Are you considering adopting native advertising to advertise your business? You’re not alone. According to a new report, native advertising will be one of the most important marketing trends in 2024.

Native advertising is becoming more popular with affiliate marketers who want to promote their content, advertise products and services, increase sales, or buy website traffic.

Content marketers are increasingly advertising their material through native ad networks to get more people to read it, sign up for their newsletters, and even make money.

Native ads appear to be the present and future of online advertising. But, what is it exactly, and how can it help you grow your business?

What is native advertising?

Native advertising is a sort of advertising that is tailored to the form and purpose of the platform on which it appears. In many circumstances, it acts similarly to an advertisement and takes the form of a video, article, or editorial.

The term “native” refers to the content’s compatibility with other media on the platform.

These ads limit ad recognition by blending the ad with the platform’s natural content, utilizing rather vague wording such as “sponsored” or “branded” material. They can be difficult to detect due to their confusing nature.

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Product placement (embedded marketing) is a forerunner of native advertising. The former embeds the product into the content, whereas native marketing, permitted in the US as long as adequate information is provided, merges the product and the content.

How does native advertising work?

Native ads, like other types of internet advertising, are purchased or placed by companies and media buyers (advertisers) on demand-side platforms (DSPs) and shared or displayed on supply-side platforms (SSPs).

The advertiser develops text and image ads that appear on different sides, while the DSP determines which publisher’s websites the ads should appear on based on the relevance of the content and the advertiser’s target demographic (brands or affiliate marketers).

Native advertising is typically displayed as recommended material and underneath the page’s content, making it less invasive.

People are more inclined to click on native advertising ads because of the graphics used in them than on classic display ad formats such as banners.

But, in modern-day advertising, we have another term called “programmatic advertising.” Let’s explore it and see how digital marketers can benefit from it.

What is programmatic advertising?

At its most basic, programmatic advertising is the use of technology to buy and sell digital advertising. Programmatic advertising purchases digital ad inventory across the web, mobile applications, video, and social media using an automated procedure within advertiser-defined criteria. 

Read more: The Full Guide to Programmatic Ads

Programmatic advertising uses workflow automation and machine learning algorithms to show people the best ads based on their shopping habits.

What is Programmatic Advertising Demand?

You can have an infinite supply, but it must be met by high-quality demand. The term “demand” simply refers to the advertisers, advertisements, and sources from which they are all combined. The programmatic ecosystem is based on the idea that having advertisers compete for CPMs will result in the highest CPMs for publishers.

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Publishers who expose their inventory to programmatic platforms place their inventory on the open market, allowing advertisers to compete for it, driving the value. Advertisers will always be interested in high-performing inventory that converts users. They will buy it and, in some cases, sell it again.

How do programmatic ads work?

Programmatic involves a number of components. Consider this a checklist of everything that goes into implementing and executing a good programmatic advertising campaign.

Any programmatic endeavor has three key players: the advertiser, the publisher, and the audience.

  • Advertisers are brands looking to promote their products, services, or ideas.
  • Publishers are sites or apps with available ad inventory.
  • An audience is a group of potential buyers and investors advertisers want to reach.

These three players have been around since the beginning of advertising.

Digital adds an extra layer of networks, such as the Google Display Network, Facebook Audience Network, or similar corporations, which may buy up inventory on publisher sites or applications and have the first claim.

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Because there is so much material online and thus so many potential ad spots, it is common for networks to be unable to sell all of their inventory. So, most networks let programmatic vendors into their networks as a safety measure to ensure their ad space is always sold.

As previously stated, they were the only three companies involved in advertising, with the exception of agencies, which worked as mediators between the publisher and the advertiser. The demand-side platform (DSP), the ad exchange, and the supply-side platform (SSP) have taken over the role of the intermediary in programmatic advertising.

Demand-side platforms (DSPs)

DSPs serve as agents for advertisers. They’ll work with Data Management Platforms (DMPs) to study the audience of a certain placement (often in real-time) and set an algorithmic bid for the placement.

Supply-side platforms (SSPs)

If DSPs act as agents for advertisers, supply-side platforms act as agents for publishers. They eventually select the winning bid for placement and publish that ad to the page or app where an audience is provided.

All SSPs are programmed to automatically choose the highest bid (i.e., the most money). There are many signals that SSPs look at when choosing a winning bid, including how relevant the ad will be to the people who will see it, which is one of the most important differences between programmatic buying and more traditional buying.

