Leveraging Competitive Intelligence in Native Advertising
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This document discusses leveraging competitive intelligence in native advertising. It defines native advertising and provides statistics on its growth and effectiveness. It then discusses how content discovery networks can be used by companies to boost content and generate leads through native ads. The document analyzes case studies of how Huffington Post, MegaBargains24, Ancestry.com, and viralnova.com have successfully used content discovery networks and native advertising. It concludes that using competitive intelligence can help marketers uncover strategies of successful brands and adapt their own strategies.
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Leveraging Competitive Intelligence in Native Advertising
- 1. Leveraging Competitive Intelligence in Native Advertising Presented by
- 2. David Kelly VP Business Development WhatRunsWhere 2 david@whatrunswhere.com Leader, Business Strategist & AdTech Innovator
- 3. 3 Leveraging Competitive Intelligence in Native Advertising • Native Advertising & New Opportunities • Content Discovery Networks • Maximizing Success with Competitive Intelligence
- 4. What is Native Advertising? “…a paid ad that is so cohesive with the pages content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that it belongs. ” - IAB Native Advertising Playbook
- 5. Founded on three main principals:
- 6. Why all the hype? Native Ad Spend • 2015 Native Ad Spend forecasted to reach $4.3 Billion • Number will double by 2018 • Opportunities, opportunities, opportunities According to eMarketer (2014)
- 7. Why is Native garnering so much ad spend? • Because it works • 70% prefer to learn about products through content than traditional ads • 32% would share Native Ad content with friends and family vs. 19% for banner ads • Purchase intent is 53% Higher
- 8. How are Native Ads relevant to Affiliate Marketers? Content Discovery Networks (CDN)
- 9. Top Content Discovery Networks
- 10. Who uses Content Discovery Networks? • B2B/B2C Companies & Brands • Lead Generation Companies • News sites including Viral News and Quiz Sites (Ad Arbitrage) • Use Cases: –Content Boosting –Direct Response
- 11. Case Study #1: Huffingtonpost (Content Boosting)
- 12. Case Study #1: Huffingtonpost.com (Content Boosting)
- 13. Case Study #1: Huffingtonpost.com (Content Boosting)
- 14. Case Study #1: Huffingtonpost.com (Content Boosting)
- 15. Case Study #2: MegaBargains24.com (Direct Response) • Online bidding service for branded products • Vouchers, tips & tricks to save
- 16. Case Study #2: MegaBargains24.com (Direct Response)
- 17. Case Study #2: MegaBargains24.com (Direct Response)
- 18. Case Study #2: MegaBargains24.com (Direct Response)
- 19. Case Study #3: Ancestry.com (Direct Response) • Genealogy research website • Over 25,000 publishers employed
- 20. Case Study #3: Ancestry.com (Direct Response)
- 22. Case Study #4: viralnova.com (Viral News/Quizzes - Ad Arbitrage)
- 23. Case Study #4: viralnova.com (Viral News/Quizzes - Ad Arbitrage)
- 24. Case Study #4: viralnova.com (Viral News/Quizzes - Ad Arbitrage)
- 26. Results with competitive intelligence? • Uncover and build upon the strategies & ad spend of successful brands • Redefine your own strategies informed by current data • Discover specific types of ad content that are most likely to go viral • Analyze landing page copy and design strategy • Understand the complete Native Advertising landscape across any niche Presented by
Editor's Notes
- Since 2012 I’ve been instrumental in the early growth and development of WhatRunsWhere, helping to found the company’s ambitious and energetic culture A driver of the company’s business development initiatives and major strategic partnerships helping to turn the startup into a leader of the display, mobile and in-app ad intelligence space Strong belief in the power of technology and Big Data as the driving factors of impactful change *CLICK*
- Today we’re going to be talking about Native Advertising and discuss how you can leverage competitive intelligence data to run better Native Campaigns, regardless of your niche. We’ll start by briefly defining what Native Advertising is to make sure everyone is familiar, and then talk about the opportunities that currently exist in the native advertising landscape for advertisers and publishers alike But what we’ll be focusing on more specifically are Content Discovery Networks and we’ll look at a few of Case Studies to demonstrate why competitive intelligence data can be critical to success when it comes to Native Advertising *CLICK*
- Native Advertising is one of those buzzwords we’ve been hearing a lot. I’m sure you’ve all seen, heard about or perhaps have even run some native ad campaigns. The longstanding practice of traditional advertising is to make ads POP, stand out, draw the attention of the reader by pulling or distracting them from the content on any given web-page. But when it comes to Native Advertising, tradition is forsaken. By its very nature, Native Advertising is different. In its plethora of forms, native ads ultimately promote the brand within the editorial layout of the publisher on which it appears in a highly congruent manner so that the ad fits in with content and context, seamlessly. As the Interactive Advertising Bureau puts it, they’re “ paid ad[s] that [are] so cohesive with the pages content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels it belongs *CLICK*
