Page 336 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

advertisements provide direct entertainment or educational, social interactivity,
or utilitarian value to consumers while also communicating a specific brand
message. In some cases, they take the form of advertisements, and in other cases
are more like editorial content. But in both instances, they are more “native” to
the core experience that the user is already in.

When these native advertisements provide value, consumers are typically com-
fortable with the sponsored branding that becomes part and parcel with them. The
native ads are successful when they have the following attributes: emotional,
engaging, social, relevant to the user, contextually appropriate, and simple. We
discuss some of these attributes in the sections that follow.

As you consider building and launching native advertisements on a social platform
such as Facebook and Buzzfeed, or a media outlet such as the New York Times or
beyond, consider these numbers: The majority of both Facebook and Twitter’s
advertising efforts are native advertising — they’re in the content stream where
user contributions appear and look and feel like regular content.

One example of native advertising that has been successful is Fidelity’s ad,
“Should You Accept Your Employer’s Pension Buyout Offer?” seen in Forbes
magazine, as reported by Buzzfeed (https://www.wordstream.com/blog/
ws/2014/07/07/native-advertising-examples). It provides substantial infor-
mation about the topic and doesn’t hide the fact that it’s recommending their
services as a solution. Because the intention is clear and provides useful informa-
tion, this ad has been well received.
Should you continue to invest in native advertising? The answer appears to be yes.
According to eMarketer, (https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-native-
advertising-2019), native advertising is maturing but shows no indication that
spending is abating. MediaRadar says that native campaigns renewed at an
average renewal rate of 40 percent in 2019, up from 33 percent in 2017.

The following sections describe the attributes that make native advertisements
successful.

Emotional

Native advertisements are typically emotional and engaging. They solicit a
response from consumers and encourage deeper participation. For example, Chase
Bank created a Million Dollar Sweepstakes for their Freedom card. Participants
had to buy all their purchases with the Freedom card. This advertisement resided

320 PART 5 Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM