RevContent

Why Publishers Are Turning to Native Advertising for Revenue Growth

publisher advertising

Today, traditional display advertising is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Brand advertisers want flexibility, great content, video, images, and infographics; all at a reasonable price. This is why publishers are turning to native advertising to grow their revenue.

Native advertising involves creating ads that are in line with the page content. They are built into the page design and are consistent with the platform. This gives the impression that the ad belongs on the page. 

Both established brands and startups are shifting more ad budgets toward non-disruptive advertising formats. Native ads offer immense benefits to advertisers and publishers. 

In this post, we bring you the advantages of native advertising, plus tips for publishers.

Native Advertising Benefits for Publishers

Native advertising budgets are rising with every passing year and are expected to double in the next few years. 

Reports from Statista indicate that the expenditure on native display ads in the U.S. touched $52.75 billion in 2020, up from $16.68 billion in 2016. It is expected to grow 36% by 2022. 

Publishers who have a customer base are looking to monetize their sites. Advertisers are looking to achieve brand awareness and generate more leads.

Native advertising has become an indispensable tool for publishers to monetize their content across platforms and devices. 

Here is how native ads can benefit you as a publisher: 

  • Generates Revenue: Unlike banner ads, native ads blend in with a page’s content. They are eye-catching, interactive, and relevant to the customer’s needs, without being intrusive. They encourage visitors to click on them; thereby, potentially generating revenue for publishers. According to Sharethrough, customers view 53% more native ads than regular display ads. 
  • Offers Higher Engagement: Per Martechvibe, 70% of users prefer to learn about products via native ads. With opt-in native units, you can drive users to high-value pages and rich media content, such as native images, videos, carousels, sponsored content, and microsites, without sacrificing the overall user experience.
  • Presents Transparency and Simplicity: In-feed ads are a great way for publishers to showcase their content. Native advertising platforms have algorithms matching the pages and sponsored content. That makes them easy to use. Because they are clearly labeled as sponsored content, it creates a sense of transparency among users. They click on the advertisement, knowing that it is a paid ad.
  • Is More User-Friendly: User-friendly, native ads blend in with organic content, making them less likely to be blocked and more likely to be viewed.
  • Helps Monetize Content:  Since native ad placements offer high earnings per 1000 impressions (eCPMs), greater engagement, and better click-through rates, advertisers are willing to spend more on them. This allows publishers to monetize content without changing their layout. 
  • Offers More Control: Native ads give advertisers more control over ad placement and where the ads will be used. Publishers can benefit by selecting the most relevant ads for the target audience. This will help them convert visitors more easily. 
  • Is Device Responsive: Native ads run flawlessly on mobile websites. These ads appear as part of a site’s content and look like the original content. That means one piece of effective ad content will work on all types of devices, mobile or otherwise.  
  • Gives Higher Returns with Email Marketing: Combining native ads with email marketing benefits publishers. Advertisers willingly pay more for the increased flexibility and customer engagement that email marketing has to offer. Delivering newsletters can help drive enhanced user experience, resulting in higher returns for the advertiser. This, in turn, will give publishers a higher cost per mille (CPM).  

Tips for Native Ad Publishers to Increase Revenue

The effectiveness of native ads depends on several factors, including placement, ad size, and optimization. 

Here are 9 useful tips for native ad publishers to earn more revenue:

1. Make Your Ads Relevant 

Make your ads relevant and useful to your niche audience. Find ways to tell your audience what it is that makes the product or service unique and how it can help them. End the content with a clear call to action. It will potentially give you more click-throughs. 

Ensure that your native ad does not disrupt the viewer experience and that it is a smooth, seamless, and hassle-free process.

2. Work on Building Customer Relationships

Rather than making a quick conversion, you should focus on building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with your customers. 

First and foremost, respect their right to privacy. Avoid collecting data by using cookies. Instead, build trust by being transparent with them. Let your customers know what data you will be collecting and how you will be using it.  

