According to DemandSage, Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels available, with over 2.35 Billion monthly active users. With such an extensive use case, especially for those in crucial customer demographics such as millennials and Gen Z, it's not surprising that many businesses try to harness the power of Instagram to facilitate growth. 

One way that businesses try to grow on Instagram is through partnering with influencers. These are individuals with a large or highly-engaged audience, and often both. Companies can use influencers to promote their products, pages, and more, and it has many benefits to implementing this marketing tactic. 

However, with things like costs and brand perception to consider, many people still question if using Instagram influencers to advertise your business is effective. Here's a deeper dive into the practice and why it can be a good idea for you. 

What is Instagram Influencer Marketing? 

Influencers exist on all social platforms, including Instagram, often serving similar functions and purposes. An influencer would have built a following by posting about a particular niche, lifestyle, or aspect of their life, with users engaging with the content because they find it entertaining, educational, or memorable. 

Over time, these influencers have built credibility and trust by being authentic and, for many, a source of inspiration. This reputation makes them perfect for businesses to partner with, as soliciting a promotional post with an influencer can get your product recommended by someone with a huge reach and genuine influence over the followers. 

One of the most famous influencers on Instagram is Kim Kardashian. With millions of followers, brands often pay for her to post content featuring their products in the hopes that some of those followers will be inspired to use the same products. You can follow a similar principle when partnering with an Instagram influencer. 

Mark Pierce, CEO of Colorado LLC Attorney, says, "Influencers have already done the hard part and built an engaged audience that trusts them. Advertising with influencers allows you to borrow their influence to promote your products." 

There are many different types of influencers you can use. They are broken down into: 

• Nano-influencer - 10,000 followers or fewer
• Micro-influencer - 10,000 to 100,000 followers
• Macro-influencer - 100,000 to 1 million followers
• Mega influencer - 1 million or more followers 

Regarding the different types of influencers, Stephan Baldwin, Founder of Assisted Living, says, "Don't disregard the potential of nano-influencers. Despite their small audience size, those followers are usually highly engaged and focused on that influencer's niche. Partnering with the right nano-influencer can help you find the best leads."   

Does Advertising With Instagram Influencers Actually Work? 

The states show that advertising with influencers can help your brand grow in audience size and revenue. Civic Science reported that 14% of Gen Z social users and 11% of millennials bought a product after seeing it promoted via influencer marketing. This may sound small, but it offers great potential when you remember that over 2 Billion users are on Instagram. 

The benefits of influencer marketing can be huge. As influencers have built up a trusted persona, having your products featured and advertised on their content can make your brand appear more genuine, helping to boost your reputation. Furthermore, partnering with the right influencers that work well within your niche can position you as an essential brand among your target audience. 

For example, if you run a sports equipment business, you can position yourself as an industry leader by having your products showcased by influencers within the sport niche. 

By using Instagram influencers to build trust, your reputation will soar. Managing your brand's online reputation is critical for business growth, and working with influencers can help with that. 

As well as that, influencer marketing can help you reach audiences you may not have been able to reach organically. Gerald Lombardo, Head of Growth at Popl, says, "It can be hard to penetrate a new market or demographic, especially if you want to expand in a new country. Using influencers can help you get a strong foothold."  

The best-performing type of influencer content on Instagram is videos. Ironic for an app that started by focusing on image sharing, reels see the most use on Instagram. This means you can pair your Instagram influencer marketing with Instagram Video Ads to capitalize on and maximize your campaign's reach.

How to Effectively Use Instagram Influencers

Using influencers is one of the best strategies for sponsoring products on Instagram, but you have to use them effectively and in the right way. Here are a few things to do to make sure that your campaigns are the most effective they can be: 

Know your audience 

You need to do market research on your brand to determine the type of Instagram users you should target. Certain brands and products appeal to specific individuals, so to ensure you work with the right influencers, you need a good grasp of the demographic that best suits your product. 

After that, you must research potential influencers to see if their audience suits your brand.

Jesse Hanson, Content Manager at Online Solitaire & World of Card Games, says, "We target a specific audience with our advertising. It can be a waste of effort and resources marketing to the wrong individuals, so fully understanding the type of audience influencers have can be super helpful." 

Pro tip: Studying your competitors' Instagram audience can provide valuable insights about your target demographic. Analyzing their followers and post types can help shape your audience profile and identify any overlooked segments.

Sprout's Competitive Analysis Report allows you to track your competitors' Instagram performance, engagement, audience growth, and compare it with yours. This enables you to identify key competitors and scrutinize their audience composition.

Follow the rules

When working with influencers, there are clear rules that both of you need to follow. The main thing is that when an influencer posts content featuring your product that they're being paid or compensated for, they must disclose that it's an ad clearly. Usually, an influencer will showcase this by adding '#ad' to the content. 

Although this is the influencer's responsibility, your business can get flack if they fail to follow these rules. That's why it's a good idea to draft up some guidelines and include this disclosure requirement in your contract so that they're more encouraged to do it. 

Pro tip: Launching an influencer campaign may draw your attention to vanity metrics like likes and comments. However, the true measure of a campaign's success lies in its return on investment. One effective method is using UTM parameters to track website visitors and engagement from each influencer. By assigning unique UTM-coded links to each influencer, you can accurately assess the campaign's impact on your revenue.

Follow the three R's 

The three R's principle can make choosing the right influencer easier for your business. The three R's represent Relevance, Reach, and Resonance. You want to make sure that your business is relevant to the influencer. For example, a home design influencer won't be relevant to a Crypto business and could alienate the audience. 

The reach needs to align with your goals. This isn't just about trying to get an influencer with the most followers; those followers need to be engaged and suit your product. Resonance is all about ensuring that your product offers a solution many followers experience. For example, a male grooming business will resonate well with an influencer with a predominantly male audience.

Tim White, Founder of Milepro, says, "The three R's govern most businesses' approach to influencer marketing. The more that aligns with your business, the more effective the campaign will be.  

Pro tip: Leverage an Influencer & Creator Database Solution – Without the appropriate resources, identifying the perfect collaboration can seem like a daunting task; but remember, you don't have to shoulder all the burden. By utilizing a dedicated platform such as Mavrck's influencer marketing solution, you can effortlessly find and establish connections with creators and influencers for your upcoming campaign.

Integrate Influencer Marketing into Your Advertising Strategy

Instagram influencer marketing can give your business a massive boost when done correctly. Influencers can get more eyes on your product and use their unique relationship with their audience to get them to trust your brand, making you more credible. 

Not every influencer marketing campaign will work, and you will need to put the effort in to see results, but they can become an effective way to advertise on the platform. If you’d like to get into the weeds with an expert consultant on how to make your influencer marketing plan effective, or to tackle any advertising question, the team at Marin is ready to help you get started.

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Roman Shvydun is a guest contributor to the Marin Software blog.

Tracking website visitors' behavior is crucial for gaining insights into their engagement and optimizing digital strategies. One significant aspect of user interaction is downloading files, such as documents, software, or media files. Understanding how users engage with these downloads can provide valuable data for improving content offerings and measuring conversion rates. 

As you probably know, Google Analytics released a new, updated version, and in this blog post, we will explore the best practices and insights for tracking downloads using Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

Understanding Downloads in GA4

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a download event is triggered when a user clicks a download link or button, signaling their intent to retrieve a particular file. GA4 tracks these download events by capturing relevant data, such as the file's URL, the user's session information, and other event parameters. Website owners can then analyze and measure the engagement levels of their downloadable content, gaining valuable insights into user preferences, content popularity, and conversion rates.

Before we dive into setting up download tracking, we first need to explain two fundamental terms: gated and ungated content. Both are types of downloadable content, but the difference is whether users need to provide personal information first.. 

Gated and ungated content

Gated content requires users to share their personal information (usually their email) to download the materials. This option is great if your downloadable materials are intended to be lead magnets. For example, every piece of content that benefits people interested in your service or product is a lead magnet. 

You can probably guess where this is going - when users leave some information, it’s much easier to track them. Each download will be counted, you’ll be able to see it, and most importantly, you’ll know to whom it belongs. Additionally, you can use those emails for remarketing purposes and put your product or service in front of the eyes of your potential clients. 