Ad exchanges

The exchange of ads is where the bidding takes place. An ad exchange is similar to a stock exchange in those competing brokers (advertisers and/or ad networks) who submit bids in an open market via DSPs on inventory, which is then purchased by SSPs and published. 

Some programmatic sellers may use private exchanges, which limit the advertisers who can win bids, mostly because of budget but also because of how relevant their ads are to the audience.

How is programmatic different from the traditional display?

The most significant distinction between the traditional display and the programmatic display is inventory: if an advertiser purchases advertising on the Google Display Network (GDN), they can only receive placements on the Google Display Network. The term “only” is a bit misleading in this case, given that the GDN has nearly 3 million online websites, but the point is that there is a limit.

The pricing model is another major distinction. Advertisers who purchase space in display networks such as GDN or the Facebook Audience Network can be charged when ads are viewed, clicked, or even converted, depending on their preferences. Advertisers who use programmatic networks are charged based on how many people see their ads.

What are the advantages of programmatic advertising?

Now, let’s discuss some of the best advantages of using programmatic advertising; while we cannot cover them all, as there are so many, here are the most prominent ones.

Greater audience insights

Because programmatic advertising necessitates data management tools, each impression implies that audience data is being analyzed, assessed, and optimized. This information eventually becomes available to advertisers, allowing them to understand better their target demographic, including the types of messages and creativity that the audience is more likely to respond to.

Real-time reporting

Of course, because so much bidding occurs in real-time, results are also available in real-time for advertisers and publishers alike. Data in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other major platforms are typically delayed by at least a few hours, whereas programmatic data can be evaluated within seconds of a placement being won. 

While this is clearly an advantage to waiting for data, it can also be a disadvantage in that strategic reports should be built on data obtained over a period of time, not just an hour, afternoon, or day. However, having real-time insight into whether a specific placement, creative, or message is or isn’t performing can be a boon to marketers, and no other strategy can provide this level of reporting. Now that you understand what programmatic is all about, it’s time to dive in and see if this medium is appropriate for you.

Guaranteed volumes

The viewability and quality of certain impressions may be questioned, but knowing how many impressions a campaign will create before the campaign runs is a big benefit to programmatic marketing, which is never guaranteed with normal display, search, or paid social ads. 

This allows you to control costs and plan other aspects of your marketing budget with the confidence that at least one channel will not require additional funding to accomplish its objectives.

What are common concerns about programmatic advertising?

Ad fraud

Historically, spam and bot clicks have made fraud concern for all digital advertisers, and while some platforms, such as Google, have a team dedicated to reviewing fraudulent clicks and refunding advertisers who have been affected by fraud, programmatic platforms have been a little slower to catch up to the need for fraud analysis and prevention. 

This is not to say that there aren’t safeguards in place to avoid fraud, but because programmatic is so pervasive and there are so many publishers and sites with ad inventory, fraud will always be a worry, just as it is for any digital advertising network.

Placement/brand security

Traditionally, programmatic has been a managed service, although self-service programmatic is becoming more common. One problem with the managed service component, and with programmatic in general, is the inability to regulate placements that may be prohibited by other technologies such as Google or Facebook. 

So, brands may be paying for ads on websites where the users don’t like the things that the brands offer or whose content is just bad.

Viewability

Because programmatic is sometimes used to offer an inventory at the bottom of pages or deep within apps, there has typically been some worry about how many programmatic placements are truly seen by audiences. 

Many more checks, specifically a charging model based on viewable impressions, have been added by programmatic platforms in recent years to ensure higher ad viewability levels. As a result, the viewability rates are growing nearly universally.

How are programmatic and native advertising different?

Native ads are a subset of programmatic advertising. All of the following are true:

  • All forks are silverware, but not all silverware are forks.
  • All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
  • All native ads are programmatic display ads, but not all are native ads.

Native advertisements are not the same as typical banner display ads. When developing your programmatic advertising strategy, you have three advertising kinds: display, video, and audio. Display ads also include regular image ads, HTML5 ads, and native ads.

A native ad typically generates more interaction since it is embedded within current content, making it appear more natural to the user. 

Outbrain reports that native ad clickthrough rates are roughly 0.2%, while conventional display ad clickthrough rates are around 0.05%. This indicates that native advertisements are four times more likely to be clicked on!

Native advertisements can be used in conjunction with normal image and HTML5 display ads, or they can be used independently. In general, we advocate running them alongside other display ad types, which means that the advertising platform decides which ad type to show and when. 

