Both native advertising and content marketing are effective strategies for increasing traffic, engagement, and sales. Native advertising, on one hand, is a simple, targeted approach to content distribution, whereas content marketing encompasses a much broader strategy. You are in the right place to learn more about native advertising vs. content marketing benefits, including when to use each and how they complement each other.
Native Advertising
Using advertisements that look and behave similarly to the websites or apps on which they are placed is known as native advertising. These ads “blend in” with the website content, making them appear less like advertisements and more like extensions of the content a user has chosen to interact with. Marketers benefit significantly from this soft-sell approach to advertising.
Content Marketing
The creation and distribution of various types of content are referred to as content marketing. Content marketing includes blog posts, templates and checklists, ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, memes, and videos. It makes content marketing challenging and straightforward: simple because there are so many options, but difficult because it can be challenging to know when and how to use each type of content to achieve the best results.
Benefits of Native Advertising
End users are more likely to click on the ad to learn more because they trust the website they’re visiting because native advertising uses ads that blend into their platform. According to recent studies, native ads have a 5-10x higher CTR (click-through rate) than traditional ads.
Native advertising works on both desktop and mobile devices, allowing marketers to reach their target audience no matter where they pay out their time online. It is most likely because users find native ads 62% easier to understand than other display ads and 31% easier to understand than social ads. Furthermore, ad blockers do not affect native ads. As a result, even if an internet user has one enabled, your content will still appear on your selected websites.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Creating a solid content marketing strategy has numerous advantages. You can serve the type of content that your target audience is most interested in across multiple platforms, such as your website, social pages, and email marketing campaigns, once you’ve identified it.
Content marketing, when done correctly, drives traffic, engagement, and sales. Furthermore, content marketing helps your audience progress through the buyer’s journey, fostering trust. One study found that 67% of users heavily rely on a brand’s content when making purchasing decisions. And the more your target audience knows, likes, and trusts you, the more likely they will purchase your services or products.
Similarities between native advertising and content marketing
Native advertising and content marketing are both methods of spreading content. Native advertising is the distribution of content through advertisements on various websites. On the other hand, content marketing content lives on platforms that you “own,” such as your social pages and the blog on your website. These marketing strategies aim to boost engagement and sales by building trust with your target audience.
Native ads typically elicit a faster response, whereas users typically require a large amount of content to be viewed (56 touchpoints, according to one study) before taking action. While both strategies are effective, they work best when used together.
The Differences: Native Advertising vs. Content Marketing
Native advertising works best when it is used to deliver content to a well-defined and targeted audience. Direct ads that appeal to your target audience and encourage them to act immediately. On the other hand, content marketing is best used to reach and grow your audience and is regarded as a longer-term approach to conversions and sales.
It makes no difference how good your content is if no one sees it. This is where native advertising and content marketing can benefit from one another. You can use a native ad on another website to drive traffic to your website, where users can interact with your content and generate a high ROI. When users arrive at your website via your native ad, they access all of your content pieces, advancing them through the buyer’s journey.
Native advertising and content marketing work in tandem to help your brand grow. A native ad, in a sense, quickly and effectively engages new audiences. Then, once they snap your ad and land on your website (or wherever your ad directs them), content marketing pieces step up to keep your new audience member engaged.
Case Study of Native Advertising
Spotify Playlist
Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, can create custom playlists based on a company’s services, products, or themes. It can use user data to recommend specific playlists based on listening history. The collaboration between Netflix and Spotify to promote the show “Stranger Things” is an excellent example. It not only promoted the show through background art design and logos, but it also struck a chord with listeners because the playlist tracks mirrored their listening preferences. Users could use the “Stranger Thing” mode to be assigned to a playlist based on a character.
Twitter Hashtags
Sponsored hashtags are nothing new on Twitter, but using them naturally can help boost your advertisements. Patrón Tequila used the hashtag #MargaritaOfTheYear to cheer Twitter users to vote for one of several distinct recipes to determine the best margarita of the year. Engaging users to use your hashtag for various challenges or votes can assist you in raising brand awareness.
Case Study of Content Marketing
Hubspot
Hubspot has used content marketing as a growth hacking strategy. They are writing in-depth blog posts about topics of interest to their readers. Incorporating content upgrades such as ebooks into their blog posts and Inbound.org (with 321,000 monthly visitors) establishes an educational and content sharing hub. It provides an excellent opportunity to promote its certification and partnership programs.
Rip Curl
Rip Curl delights itself in being the “ultimate surfing company.” It demonstrates its dedication through The Search, an online publication. The Search follows surfers on their quest for the best waves and the ultimate surfing lifestyle, with stunning photography and stories told by surfers for surfers. With over 100,000 YouTube subscribers and over 2 million Facebook followers, this is an excellent sample of matching content to your target audience to grow and profit your business.
Wrapping Up
It’s easy to see how native advertising and content marketing work well together in this case. Put, native advertising, and content marketing have distinct objectives and strategies for achieving them. They can collaborate to deliver a substantial amount of high-quality content to high-quality customers. Native ads combined with content marketing deliver a powerful one-two punch that results in a high ROI for those who put in the time and effort to get it right when combined with other retargeting funnel tactics.
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