- Effective native advertising is founded on three main principals: Seamless ad integration Where ads are effectively integrated into the very design of a page so that its form and function FITS the contextual content on a publisher Aligned advertiser and publisher objectives Where the goals of participating parties is to deliver high value, relevant, and often educational content to readers/consumers Overt ad transparency Wherein native ads are explicitly labeled as ads or sponsored content For those of you that have been in print, native doesn’t seem all that new – its often otherwise known as editorial content, promoted by the publisher. In many ways Native advertising is an umbrella term used to describe a variety of ad types including In-feed Branded sponsored ads Promoted listings Custom native ads Recommendation widgets *Click*
- Native advertising is one of the fastest growing ad channels in digital media. Native ad spending for 2015 alone is forecasted to reach $4.3 Billion and this is only growing - by 2018, this number will more than double to $9.4 Billion (emarketer) There exists an abundance of opportunities for advertisers and publishers alike. *CLICK*
- 70% of individuals want to learn about products through content rather than through traditional advertising. (Shareaholic) 32% of consumers said they would share a native ad with friends and family vs 19% for banner ads. (Shareaholic) Purchase intent is 53% higher with native ads. More and more advertisers are increasing their spend in this channel: 46% of total ad spend budgets were allocated to native advertising last year. Its so popular that even mobile (a platform that is also experiencing explosive growth is being used for native ads (20% of this was assigned to mobile native ads) (Inmobi) The beautiful thing about native ads is that they benefit all parties involved, Consumers can discover new brands with high value often educational or entertaining content, Brands can reach their target audience, while Publishers can monetize content. Everybody wins. *CLICK*
- Native seems great for brands, but what does it matter to the Affiliate Marketer? 3 words: Content Discovery Networks – also known as Content Recommendation Engines or Widgets – one of the best ways to get your Native Ads in front of the right audience. CDNs are networks that distribute ads by serving sponsored content in the recommendation section/widget of publishers as exemplified here where Outbrain is servicing publisher CNN. *CLICK* High profile publishers like CNN, NBC News Today, and Business Insider all use CDNs. You’ve probably seen recommended ad content at the bottom or on the side of any given article. How do they operate? In a nutshell, they serve ads that look like they are another news story that naturally fits with the page and directs traffic to ads including video sales letters and pre-landing pages which are designed as educational, informative or entertaining news/articles. *CLICK*
- Taboola and Outbrain are two of the largest CDNS out there with clients including Huffington Post, The Weather Channel, BBC, Mashable and the Atlantic. But the number of CDNs continues to grow. One of Yahoo’s latest innovations, Yahoo Gemini is a CDN that partners mobile search with native advertising. By incorporating real Yahoo news in continuous stream with its native ads, the mobile focused CDN promises better reach for audiences on the go. *CLICK*
- Lead generation companies use Content Discovery Networks to direct traffic to video sales letters, native ads and pre-landing pages for direct response purposes. Why? CDNs enable advertisers to employ some ad images, copy and landing pages that might otherwise not be accepted on other networks. More significantly, the news-article-like design of ads help to win more clicks and sustain interest on pre-landers often designed to look like a news-article. B2B or B2C brands and companies might use CDNS to boost currently existing content, that is, drive more traffic to whitepapers as a way of generating new leads, or to articles and blogs to get their material in front of the right audience. News sites and Viral News sites or social viral quizzes that you’ve likely stumbled across, are major advertisers on CDNs as well. And these advertisers like CDNs because of the lower click rates and therefore lower costs for traffic. *CLICK* Companies use CDNS usually for two purposes, either direct response or Content Boosting. We’ll take a look at each of these use cases of CDNs in the next few slides. *CLICK*
- Huffingtonpost – I’m sure we’re all familiar with - is an Entertainment News site that also uses CDNs to boost its own content within its website, and other content from around the web. *CLICK* Both advertising and non-advertising content through its Content Discovery Widgets at the bottom of its articles and on the side of the site as seen above.