Unlike gated content, ungated content doesn’t require leaving any information. Users can download the materials by clicking on the download button. For instance, you can download coupons from a discount website by clicking on the corresponding icon. Unlike gated content, ungated content won’t allow you to trace your leads. If you know that a piece of content is an important step in the customer journey, then you can make it easily accessible. Sometimes users get put off having to share their personal information, so using this option has its own benefit.

Moreover, your internal team or a digital marketing agency can utilize gated and ungated content to achieve different objectives and cater to different customer journey stages. Now that you know the basics about downloadable materials let’s see how you can set download tracking in GA4. 

When to use gated versus ungated content

Gating content is a common strategy for businesses aiming to build an email list or generate leads. When content is gated, users must provide their contact information, typically an email address, to gain access. The primary benefits of this method include lead generation, segmentation opportunities, and a sense of exclusivity for users. However, this strategy also carries drawbacks like reduced SEO benefits and limitations in audience building. Gated content could include reports with original research, eBooks, whitepapers, live demos, webinars, and newsletter content.

On the other hand, ungated content is freely accessible on the internet and doesn't require users to provide any contact information. While this approach doesn't directly generate leads, it can help build organic awareness, encourage audience engagement, and offer significant SEO benefits. There are also strategic ways to retarget page visitors and capture potential leads later in the funnel when they are more prepared for direct outreach. Examples of ungated content could be blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, and ungated PDFs. In deciding whether to gate or ungate content, businesses should consider their resources, marketing and business goals, industry expectations, and plans for managing collected information. 

For our purposes today, we’ll go through why you want to track downloads in GA4; and then we’ll dive into the technical setup of tracking gated content.

Insights from Download Tracking in GA4

In a moment, we’ll go through how to get accurate download data, but first, you may be wondering what insights you can get from download tracking. The answer is simple - many.

Understanding user engagement

Understanding user engagement through tracking downloads in GA4 provides valuable insights into how users interact with downloadable content on your website. By analyzing metrics such as download frequency, duration, conversion rates, or sales forecasts, you can identify which files resonate most with your audience, optimize content offerings, and tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.

Identifying popular and underperforming downloads

When tracking downloads in GA4, you can easily identify popular and underperforming downloads by analyzing the metrics and data provided. By examining the number of downloads, engagement metrics such as time spent on the download page, and conversion rates associated with each file, you can gain insights into which downloads resonate well with users and drive desired actions.

Tracking downloads as part of a user journey analysis

Measuring the effectiveness of downloadable content is also very important. This will help you understand certain downloads' impact on further actions in the customer journey, such as starting a free trial, enrolling for a demo session, registering, or buying a product. 

Setting Up Download Tracking in GA4

Download tracking happens autoamatically in GA4 if your Data Stream is configured properly. To set it up, go to the Admin section, and under Property, select Data Streams. 

Once you click on Data Streams, your next step is to allow Enhanced Measurement. 

After you enable the enhanced measurement, you need to visit the Settings section by clicking on the gear icon within the enhanced measurement field. 

That will open another window where you need to enable File downloads. As you can see, File downloads are one of the options for the Enhanced measurement. Since you’ll probably be doing this for the first time, you’ll have to wait 24 hours before the results populate in the Analytics.

And that’s it; you’re all set! It’s not difficult at all! 

The next logical step is to learn how to analyze the download data and create reports that will enable you to get to the next level when tracking downloads.

Analyzing Download Data in GA4

Standard reports

Once you set the download tracker, the results will automatically populate in the Standard reports once you set them up as events. They are called file_download events. 

How can you find file_download? Easily, just click on the Reports - Engagement - Events. 

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Standard reports have some flaws. If you’re tracking only one downloadable material, there will be no problems. But if you have more than that, Standard reports won’t be able to provide you with information. 

First of all, all downloads will be grouped, so you won’t be able to see which file got the most downloads. Secondly, you won’t be able to see where the users are downloading those files either. 

That’s why it is important to explain the power of Custom reports, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Adding a Secondary Dimension

The details report table inherently comes with a primary dimension and up to a dozen metrics. The primary dimension is labeled as such. For instance, in the given detailed report when, "Event name" is the primary dimension, metrics such as "Event count" and "Total users" are included. This arrangement allows for the analysis of each metric relative to one dimension:

The report can be appended by adding a secondary dimension, facilitating data analysis across two distinct categories. For instance, the table below showcases the page or screen where each event was initiated:

This secondary dimension is a temporary addition and gets removed once you navigate away from the report.

How to Append a Secondary Dimension Adjacent to the primary dimension, click on Add dimension [Plus].

Scan through the list of dimensions, or input the whole or part of the dimension name in the search box. Select the desired dimension name.

Custom reports

Custom reports will enable you to view each download individually by creating their respective views. 

To enable this, go to the Explore section and select Blank - Create new exploration. 

Your next step is to name your new report and add the dimensions that you find relevant. Click the + symbol, add the Event name and File name, and finalize this part by clicking Import. 

Another thing that you need to select is the metrics. You’ll do that by again clicking on the + symbol and adding Event count and Total users, and again, finalize it by clicking on Import. 

Once all of this is set, you need to add all these elements into your report by doing a simple drag-and-drop or a double click on them. 

After this, there’s only one little thing to be done. You’ll need to apply a filter to exclude all the other events and limit this report to tracking downloads. 

There you have it - only these steps are necessary to keep track of your downloadable materials. 

Advanced Techniques for Download Tracking in GA4

Let's cover a couple of more advanced situations for those of you who are always interested in learning more. 

Link attribution for tracking downloads from external sources

Once you have enabled Enhanced Measurements, GA4 will “fire” an event called click whenever someone clicks on the link on your website that leads them to another website. Such external links are called outbound links.  

You’ll see all the link URLs and their respective clicks if you click on Click. 

How to set outbound link tracking? Visit the Admin panel - Configuration - Data Streams and choose the web data for this configuration. Check that the Enhanced Measurement is on, and in its Settings section, ensure the Outbound option is enabled. Once all clicks are set, just save the changes. 

Creating the reports works in the completely same way as we explained above. The standard report is the one that will show once you go to the Reports - Engagement - Events - Clicks, while the creation of Customized reports will require you to select again the metrics that you would like to include. 

Tracking outbound links is important if you, for example, have two websites that link each other and want to know how many people navigated between those two. 

Cross-domain tracking for downloads on multiple websites

If you, for example, have a website and a blog with separate domains, consider using cross-domain tracking. Cross-domain tracking allows you to identify users across different domains. This means that the system will be able to recognize the same user activity regardless of the domain they’re visiting. 

When you set this option, and when you, for example, have an outbound link that leads to your other domain, the option for tracking outbound links will be automatically ignored. If this weren’t the case, you couldn’t follow the same user across your two domains because it would be recognized as a completely new user. 

Let’s see how to set this up. 

Again, go to Admin - Data Streams and select a website property you want to enable cross-domains. 

After the new window appears, click on the Tagging Settings. 

This will lead you to the next window, where you must select Configure your domains.

In the next window, click on the Add condition.

Here you will be offered many conditions, but in this case, you can select contains and add the domain link of the second website and click Save. 

Now you’re halfway there. You will need to follow the same steps, and when you again come to the last one where you’re adding conditions, this time, you will need to insert the domain link of the first website. 

To check if everything is set up correctly, just visit any of those two websites, and if in the URL you see a new parameter _gl just after the website link, it means that you’re good to go! 

Conclusion

Tracking downloads with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides invaluable insights into user engagement and behavior on your website. By implementing the best practices discussed in this blog post, you can harness the power of GA4 to accurately measure and analyze downloads, optimize your content target strategy, and make data-driven decisions.

We hope this article will help you start tracking downloads more easily and understand your customer journey a bit more. To optimize your omnichannel advertising reporting, meet with a MarinOne consultant today.

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Tanja Adamovic is a guest contributor to the Marin Software blog.

Modern consumers are becoming increasingly adept at tuning out aggressive, disruptive advertising. This has led digital marketers to seek new and creative ways to engage their target audience. Amongst the most promising of these emerging strategies is native advertising—a format that seamlessly blends into the user's natural viewing experience.

But native advertising isn't some shiny, brand-spanking-new strategy cooked up in a digital marketing laboratory. In fact, it has a long and colorful history – one that spans decades and crosses a range of different platforms, mediums, and industries. 

From the days when people relied on black-and-white newspapers for their daily fix of information, to the golden age of radio when catchy jingles ruled the airwaves, all the way up to the digital dominion we now inhabit, native advertising has always been around, transforming and adapting with each passing epoch.