Assume native ad formats outperform traditional display advertisements. In that case, it’s a good time to divide them into a separate native-only option on your platform, confining them to their own technique.

Is it necessary for me to use a different native advertising platform?

No, you can continue to utilize the same platform if you already use programmatic advertising. Simply tell the system or your platform representative that you want to include native adverts. Then, make changes to your creative assets, such as headlines, graphics, preview text, and so on, to ensure they meet your audience’s needs.

Native Advertising Best Practices for Effective Affiliate Marketing

Now let’s discuss native advertising best practices. To learn how to use native ads for affiliate marketing, you first need to understand native advertising and how to use it for affiliate marketing.

Native advertising is promoting a service or product in a way that is not disruptive and fits naturally within the content. Native ads and banner ads are probably the same things, but native ads are a lot less intrusive and subtle than normal banner ads.

Native advertisements allow advertisers to create sponsored postings that integrate seamlessly into a site’s interface. Brands in their online marketing initiatives, are increasingly using these advertisements.

Such advertisements enable publishers to monetize without interfering with the user experience. They also allow advertisers to narrate stories that blend in with the users’ regular lives.

This type of advertising comes in various formats, including sponsored content, native video, native social media, and native adverts.

Affiliate Marketing

It is essentially an online approach for advertising another company’s services and products. Affiliates earn commissions simply by directing customers to the advertiser’s website.

Affiliate marketers are not required to deal with customer service or inventory. Instead, they only need to direct users to an affiliate link on their websites. The link then directs prospective customers to advertisers for order fulfillment.

Affiliate marketing works in various areas, and with the correct native ad methods geared toward affiliate marketing, you may earn a lot of money.

Native Ad Ideas for Affiliate Marketing

You might not realize it, but native ad concepts for affiliate marketing can benefit affiliates. Even while native ads are completely non-intrusive, they serve a specific function.

This type of advertising provides advertisers with quick and direct access to their target demographic. 

It allows affiliates to advertise their deals so that they appear very tempting to clients. And, yes, affiliates make much money from native advertising.

Benefits of Native Ads Strategies in Affiliate Marketing

The following are the advantages of native ads for affiliate marketing:

  • Native advertisements blend into the content rather than pop out on the screen like text links and banner ads. This may irritate or distract the audience. It doesn’t stop people from seeing what they want to see because native ads aren’t intrusive.
  • Customers are likelier to click on native advertisements because they communicate relevance and authenticity. These commercials are written in plain English, giving people the trust and confidence to click on them.
  • Customers gain knowledge about a company even if they do not click on native advertisements. However, this is only achievable if the advertisements are related to the subject matter of the commercials. And sure, because viewers do not have to leave the website to view this advertising, the commercials expose brand marketers and advertisers to many items and services. Native ads, on the other hand, show a brand’s products and services to more people.

How are Native Advertisements Different from Other Online Advertising Mediums?

There are significant differences between native advertising and traditional web advertising mediums. Native advertisements, as opposed to text and banner links that typically appear at the top or side of website pages, are targeted at the audience and do not appear to be promotional ads.

As a result, visitors are less likely to ban or dismiss them from their browsing experience. Native advertising is content marketing that incorporates traditional print advertising strategies into digital campaigns. Product placement, narrative, and storytelling are examples of these techniques.

Native ads blend in with the rest of the web, making them easier for people to see, interact with, and research brands while still giving them a good experience.

Native advertisements enable advertisers to profit from the money they spend because they seem nicer than search ads. This is due to the fact that search advertisements often display ten sponsored links, whereas native advertisements only display a single link.

As a result, it is correct to say that native ad approaches for affiliate marketing have the potential to be one of the most effective tools for marketers. These advertisements are particularly effective because they mix nicely with the surrounding platforms.

Advertisers can utilize affiliate marketing software like Scaleo in conjunction with native ads to convey value and allow publishers to make a large sum of money without diverting users’ attention from the primary content. 

Native Advertising Best Practices (2024 Update): Programmatic Advertising - Native Advertising Best Practices

Native advertising can be used with affiliate programs or search engine marketing, but it can also be used on its own.

Conclusion

It is reasonable to conclude that native ads give affiliates the opportunity to raise brand awareness while also engaging customers. This new advertising increases a company’s relevance and chances of selling products and services.

Last Updated on December 8, 2023

Author

Elizabeth is a Senior Content Manager at Scaleo. Currently enjoying the life in Prague and sharing professional affiliate marketing tips. She's been in the online marketing business since 2006 and gladly shares all her insights and ideas on this blog.