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THE ULTIMATE AUSTRALIAN MARKETER’S GUIDE TO NATIVE ADVERTISING | 1 The Ultimate Australian Marketer’s Guide to Native Advertising

The Ultimate Australian Marketer's Guide to Native Advertising

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Page 1: The Ultimate Australian Marketer's Guide to Native Advertising

T H E U LT I M A T E A U S T R A L I A N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O N A T I V E A D V E R T I S I N G | 1

The Ultimate Australian Marketer’s Guide to Native Advertising

Page 2: The Ultimate Australian Marketer's Guide to Native Advertising

Introduction

What is native advertising?

How is native advertising different?

Native versus traditional advertising?

Key advantages

Data tells the story

Native advertising – content marketing’s new best friend

Creating content for native ads

What type of content works best?

Lead with metrics

Be transparent and honest

Top 10 rules of effective native advertising campaigns

Native advertising on LinkedIn

Native advertising on LinkedIn | Case study: HSBC

Links for more information

Contents

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Page 3: The Ultimate Australian Marketer's Guide to Native Advertising

The task of marketing a brand, product or service has never been more complex.

While the rise and rise of the internet has caused channels and platforms to multiply, consumers are more educated and savvy than ever. Exposed to hundreds of marketing messages per day, the modern consumer now automatically ignores most traditional forms of online advertising.

Thus, the challenge for marketers lies in successfully achieving cut-through. How can you target, reach and interact with your brand’s customers in a way that builds engagement and ultimately impacts sales?

It’s time for a new approach. Enter native advertising.

Introduction

T H E U LT I M A T E A U S T R A L I A N M A R K E T E R ’ S G U I D E T O N A T I V E A D V E R T I S I N G

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“Native advertising is quality content, inspired by a brand, that’s delivered in-stream.

– Tim Duggan, Content Director,

Sound Alliance

Put simply, native advertising is paid advertising that is produced and published in such a way that it resembles editorial content.

Native advertising seeks to drive positive brand sentiment and attract customers by providing content within the context of their online experience.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), “most advertisers and publishers aspire to deliver paid ads that are so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behaviour that the viewer simply feels that they belong.”

What is native advertising?

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Unlike traditional display or pay-per-click forms of online advertising, native ads are built into the visual design as part of the content. Native advertising:

• Feels as worthy of attention as any editorial content on the same page.1

• Is part of the content stream. Delivered in feed, it’s not relegated to the margins of the page.2

• Provides a significant opportunity to build an audience by grabbing the attention of potential customers who already engage with mass-audience platforms, including:

- Social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook). - Mainstream media sites (from BuzzFeed and

The New York Times to The Sydney Morning Herald and everything in between).

- Blogs (Mamamia and countless others).

How is native advertising different?

“For brands, native ads are an opportunity to reach an audience you may not currently have access to by leveraging a big publisher’s position.

– Leanne Brinkies,Head of Native Advertising,

King Content”

1 & 2 King Content, Native Advertising: Beyond the hype

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Native versus traditional advertising3

Put simply, traditional ads just don’t work like they used to.

Native advertising is taking up a greater slice of marketing budgets. Here’s why:

• Advertisers are seeing lower and lower click-through rates – consumers have trained their eyes to ignore traditional online advertising.

• As more consumers view content through mobile devices, smaller screens are making traditional ad placement awkward and ineffective.

• The increasing popularity of the newsfeed, which is not compatible with traditional digital ads; in-feed ads work best as slices of content.

• Brands are mastering the art and science of publishing, becoming great storytellers in their own right.

3 Adapted from King Content, Native Advertising: Beyond the hype p7

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• Native advertising presents a massive opportunity for brands to connect with, and provide value to, consumers in a highly relevant context.

• Native advertising can boost positive brand image. Believe it or not, consumers do trust brands when they execute best-in-class content.4

• When it’s done well, native advertising can amplify your company’s message as those who engage with it share it across their networks. Having your content shared many times can even reduce your overall cost of customer acquisition.

Key advantages

CONSUMER TRUST OF EDUCATIONAL CONTENT FROM BRANDS74%

“Native advertising, done right, compliments inbound content efforts when it offers valuable, educational, useful information.

– Ryan Bonnici, Head of Marketing,

HubSpot Asia Pacific and Japan”

4 King Content, Native Advertising: Beyond the hype p8

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RESPONDENTS THAT REPORTED THE AD “IS AN AD I WOULD SHARE WITH A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER”

The impact of native advertising is revealed in a recent IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough study which found:

• Consumers look at sponsored content 53 per cent more frequently than banner ads.

• Native ads registered 18 per cent higher lift in purchase intent and nine per cent lift for brand affinity responses than banner ads.

• 32 per cent of respondents said the native ad, “is an ad I would share with a friend of family member” versus just 19 per cent for display ads.

Data tells the story

NATIVE AD BANNER AD

32% 19%

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Native advertising can be used to expand the reach of content marketing – effectively getting more eyes on to the content you’ve created.

Content marketing plans that incorporate native advertising can:

• Take owned content (currently housed within a brand’s website, content hub or blog for example) and give it directly to the user.

• Amplify the content to a larger audience.

• Give clients a greater return on the investment they put into creating the content.

• Help brands engage and connect with audiences in a real and meaningful way.

Before you hit the switch on native advertising, ensure you’ve gone through the hard work of developing a content marketing strategy, which will include your brand’s objectives, a clear editorial point of view, content creation processes and social media strategy and measurement.5

Native advertising – content marketing’s new best friend

“Great native is about creation and location. Brands must tell a story people are interested in (either educative, entertaining or informative), in an environment where customers already engage.

– Jo Boundy, Head of Digital and Entertainment,

Qantas Airways Limited

”5 King Content, Native Advertising: Beyond the hype p20

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Creating content for native ads Native advertising formats

“What all native advertising has in common is its ability to take great client–owned content and embed it in the context of a user’s experience.”

– Leanne Brinkies,Head of Native Advertising,

King Content

The IAB breaks native advertising down into six categories:

1. In-feed units (such as LinkedIn Sponsored Updates or Facebook newsfeed ads).

2. Paid search units (on Yahoo, Google or Bing for example).

3. Promoted listings (on Google for example).

4. Standard ads with native element units.

5. Custom campaigns (usually negotiated with a single publisher or network).

6. Content recommendation widgets (often presented as ‘from around the web’ – publishers use tools, provided through platforms, such as Outbrain and Taboola, recommend brand content to readers).

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Content is ...

“... the glue between us and our target audience.

– Rod Strother,Director, Digital and Social Centre of Excellence,

Lenovo6

Native advertising content options are many and varied, and the type of content you create will be influenced by the overall goals of your campaign.

Here are some content types that work well in a native advertising context:

• White papers.

• Webinars.

• Reports and analyses.

• Commentary and opinion pieces.

• Expert guides and insights.

• Video content.

• Blog posts.

• Digital image galleries.

• Listicles.

• ‘How to’ guides.

What type of content works best?

6 LinkedIn, Shining the Light on Sponsored Update Success Stories

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“With content and native it’s essential to look beyond the impression to leverage its potential. Smart marketers will look towards attention and engagement metrics.

– Lance Traore,Managing Director Australia and New Zealanc,

Unruly

Lead with metrics

There is currently no industry standard way of measuring and tracking the success of native advertising campaigns. Instead, due to the hybrid nature of native advertising, most brands are using a mix of publisher, social and traditional digital advertising metrics.

Publisher metrics are the most commonly used metrics used for native advertising. As social media metrics are also good indicators of engagement levels, and due to the potential for increased brand awareness with every social mention, most brands track data such as shares/links, Likes and comments.

However, the survey also revealed that the most commonly used metric is still the clickthrough rate, with 83% of advertisers using it as a measure of performance. While engagement is key for native advertising, advertisers still measure traditional digital metrics to assess ROI.

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Be transparent and honest

Transparency and honesty in native advertising has always been a contentious issue, as by definition, content is designed to be seamlessly integrated onto a host publisher’s page. However, problems arise and trust is breached when the line between advertising and editorial is blurred, and readers are ‘tricked’ into clicking sponsored content that is indistinguishable from regular content.

According to the guidelines published by the IAB, native content should have:

• Prominently visible visual cues such as brand logos or designs, fonts or shading that immediately brands it as sponsored content.

• Wording that communicates a commercial arrangement has taken place, such as ‘sponsored by’.

These guidelines are generally adhered to, as quality native advertising should not require dishonesty or manipulation. Native advertising’s integration with a host platform should mean that content not only aligns with the look and format of the site, but also with the publisher’s context and purpose.

“Consumers are much more conscious of advertising these days, content needs to be relevant to them, yet not feel intrusive.

– Jodie Osborne, Social Media Manager,

BT Financial Group

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2. Establish a strong understanding

of the publisher’s audience.

4. Ensure your content matches the look and feel of the host website.

3.

Create valuable, useful and authentic content that your audience will want to engage with and that will enable your brand to become a trusted advisor.

Top 10 rules of effective native advertising campaigns

1. Accurately determine your target audience. 6.

Be transparent and upfront. It should be obvious your content is a paid placement.

5.

Use your content to create a connection that will lead to consideration in the future, and bring prospective customers into your lead funnel.

7.

Time your campaign so it delivers the right content at the right time to the right audience.

8.

Use the right native partner. The right partner can boost credibility by 33 per cent.

Reference our golden rules to ensure your native advertising campaign has the right ingredients for success:

9.

Invest in professional editorial support to craft your content, and make sure it matches the tone of your host.

10.

Make your brand the star. Advertise your content, not your company.

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Native advertising on LinkedIn

Sponsored Updates, LinkedIn’s core native advertising solution, holds unique qualities that differentiate it from other companies’ native ads including:

• Promotes content shared via a Company Page to a wider audience.

• • Direct integration in the LinkedIn members’ feed.• • Extensive targeting capabilities: allows you

to target content based on specific job titles, LinkedIn group membership, professional connections, and more.

• • Clear identification as ‘Sponsored’ within

a user’s LinkedIn feed. • • Campaign reporting that allows advertisers

to track and optimise performance of each update.

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Challenge:

Banking and financial services provider, HSBC wanted to form partnerships with members of its key business audience.

Solution:

Use LinkedIn Sponsored Updates to promote its new Trade Forecast Tool. Leveraged geographic targeting capabilities of Sponsored Updates to deliver trade forecast data relevant to each market.

Results:

Using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, HSBC drove more than 40,000 interactions with HSBC Global Connections content, attracted more than 3,750 new followers to the HSBC Commercial Banking LinkedIn Company Page and boosted its social interactions by 900 per cent. HSBC also achieved engagement from job titles, including chief executive officer, vice president and director of operations.

Native advertising on LinkedInCase Study: HSBC7

7 LinkedIn, Shining the Light on Sponsored Update Success Stories

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Read more about the rise of Native Advertising on the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog.

Find out more about Sponsored Updates at the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions website.