The
AdSense Guide
to Native Ads
Are Native Ads Right
for Your Site?
Are native ads right
for your site?
Are native ads right
for your site?
Users have high expectations for your site’s UX, and you’re
likely already putting a lot of effort into shaping your site for
them. In the same way, you should be putting a lot of care into
shaping their interaction with the ads on your site. With 54%
of global marketing leaders already using native advertising,
and 18% planning to start using it, could native ads be the
solution to help you provide a beautiful ads experience?1
According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), native
ads are paid ads that have the goal of being “so cohesive
with the page content, assimilated into the design,
and consistent with the platform behavior that the
viewer simply feels that they belong.”2
Popular native
ad formats include custom sponsored content, content
recommendations, and in-feed ad units.
1 “Current vs. Planned Use of Select Digital Ad Formats Among Marketing Leaders
Worldwide, Jan 2016”, eMarketer, 2016.
2 http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IAB-Native-AdvertisingPlaybook2.pdf,
IAB
of global marketing
leaders are already
using native
advertising
of global marketing
leaders are planning
to start using native
advertising
1
Spending on
native ads is
expected to
grow to $21
billion in 2018.
3
In the next few chapters, you’ll get to explore principles
and tips that will help you decide if native ads are right for
your site.
3 “Spending on native advertising is soaring as marketers and digital media
publishers realize the benefits”, Business Insider 2015
In addition to providing
publishers an opportunity
to enhance the user
experience, native
advertising presents a huge
revenue opportunity.
2
1. Prioritize your audience
Before incorporating native ads, consider your users’
expectations of your site and how they’ll respond to the
type of ads you’re choosing to use. Native ads allow you to
show ads that meet their expectations by seamlessly fitting
with your site’s user experience.
Once you have implemented native ad units, test it by
using ad engagement rates as a metric that indicates your
users’ satisfaction with the way your ads integrate with
your overall site’s experience. We’ve seen our publishers
experience a lot of success with this. Trovit, a directory of
for classified ads, grew their net revenue growth by over
100% after implementing native ads.
3
Do keep in mind that 75% of advertisers believe that ethics
must play a major role in offering native ads–maintaining
a high level of trust with your users is very important.4
Start by ensuring your native ads are clearly differentiated
with labels from other content on your site. Reference
laws and advertising standards to make sure you’re not
misrepresenting ads in any way. Also, take the time to test
your strategy and gauge your audience response, ensuring
that you’re implementing native ads in a way that maintains
their trust.
4 “Association of National Analytics 2015 Survey Reports”, ANA, 2015.
4
2. Search for opportunities
throughout your site
where native ads can
unlock new ad revenue
Native ads can open up new earning opportunities on
your site where traditional ad formats weren’t appropriate
before. Ad formats, like banner ads, are effective but are
sometimes limited by size and placements. A benefit of
native ads is that they can be customized to fit seamlessly
within your content – both in the look and feel and within
the content itself.
5
Remember, native advertising isn’t a single ad format, but
a way of styling and integrating ads with content. With that
in mind, think beyond just customizing your ads to match
the look and feel of your site. Instead, determine your
site’s unique value by asking questions like, “what about
my site do users tell their friends about?” and “why would
users come to my site versus other options?”. With the
answers to these questions, you can work with advertisers
and enable them to craft a similarly engaging experience
for your audience, and choose the appropriate native ad
format for you.
6
For example, if your site’s known for providing thought
provoking, long-form journalism, consider providing
custom sponsored content just as thought provoking as
your original content. Please your audience with creative
stories that remain consistent with your site’s point of view
and values.
Use the same voice that your audience is familiar with. This
type of native ad is often referred to as “custom sponsored
content.” Here’s an example of custom sponsored content
created by LittleThings.com for eBay.
7
3. Consider how to maximize
your user experience
and ad revenue before
implementing native ads
Incorporating native ads on your site may improve your
current ad experience through new, engaging formats that
seamlessly fit into your site. It’s important to consider how
to create the best user experience and maximize your ad
revenue with these changes before diving in. Here are a
few things to keep in mind:
• If you’re adding additional ad units, consider the user’s
experience and your ad network’s policies. It’s important
to balance the number of ads and the amount of content
8
on your site to keep your users engaged and avoid overdisplaying
ads.
• Be sure to test your new native ads if you’re replacing
them with standard ad units to estimate the potential
impact on your revenue.
• Test different types of native ad formats for the
devices and platforms your content is consumed on
like desktop, mobile, AMP, etc. Consider implementing
a responsive native ads strategy so that changes you
make work across different screens seamlessly. Native
can unlock new inventory on mobile screens.
9
• Be sure that your implementation of native ads
improves viewability. According to a study we
conducted of our display advertising platforms, less
than half of all impressions are ever seen by users—
nailing viewability is a big deal.5
Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to these
considerations. It’s important that you look through your
own site, and use tools like Active View to surface what the
most seen areas of your site are and pinpoint what the best
advertising strategies are for those areas.
5 “5 Factors of Display Viewability”, Think with Google, 2014.
10
4. Ensure you have the time
and resources for proper
implementation
Success with native ads is dependent on proper
implementation – they need to be the right format for your site
and users, fit with your site’s aesthetics, and be clearly labeled
as an ad. And, depending on the type of native ads you choose,
implementation could require more effort than expected.
In-feed native ad units
For in-feed native ad units, it’ll take upfront time to
properly create beautiful ad templates that incorporate
the look and feel of your site. In addition to creative
implementation, you’ll have to spend time tweaking your
11
filters and targeting options to ensure that the ads are
compelling to your users. Learn more about what allowing
and blocking ads looks like for AdSense here.
Sponsored content
65% of US agency and
brand professionals
claim that the biggest
challenge for native
advertising is that it’s
“difficult to track” and
that there’s “a lack of
reporting”.6
6 “Biggest Challenges of Native Advertising According to US Agency and Brand
Professionals, Q4 2015”, eMarketer, 2015.
For custom sponsored
content, you may need
to spend time putting
together a piece in
collaboration with
advertisers. Depending on
the agreement with your
advertisers, you may have
to bake in extra time for
revision requests in addition to strategically planning the
core message of the piece.
12
Take the time to set campaign expectations with
advertisers and incorporate the necessary analytics
platforms to measure impact for them – this could take
time. Depending on the campaign’s goals, you may need
an elaborate setup that ties click-through rates with
actual conversions or a simpler system that measures
user engagement metrics like impressions and time
टिप्पणियाँ
एक टिप्पणी भेजें