We all know what advertising means for the online communities.
Advertiser, publisher, ad network, marketer, no matter what side of the pond you’re on, a world without advertising is one we can’t even imagine.
I know I can’t.
I’ve been a part of all four online species I just mentioned and I can’t see an add free world happening.
At least not in our life time.
How would that even work? I can’t start to fabricate an answer to that question, so I’ll just let you have a go.
So if we can’t change how the world works, we should try and improve on what we got. Right?
Progress means to grow and develop, to go forward or onward in space or time.
This is exactly what I and my peers have been trying to accomplish. Push for continuous improvement in the advertising industry till a solution that is good enough to stop, or at least reduce the negative feeling internet user’s associate with ads.
And working long and hard to get to a solution I have dome to a realization that the best bet we’ve got are Smart Native Ad Widgets.
Native ad widgets are arguably the best that the advertising industry has to offer.
You might belong to a group, a big group that perceives native ads as deceitful because they are “camouflaged” in the editorial content.
These ad layouts are difficult for people to see through, I’ll admit that. Many have claimed they are created to trick people into believing these ads are actually editorial content.
I am not saying there are none truing to exploit this as a strategy. But this is not what native ads are all about.
Let me explain.
Even though created to blend in with the websites designed, native ads are not there to trick anyone.
The package they come in is not a disguise, yet an outfit to make sure there are no deviations from the websites design.
Or do you prefer, a flashing square tumor on your website that screams click me I am an ad and I am here to grab your audience attention and get them on a page that is totally irrelevant to what they were trying to accomplish on this website.
If you do, then native ads are not for you.
So how do you in monetize via smart native ad widgets?
There are several choices you need to make, starting with the right network to partner with.
Compensation Plan
What you need to consider first is the compensation plan of the network you are looking in.
The differences are small but make a big impact in the long run.
Semantic Relevance
Next, you need to look at the ability to control what gets published on your website. Meaning will the network make promises in terms of content relevance.
What kind of targeting options does the network provide?
When it comes to advertorials, control over the content is really important.
How much will the content fit with your publication?
Will it be relevant to your reader’s interests? This is very important and can’t be ignored.
Widget Types
The next thing is looking at types of widgets they have available.
Not everything works for every website, and different widgets that work for many may not work for you.
Placing an Investing tool on a travel website will not work right?
You may actually do it but it will bring you nothing but bad reputation.
The list is long. A lot of widgets are available and you have a lot of opportunities to monetize via these smart widgets.
Comparison shopping widgets, monetization toolbars (my personal favorite), financial calculators, travel price quotes and the list goes on.
These so-called “smart widgets” provide functionalities besides monetizing and this is what makes them more and more attractive to bloggers and publishers. They also produce best results as they provide ads that are relevant to your audience.
This is where innovation has pushed us to.
Once a visitor utilizes the Semantic search function from a website, results from a collective search of over 100 million products from thousands of online merchants is presented to them.
Implementation
The next step would be to Implement the widgets on your website.
Some networks make this easy and some are a bit more complicated.
Mostly setting up these solutions comes done to placing a premade code snippet on your site and you are done.
It is a simple task and if you know anything about websites you can get this accomplished on your own.
Even if you don’t you can easily find someone to take care of it for you, and it will cost you close to nothing.
Analytics and optimization
This has been a challenge for markets and media sites. I know this as I’ve been struggling with ad analytics myself.
However, native ad networks have been working on improving this aspect and you need to work with what you’ve got.
Analyzing and optimizing your setup, is important in order to maximize your income.
Testing, measuring and optimization are and need to be a part of any part of business operations so this is no different for native ads as well.
Users prefer native to display advertising and as native advertising evolves and improves we will soon be in a reality where native ads are a must-have
With better targeting and segmentation, as well as analytics and reporting tools for all – native advertising will become the standard and a must-have component in the marketer’s sales funnel.