In this blog, we'll first take a journey through time to explore the rich history of native advertising and how it has continuously adapted to the demands of each era. Following that, we'll examine the current state of native advertising and discuss a few of the techniques that publishers and brands are using in a bid to make their native ads as successful and effective as possible. 

So, without further ado, let's start at the very beginning of the native advertising story.

A Brief History of Native Advertising

As the wheels of time turned and advertising evolved, native ads took on various forms, captivating audiences across different mediums. Let's take a journey through the evolutionary tapestry of native ads:

Advent of Advertorials

The roots of native ads can be traced all the way back to the early 1900s when advertorials – ads that masquerade as editorial content – first began appearing in print magazines. Advertorials were a clever concoction of marketing and journalism, allowing advertisers to promote their products or services in the guise of an informative article.

Cadillac's 1915 advertorial in The Saturday Evening Post was a shining example of this format. Created by Theodore F. MacManus, the ad was an impassioned ode to the spirit of progress and advancement, with nary a mention of Cadillac or even the automotive industry. The only giveaway that it was an advertisement was the subtle logo placed in the corner. But despite its lack of overt branding, the ad was deemed radical for its time – and even today, advertising professionals consistently hail it as one of the best ads ever created. 

Radio Revolution

In the roaring 1920s and 1930s, a time when radio and TV ruled the infotainment sphere, native advertising began to take a more audible shape. Businesses would regularly fund radio programs to propagate their marketing message.

A momentous event in this advertising revolution was the debut of the renowned "Eveready Hour" in 1923. This groundbreaking radio program, sponsored by the National Carbon Company, swept the airwaves via the illustrious WEAF radio station in New York. Beyond captivating the audience with its selection of entertainment, the program also weaved in advertisements for the company's prized Eveready Batteries into its segments.  

Television Takes the Stage

As television emerged as the dominant medium in the mid-20th century, native advertising followed suit, adapting to the visual storytelling potential of the small screen. Early adopters of this brave new world of television advertising included multinational consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble.

P&G's pioneering strategy involved underwriting a slew of drama series, such as 'The Guiding Light,' in exchange for subtle product placements of their soaps and detergents, hence coining the term "soap operas." Families gathered around their televisions, eagerly following the trials and tribulations of their favorite characters, in the process, absorbing the sponsored messages seamlessly woven into the storylines.

Infomercial Madness

The 80s were a pivotal moment in the history of native advertising. This was when the iconic infomercial– an advertisement structured as a program – first made its debut. Late-night television became a breeding ground for enthusiastic hosts and pitchmen hawking everything from kitchen gadgets to exercise equipment in an entertaining, educational format.

Leading the charge was Soloflex, the first-ever company to air an infomercial. The ad revolved around a common scenario – how to get in shape without joining an expensive gym. The infomercial was a tremendous success, thus giving birth to a wave of "as seen on TV" products.

Native Advertising in the Digital Age

When native advertising stepped into the digital age, it took on a whole new level of sophistication and relevancy. Although the basic premise of native advertising remained the same, digital media opened up a multitude of possibilities for brands to enlist in their quest to reach potential customers. Some of the biggest developments in native advertising's digital evolution include:

Paid Search

The rise of search engines in the early 2000s ushered in a new era of native advertising, as brands capitalized on Google's sponsored ad slots to promote their products and services. This gave birth to the concept of contextual targeting, allowing advertisers to reach out to users based on their interests and search queries.

Branded Content And Sponsored Articles

The proliferation of digital publishing in the 2010s led to the emergence of sponsored content, as brands began partnering with publishers to produce articles and videos in sync with the native content of their favorite websites. Digital media powerhouses such as BuzzFeed and Mashable, for instance, have made sponsored content an integral part of their business models.

One of BuzzFeed's most iconic examples is their "11 Reasons Why The Year 2000 Was The Best" article, which was sponsored by Tic Tac and featured a vote for the company's next flavor at the end. This article perfectly encapsulates how Buzzfeed and its brand partners have managed to meld sponsored content with their regular posts, creating an immersive native advertising experience for the reader. 

Traditional publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have also recognized the potential of sponsored content, catering to advertisers by crafting specially-branded articles and videos for their readers. This move further solidifies native advertising's position as a mainstream advertising medium, as even the most venerated news sources join in on the fun.

Programmatic Native Advertising

Sharpening the targeting abilities of native ads even further is programmatic advertising, which uses algorithms to automate the process of buying and selling ads. This has allowed marketers to personalize native ads based on the user's browsing pattern, resulting in higher engagement and better ROI. Programmatic native ads have also enabled brands to target a much wider audience, making their content more effective and relevant at scale.

Video Ads

Video is the next big frontier in native advertising. Viewership of digital video content has grown exponentially over the past few years, and wise brands are already capitalizing on this trend through native video ads. 

In fact, a survey by eMarketer revealed that in 2022, native video advertising accounted for a whopping 56% of all digital video ad spending in the United States. Furthermore, projections indicate that native display spending will experience a robust 12% year-over-year growth in 2023. 

The power of native video ads lies in their ability to captivate viewers with compelling content while keeping them engaged with their interactive nature. Just take a look at Taco Bell's "Belluminati" campaign—an ingenious example of a native video ad that used humor and a conspiracy-theory narrative to promote its new $1 menu items. 

Techniques for Native Advertising Success

A study conducted by Kantar and Taboola reveals that the inclusion of native advertising in the marketing mix led to a 25% increase in brand awareness. But as digital native advertising matures, getting your ads seen and acted upon is becoming harder and harder. Here are some of the key tactics that you can use to make sure your native ad campaigns hit the mark:

Research, Research, Research

A fleshed-out understanding of your target audience is the first step in executing a successful native ad campaign. Knowing who your target audience is and what they like allows you to craft an advertisement that resonates with the viewers, increasing the chances of them taking action.

Once you've identified your audience, you can start getting familiar with the platforms that will host your ad. Each platform comes with its own nuances and restrictions, so it pays to do your research beforehand.

Be Authentic

Your ad should be engaging, approachable, and interesting – but above all, it should be authentic and relevant. If your ad looks too much like a blatant sales pitch than an exciting read, it will turn the viewers off. 

People want to be informed and entertained – not sold to. So, focus on creating an ad that's helpful and educational. Frame your message in a way that adds value to the viewer's experience, and ensure that the ad fits in seamlessly with the content of its hosting platform.

Measure Your Success

It's not enough to simply create an ad and put it out there. Just like how your employees need regular performance evaluations to know if they're doing well, your native ad campaigns also demand frequent audits to ascertain their success. 

Continually analyze metrics such as engagement, CTR (Click Through Rate), CPC (Cost Per Click), and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). These metrics will indicate how well your ads are performing and how effective they are at driving conversions. Then, refine and optimize your campaigns based on the insights gathered from these evaluations.

Leverage Digital Tools

The digital advertising toolkit is brimming with powerful resources that can give your native ad campaigns a much-needed boost. Some note-worthy tools include: 

• Workflow Automation. These tools empower you to automate repetitive tasks, optimize collaboration between team members, and ensure seamless project management. All you have to do is find an automation system that integrates with your current tech stack. Additionally, prioritize tools with a low learning curve or, even better, ones that offer a low-code or no-code config, making them accessible to users with varying technical backgrounds.
• File Management Systems. File managers play a crucial role in preventing the organizational chaos that can arise when dealing with creative assets and collaboration documents, especially when working with large teams. Proper file management systems allow you to share documents in real-time and ensure everyone is working off the same page. Most filing tools also provide granular permissions control, making it easy to protect sensitive information.
• Ad Management Software. With a full-suite ad management tool like MarinOne, you can optimize the delivery and performance of your ads in real time. Comprehensive solutions like ours reduce the need for manual interventions while providing end-to-end visibility into your ad campaigns. Advertising automation tools allow you manage budgets, bids, and placements and help you pull reports to analyze the performance of your ads, all in one place.

Future of Native Advertising

Native advertising in the digital age is only going to get more sophisticated. As machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to evolve, marketers will be able to leverage these technologies to create more contextual and intelligent native ad experiences.  It’s also likely that native will continue to expand beyond the current platforms, with more interactive and personalized formats appearing over the next few years. 

No matter what the future holds for native advertising, one thing is certain: the adaptability and scalability of native ads will keep them at the forefront of digital marketing for years to come. So, if you haven't hopped on the native ad bandwagon yet, now is the perfect time to do so. Embrace native ads and make them an integral component of your overall marketing strategy.

Meet with an advertising expert from MarinOne today to get started.

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Yoshiro Kichiro is a guest contributor to the Marin Software blog.

Are you struggling to find the right keywords to optimize your website's content? Do you want to improve your search engine ranking by discovering the most relevant and effective keywords?

With the help of Google Analytics, you can gain valuable insights into the keywords that are already driving traffic to your website. By analyzing this data, you can optimize your content and target new keywords to attract even more visitors.

In this post, we'll guide you through the process of finding keywords in Google Analytics. Our step-by-step instructions will help you identify the most effective keywords to boost your website's SEO strategy.

So, if you want to improve your website's search engine ranking, keep reading to learn how to find keywords in Google Analytics and optimize your content for success.

How to Find Keywords in Google Analytics: Step-by-Step Tutorial

In Google Analytics, you cannot directly find specific keyword information within the platform itself. Due to privacy reasons, Google Analytics does not provide keyword data. However, you can gain valuable insights about the keywords driving traffic to your website by utilizing integration with Google Search Console. 

How to Connect Google Search Console with Google Analytics

To connect Google Search Console with Google Analytics, follow these detailed instructions:

1. Access Google Analytics: Open your web browser and go to the Google Analytics website (https://analytics.google.com). Sign in with your Google account credentials.

2. Navigate to Admin Settings: In the bottom-left corner of the page, click on the "Admin" option. This will take you to Admin Settings.

3. In the "Property" column, click on "Search Console Links" at the bottom of the list. Then click on the "Link" button to link Google Search Console to GA4.

4. Click on the "Choose Accounts" button. You will see a list of websites that you have verified in the Google Search Console

5. Select the data stream that is used to collect data for the website and click "Submit". Click "Next" to proceed.

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6. Select the data stream that is used to collect data for the website. If you have multiple data streams, ensure that you choose the one associated with the same website you are linking from Google Search Console. Hover over the stream and click "Select." Click "Next" to continue.

7. Review the details to ensure that you have selected the correct property from Search Console and the corresponding data stream. Then click "Submit" to finalize the linking process.

Note that it may take up to 48 hours before you start seeing data from Google Search Console in your Google Analytics reports. 

Close the linking dialogue and navigate to the "Reports" section in Google Analytics. Select "Acquisition" and then "Acquisition Overview" from the menu. Scroll down to the bottom of the report, and you will notice two new cards added: "Google Organic Search Traffic" and "Google Organic Search Queries." These cards provide insights into your website's performance in organic search results on Google.

You can click on the links within each card to access dedicated reports for landing pages, organic impressions, search queries, and click-through data.

How to Customize the Reporting Menu in Google Analytics and Find Your Keywords

Additionally, you can customize the reporting menu by accessing the "Library" section in Google Analytics. There, you can locate the new "Search Console" collection and publish it to make the Search Console reports readily accessible from the main reporting menu.

Here’s how to customize the reporting menu in Google Analytics and publish the new "Search Console" collection:

In the "Library" section, you will find a new collection named "Search Console" that is not published yet. Click on “Edit collection” to edit it.

Inside the "Search Console" collection, click the "Save" button to save the changes you made.

Now, navigate back to the main reporting menu by clicking on the "Reports" link in the left-hand menu. In the reporting menu, click on the three vertical dots (more options) located at the top right corner of the page.

From the dropdown menu, select "Publish" to make the Search Console reports accessible in your GA4 property.

If you encounter any issues during the publishing process, wait for a few minutes and then refresh the page. This step can resolve any potential problems. Once the reports are published, you will see the Search Console reports available in the main reporting menu of your GA4 property. Now you can easily access your website's top-performing keywords right in Google Analytics.

Exploring Other Options: Alternative Tools for Keyword Research

While Google Analytics is a popular choice for tracking website metrics, there are several smooth alternatives available specifically designed for finding keywords and gaining valuable insights. These alternatives offer unique features and functionalities to help optimize your content and improve your organic search performance. Consider the following alternatives:

Google Site Kit

One option is to use Google Site Kit. This is a free plugin for WordPress that allows you to connect your website to various Google services, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Ads. Once you have installed the plugin and connected it to your Google account, you can view your site's keyword data directly within your WordPress dashboard.

This includes information such as the keywords driving traffic to your site, the page ranking for those keywords, and how your site is performing in search results. Google Site Kit also provides insights into other areas of your site's performance, such as page speed and mobile usability.

Google Search Console

This is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor your site's performance in search results. Once you have verified ownership of your site, you can view data such as the keywords that are driving traffic to your site, the pages that are ranking for those keywords, and how your site is performing in search results. 

You can also use Google Search Console to submit sitemaps, monitor crawl errors, and view other data related to your site's performance in search results.

Third-party Keyword Research Software

There are many third-party tools available that allow you to research keywords and analyze your site's performance. Some popular options include Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz. These tools allow you to research keywords that are relevant to your site and your target audience, and provide insights into how your site is performing in search results. 

They also offer features such as competitor analysis, backlink analysis, and site auditing, which can help you improve your site's performance and visibility in search results. 

Here is an example of how you can use SEMrush to view your site’s ranking keywords:

1. Log in to your SEMrush account. Click on the "Domain Overview". Enter your domain name in the search bar and click "Search".

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2. Scroll down to the "Organic Search Traffic " section and click on the number that indicates the number of keywords you’re ranking.

3. In the "Organic Search Traffic" report, you will see a list of all the keywords that your website is ranking for in search results.  You can then sort the list by different metrics such as search volume, position, and traffic percentage by clicking on the relevant column header. You can also filter the list by various parameters such as keyword difficulty, search volume, and position by using the filters at the top of the page.

How to Use Keyword Data to Improve Your Website

Google Analytics provides valuable keyword data that can help you improve your website's performance. By analyzing this data, you can optimize your existing content, create new content, and improve website navigation and user experience.

Optimize existing content

By using keyword data, you can easily identify which pages on your website are performing well and which ones need improvement. Once you've determined which pages require optimization, you can take several steps to improve their performance. 

One way to optimize your pages is by adding relevant keywords to your content. Tools such as Page Optimizer Pro can help you identify which keywords to use and how to use them effectively. You can also improve the page's structure and update the existing content to make it more engaging and up-to-date, which can help attract more traffic to your website and improve your website's overall performance.

Optimizing your existing content not only improves its relevance to your target audience but also increases its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that your website will rank higher in search engine results, making it more likely that people will find your website and engage with your content.

Tip: If you want to see faster results after updating content, consider republishing the article and submitting it to Search Console. By doing this, you can signal to search engines that your content has been updated and is worth revisiting.

Create new content

Keyword data can also help you identify high-performing keywords and create content around those topics to complete the topic cluster. 

For instance, suppose you run an online store that sells fitness equipment, and you notice that the keyword "best home gym equipment" is driving a lot of traffic to your website. In that case, you can create more blog posts or landing pages that target that keyword. You could create a blog post that provides a detailed review of the best home gym equipment available on the market, or you could create a landing page that showcases your store's selection of home gym equipment.

By creating more content around high-performing keywords, you can attract more traffic to your website and increase engagement with your audience. This can also help you establish your website as an authority in your industry, which can help generate more leads and revenue.

Improve website navigation and user experience

Keyword data can also help you improve the navigation and user experience of your website. By analyzing the keywords that people are using to find your website, you can identify areas where your website may be confusing or difficult to navigate.

For example, if you notice that people are using certain keywords to find a specific page on your website, but they're not finding it easily, you can improve the page's navigation to make it more user-friendly. This can help reduce bounce rates and improve the overall user experience of your website.

Conclusion

Knowing how to find keywords in Google Analytics is crucial for understanding your website's traffic and enhancing your SEO performance. By using the methods outlined in this article, you can gain valuable insights into which keywords are driving traffic to your website, and which ones you may need to focus on optimizing.

Keep in mind that keyword rankings can fluctuate over time, so it's important to regularly monitor and analyze your website's keyword performance. By doing so, you can make informed decisions about your SEO strategy and make adjustments as needed.

And don't forget to use a variety of tools and resources to supplement your keyword research. Google Site Kit and other third-party keyword research tools can provide additional insights into your website's keyword performance and help you identify new opportunities for optimization.

Overall, by taking a comprehensive approach to keyword research and analysis, you can improve your digital marketing strategy and drive more traffic to your site.

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Millie Pham is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

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It's no secret that the e-commerce industry is highly competitive. In today's e-commerce landscape, it's vital to leverage the best practices to gain any edge you can over competitors. This means having a strong online presence and getting eyes on your e-commerce products.

One key aspect of this is optimizing your e-commerce store for maximum visibility ensuring that your product descriptions are search engine optimized (SEO). Through strategic optimization, you can enhance your website's visibility in organic search rankings which ultimately will attract highly targeted traffic to your site, and drive significant growth in sales and conversions to your e-commerce store.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the essential strategies, real-life examples, and best practices to optimize your e-commerce product descriptions for SEO success. Whether you're a seasoned online retailer or just starting your e-commerce journey, this article will provide valuable insights and actionable tips to help you create a successful e-commerce website and ultimately get more eyes on your store and products.

What is SEO?

Before we get into the best SEO optimizing tips, let's ensure there is no confusion about what SEO is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the practice of optimizing your website and its content to improve visibility and organic search rankings on search engines like Google.

Essentially, SEO helps your website or e-commerce store appear higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for relevant keywords or phrases. By aligning your e-commerce product descriptions with the ranking factors that search engines consider, you can increase your online visibility, drive targeted traffic to your site, and ultimately grow your business.

Why Should You Optimize Your E-commerce Product Descriptions for SEO?

When potential customers are searching for products online, where do most people turn? Most often users turn to search engines like Google to find what they need. So why is this important? 

It is reported that 2.64 billion people made online purchases in the year 2023 and this number is expected to grow around 10.4%. By strategically optimizing your product descriptions for SEO, you enhance the visibility of your offerings in relevant search results, enabling potential customers to effortlessly find and explore your online store, ultimately increasing the likelihood of conversions and driving business growth.

By crafting keyword-specific, compelling, and informative product descriptions, you can not only improve your search engine rankings but also enhance the overall user experience, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. 

Imagine you are looking up a product on Google and you see a list of ten options from your search. You're more likely to click on the articles that are positioned near the top of the page right? That's ultimately where you want your products to appear. SEO helps you achieve this.

8 Tips to Optimize Your E-commerce Product Descriptions for SEO

In the following section, we will share seven effective tips to optimize your e-commerce product descriptions for SEO. These tips will enhance the visibility and relevance of your product pages, attracting organic traffic and boosting conversions. 

Understand Googles Algorithm

If you are looking to dip into the SEO world then it is critical that you understand Google's guidelines on what their algorithm looks for when ranking content. Familiarize yourself with key factors that influence search rankings, such as relevance, user experience, and website authority.

By understanding Google's algorithm, you can align your e-commerce product descriptions with the search engine's preferences, increasing the chances of higher visibility and organic traffic. Regularly research industry trends, follow reputable SEO resources, and adapt your e-commerce strategies accordingly. 

Keep in mind that algorithms can change, so continuous learning and adaptation are crucial to maintaining optimal SEO performance. Below is an excerpt sharing some of the key factors Google looks for within SEO.

Conduct Keyword Research

Begin your optimization journey by uncovering the most relevant and specific keywords that resonate with your target customers and align with their search intent while seeking products akin to yours. Incorporate these keywords strategically throughout your product descriptions to improve search engine visibility and attract qualified traffic.

Keyword research is one of the biggest factors on the list of SEO best practices. If your keyword research is off then the user's search intent won't match your product. This ultimately leaves your pages with minimal traffic and low conversions.

Write Unique and Compelling Descriptions

No one likes reading boring, robotic text that is less engaging than the dictionary. Your goal as an e-commerce seller is to effectively showcase the unique features, benefits, and selling points of your products in a manner that compels customers to make a purchase.

You should use persuasive language to entice customers and differentiate your offerings from competitors. It’s also important to note that you should always try and avoid duplicate content to maintain SEO integrity in the eyes of Google.

Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Pay attention to title tags and meta descriptions, as they appear in search engine results pages (SERPs), and influence click-through rates. The title tag is nothing more than the title of a page or article that shows up when users search in Google. 

Include keywords that are specific, researched, and accurately describe the product to ensure when people scan over your text it resonates with their search intent. Your meta description should always have your keyword within the text to show Google and readers what the overall theme or topic of the page is. 

User-Friendly Readability and Formatting

Break down your product descriptions into easily scannable sections with headings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs. Use clear and descriptive language, avoiding jargon or complex terminology. 

You should Incorporate relevant keywords naturally while maintaining readability. No one likes giant walls of text. Readers typically like to skim. So, if you have relevant keywords, a heading, and a user-friendly format, it allows users to quickly understand your product.

Leverage User-Generated Content

One of the best ways for readers to easily gauge trustworthy and quality products is by using customer reviews and ratings for your products. This can also increase your AOV when customers buy your products. You might be wondering why this is included in SEO-friendly product descriptions. 

Well, displaying user-generated content on your product pages not only enhances credibility but also provides additional keyword-rich content that can improve SEO performance by touching on Google's E.E.A.T factors. E.E.A.T is the system Google readers use for ultimately deciding the validity of the content. Your compliance within these criteria can increase or decrease search results for your e-commerce products.

Monitor and Update Descriptions

Lastly, it’s vital that you continuously monitor the performance of your product descriptions and make necessary updates. Stay updated with keyword trends, search engine algorithm changes, and customer feedback. Regularly refreshing and optimizing your product descriptions ensures that they remain relevant and effective in driving organic traffic and conversions.

Leverage AI Tools

If you are struggling to create engaging SEO product descriptions for your e-commerce store then you may want to look at utilizing AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper. These tools can generate SEO-friendly product descriptions, meta descriptions, as well as any other written content. 

John Elder, owner of The Business Blocks had this to say about how they utilize ChatGPT for product descriptions. 

“We’ve found ChatGPT to be invaluable in optimizing our Etsy product descriptions, enhancing our SEO efforts, and improving our e-commerce listings. It’s a powerful tool that has positively impacted our online business presence.”

Examples of Optimized E-commerce Product Descriptions

Here are two varying examples of E-commerce product descriptions. The first example is one that has some sign of strength in the eyes of SEO while the second needs a lot of work…

Good SEO Product Description (Could Be Better)

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As you can see, the description above not only has varying target keywords in the title, but it also provides a description that could help Google place this page in front of users who may be searching for clothing with those keywords. 

Bad SEO Product Description 

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It doesn't take an SEO expert to see why this page needs a lot of work from an SEO perspective. Ultimately, there is not much to this page that can help Google put this in front of users. You need to do everything in your power to give Google the necessary information it needs to effectively place your page in front of potential customers.

Key Considerations For Successfully Optimizing Product Descriptions

Below is a recap of some of the most critical factors when focusing efforts on product descriptions that are optimized for SEO.

• Keywords: The pillar of any SEO strategy is strategically using relevant keywords throughout your product descriptions to enhance search engine visibility and attract targeted traffic. If this is not focused on first then the rest will fail.
• Unique and Compelling Content: Craft engaging and original descriptions that highlight the unique features, benefits, and value propositions of your products to capture the attention of potential customers.
• Regular Updates: Continuously monitor and update your product descriptions to reflect any changes in product features, pricing, or availability, ensuring accuracy and relevancy over time.
• A/B Testing: Try different tests, fail, and try again to determine which ones perform better in terms of click-through rates, conversions, and user engagement. Don't be discouraged if you don't see great results right away. Just keep trying new things that align with the tips we have discussed.
• Customer-Centric Approach: Write product descriptions that address the needs, pain points, and desires of your target audience, not what you think looks or sounds good. Showcase how your products can solve their problems and why users should choose your product.

Final Takeaways

In conclusion, e-commerce can be a great avenue for those who are looking to start a business or bring in additional income, but this cannot be achieved if no one sees your products… Optimizing your e-commerce product descriptions for SEO is a critical step in enhancing your online visibility, attracting more organic traffic, and driving conversions. 

By following the tips provided and understanding the key considerations, you can create compelling, keyword-rich, and customer-centric product descriptions that not only appeal to search engines but also resonate with your target audience. 

