First it was footfalls that drove sales. Then with the age of ‘online’, it was eyeballs. Now, with the overload of banners, flashing lights and popups in the virtual world, eyeballs have become very discerning and can block out visual noise effortlessly. Consequently, loud and expensive conventional ad formats have become ineffective, as they go unnoticed. And the unfortunate result is a smaller bang for the buck for both advertisers and publishers of this format.
So how does an advertisement get noticed and how do publishers monetize traffic on their websites?
Enter…or rather re-enter…‘native advertising’, in its new and upgraded form.
Native advertising - The future of online promotion
Native advertising is a close relative of the ‘oh so familiar’ advertorial. Basically, it is an advertisement that is made appealing to a viewer because it offers more than a direct sales pitch. It comprises content that is customised to cater to the information requirements of the audience it targets. This is precisely what makes it more likely to lead to clicks and conversions. Yet underneath this genuine endeavour to the capture the audience’s attention, native advertising comprises paid media placements in the form of “recommended reading” and other widgets that may appear toward the end of an article on a website or blog.
A native advertisement is made to look and feel like the main content in which the advertisement is placed. Such ads and content are usually accompanied by attractive images, headlines and references to trending events. They typically appear as a series of square-shaped thumbnails and titles that link to other articles and content on the Internet.
With increasing levels of “banner blindness” among internet users, native advertising has become a format that both publishers and advertisers find valuable as it attracts up to 60% more attention than normal ad banners. Further, the CTR of native formats averages 0.26 % against an average traditional banner CTR of only 0.17 %. Further, the relatively low effective CPC in such content makes it both lucrative for the website owner and affordable for the marketer.
In a nutshell, native advertising enables publishers to share more interesting, relevant content, which audiences appreciate as it is tailored to their needs; and as a result of this, advertisers can expect a far greater number of clicks and conversions. Effectively, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Staying ahead with AdNow
AdNow is an ad network which has been leading innovation in the native advertising space recently. Led by a team of professionals with hands-on experience in digital marketing, real-time bidding, pay-per-click, mobile advertising, media buying, and big data —the company offers an amalgamation of all the necessary elements for the success of online promotion and sales. With this melting pot of talent, it has the capacity to create a hybrid native ad format for both desktop and mobile ad inventory. As of 2016, AdNow has around 1,90,000 publishing partners and facilitates over 1,700 advertisers (including giants like Amazon, eBay, PeerFly and Matomy) by serving over 4.2 billion impressions to 900 million users across 107 countries.
It’s no wonder then, that AdNow has reaped such great success in a short span of just two years. A lot of thought has gone into every aspect of its business, right from its website to the delivery mechanisms. The website offers publishers a comprehensive level of control over the look, feel and size of the AdNow widget as well as how many creatives can be contained in each row or column. By adjusting the size of each thumbnail, as well as the font type and size of the teaser text, a publisher can create truly customised widgets.
Most importantly, AdNow does not have rigid publisher and advertiser approval processes; it is known to choose both its publisher and advertiser partners on a manual basis. It is also a lot more accepting than its peers of sites with more nascent traffic numbers and accordingly, is even suitable for modest webmasters. Further, unlike other comparable networks, the ads are pre-moderated so that publishers have better quality assurance over what users are going to see on their page. Nevertheless, AdNow’s content discovery through its self-serve platform has the potential to boost page views by up to 50%.
The world at your fingertips with AdNow
Profiles on AdNow fall under categories such as news, health, beauty, lifestyle, entertainment, etc. The CTR for AdNow widgets placed under such articles tend to surpass 2% and deliver good earnings as the company is characterized by aggressive pricing, though it is relatively young. While network rates depend on geography and placement and the quality, number and activity of users, it not only competes, but exceeds earnings by similar players.
AdNow works well for all types of legal sites and presents no conflict with other ad systems. Other attractive features include weekly pay-outs, starting at $20 and paid via Paypal, Wire and Payoneer, pre-moderation of ads (which go through a process of safety checks) and the allocation of personal account managers with local language support. The setup process is quick and hassle-free and the coding enables good customization for ad widgets. With competitive rates and global coverage, the company has achieved an average native ad CTR of 1.15%
Additional positives are that even non-English sites can join this native ad network and publishers can track their revenue and performance in real time. Best of all, the growing number of partners and publishers and low m minimum deposit threshold for advertisers enables AdNow to run a dynamic referral system.
It is this combination of progressive features which has driven AdNow to the forefront of ad tech evolution as they manifest in its strength in native advertising and power of programmatic delivery.
Getting Started
AdNow’s signup process is a breeze as it does not require users to verify their website by adding a code snippet or installing a plugin. There are just three simple steps to get started:
1. Registration on the website: http://adnow.com/sign-up
2. Creating the widget
3. Placing the widget code on the website
Naturally, the support team is always standing by to assist in case of difficulties in figuring out where the widget code has to be placed on the websites and are equally happy to share information about other processes and best practices.
So, waste no further time mulling over how to make your online presence more effective. All you have to do is tap into AdNow’s native media ad expertise to ensure attractive ads, at the right moment, in the right place. And clicks and conversions are bound to follow…