Native advertising or sometimes also known as sponsored content is the kind of advertising that is similar to the form and function of the platform that it appears on. Every social media platform is unique and it might get a little difficult to find your way around them in order to use them for native advertising. Social media platforms in the USA have several forms of creating and presenting an advertisement. They also have different types of content in both form and function.
One thing that you have to keep in mind is that not all the advertisements that you see on social media platforms fall under the banner of native advertising. An ad is determined to fall under native advertisement on the basis of its content and the way that is used to present it. An ad is considered to fall under native advertising if it promotes content and not some account or an offer. It also has to blend in with the surrounding content for it to be called native advertising.
Why should you use native advertising on social media?
The answer to this question is: Because the maximum population of people are present on social media. One of the main agendas of native advertising is to present it in a place where your target group is spending the maximum of their time. Your target group is always present here and hence it is the best way to branch out your brand in a much effective way.
Native advertisements work by taking advantage of the already existing population on social media and by promoting their content to the target group. These could be the existing users of Facebook or Instagram and even social groups or pages on these platforms.
Influencer Campaigns
Collaborating with famous influencers is one of the most beneficial ways of making your brand reach out to people. According to research conducted by Scanteam, influencers have a huge access to people and collaborations with them can help you gain free access to these accumulated followers and subscribers.
Now you might ask that obtaining the services of a media company or a digital marketing company can also result in good outcomes. The difference between social media influencers and media companies is that the influencers have a much stronger and deeper connection with their followers. This will result in a stronger turnover percentage for your brand. When compared to a social ad, collaboration with social influencers is highly likely to result in your content being noticed.
Finding influencers is a pretty simple job. They have trending videos almost everywhere on social media and some also have a good and running blog of theirs.
Sponsored Instagram Content
Yes, reaching out to influencers on Instagram is a great way to attract a huge influx of consumers. However, social media giant Instagram also has a much direct and straightforward way to do this: Sponsored content and Ads.
Sponsored content like videos or photos are basically advertisements that look like other basic content on Instagram. The only way that it can be distinguished from the other content is that the time is replaced with ‘Sponsored.’
According to marketing expert Alex Lysak, The main agenda of using sponsored content on Instagram is to present your brand in a way that the people are already familiar with and enjoy. In this way, the basic structure of an Instagram post is also retained.
The target group is selected on the basis of their activity on Instagram and Facebook. You will see a specific sponsored content only if it is similar to your likes and interests.
Sponsored posts on Facebook
A sponsored post on Facebook works a bit different than on Instagram. On Facebook, you pay for a post that in turn is reached out only to the people who ‘Like’ your page or follow you. While this may seem immensely stupid but sometimes it becomes important for even your followers to keep up with the content of your page.
Now you might ask: Why pay to make a post available to my followers when they will automatically see it in their news feed? The answer to this question is that many times people miss out on posts because they aren’t logged into Facebook when the post has gone live in the news feed. Hence, Facebook designs an algorithm in order to determine how interesting your content is and as per that it will be placed in your news feed.
Launching a sponsored post on Facebook is extremely simple and gives good results.
Promoted Tweets on Twitter
Contrary to Facebook, promoted tweets on Twitter help you to expand your reach by showing the best of your tweets to the maximum number of people (even those who are not following you).
You can either select an existing tweet and promote it or create a new tweet with a specific agenda in mind and then promote it. Either ways, Twitter will display the tweet in a user’s news feed if it finds it in accordance with the user’s interests.
Just like Instagram and Facebook, the tweet will display a ‘Promoted’ tag and will prove beneficial in driving people towards your landing page. You can use the tweet in whichever way that might seem the best to you. However, make sure to promote content and not offers or sales if it is a part of a native ad campaign.
Sponsored updates on LinkedIn
Sponsored updates on LinkedIn can majorly help your company promote your brand to a specific group of the target audience. It is a great way to expand your reach and connect with a large base of interested users.
LinkedIn has a variety of filters such as Job, Description, location, level of education and company which makes it easier for the tweet to appear in the news feed of the target and interested audience.
Just like Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn sponsored updates also display a ‘Sponsored’ tag.
It is a fact that you might not receive a large amount of reach on LinkedIn when compared with other social media platforms but the reach will be highly qualified.
Using native advertising on social media, you can divert a huge influx of people towards your business or page. Native advertising strategy is simple to use and very effective as well.
Author Bio:
I have been working in online marketing since 2011, my main areas of expertise are marketing research, social media marketing, and SEO. During 9 years of experience, I have helped many products and startups to develop marketing strategies and to implement them further. I am CEO of Scanteam and SEOBROTHERS.