- As an advertiser, Huffingtonpost serves nearly 34% of ads through Advertising.com Sponsored Listing and about 20.9% of its ads through Taboola indicating that the majority of this advertisers’ ad spend is spent on Content Discovery Networks. Huffington is an example of an advertiser that uses CDNs to boost its own content and also to monetize its site with non-intrusive ads that fit in with the users’ experience. *CLICK*
- Here’s a great example of a huffingtonpost content boosting ad. The Stunning Evolution of Millenials: They’ve Become the Ben Franklin Generation. This ad was seen on publishers including thefashionisto.com, sterogum.com, blogs.reuters.com – all run through Taboola to boost Huffington’s content. Clicking on it leads to…. *CLICK*
- This news article. And of course, at the bottom of this page there is a Content Discovery widget available – again suggesting and boosting Huffington’s internal (and ad-based) content to readers. *CLICK*
- For other advertisers, CDNs assist in promoting their products and services to readers in a non-disruptive yet more engaging manner. In many cases, these are direct response native ads that lead to a landing page. Megabargain24.com offers an online bidding service for branded products, vacations and more. It promises vouchers and tips and tricks to cash in on the best deals out there. This direct response advertiser used Content Discovery Networks for nearly all its ad placements. In particular, Taboola made up over 75% of its network placements while Disqus took up over 24%. *CLICK*
- Here are a couple of Megabargains’ native ads. What are the key elements of MegaBargains top scoring and most recent native ads? - Images of high profile, branded products like the iPhone A simple but eye catching question or title that solicits a really good deal Where on earth did an iPhone get sold for only £17? What’s this secret and bizarre online trick that the UK public is getting in on to cash in on this amazing deal? MegaBargains has piqued the reader’s interest by eluding to a secret way to save money that readers can uncover by simply clicking to find out how. The creatives lead to this prelander. *CLICK*to next SLIDE
- This is essentially a testimonial piece arguing that signing up at the auction site Madbids is what will help you save and get that new iPhon for next to nothing. Why is this landing page effective? The landing page itself is designed to resemble a news article or produce review on a personal blog of a self-proclaimed ‘bargain hunter’. *CLICK* The Heading: Highlights the fact that if you continue reading, you’ll find out how to seriously save – up to 95% - on a new iPhone. *CLICK* The Lead: “You’ve probably noticed a new phenomenon spreading like wildfire across Europe and North America auction sites selling warehouse clearouts…” What you have here is an article lead informing you about a phenomenon that you are missing out on if you don’t continue reading to learn more. *CLICK* The Body: The body of the pre-lander is a testimonial offered up by an ‘expert’. It goes in-depth into the product this ‘bargain hunter’ wanted and the problem they were facing – it was too expensive. But MadBid.com gave them a fantastic solution to getting deals. The article and personal review lends credibility to the service being recommended. By clicking through the pre-lander, viewers end up on the MadBid sign-up page. *CLICK*
- Boom, sign-ups. *CLICK*
- Another example is ancestry.com. A direct response advertiser that uses the CDN Taboola – they are a genealogy service provider. They’ve served ads on over 25,000 publishers. An analysis of ancestry’s network placements indicates that nearly 75% of the advertiser’s spend is going to Taboola while nearly 25% are direct media buys. Ancestry thus has a strong preference for native advertising. *CLICK*
- Using WhatRunsWhere we’re able to identify that these particular ads, among many others by ancestry.com are not only native but also that they’re some of the advertisers’ best performing creatives served through CDNs on publishers including rottentomatoes.com, gothamist.com, thinkprogress.com and more. What are the key elements of ancestry.com’s top scoring and most recent native ads? Use of old photographs or images alluding to a historical period, long gone (i.e. Medieval Europe or Victorian England) Images of celebrities like Vanessa Williams asserted to be a potential relative A simple but eye catching question or title that makes viewers want to find out who they’re related to Now where do these ads lead to? *CLICK* Here are a few examples of blogs.ancestry.com’s best native ads. These top performing creatives were served through CDNs on publishers including rottentomatoes.com, gothamist.com, thinkprogress.com and more. What are the key elements of blogs.ancestry.com’s top scoring and most recent native ads? Use of old photographs or images alluding to a historical period, long gone (i.e. Medieval Europe or Victorian England). The Knight ad has been running since December 2014 and we’ve seen this ad as recently as May this year. Images of celebrities like Vanessa Williams asserted to be a potential relative – there’s another ad where ancestry used Abraham Lincoln – are simple but eye catching because they peak the viewer’s interest by asking a question: who are you related to? Maybe it’s a celebrity. The ad itself plays upon notions of identity and social status – all things humans crave. The key here are ads that speak to the curiosity of the reader and their self-reflection. Now where do these ads lead to?