Take it forward by offering them a great user experience, resolving their issues promptly, and offering them loyalty bonuses and rewards.

3. Advertise on Multiple Networks  

Visitors eventually ignore default ad positions and creatives, resulting in fewer clicks and lower publisher revenue.

You should consider creating multiple ads so that your campaign never gets monotonous. You will also be able to increase visitor engagement by using a variety of different ad networks.

Consumers will notice newer ads and be more inclined to click on an advertisement they have never seen before. That can potentially lead to a higher click-through rate.

Further, if you use ad rotation, it will limit the chance of users becoming blind to ads after seeing them several times in the past.

4. Experiment with Ad Placement

It is important to experiment with different ad placement and other creatives, to see what works best for you. If your advertisement matches the look and feel of your website, and is also attractive and easy to use, visitors may unconsciously click on it. 

Test all ad layouts or placements, and play around with different ad sizes and units. Track user behavior based on each layout. Keep testing different types of ad combinations and choose the ones that are the most effective for your business. 

5. Implement a Content Recommendation System

Your website may do well with in-feed ads, but adding more story views is the more effective way to grab eyeballs. 

Stories give users more ways to navigate your website. You can use this social media tool to help consumers find specific ads on your social networks.

Sponsored stories perform equally well with a revenue model based on a per-click basis. Visually appealing, the networks offer fluid designs that blend seamlessly with your website’s aesthetics. 

Additionally, ensure that your content is shareable. Placing social media links on your website will help users reach you, post comments and reviews, and share your company information on their social networks.  

6. Test, Test, and Test Some More

Every site has a unique way to increase its ad revenue. One thing that publishers typically ignore is split testing. Split testing helps you view and understand the various ad metrics.

An advertisement has several elements to it. There isn’t just one thing you can do to optimize your commercials. You need to keep testing and altering your ad to optimize it. A slight change to the headline, font, color, image, landing page, or text, could sometimes change the entire personality of your advertisement. 

Keep experimenting till you arrive at the combination that best suits your business.

7. Use Automation

Automation is a good way to optimize your website’s ads to determine what strikes the right chord with your audience. Automating your native ad can optimize it, test multiple ad units, track changes, schedule changes, and view results in real-time. 

Machine-learning-driven optimization has become more robust than ever before. By analyzing user behavior, these systems can continually optimize your website.

8. Tips for Website Optimization

  • Declutter Your Website Layout: An organized website layout will help visitors understand the information, links, and tabs on your site. Make sure that the content is well-organized, and that the text is formatted to look uniform. Leave space between text blocks, so that the site looks clean and open. Use legible fonts that are easy to read. Use bulleted lists to enable viewers to browse important information. 
  • Make Site Navigation Easy: Organize your site with clearly-categorized links and tabs. Make your site’s navigation more fluid and intuitive. Consider creating a sidebar on your homepage, plus an FAQ section.  
  • Provide Contact Information: Post your address, customer service phone numbers, email address, and hours of operation. You can also create a customer contact form, which visitors can use to post their questions to you. A live chat or chat bot feature will allow them to get answers to their queries.
  • Include CTA Buttons: Include a call-to-action (CTA) button to encourage visitors to take action. Your CTA button can let them contact you to receive a product/service quote, visit another page on your site, or sign up for a paid subscription. Place the button in the same place on all your site’s pages and make them consistent across all pages. 

9.  Play by the Rules

Make sure to follow FTC’s guidelines on advertising; especially, on deceptively formatted ads. Not following its rules could result in serious consequences.

Also, search engines need you to disclose your paid links. So, make sure to follow the links on your advertisements. 

Increase Publisher Revenue with Native Advertising

Adopt the above-mentioned native advertising techniques to generate high-quality leads and enhance publisher revenue.

Learn more about RevContent’s native advertising solutions to establish a meaningful connection with your customers.

Share this post

SUBSCRIBE

Get the latest native advertising tips delivered straight to your inbox. 

Lets talk revenue

Create Your Campaign