The rise of ad blocking has been one of the biggest trends in recent times. People are getting increasingly wary of online advertisements so much that they would rather avoid them altogether than see any kind of pop-up or banner on their screen. In fact, according to Statista’s study by 2020, there will be around 1.5 billion people using ad blockers worldwide!
So how can you make your content stand out from all those other ads and get more clicks without paying an arm and leg for it? Native ads seem like a great solution because they don't require users to click anything at all – they simply appear when someone visits a page with certain keywords. The only thing the user needs to do is scroll down to view it. So why aren't we seeing this everywhere yet? What's keeping these ads from being as widely used as sponsored posts? And what advantages does this method have over traditional methods such as PPC (pay per click) campaigns? Let us find out exactly what makes native ads good for affiliate marketers.
When you use paid search advertising (PPC), you pay every time a person clicks on your link. This means if you're targeting a specific niche, then you'll likely end up spending lots of money just trying to reach potential customers who might not even know you exist. However, with native ads, you won't need to spend money until someone actually reads your message – and once they've read it, chances are they'll want to share it with their friends. It also gives you better control over where your audience goes next after reading your article, since they won't necessarily go back to your website right away. You could potentially send them off to another site entirely - or direct them straight into shopping cart with a simple button press. If done correctly, you wouldn't even need to track conversions.
If you think about it, native ads are really beneficial for both parties involved: publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers benefit from increased traffic and engagement while advertisers benefit from high quality leads and sales. Furthermore, with native ads, you no longer have to worry about competition taking advantage of your hard work – you can focus instead on providing valuable information to readers that they'd love to share with others.
Native ads can certainly help increase revenue for publishers and brands looking to advertise on sites. They provide a way for companies to showcase their services in places where consumers tend to look first before clicking on links. There are many different types of native ads available today but here are some examples of popular ones:
SkimLinks: These are essentially “sponsored content” written by third party authors and posted directly onto websites. While they may feel similar to regular articles, they usually come complete with a call-to-action button at the bottom allowing visitors to submit their details. Clickbank offers SKIMLINKS as part of its program called "Shareasale", which allows affiliates to promote items within a given blog post.
CJ Affiliate: CJ Affiliate is a network of merchants offering digital goods. When visitors land on a publisher's webpage via a browser extension, they receive a popup notification encouraging them to sign up for a free account. Once signed up, they can browse the catalog and select products they wish to buy. Their credit card number will be charged automatically upon checkout, and the merchant gets commission from each sale. Publishers earn 70% of the total amount earned by the advertiser, minus PayPal fees, shipping costs, and the cost of running the campaign. The remaining 30% is split between the customer and the advertiser.
Shopify: Shopify provides eCommerce solutions for small businesses, allowing them to quickly set up storefronts and accept payments. Once the store is ready to launch, Shopify publishes a list of products along with titles and descriptions under the shop name. Visitors to the site can purchase products by selecting them from a dropdown menu and submitting payment details. The merchant receives commissions based on each successful transaction.
Rakuten Advertising: Rakuten Ad Network was created specifically for retailers interested in promoting their own product or service. Each item comes with a detailed description including pricing, images, reviews, ratings, etc., and visitors can choose whether or not they want to add the product to their carts immediately.
There are plenty of other options available too, but the key point remains: Native ads allow advertisers to target a large market base, and generate interest among the general public, without having to pay a dime upfront.
It depends on what type of business model you follow. For example, if you run a blog that focuses mainly on SEO strategies and tips, then native ads probably won't bring in enough profit to warrant investing time into writing new content regularly. On the flip side, if you manage an eBay store selling handmade jewelry and accessories, then native ads could prove very lucrative indeed.
For most businesses though, especially smaller ones, native ads offer less benefits compared to other forms of advertising. As mentioned above, PPC requires you to pay every time someone clicks on your link, whereas native ads give you greater flexibility regarding where people take action afterwards. Therefore, you should consider focusing on the following areas when deciding which form of advertising works well for your business:
Targeting demographics: Are there particular groups of people who are likely to respond favorably to your brand? Native ads give you the ability to target those audiences with minimal effort.
Interesting topics: Do your buyers care about your topic? If yes, then posting relevant native ads on your site could boost your conversion rates significantly.
Content creation: How often are you planning to write fresh content? Will native ads help you create engaging pieces of original material?
Compatibility with social media platforms: Can you integrate your native ads seamlessly with various social networks? Many publishers opt to utilize Facebook as a main source of traffic, with Twitter and YouTube serving as secondary sources.