- The medieval knight native ad led to a landing page designed as a blog article discussing the significance of English surnames What makes it effective? It is an ad for ancestry.com, but it provides interesting historical information or has an entertaining value that inspires engagement. *CLICK* The Heading– Draws the audience in with a question- a tactic to get audiences wondering about their own history. *CLICK* The Lead- Many of us have surnames that were passed down to us from ancestors in England – This draws people in because it tugs on people’s curiosity and inspires engagement. *CLICK* The body- This section of the article gives viewers a tease of what their surname could potentially mean. It is the educational content that ancestry is providing readers that sustains their interest in the service. It provides them with interesting historical information, but inspires questions about self reflection so people might want to sign up. The close- The article ends with a direct CTA ‘Enter your last name to find out the meaning’. But there are multiple CTAS throughout: we also see a CTA for 14 day trial after the introduction of the article, on the right hand column where there is a display ad, AND within the CDN widget itself ‘Start free trial’ (already circled)– Blogs.ancestry closes the article with a CDN widget which serves content boosting purposes – drawing the readers attention back to potentially interesting articles and keeping them on the brand’s blog rather than leaving. If readers don’t sign up now, they’ll click on another article, and another and they may in fact sign up after receiving that high quality, educational content. You can see they also clearly indicate the content is powered by Taboola. (already circled) *CLICK*
- This is a publisher that makes money through CPC ad arbitrage – mainly through advertising facilitated by CDNs. Similar to dailysancutary.com, and playbuzz.com. Just to clarify, ad arbitrage is CPC - traffic monetization where advertisers earn on each click. The arbitrage aspect is buying less expensive clicks (using CDNs) but maxing out the number of ads you can run (and ultimately clicks) on your site. The more ads visitors click, the more money you can make. Example: It costs an average of $0.10 to get one person to your site. The reader might take a quiz, or click through some of your content including ads seen all around your page. You’ll make an average of $0.20 every time someone clicks an ad. You’ll therefore make $0.05 in profit which doesn’t seem like much. But if your content goes viral and you get millions of visitors, that chump change adds up. *CLICK*
- Here are a few ads we’ve seen viralnova.com serve --- these ads all have high entertainment value and are highly socially shareable meaning engagement and click rates can be high. Viral Nova native ads play off of notions of the bizarre, strange, shocking, crazy, sexual, and the ridiculous. These get click throughs. People will rise to the challenge of not laughing at those 37 eyebrows. *CLICK*
- After tracking 3,031 traffic sources we’ve seen a huge percentage of ad placements that have been served through CDNs particularly through Taboola. Viralnova is very aggressive with their advertising – their whole website is filled to the max with native ads. But, none of these ads look like ads, hence visitors stick around to consume their content and with every click, money is made. *CLICK*
- Now you’re reading an article, and you decide to leave. *CLICK* Well, Viral noval also serves popups powered by Taboola. Just as a viewer is about to leave, they are called back into some of the bizarre and entertaining content available. A great strategy to keep visitors on your site and clicking. *CLICK*
- With competitive intelligence data, I’ve been able to discover a lot of information from these case studies. Uncover and build upon the strategies and ad spend of successful brands Redefine your own strategies informed by current data Discover specific types of ad content that are most likely to go viral Analyze landing page copy and design strategy Understand the complete Native Ad landscape across any niche