Bye Facebook! Hello Native Ads! How and why to change the traffic source

Division of traffic sources is always a smart strategy. And if someone ignored it, then it will no longer work. It seems that Facebook decided to “take the initiative into its own hands” and push affiliates to look for additional traffic sources. Recently, the most popular social network creates more and more difficulties. It's time to look at other methods! What about native advertising? Today, we are looking into how to promote Nutra offers using Native Ads.

Native advertising is a type of ad that looks like it's part of a page and doesn't really stand out. A native ad fits into the environment as naturally as possible, neatly “weaves” into the main content, and unobtrusively prompts readers with useful information.

For example, on the site of a well-known magazine, natural advertising looks like a news item or an article. On Instagram, a commercial post looks like a regular account post. On YouTube, a native ad might be a product or brand mention.

Features of Native Ads:

• Helps overcome "banner blindness" by not looking like a literal advertisement.
• Ad blockers do not affect native ads.
• Moderation is more loyal. The native advertising network normally allows an offer that is banned from other sources.
• This format is not squeezed out yet, there is a lot of freedom for creativity and earnings.
• Adapts to the format of the surrounding content.
• It can be videos, pictures, articles, audio, and other media files.
• Most often, native content is marked as sponsored content, significantly reducing user misclicks.
• Content marketing is also a form of Native Ads in the “related content that you might be interested in” block along with the regular texts on the site.

Search ads (ads displayed next to search engine results) or promoted tweets, trends (hashtags), promoted posts on Facebook, and sponsored posts on Tumblr are also native. We conditionally agreed to call native advertising content that helps inspire the trust of potential customers. Thus, native content has more opportunities to go viral.

We can say that native is a type of advertising and its tactics, not a specific platform. With a native approach, you can place ads on different traffic sources (for example, TikTok, Google, and Facebook).

Where to place native ads

You have decided to use native advertising as a source of traffic. Where exactly? Native traffic can be found on blogs, news sites, and lifestyle sites — everywhere.

With so much traffic around the world, almost any offer has a chance of getting traffic from big sites (assuming your ad bid is high enough).

Launching and configuring native advertising from scratch

The algorithm of actions depends on the site where you place your ad.

To advertise natively through Google AdWords:

1. Use the responsive ad format.
2. To do this, in the campaign settings, specify the goal "Audience reach".
3. In the ad settings, select the "Adaptive" type.

After launching the campaign, your ad will be shown as native as well. For example, it can get into the "Announcement in the article" block. The design of this block automatically adjusts to the design of the website.

There are also entire ad networks through which you can run native ads. Each network has its own system, but the basics of setting up a campaign are the same:

1. Choose the appropriate native ad format (video, featured, etc., depending on the platform).
2. Set up targeting (in addition to the parameters of the target audience, the category of the site is important for native advertising). When choosing a network for native advertising, always consider what each is specialized for. One can give good coverage in English-speaking countries, the other in the Asian region, the third is good for the Spanish-speaking segment. The largest grids cover the whole world.
3. Add your link.
4. Set your bid and budget (CPC or CPM, depending on the platform).

The type of native advertising and the site where it is placed determines the creatives. Therefore, the more platforms you cover, the more layouts you will need.

Text-based native ads usually require an image and short text. But you need to focus on the context where you want to enter the ad. If you agree on the placement of native advertising directly with the owners of publics or bloggers, then they will give a sample for the creative so that there are no external differences between an advertising post and a regular one.

Feel the difference

Native Ads generate two main types of traffic:

• Merchandise traffic. Announcements, articles, promos are placed on websites, and clicking on ads takes the user to the pre-landing and landing pages. That is, the standard arbitration scheme. There is a lot of such traffic and it is cheaper.
• News traffic. This is traffic from news and well-respected information sites with a good reputation and a relevant audience. Basically, the audience here is more serious, older and more solvent, so news traffic is more expensive.

Native ad creatives 

Native advertising is such a “chameleon” that mimics the environment. Therefore, it is always different. But there are general principles:

• Conform to the appearance and style of the site where it is placed.
• Unostentatious presentation. It does not cause inconvenience to the audience while providing them with useful information.
• Native content has the same colors, font, and style as the main one. There are even such posts on the CNN website.
• There is no need to cause a WOW effect, like with teasers.

But be sure to consider seasonality when choosing an offer and creatives. People read news publications with up-to-date information and quickly forget unnecessary advice.

Use unique pictures and photographs to make the most of the difference between native ads and literal ads.

Nutra native ads

Native advertising is optimal for nutra-offers. This is evidenced by our experience and logical analysis:

• The target audience of health&beauty products tends to visit websites and blogs that place native ads.
• Nutra topics provide an endless number of ideas for native articles: how someone got cured, became more beautiful, found a way out, solved a problem, etc.
• Classic pre-landers and Nutra landings already use all the native techniques. Just remember all these articles where an authoritative doctor shares a new unique remedy, but as if not for the sake of advertising, but at the request of readers.

If you understand the principle, then native advertising works with any offer. The main thing is to come up with a compelling story that is suitable for a specific site, and to execute creatives with high quality. However, as with any traffic.

A fly in the ointment

Perhaps the main disadvantage of native advertising is that it is more difficult to produce and more expensive than other traffic sources.

Another feature of native advertising is that it does not always lead directly to a sale. But this is not a disadvantage if this is the purpose of advertising (image, not selling).

It is problematic to set up clear targeting because native advertising is traffic from a wide audience.

Disaster Detour 

If the ad is not delivering the expected results, you need to find and fix the problem. In cases with native advertising, here are the most common options:

There is no conversion or it is small.

Don't forget to test clicks and CPCs. Example: CPC is set to 20 cents, but there is no conversion. We raised the price to 35 cents - and there was a great conversion.

No ad results.

The native loves novelty. To get good results from it, you need to add new ads. Due to the fact that there is a lot of information on the site, including natives, your one ad may not even be shown. But if you add multiple teasers, the chance of impressions is much higher.

A lot of clicks, but a small conversion.

Avoid flashy creatives. A shocking creative will increase the number of clicks, but will reduce the overall conversion. In fact, you will receive approximately the same response as from push notifications or teaser sites. The essence of a native ad is not to differ from the rest of the content at all, to carry useful information, and not to offer the purchase of a product or service.

PPI is not effective.

Pay-per-impression in native ads is rarely effective, you better start with pay-per-click (PPC). If there are a lot of them, then you can connect the payment for impressions.

Instead of conclusions

Native advertising is a good way to drive traffic. It has many advantages over other advertising formats. The main thing is the ability to fit into the content of the site and attract real interest without annoying readers.

So native is the most “honest” type of advertising and therefore should bring the highest conversion. But you need to “be able to properly cook” it.

Nutra and native advertising are literally made for each other because their principles are the same in most points. Native advertising inspires user confidence and gives more chances that a person will follow the link and buy the product because he learned about it not from an intrusive banner, but from a leading specialist, who even writes about in the news. And not in some unknown blog, but in the New York Times or with the approval of your favorite blogger.

A big plus of native advertising is that since this is not one platform, the terms of advertising do not change here. There is no administration that would introduce new rules and restrictions, and no additional software, cloacas or anti-detects are required. The only thing that changes is that creatives become outdated and new fresh bundles are needed. But no one puts spokes in the wheels. So, if you are tired of the endless complexities of Facebook, pay attention to the native advertising, it may be your perfect match!

In the meantime, we continue to find the best offers, sources, and ideas for you. Aff1.com managers are always in touch and ready to share their experience!