With the right SEO strategies in place, your e-commerce store can stand out from the competition, build trust with customers, and ultimately drive success. Start implementing these techniques today and unlock the full potential of your product descriptions in maximizing your online presence and driving business growth.

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Luke Lovelady is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

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Undoubtedly, social media has become an integral part of our lives. With that in mind, businesses are constantly seeking ways to leverage social media as an innovative way to amplify their brand and connect with their target audience.

One powerful and often overlooked tool in this realm is employee advocacy on LinkedIn. This platform combines the power of professional networking with the authenticity and reach of personal connections. 

Did you know that companies with active employee advocacy programs experience a 30% increase in employee engagement and a 39% increase in brand awareness? This statistic highlights the tremendous potential within your team when it comes to amplifying your brand's message in the digital landscape.

In this article, we will explore the ins and outs of employee advocacy on LinkedIn, uncovering its benefits, the strategies for effective implementation, and how it can transform your brand's digital presence. 

Benefits of Employee Advocacy on LinkedIn

When you empower your team to become brand advocates, you unlock many benefits that can amplify your brand and propel it to new heights. Let's dive into the exciting world of employee advocacy and explore the remarkable advantages it offers.

Expanded Brand Reach

Imagine your brand's message reaching your immediate audience and their extended networks. That's the magic of employee advocacy on LinkedIn. When your employees share content, insights, and experiences related to your brand, they tap into their connections, exposing your brand to a broader and more diverse audience. 

Each like, comment, and share has the potential to cascade through networks, increasing your brand's visibility and exponentially expanding your reach.

Authenticity and Credibility

In an era where consumers crave authenticity, employee advocacy on LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for humanizing your brand. Employees sharing personal experiences, expertise, and success stories lend credibility and authenticity to your brand's messaging. Their personal touch builds trust and fosters meaningful connections with the audience. 

Jim Pendergast, Senior Vice President at altLINE Sobanco, adds, "It's no secret that people trust recommendations and insights from their peers more than traditional advertising. This makes employee advocacy an invaluable asset in cultivating trust and loyalty."

Thought Leadership and Industry Influence

LinkedIn is a breeding ground for thought leaders and industry influencers. By encouraging your employees to share their knowledge, insights, and opinions, you position your brand as a leader in your field. 

Morgan Taylor, Co-Founder of Jolly SEO, explains further, "When employees contribute to industry discussions, publish thought-provoking articles, or engage in meaningful conversations, they establish themselves as experts and ambassadors of your brand. This elevates your brand's reputation, attracts top talent, and opens doors for collaboration and partnership opportunities."

Enhanced Employee Engagement

Employee advocacy on LinkedIn is not just about boosting your brand; it also profoundly impacts your team. When employees actively participate in promoting your brand, they feel a more profound sense of belonging and pride in their work. 

Their engagement levels rise as they become more invested in the organization's success. Employees receive recognition and validation through sharing their achievements and contributions, fostering a thriving work culture and a positive feedback loop that fuels motivation and productivity.

Recruitment Magnet

Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, says, "Your employees are your brand's best recruiters. When they share their positive experiences, highlight company culture, and showcase the impact of their work, they become potent magnets for top talent."

Potential candidates get a genuine glimpse into your organization's values, work environment, and growth opportunities, making your brand an attractive choice for aspiring professionals. A strong employer brand cultivated through employee advocacy sets you apart in a competitive talent market and helps you attract and retain the best and brightest.

Implementing an Employee Advocacy Program on LinkedIn

Now that we've established the incredible power of employee advocacy on LinkedIn, the next step is knowing how to implement it.

Cultivate a Culture of Advocacy

Implementing an employee advocacy program begins with cultivating a culture where employees feel inspired, motivated, and empowered to champion your brand. Start by aligning your organization and employees' values, creating a strong sense of purpose and connection. 

Encourage open communication, provide training and resources, and recognize and reward employee contributions. When employees genuinely believe in and feel proud of their organization, they become natural advocates who willingly share your brand's message.

Define Clear Objectives

Defining clear objectives for your employee advocacy program is crucial to drive success. Consider what you aim to achieve, whether it's increased brand visibility, enhanced thought leadership, or improved employee engagement. 

Anthony Martin, Founder and CEO of Choice Mutual, adds, "Align these objectives with your overall marketing and business goals, ensuring that every advocacy effort contributes to your larger strategy. You can measure the program's effectiveness and make data-driven adjustments by having well-defined objectives."

Provide Training and Guidelines

Equipping your employees with the necessary knowledge and skills is essential for a successful employee advocacy program. Offer comprehensive training on LinkedIn best practices, including optimizing profiles, creating engaging content, and effectively leveraging the platform's features. 

Provide brand voice, tone, and messaging guidelines to ensure consistent representation across all employee advocates. Encourage continuous learning and provide ongoing support to help employees grow and refine their advocacy skills.

Foster Content Collaboration

Encourage employees to participate in content creation and collaboration actively. Foster a culture of knowledge sharing and creativity, where employees can contribute their unique perspectives and expertise. 

Empower them to create and share content that resonates with their professional network, positioning them as industry thought leaders and amplifying your brand's reach. Facilitate collaboration through content calendars, brainstorming sessions, and platforms that allow employees to contribute and provide feedback.

Amplify Employee Success Stories

Highlighting and celebrating employee success stories boosts morale and enhances your brand's authenticity and credibility. Share stories of employees making a positive impact on LinkedIn, both within and outside the organization. 

These personal narratives humanize your brand and create meaningful connections with your target audience. Encourage employees to share their experiences, insights, and achievements, demonstrating the real-world impact of your organization's work.

Measure and Adjust

Andrew Pierce, Founder of Real Estate Holding Company, explains, "To gauge the effectiveness of your employee advocacy program, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with your objectives. Monitor metrics such as engagement, reach, and content performance to track the impact of employee advocacy efforts."

Leverage analytics tools and feedback mechanisms to gather insights and make data-driven adjustments. Regularly evaluate the program's progress, iterate on strategies, and recognize and share successes to motivate and sustain employee participation.

Overcoming Challenges and Mitigating Risks

While the concept of employee advocacy on LinkedIn may seem promising, it is essential to recognize that this strategy does come with its fair share of challenges and potential risks. By understanding and addressing these obstacles head-on, you can ensure a smoother and more successful implementation of your employee advocacy program. 

This section will explore the key challenges you may encounter and provide valuable insights on overcoming them while mitigating associated risks.

Alignment of Brand Messaging

One of the primary challenges in employee advocacy is maintaining alignment between the brand's messaging and the content shared by employees. Ensuring your team consistently communicates your brand's values, mission, and key messages can be complex.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer at Checkr, offers a solution, "To overcome this challenge, establish clear guidelines and provide training sessions that educate employees about the brand's voice, tone, and core messaging. Encourage open communication, allowing employees to ask questions and seek clarification, which fosters a deeper understanding of the brand's vision."

Regularly communicate updates and changes in messaging to ensure everyone is on the same page. You can align their advocacy efforts with your brand's identity by empowering employees with the necessary knowledge and tools.

Ensuring Authenticity and Credibility

In the digital landscape, authenticity and credibility are paramount. While advocating for your brand, employees should remain genuine and transparent to build trust with their networks. However, balancing personal expression and brand guidelines can be a delicate dance.

To overcome this challenge, emphasize the importance of authenticity and encourage employees to infuse their perspectives and experiences into their advocacy efforts. Provide them with a framework that allows flexibility while adhering to brand guidelines. 

Empower employees to share their unique insights, stories, and expertise within the context of the brand's messaging. By striking this balance, you can ensure that employee advocacy remains genuine and credible, resonating with your target audience.

Managing Risks and Reputation

As employees become vocal advocates of your brand, it is crucial to have measures in place to mitigate potential risks and safeguard your brand's reputation. Mistakes or inappropriate behavior by employees can have a detrimental impact on your brand's image.

To mitigate these risks, establish a clear code of conduct and social media policy that outlines acceptable behavior, content guidelines, and disclosure requirements. Educate employees on the importance of responsible advocacy, emphasizing the need to respect confidentiality, avoid controversial topics, and exercise discretion when representing the brand. 

Regularly monitor employee advocacy efforts, providing feedback and guidance to ensure compliance. By proactively managing risks, you can protect your brand's reputation while empowering employees to advocate effectively.