One disadvantage associated with native ads relates to trustworthiness. Even though they look authentic, they still carry with them the same risks inherent in PPC campaigns: namely, the possibility of scamming users and stealing their personal data.
Another drawback is that the majority of native ads currently available rely heavily on text-based formats. Although this may sound appealing initially, it limits the effectiveness of the overall piece considerably. To illustrate, imagine that you were able to publish a full video tutorial explaining how to install WordPress. Would it be worth doing so? Probably not. But it could easily become the case when combined with a catchy title, enticing copy, and appropriate imagery.
Lastly, there's always the issue of privacy. Since native ads are displayed on top of existing pages, it may cause confusion for viewers. Also, although they don't contain banners or popups, they can sometimes lead to intrusive notifications popping up on mobile devices, something you definitely don't want happening.
As you can see, there are several factors to consider when choosing between two different types of advertising campaigns, and unfortunately, native ads can't solve all problems. That said, it's important to remember that despite their drawbacks, native ads can still prove highly useful for affiliate marketers seeking ways to improve their ROI.
Whether you decide to pursue native advertising or stick to old school PPC, keep in mind that it's crucial to pick the right platform to start with. Choosing a wrong option can leave you with little choices but either pay big bucks for nothing or waste precious resources creating content nobody wants to read.
Therefore, you should carefully research the industry you intend to enter before starting any sort of promotional activity. Take into consideration things like target markets, competitors, and possible monetization plans. Then, when you finally figure out which direction to head towards, make sure to build a solid plan beforehand. Otherwise, you risk wasting months of resources and losing hundreds of dollars.
Which brings me to my last question: Which category is best for affiliate marketing? Well, I'm glad you asked...
In truth, there isn't any single answer to that. Some experts say affiliate marketing is dead. Others claim it's alive and kicking. Still others believe it's irrelevant. No matter what anyone says, however, it's clear that affiliate marketing is thriving across a wide range of verticals. Whether you choose to specialize in technology, health & wellness, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home decor, pets, sports equipment, cars, games, toys, music, art, travel, books, movies, food, home appliances, tools, electronics, outdoor gear, clothing, or something else, there's bound to be a suitable opportunity waiting for you somewhere.
Affiliate marketing has been a go-to model for online marketers since its inception in 2004. The idea of creating content that would drive people towards purchasing specific goods or services is an excellent method for building a business while providing customers with quality information they want to read. However, as time goes by and technology advances, so does the landscape of affiliate marketing.
Many companies are now taking advantage of new ways to connect directly with their audience instead of relying solely on affiliates. This means that more direct methods need to be implemented alongside traditional ones if businesses hope to stay competitive and profitable.
Native advertising (also known as sponsored posts) is one example of this trend. Native ads can be seen everywhere from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to blogs and even email campaigns. These kinds of advertisements provide users with useful articles but also offer them something else, such as discounts or offers.
The question remains, however, whether these types of ads are beneficial for those who rely heavily on affiliate programs. In order to find out what works better – native ads or affiliate links - we spoke with experts in both fields. Here's what they had to say.
When it comes to promoting affiliate products, some believe that native ads are superior because they make use of real human beings rather than bots. For instance, when someone clicks on a link within an article or post, there’s no way for anyone to know how many times the person did so before clicking. In other words, a click could mean nothing or it could mean thousands of dollars worth of sales.
However, according to AdWeek, “native ads typically do not generate higher conversion rates [than] regular organic search results.” As a result, most advertisers will continue using standard SEO techniques to boost traffic.
While native ads may not always give your site a leg up over competitors, they are still important for increasing brand awareness. If done correctly, native ads can help build trust between brands and consumers. They also allow businesses to reach audiences that might otherwise never see their product.
According to ClickBank, "Advertisers can choose from four different ad formats." Those include banners, interstitial, rich media, and video. Each format allows for varying degrees of customization depending on the company’s needs. It should be noted here that all of these options require a high level of expertise from the advertiser in order to get the desired effect.
If you don't feel comfortable making changes to your own website, you can hire a professional to take care of this task for you. We recommend hiring a developer who specializes in WordPress development. They'll ensure that everything looks great and functions properly from start to finish. You can learn more about finding a reliable web designer here.
You can also consider using plugins with certain themes. Some popular examples include Yoast SEO Plugin and All in One Schema Markup plugin. Both of these tools enable you to add meta data tags to the head section of each page on your website. Doing so helps Google understand exactly what type of content readers expect from your site.
Additionally, having a well-optimized title tag is crucial. A poorly written title tag can cause a lot of damage to your rankings, especially on mobile devices. Make sure you spend ample time crafting a compelling description for every single piece of content on your blog/website.
