Two essential rules for selling native advertising
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Educate the advertiser
Sales staff who believe in a product will do a better job of selling it.
Native advertising is often misunderstood by the advertisers buying it, and even people in marketing may use different definitions. NativeAdWorks considers native advertising to be content that is as interesting to read as the news articles surrounding it. The value of native advertising is that it doesn’t interrupt the experience of people visiting a website; in fact, it enhances the experience by providing content they want to read.
Users have a goal when they visit your website, according to the Interaction Design Foundation, and anything that interrupts their process when trying to achieve that goal will hurt your ability to hold their attention.
“Interrupting someone’s user experience is a great way to tell them that their needs aren’t important to you and if they aren’t important to you – they’ll find a place where they are important.”
— Interaction Design Foundation
Native advertising is not meant to fool readers into looking at ads but to bring valuable content to them. Because that content is associated with a sponsor, educating the sponsor on what native is and is not will increase native advertising success.
Focus on numbers
Native advertising doesn’t estimate numbers – it gives precise data.
A lot of advertising is based on estimates because you can’t count how many people saw a billboard or read a magazine insert. Native advertising, on the other hand, is digital, so you can track detailed information. This isn’t about impressions, like other display ads; this is page views, time on page, comments, likes, and scroll depth. These numbers support your pitch when selling native advertising.
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You can build credibility with advertisers with case studies. Case studies will give clear examples of actions and results (articles and numbers). Numbers illustrate to advertisers what return they can expect to get on their investment. The value of the numbers is dependent upon the goals and objectives of the advertiser. Here are two examples:
Personal Injury Attorney A sponsored an article, “Does your injury require an attorney?” which had 3,500 page views.
Personal Injury Attorney B sponsored an article, “5 famous local attractions lost to history,” which had 52,000 page views.
The intention of each advertiser was different. Attorney A wanted to target readers that have been injured or know someone who’s been injured. Targeting a specific demographic led to a low number of page views, but it captured the desired audience. Attorney B wanted to reach a general audience. The article received a lot of traffic and exposed readers to Attorney B’s brand, but only a fraction of those readers may have been injured or know someone who’s been injured.
The point is that advertisers will perceive value from native advertising in their own ways. Having precise numbers and a case study will greatly support your pitch to them.
If you have any questions about how to best sell native advertising, please contact NativeAdWorks to schedule a consultation.