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Any new or experienced business owner that wants to expand their online business will benefit from native ads and sponsored content. While both are similar forms of paid strategies to attract more online customers, there are differences between them. These differences can play an important role in choosing the right method for your online business.
Thanks to the different options, marketers are able to customize the promotional experience to the needs of their company. This is exactly why online advertising is so essential to a business’s success. To help you better understand the difference between these two methods of online marketing, here are some things you should know.
What exactly is native advertising and sponsored content?
When it comes to these two forms of online advertisement, there is a main difference between them. One of the two is technically not an ad, at least not in the traditional sense. Native ads are the more regular advertisements you expect to see on a website. These are targeted to a certain audience and are more of a permanent addition to a webpage.
Essentially, a native ad is paid content found on any online page. There are all different types of native ads you will come across online, and they will most likely be unrelated to the page you visited. They are used to promote products and services using a different website as the promoter.
On the other hand, sponsored content is not an ad in the traditional sense, while it can still be considered a type of native advertising. You are not going to find a piece of sponsored content placed on a website just like you would a native ad. Instead, sponsored content is created to fit the needs of each business.
What are they supposed to look like?
A native ad will usually present the visitor with an image or a link to the product or service being advertised. It is common for it to also include a few details about it or the company selling it. When a visitor clicks on that ad, they will be redirected to the page selling the product of the ad.
Native ads can be any of six different types based on the IAB guidelines. These include:
- In-Feed advertisements
- Paid search units
- Recommendation widgets
- Promoted listings
- In-Ad advertisements with native elements
- Customized ads which “can’t be contained”
The main difference here is that sponsored content will have to look relevant to the page it is posted on. It can be anything from an image to an article or listicle, but it has to relate to the main focus of the website it is on. Sponsored content can come in many shapes and forms, and it all depends on who is creating the content and for which client.
How to write content for each type of advertisement?
Now that you know the basics of what each method of advertisement is, you can learn more about how to write content for each. While these might have their differences, there are ways for every content creator to excel when putting them together.
In both cases, you can use the right words to easily promote your products and services, and the way you word an ad is important. You can use the right proofreading and editing tools such as Grammarly, TrustMyPaper, Hemmingway Editor, and TopEssayWriting. These will help ensure your written content sounds appealing and is free of unnecessary mistakes.
Native Advertising Content
When writing for a native ad, you need to make sure that it sounds informative yet natural. The best way to know what to write is to start thinking like the person seeing the ad. Why would they click on it, and what do they expect to see when they do?
Sending someone to a page they are expecting to see is important, so your description on the ad needs to be spot on. For example, if your company is advertising a social media marketing tool, you should always mention it in the title. Asking the potential customer a question is also a great way to catch their eye. In most cases, native ads are short in length, so you need to keep the text length in mind as it can become an issue.
You can ask them something like, “Are you looking for a reliable and affordable social media marketing tool?” Along with the motivational question, adjectives and descriptive words such as reliable, popular, user-friendly, and affordable can also work in your favor. All of these will help you write the right content for any native ad you wish to work on.
Sponsored Advertising Content
On the other hand, writing sponsored content is much simpler and can be easier for some writers as it can be a lot more personal. In most cases, your personal experiences and stories will be what can win over the reader.
Most sponsored ads need to be between 200 and 600 words, so the length is a lot more flexible than that of native ads. While they should not exceed this limit, they should be short enough to go through yet long enough to catch the reader’s attention. Here, you can even choose a few appropriate images and videos to include, making everything you write more appealing to the audience.
It is also crucial that you use SEO to your advantage and use keywords and phrases that will enhance your content. These can easily be obtained through tools such as the Keyword Tool and the Google AdWords tool. No matter which platform you share your sponsored content on, a good story will always win the reader, so make sure you write with honesty.
Where can you apply these methods of advertisement?
When it comes to native advertisements, they don’t require a lot of preparation from the platform they are placed on. By creating one ad, you can place it on as many sites as you wish without having to constantly generate new content. This is great for targeted ads of products that are always available and attractive to a certain audience.
They can easily be used for any business and any field, as they can be as simple as an image of a product with an outbound link. This way, they are very time and cost-effective and can easily be placed on any website online.
A form of sponsored content that is very popular currently is created by popular online influencers. Because they use their social media platforms to communicate their ideas to their audience, various social media influencers frequently team up with brands. There, they create targeted social media posts reviewing and recommending products and services in exchange for a commission.
This is usually the most successful form of sponsored content, as it reaches a lot of people in a very short amount of time. Influencers take responsibility when it comes to creating the content needed for the promotion, so there is a minimal effort from the business’s side. Brands that are active on their social media platforms have a lot to gain from such collaborations.
Additional things website owners should know about the two methods.
When it comes to native ads, they usually have no personality and do not reflect your brand’s message. They are simply there to attract a customer that is interested in a similar product or service as one they previously searched for. They work great for e-commerce stores and other online businesses for attracting new customers as they already know why they are visiting your website.
Most of these ads are sold in a pay-per-click fashion. This makes them quite cost-effective as most customers who click on them will end up making a purchase on your website. Unlike older generations of ads, these will have a much longer shelf life as they don’t easily need replacing. In addition to this, they can easily be customized and targeted to a particular audience based on their preferences and search history.
Sponsored content is probably the most surefire way to quickly increase your website traffic and conversion rates. These types of ads can also very easily be customized and presented to the needed target audience. Another great thing about sponsored content is that working with influencers will require very little effort from your side. This means that by choosing the sponsored content best fit for your business, you can run it with less staff or smaller teams.
Different forms of sponsored content, though, might require different things and corrections, so you might need to have a marketing team available. The right copywriters, graphic designers, and marketers will be able to create the necessary sponsored articles, videos, and other forms of media easily and effectively.
Choosing the right method for your business
At the end of the day, choosing the right marketing strategy for your business depends on many different factors. When you put enough work and research into developing a marketing campaign correctly, there are very few things that can go wrong. Therefore, picking the right one solely depends on your individual needs and business goals.
Which of the two forms of online advertising do you believe to be more fit for your business’s needs, and why?
Bio:
Bridgette Hernandez is a professional writer and editor for GrabMyEssay and SupremeDissertations. Brid loves to help her audience find solutions for their online business activities and this is why she often creates content for various platforms. In her spare time, she loves spending time in nature and listening to audiobooks.