When looking at various ads, keep in mind that they're designed to appeal specifically to a particular demographic. While some ads feature images that scream "fitness" or "weight loss," others showcase things that have absolutely nothing to do with fitness or weight loss. That being said, there are plenty of tools available that will let you create custom promotions based on keywords, demographics, interests, etc.
CJ Affiliate says that the best kind of ad to run is one that targets a specific audience. An ad that appeals to everyone is unlikely to bring in any significant amount of revenue. By focusing only on your target market, you increase your odds of getting conversions.
Taboola is an interesting case study when it comes to native ads versus affiliate links. Taboola is often referred to as the Amazon of the internet due to its ability to place relevant advertisements throughout the world. When visitors land on a webpage containing a Taboola ad, they receive a pop-out box where they can purchase whatever item was featured in the advertisement.
As mentioned above, however, most people aren't aware that Taboola contains paid advertisements. Since Taboola doesn't reveal the nature of its ads until after the user makes his decision, it's hard to determine whether the publisher of a given webpage is actually receiving compensation for placing a promotion on her site.
To address this issue, Taboola recently announced plans to integrate an open source tracking system called SkimLinks into its platform. Once integrated, publishers will be able to track the number of purchases made through their site when visitors come across promotional items via SkimLinks.
SkimLinks relies upon cookies to collect usage statistics. According to the privacy policy posted on the SkimLinks website, these cookies are used to "count unique visits and page views, monitor aggregate metrics related to our websites, and improve the overall performance of our sites."
So far, SkimLinks appears to be doing quite well. BackPackr reports that 90 percent of publishers on the network earn money by selling space on their pages to third party merchants. It hasn't yet been determined if Taboola uses the same technique for monetizing its partners' sites.
We reached out to Taboola asking if it currently collects data on publishers' earnings. At press time, we hadn't received a response.
A recent survey found that 60 million Americans regularly participate in influencer marketing activities. Although this represents just 2% of total population, it indicates that companies are starting to realize the importance of reaching out to influential individuals to encourage them to share their positive experiences with others.
It seems that influencers are becoming increasingly valuable assets for advertisers. And although native ads aren't necessarily going away anytime soon, they certainly seem to be losing ground against affiliate links. However, that doesn't mean they won't maintain their relevance in the future.
For starters, native ads typically cost less per impression compared to affiliate links. Plus, they tend to perform slightly better when it comes to driving conversions. Furthermore, native ads are likely to become much easier to implement thanks to advancements in AI technologies.
Ultimately, the answer depends on what you'd prefer -- a small amount of extra effort or a large chunk of change. But either way, it's clear that native ads are gaining popularity among digital marketers today.
If you've ever wondered what all the fuss is about, check out this video below for an overview of the topic!
With so many different types of online advertising available today, it can be tough to know what works best for your business or website. Native ads offer an exciting new way to advertise that allows you to take advantage of real-time data from Facebook users. These ads appear in their newsfeeds as they would any other post, but there’s one big difference – brands don’t pay for them directly. Instead, the advertiser pays a platform like Clickbank or Rakuten Advertising to show up in someone else’s content feed. The user sees these ads just like traditional posts, with no change in how their page looks.
Native ads were first introduced by Facebook back in 2016 and since then, advertisers have been able to use this method to promote everything from pet food to cars. While some experts argue that people will never completely accept this type of advertising because it feels intrusive (as if you’re being sold something), others say that it could actually help businesses reach more customers than traditional methods.
So should you start using native ads now? Let us explain why it may be worth giving this strategy a try. We'll also look at examples of successful campaigns and discuss whether native ads really work.
Before we get into specific ways to integrate native ads into your campaign, here's an overview of what they're all about.
A "native" means that the advertisement appears in its natural context rather than on another site. For instance, when you see an article on CNN, you're seeing an advertorial that was paid for by a brand or company. A "non-native" is any advertisement that doesn't come straight out of a person's newsfeed. This includes sponsored tweets, pop ups, and even those annoying pre-roll videos that play automatically before every video you watch.
The term "advertisers paying platforms to put their messages in front of consumers has become commonplace." In fact, most companies already use various forms of native advertising. According to research conducted by eMarketer, over 50% of marketers plan to increase investment in digital ads next year. That number is expected to grow rapidly as well -- according to a report by Adobe Analytics, US spending on mobile and desktop paid search alone rose 24% last quarter compared to Q1 2018.