To Sum it Up

Effective employee advocacy on LinkedIn goes beyond simply sharing company updates. It empowers individuals within your organization to build genuine connections, leverage their networks, and establish themselves as trusted industry experts. So, embrace the power of employee advocacy on LinkedIn, empower your team, and amplify your brand's message in a way that resonates with your target audience. 

Let your employees be the driving force that propels your brand to new heights of visibility, credibility, and success. With the right strategies and a commitment to authenticity, your organization can truly make its mark in the digital realm.

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In a world where traditional advertising methods abound but struggle to capture audiences, it becomes crucial for businesses to remain authentic and unique in their prospect-facing messaging. Native advertising offers a professional and authoritative approach to engage and convert your target audience. This article will delve into the 5 key benefits of native advertising for businesses, uncovering how this marketing tactic can revolutionize your approach and amplify your success. 

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What Are The Benefits Of Native Advertising?

Non-disruptive and Can Encourage Users To Engage With Content

Running native ads as a media buyer or entrepreneur brings significant benefits, and one standout advantage is their non-disruptive nature. Native ads smoothly blend in with the surrounding content, adopting similar visuals and context, resulting in a less intrusive and more natural advertising experience. This seamless integration makes it challenging for users to differentiate native ads from regular content, maintaining a cohesive and uninterrupted browsing experience.

The success of these ads lies in their ability to match the form and function of the platform on which they are displayed. By doing so, native ads become an organic part of the user's content consumption journey, providing valuable information and enhancing engagement. 

One successful example of this approach is Spotify's partnership with Netflix to create playlists for every Stranger Things character. By integrating these playlists within its platform, Spotify effectively combines the worlds of music and entertainment, offering users a unique and immersive experience. 

This collaboration not only enhances engagement for both companies but also demonstrates the power of native advertising to seamlessly blend content and advertising in a way that adds value to the user.

As a result, businesses that utilize native ads can expect improved click-through rates and increased time spent on content, leading to higher conversions and overall campaign success.

According to Meetanshi, native ads boast a click-through rate of 0.16% on desktop and 0.38% on mobile, which is a significant improvement compared to the 0.11% click-through rate for traditional banner ads. 

Drive brand awareness

You need a powerful solution that delivers exceptional results to drive brand awareness effectively. Native advertising, combined with market analysis, is precisely that solution. What sets native ads apart is their ability to target specific audience segments. With precise targeting options encompassing demographics, devices, geography, customer intent, etc., native ads empower you to enhance brand awareness or boost sales strategically.

According to a 2015 study, native ads generated 9% more brand affinity responses when compared to banner ads. This finding underscores the effectiveness of native ads in fostering positive brand connections.

You can utilize the flexibility of native ads to create upper-funnel content that educates your audience about your brand or lower-funnel content that drives action, seamlessly aligning with your marketing funnel.

By delivering tailored content that resonates with your customers' unique interests and identities, you can effectively reach them at the right moment with the right message.

Cost-Effectiveness and Efficiency

One major advantage of native advertising is its scalability, which sets it apart from platforms like Facebook. Scaling campaigns on Facebook often comes with increased costs, making it challenging to maintain profitability. However, native ads offer a much smoother scaling experience without drastic cost increases. 

You can significantly increase your daily budget, and the cost per action (CPA) remains consistent. Whether you spend $1,000 or $10,000 per day, the impact on CPA is minimal.

This scalability significantly transforms businesses. It allows you to expand your advertising efforts and reach a larger audience without sacrificing profitability. By leveraging native advertising's smooth scaling capabilities, you can effectively and efficiently achieve your growth objectives. It provides flexibility and cost-effectiveness that can significantly impact the success of your campaigns.

Improve Reach to Your Target Audience

Ad-blockers have become increasingly popular as users are actively seeking ways to avoid intrusive and irrelevant ads. This poses a significant challenge for businesses trying to reach their target audience. In fact, globally, 42.7% of internet users use ad-blockers.

Fortunately, native ads offer a solution to this problem. By blending into the user experience, native ads bypass ad-blockers and ensure that brand messages successfully reach the intended audience.

Two highly effective native ad formats are in-feed ads and sponsored content. In-feed ads naturally fit into content feeds, looking like regular posts, while sponsored content provides valuable information with subtle brand promotion.

Real Alternative to Other Traffic Sources

When it comes to online advertising, companies often turn to popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, there's a growing frustration among users with the structure and controversies surrounding these platforms. 

Many people are deleting their Facebook accounts or choosing not to create them in the first place. This is where native ads offer a significant advantage. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, native ads are not tied to a single dedicated traffic source. They encompass the entire internet, leveraging various players and traffic sources. 

While you may be familiar with big players like Taboola, Outbrain, or Microsoft Advertising, there are numerous smaller and larger traffic sources scattered throughout the web. Let's take the example of a clothing brand that wants to reach fashion-forward millennials who are passionate about sustainable fashion.

While Facebook and Instagram are popular choices, the brand can also consider exploring alternative traffic sources such as fashion blogs, eco-conscious lifestyle websites, or niche fashion communities. By advertising on these platforms, the brand can effectively target a specific audience that aligns with their values and interests. This approach allows them to expand their reach beyond the major social media platforms and connect with individuals who are more likely to be interested in their sustainable fashion offerings.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Native Advertising?

While native advertising offers numerous benefits, it's important to be aware of its potential drawbacks. Here are three key disadvantages to consider:

Disclosure and Transparency

Native advertising can sometimes blur the line between editorial content and advertising, causing confusion among consumers. 

When there is a lack of clear labeling, it becomes difficult for users to differentiate between sponsored content and organic editorial content. This lack of transparency erodes trust and credibility. Failure to disclose sponsored content properly not only leads to negative brand perception but also carries potential legal consequences. 

To avoid these issues, you must prioritize clear and conspicuous labeling, ensuring transparency and fostering trust with your audience. Transparent disclosure helps consumers make informed decisions and demonstrates a commitment to ethical advertising practices.

Ethical Concerns

One significant risk associated with native advertising is the potential for biased or misleading information. When native ads prioritize brand messaging over objective reporting, publishers compromise their integrity and credibility. 

This prioritization of brand promotion over providing unbiased information erodes the trust that consumers place in publishers as reliable sources of content. These ethical concerns highlight the importance of careful consideration and balance in native advertising practices. 

Advertisers and publishers should prioritize maintaining the integrity of their content and ensure clear differentiation between promotional messages and editorial content. By doing so, businesses can preserve audience trust and uphold ethical standards in native advertising.

Limited Control over Placement

In native advertising, you often have limited control over where your ads are placed as publishers determine specific ad placements within their platforms. You may have little say in the exact placement of your ads, which can lead to unintended association with unrelated or controversial content. 

This lack of control poses a risk to brand image and reputation. To mitigate these risks, you should carefully select publishers and platforms that align with your brand values and target audience, and maintain open communication regarding ad placements and content guidelines. By doing this, you can minimize the chances of unintended associations that may harm your brand.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the benefits of native advertising are abundant, offering businesses seamless integration, precise targeting, cost-effectiveness, ad-blocker resilience, and an alternative to traditional platforms.

Despite challenges such as disclosure and limited control, native advertising remains a powerful tool for engaging audiences, increasing brand visibility, and driving meaningful results in today's advertising landscape.

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Millie Pham is a guest contributor to the Marin Software blog.

Creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience is more important than ever in 2023. The amount of content produced and shared online is staggering, and you need to find ways to stand out from the crowd.

Marketers also need to be consistent, so finding ways to make your content creation more efficient, impactful, and memorable should be a priority. To help, we've put together 10 fresh ideas for efficient content creation in 2023 that will help you connect with your audience, drive engagement, and reach your content marketing goals. 

From beginners to those who wish to revamp an existing content strategy, these tips will make things easier for you this year, and beyond.

Tip #1: Plan and organize your content

To ensure you create content efficiently, you must have a clear plan and strategy. A content calendar is a great way to accomplish this strategy while also guaranteeing that you publish relevant and engaging content regularly. Always prioritize your tasks based on audience demand and your content goals, and use a mockup generator with pre-designed templates to provide an idea of the look and feel of your content.

With a content plan, you can ensure your content focuses on your current products, releases, services, and business happenings while aligning with the overall marketing strategy. Your content plan should be a roadmap for creating, publishing, and ensuring that you achieve a better return on investment (ROI) for your content marketing efforts. 

