ad spend by 2017
- In-stream ads will look, feel and function seamlessly across mobile and PC, which is exactly what brands want
- On smaller screens, streams will be an experience
- Facebook ads within news feeds achieve 49-times higher click through rates and a 54% lower cost-per-click than traditional placements win the right sidebar
- That image and video sharing networks will soon offer the most effective types of native advertising
Native advertising
For an official definition of native advertising, click here. ShareThrough has plenty of information on the subject, as well as plenty of examples from various different social media platforms. It is quite probably the most complete resource about the topic on the internet, so take a look, you’ll certainly not be leaving without greater knowledge of native and how it operates.
The signs and studies suggest that native advertising is here to stay, mainly because it is proven to be more successful than more primitive forms of advertising, such as banners. Here’s a link to a few examples of native adverts and why they work, not specifically ads which appear on social media, but there’s a great deal of explanation of the theory behind native advertising.
Are you a marketeer who is looking to dabble with native advertising after seeing how successful it looks to be, or are you unconvinced? Let us know via Twitter, you can join in the conversation with our expert marketeers who are well versed in all aspects of online marketing.