Every day, you come across banners and pop-ups that fill your browser screen with advertisements; Sometimes tempting ads and sometimes annoying ads! These banners and pops are called “matched ads” or native ads. Matched ads help to increase a website’s traffic, increase sales, and most importantly, create reliable relationships with new and existing audiences; But for it to be profitable, you must also know the correct method and strategy of using it.
Accordingly, in this article, we are going to tell you what matching ads are, what are their benefits, and what are their types. Stay with us until the end of the article!
What are native ads?
Matched advertising is a type of online advertising in which the advertising content is combined with the surrounding content and displayed simultaneously. Identical ads are not different in appearance from the place where the ad is displayed. In this way, the audience does not feel that they are on the side of the ad and sees that offer as an offer from the host website or application.
The main advantage of this type of advertising is that it is less disturbing to users than other types of advertising (such as pop-up or banner ads) and since it has a subtle advertising aspect, users trust it more.
Matched advertising also aims to create a mutually beneficial experience that satisfies all parties involved: your business can promote its products to a relevant audience, while users enjoy the content they consume with minimal disruption. It’s a win-win game!
Why should we use matching ads? What are its benefits?
When you implement native advertising correctly, you can also reap its benefits. Because these ads look like part of a website’s main content, they convey value instead of distracting users from their main reason for choosing your website. In fact, users perceive matching ads 62% easier than display ads and 31% easier than social ads.
This can lead to 20% to 60% more engagement and three times the retention time compared to banner ads.
However, you need to be aware of some of the dangers of matching ads. Some argue that these types of ads can be deceptive to consumers if they are not properly labeled. For this reason, you should be careful when integrating match ads into your content that your content and the ad content are clear.
7 types of matching ads
There are different types of matching ads that you can use as part of your overall marketing strategy. In this section, we introduce 7 types of this advertising model.
1. Paid search advertising
Paid search ads are a form of search engine marketing that fits seamlessly with the platform they are placed on. For example, when you search for a term on Google, the first results you’ll be shown are ads paid for by the advertiser. However, they look the same as the rest of the search results; with the difference that the word Ad or Sponsored is seen next to each one.
2. Display ads with matching elements
This type of advertising combines elements of matching and display advertising. While display ads are unrelated graphic ads on a page consisting of banners, video, text, images, or audio, display ads with matching elements contain content that links them to the rest of the page. They are usually placed in important and strategic parts such as the header or sidebar of the web page.
3. Sponsored posts on social networks
The easiest way to find out what sponsored posts look like is to look at Twitter’s timeline. You’ve probably seen hundreds of ads pop up in your feed, but they don’t look like regular ads. Instead, they appear as tweets you’re used to seeing from friends and brands you follow.
Like search ads, match ads are clearly an ad. For example, on Facebook you’ll see the word Sponsored below the headline, indicating that the company paid the social networking platform to show it to you.
On other platforms you may see similar ads among organic content, such as an article linking to another website. These contents are displayed under the name of sponsored content so that users understand the difference between original content and advertising content. However, the ad will be related to the rest of the content on the page and will look more natural.
4. List of sponsored products
Similar to paid search ads, sponsored listings are ads that you see when you search for a product and see a list of similar products in the eCommerce marketplace. Amazon is one online retailer that does this best.
Sponsored listings look like any other listed result; The only difference is that they are usually displayed at the top of the page and accompanied by the word Sponsored. Because sponsored listings are still relevant to the user’s search term, they usually perform well in terms of conversion rates and click-through rates.
5. Reportage
Reporting means advertising and promoting a product, service or brand in different media. In fact, reporting is done in the form of short articles and written advertisements in print media, radio, television, and the Internet. The main purpose of the report is to attract the attention of the audience and increase their awareness of the product or service provided.
The advantages of reporting are that it exposes the brand message well and clearly to users, and that you can attract new audiences from readers of other websites.
6. Article suggestions
These suggestions are usually found at the end of an article or blog post and suggest other content related to the user’s interests or search history. This section may be titled “You may also like…” or “Recommended Reading”. To an audience, each ad in this section may seem like simple recommendations for similar articles, but for advertisers, this tool is a powerful tool to drive traffic from popular websites to their pages.
Content recommendations usually have attractive images and headlines that encourage readers to click through. This method of matching ads leads to 53% more page views than search engine clicks. In addition, providing recommendations is also a cost-effective way of marketing content on a website.
7. Customized in-app advertising
Custom ads can take almost any form and reflect many of the innovative methods used in digital marketing today. A custom match ad can be anything; From an Instagram filter created by a brand or even an ad running on a music playlist. For example, if you create a sports playlist on Spotify and then receive an ad for running shoes while listening to it, that’s considered a custom match ad; Because it is consistent with your intended content.
Summary: What you get with Matched Ads
In this article, we examined the concept and importance of matching ads and introduced its types to you. Matched advertising is introduced as an effective method in attracting customers and increasing sales, using logical and understandable arguments for better targeting and achieving desired results. In addition, matching ads increase brand recognition and affect customer satisfaction. Taking into account the ever-increasing developments in the advertising industry and the emergence of new technologies, using matching ads as a suitable framework for businesses in attracting and retaining their customers will guarantee success.
As a result, we recommend that businesses use matching ads in their marketing strategies so that they can have stronger competition in the market and achieve better results.