Call it the new advertorial, mock it if you must, but native advertising is bringing long-form ad content back with a vengeance. And it’s affordable to any business.
Native Ads, otherwise known as Sponsored Content, have worked their way into some of your favorite websites. And you might not have even noticed them. In fact, that’s the point. Native Ads are designed to blend in with the editorial content of a website. If you’ve ever found yourself addictively clicking through one “You Might Also Like” article after another, sucked in by magnetic headlines and engaging thumbnail images, you’ve experienced the power of native ads.
It’s easy to think native advertising is just a way to pay for eyeballs your poor content couldn’t earn on its own merits. But in reality, that’s not how things work. Even the best, most fascinating and well-written article has a tough time overcoming the sheer glut of content being produced right now.
And trying to boost poor quality content through native advertising is a complete waste of time. Just like any pay-per-click advertising medium, native ads are served based on a performance-based algorithm. The more people click, the more it gets served. No clicks, no more eyeballs. No native advertising platform is going to keep serving an ad that isn’t generating paying clicks. They also won’t keep serving one that will lower their impressive click-through-rates, which are 10-20X the average of a banner ad.
It might sound counterintuitive, since the conventional wisdom is that people don’t read long form copy. Except that’s never really been true. Long form copy, in the form of “squeeze pages” have historically always gotten good results. They’re the online equivalent of old school direct mail sales letters.
It takes the right psychological triggers to get people to notice and engage with your article. But if you craft it effectively, it can be much more effective at engagement than a more traditional “ad” or even short form social content.
The truth is, if your content isn’t genuinely great, you can’t even pay people to read it. But if it is genuinely great, or could be with some professional copywriting help, native advertising gives your business an affordable path to getting it seen.