Advice Round-Up: Our Best Practices for Native Ad Campaigns

As we near the end of March and start to enter springtime, the MediaGo team would like to take a look back at some of our favorite pieces of advice on how to approach native ad campaigns. This post is by no means comprehensive, but we hope it can serve as guidance to help your next campaign perform amazingly. Let’s get started!

Define a Buyer Persona

Outside of the filtering options available on ad platforms (such as geo-targeting), the most effective way to engage with your target audience is by establishing buyer personas. Buyer personas should leverage as much demographic information as you have at your disposal. This could include dimensions such as gender, race, age, employment, education, income, relationship status and physical location. 

Along with this, you’ll want to identify your audience’s psychographics — their values, affinities, motivations, opinions, attitudes, and lifestyles. What are their needs and wants? What problems do they have in their life that you can solve? 

With all of this in mind, the personas of your ideal audience will start to take shape. You could even go so far as to create a hypothetical person with a name that embodies your target buyer persona. This will come in handy if you have a few different audience personas, so that you can easily distinguish between them.

This process might feel very tedious and time-consuming, but once you know everything about who you are trying to reach, you will have a much easier time creating the rest of your campaign materials. 

Use Graphics that are Aligned With Your Landing Page 

If you are able to convince the consumer to click through to your landing page, but your page doesn’t deliver on the promise your ad made, the consumer will most likely close the tab. This can leave a bad taste in peoples’ mouths and impact your brand reputation.

By being genuine and transparent in your native ad graphics, you ensure that your audience will get what they expect from your landing page. Your ad creative can accomplish this by clearly displaying the product or experience that you’re selling, giving the audience a clear vision of what they should expect when they click on your link. 

Write Relevant and Accurate Copy

This should go without saying, but when you’re juggling so many different things for your ad campaign, it can be easy to forget the importance of relevant, accurate copy. In this context, “relevant” means that your copy should not only be aligned with your product or service, but should also match your chosen ad creative. Likewise, “accurate” means that your copy should accurately represent your product. In other words, when users click your ad, they shouldn’t be surprised or turned off by what they see on your landing page.

Showcase Special Offers

Have you ever been pushed over the edge to make a purchase because you have a great coupon or discount code? Yeah, we thought so. 

Discounts, coupons and loyalty programs are great ways to reel in new customers and retain existing ones. You can showcase discounts directly through your ad copy, as well as on your landing page. 

A particularly powerful technique to consider is limited-time discounts. When the clock is ticking, consumers are all the more likely make a purchase. This technique can be applied to both e-commerce and lead-gen offers. Try it out; chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Use Persuasive and Actionable Language

Whether you are helping your audience solve a problem, appealing to their emotions, or both, there is a variety of terms that will help pique the audience’s interest and encourage conversion. 

You: This word makes the ad feel personal, like it was created precisely for that person and their problems.

Try: Sometimes the word “buy” is a bit intimidating. The solution? Try. This word still provides a clear call to action, but offers a low-stakes way to evaluate the product or service without long-term commitment.

Save: Remember, your ad copy needs to demonstrate how your product or service solves a consumer’s problem. One way to do this is by emphasizing how your company lifts the burden — by saving time, money or resources.

Guarantee: This word provides reassurance and removes doubt, helping assuage any concerns that might be holding the individual back from making a purchase.

Exclusive: Everyone wants to feel special. By providing a deal or product that only an elite group has access to makes them feel like a VIP. This can be accomplished by offering a deal for “members only”, with membership being a simple email registration away.

Be: This word is small but mighty. It implies transformation, painting a picture that the individual can be whoever they want to be in their career, education or personal life, and that your brand can help them accomplish those aspirations.

Best & Proven: Both of these words pack a punch and are most effective when backed up with evidence. Was your product, service or company honored with an award? Is it proven effective by research? Did customers vote that your smokehouse has the best ribs? Let the audience know! 

As always, remember to check back in on the MediaGo blog for more digital advertising guidance.