While native ads aren't anything new, there are several reasons why they've grown in popularity lately. First off, they allow you to bypass Google's algorithm changes that penalize sites that rely too heavily on paid links. Because they're not technically advertisements, they won't trigger algorithms designed to punish low quality websites. Second, they give you complete control over who sees your message. You can decide exactly where your message shows up on a given blog post, making sure that only certain demographics see it. And finally, they let you target audiences based on age, gender, location, interests, and much more.
Now that you understand what native ads are, let's explore how you might incorporate them into your own business!
If you want to learn more about native ads, you'll find plenty of information on the internet. But sometimes, it helps to see actual examples. Here are three popular ones.
Shopify
For small merchants looking to expand their customer base, Shopify offers a great opportunity to test out native ads. With the click-to-buy feature, you can choose to add a link to your product page right inside of a user's profile box. If they click the button, they'll be taken to your store immediately. It's a quick and easy way to attract potential buyers without having to create a whole separate landing page.
SkimLinks
One of the leading affiliate networks, SkimLinks uses native ads to drive traffic to its partner stores. When visitors land on a web page featuring sponsored posts, they'll see an option to buy whatever item is featured. Unlike regular affiliate links, however, the visitor must then navigate away from the page to purchase the product.
CJ Affiliate
Another top affiliate network, CJ Affiliate relies on native ads to direct traffic to its partners' storefronts. Users can simply scroll down to view recent articles, promotions, or deals related to the topic they're interested in. They'll then receive an immediate call to action to visit the merchant's homepage.
Social media channels like Instagram and Twitter often include promoted posts similar to native ads. However, unlike native ads, these posts usually require the user to leave the platform entirely to access the full content.
But while most native ads appear in your newsfeed, there are two exceptions that deserve special mention. One involves Snapchat Discover. Snap Inc., the parent company behind Snapchat, regularly features stories that run for days instead of hours. To keep track of the latest story, users need to open Snapchat and swipe left until they see Discover. Once they do, they're exposed to sponsored posts for brands such as Sephora, Nike, and AT&T that they wouldn't necessarily discover otherwise.
To make money via native ads, you need to choose a relevant niche. Then, you'll need to find a place within that space that gives you enough room to tell your unique story. Whether you go after a trending hashtag (#love) or create a viral sensation ("the world's greatest vegan cookie"), you want to stand out.
Lastly, consider the size of the audience you hope to engage. Most native ads appear in the feeds of around 1 million users each day. So unless you intend to launch a massive campaign, you probably shouldn't expect huge results overnight. Still, if you set yourself apart with creative messaging and strong branding, you'll likely notice an uptick in engagement.
Native ads and display ads both serve to promote content published elsewhere on the internet. Display ads tend to appear above organic posts or alongside pages that contain links, whereas native ads sit below them.
Display ads are typically shown on websites, while native ads tend to appear on social media and blogs. Both formats provide excellent options for reaching large numbers of viewers, but they differ significantly in terms of format, placement, and overall success.
Here are some key differences between display ads and native ads.
Advertising format
When it comes to visual design, native ads are generally less appealing than standard banner or text ads. As a result, you won't see a lot of eye candy when you read about them.
Placement
Wherever you see an article or post on a webpage, you'll almost always see a headline, author name, and date stamp. On the other hand, native ads tend to appear below headlines and author names. Since you rarely see any sort of header for native ads, readers may assume they belong to the original publisher.
Audience
Since native ads exist purely to promote external content, they're primarily focused on attracting eyeballs. Banner ads, on the other hand, appeal to both publishers and readers.
There are numerous factors that influence the price tag associated with native ads. Some major players charge anywhere from $100-$500 per day, depending on the targeted demographic and length of time the ad runs. Others opt for smaller payments spread over multiple months. Ultimately, though, prices vary greatly depending on the nature of the content itself. More expensive titles will naturally command higher fees.
As far as targeting goes, there's a wide range of possibilities. Brands can target individuals based on age, gender, hobbies, geography, income level, education level, relationship status, and even political affiliation. Publishers can also leverage advanced tagging tools to segment their audience and deliver custom messages tailored to individual preferences.
You've got lots of choices when it comes to advertising online, including banners, text ads, email newsletters, and more. As long as you stay within the bounds of fair practices, you can feel confident that your efforts won't harm your reputation. Of course, that said, if you want to maximize profits, you should definitely think twice before jumping headfirst into native ads.
However, if you're willing to experiment and spend a little extra cash, you'll reap incredible benefits. From building awareness among prospects to increasing conversions, native ads can transform your online presence into an effective sales funnel.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.