Native Advertising – 5 Best Practices for the New Year
The best kind of advertising is when you don’t even know you are being sold to. Imagine walking through the mall and being asked by all of the vendors for you to stop and sample whatever product they are selling. If you’re like most people, you are slightly annoyed by them and walk on your merry way to the store of your choosing. It’s the same idea when you are shopping online.
People generally don’t click on an ad that is overtly salesy. They will click on the image of an ad that shows a friendly face. If they see something on their feed that looks entertaining, or makes them smile, they will most likely want to click on that ad for more entertainment. Maybe that particular article or ad had something informational or educational that will provide value to them. Enter native advertising, a better and more effective way to attract your consumer. Both advertisers and consumers are heavily invested in native advertising and we will continue to see an increased interest in this form of advertising for the New Year. Below are some best practices to keep in mind when you create your native ads in 2016:
1) Make your ads more people-friendly
We are interested in other humans. We want to know what they are eating, what they are wearing, or where they are going. It’s how we are wired. With this in mind, it makes sense that you try to include an image of a person enjoying your product in your ads. In a study conducted by Yahoo, they found that brand familiarity increased 31%, purchase increase saw a boost of 10% and recommendations increased by 13% when businesses included images of people in their advertising.
2) More Prominent Logo
Making your logo more prominent on your ad is very effective in native advertising. Larger logos are known to deliver recall, action and longer fixation than ads with no logos. In a Yahoo study comparing actions caused by big or small logos, they found that purchase increase saw a boost of 20%, click intent increased 19% and share intent increased by 13%.
3) Keep videos at around 15 seconds
This generation has been compared to having an attention span the size of a goldfish, which is around 8 seconds. It’s not surprising then, that in the case for video ads, the best practice is to keep them short and sweet. On both PC and mobile devices, consumers were more likely to fixate longer on 15 second ads compared to 30 seconds.
4) Brand Mentions
Although not as impactful as including a noticeable logo on your ad, it’s still worth mentioning your business name within your ad. It’s recommended, especially with static image ads, to include your brand in the headline of your native ad.
5) “More” means More
It’s important to keep in mind that just because someone clicked on your ad doesn’t mean your job is over. The whole experience, from start to finish, needs to be seamless. Once the consumer clicks on that “more” button from their mobile phone, you better be sure their experience is a smooth one. Users tend to fixate on the “more” button, so be sure to provide them exactly what they are looking for.