Tip #2: Repurpose and upcycle old content

Instead of starting from scratch every time you create new content, consider repurposing and updating existing content. For example, you could turn a blog post into an infographic or use it to create a podcast. This approach saves time and ensures that you're making the most of the content you've already created; no one is scanning back through your feed to see what you posted a year ago, and if they do, they likely won't point out a double-up.

Take your existing content and modify it in new and innovative ways to speak to new audiences, drive engagement, and above all, save time. Extending the lifespan of your content by turning a blog post into a video, for example, also means you'll see more value from all content efforts while building brand recognition and creating a strong, consistent brand image. 

Tip #3: Collaborate with micro-influencers and crowdsource ideas

Collaborating with other departments, influencers, or subject matter experts can help create better content. Use crowdsourcing techniques, such as surveys, to gather feedback and understand what types of content your audience wants to see.

This strategy will help point your content creation in the right direction, whether it be a social post or a high-converting blog. You can also leverage the audiences of the people or organizations you collaborate with to see higher reach to new audiences, who are potential customers. For example, micro-influencers, individuals with a relatively small but dedicated social following, can be a great way to generate sales. 

Some benefits of working with micro-influencers include:

• Higher engagement rates: Micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates than more significant influencers, as they have a more dedicated and engaged following. Your brand message has a better chance of reaching and resonating with your target audience.
• More authentic relationships: Micro-influencers often have personal relationships with their followers. This connection means their endorsement is more authentic and trustworthy.
• Cost-effective: Micro-influencers typically charge less for their services, making them a cost-effective option.
• Niche reach: You can target a specific niche or area of expertise, which can help your brand reach a targeted audience. 
• Long-term relationships: Micro-influencers are often open to forming long-term relationships with brands, which can help build brand recognition and credibility over time.

Tip #4: Use storytelling and other visual elements

Make your content more engaging and memorable with images, videos, and other data visualization to understand complex information. Where possible, try to tell a story about your brand, the products, or whatever your content is focusing on. People want to be entertained and interested by the content they see; if you can achieve this, your content will perform much better.

To weave storytelling into your content, consider the following tips:

1. Identify your story: Determine the main story you want to tell and ensure that it aligns with your brand and messaging.
2. Use relatable characters: Help audiences personally connect with your story, either with relatable fictional characters or real people such as customers or employees.
3. Create a strong emotional connection: Use emotional appeals such as humor, excitement, or heartache to create an emotional connection with your audience.
4. Use vivid imagery: Descriptive language, images, and video help bring your story to life.
5. Make it relevant: Ensure that your story is relevant by tying it to your customer's needs, wants, and interests.
6. Keep it concise: A focused story is good; avoid unnecessary details that can distract from the main message.

These storytelling tips apply to everything from social posts to sales promotion examples and landing pages. Great visuals and interesting stories go hand in hand with other SEO tactics. If you run a Shopify store for your business, some of the best Shopify apps can help you combine all of these elements seamlessly.

Tip #5: Inform your content with data

Data is a powerful tool that can inform your content strategy and help you create stories that resonate with your audience. By using analytics and metrics, you can track the performance of your content and make data-driven decisions to improve its effectiveness.

If you build a scalable content marketing campaign, you can easily pivot as you receive new data about content performance. From the types of people reacting to your content to the most popular pages of your website, data helps you understand what your audience wants, which is the key to successful content creation.

Tip #6: Incorporate voice and audio content

Voice-activated and audio content, such as podcasts, are increasingly popular. These formats allow you to reach new audiences and create more immersive experiences, making them a great way to diversify your content and engage with your audience in new ways.

You can also think about voice-activated video content designed for voice assistants and triggered by voice commands. This strategy can be a great lead magnet if your video content is engaging and informative.

Tip #7: Create interactive and immersive content

Engage your audience by encouraging them to take action. This can be done with interactive quizzes, 360-degree videos, or augmented reality experiences. These formats help you create a deeper connection while driving higher engagement and conversion rates.

Consider elements such as user input, which encourages audience engagement and involvement as they build a deeper connection with your brand. Immersive content can also help users to better understand complex concepts. For example, imagine a 360-degree view of a product or VR experience demonstrating how a service works.

Tip #8: Use higher quality video content

Video content is a powerful tool for engaging and building a deeper connection with your audience. However, whether it is live video or animation, it needs to be of a certain level of quality to help bring your content to life in a more impactful way. 

Invest in high-quality video editing and production to help maintain your audience's attention and show the value of your products and services. Poor-quality video can create a negative effect, reflecting poorly on your business and lowering the perceived quality of your products and services. Once completed, enlist the help of tools that ensure quality and secure uploads for efficient content processing with large video files.

Tip #9: Specific content tailored for social media 

While you can use social media to distribute and promote any of your content, it is important to think about specific content built for designated platforms. This content can be short and humorous videos for TikTok, industry-relevant opinion pieces for LinkedIn, and carousel posts or reels for Instagram. Craft content that suits the platform, then engage with your audience in real-time. 

To do this successfully, you will need to understand the unique strengths and weaknesses of each platform. As some social media sites reward users who post regularly, use an AI Content Creation Platform to get a head-start on your social media-specific content and create in advance.

Tip #10: Benefit from personalization and targeting

Personalization and targeting are essential for creating content that speaks directly to your audience. Be it personalized email campaigns or targeted eCommerce ads, this method allows you to work smarter as opposed to harder with your content marketing. 

Ensure that your content reaches the right people at the right time to see higher engagement and conversion rates. This strategy is a cost-efficient way to spend your marketing budget and will likely yield greater results as your attention and effort are focused on people who are somewhat already interested in the products or services you offer.

Focus on these areas to enjoy quality results

These efficient content creation ideas will help you make sure you provide quality output for your audience in 2023. Always remember that the key to success is understanding your audience, goals, and whatever makes your content stand out. 

Experiment with these ideas and find the ones that work best for you and your audience, then lean into them and reap the rewards. We also recommend supercharging your paid search, social, and e-commerce advertising with MarinOne, and maximizing the return on every single marketing dollar you spend.

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Luke Carlino is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

With its vast professional network and communication tools (including Sales Navigator), LinkedIn is a powerful platform for establishing a sales pipeline and generating leads. It can be used to connect with potential customers and build up your business network in the professional metaverse.

In this blog post, we will discuss 7 innovative ways to conduct sales and lead generation-driven outreach on LinkedIn. If you are looking to expand your reach online to increase sales, LinkedIn is a great place to start!

Join LinkedIn Groups to Connect with Potential Customers and Generate Leads

One of the most effective ways to pursue sales via LinkedIn and to conduct LinkedIn marketing is by leveraging the platforms' Groups feature. By joining relevant groups, you can make inroads with potential customers and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

You can also use these groups to stay on top of industry trends and share helpful resources with other members. Additionally, you can join conversations about topics related to your business or product offering. This will help you build relationships with potential customers and increase brand awareness both for yourself as an individual and for the organization.

And you don't have to rely on groups that other people have created, either. You can start your own LinkedIn Group and begin a unique or niche conversation in the digital space.

Utilize Advanced Filters and Target Specific Audiences

LinkedIn can be an extremely effective tool for your business if you use it correctly. One of the best ways to get the most out of LinkedIn is by utilizing its advanced filters and targeting particular audiences.

The Benefits of the Filters Feature

These filters allow you to narrow down your search results so that you are only seeing people who fit into your desired demographic or industry. Plus, they make it much easier to find leads that could become new customers because you have a better idea of what these individuals are seeking or trying to get out of their LinkedIn engagement.

Use Paid Ads to Reach a Wider Audience

Paid advertising on LinkedIn is another great way to quickly reach a larger audience online. With paid ads, the targeting capabilities of LinkedIn become even more powerful because you can select exactly who will see your ad.

Examples of Paid Ad Targeting

For example, you can target by job title, industry, location, language, gender, interests, and more. Like the advanced filters feature mentioned above, this allows you to put your sales message in front of the right people, thereby maximizing your lead generation process and boosting your sales opportunities.

Create Engaging Content That Educates Your Target Audience

From creating a slick user profile to producing meaningful social media posts and articles, creating content on LinkedIn is a great way to engage and build relationships with potential customers as you educate your unique audience.

By crafting content that provides value to readers and followers, you can provide valuable insights into the latest industry trend or a new marketing strategy. In addition, this allows you to show off your expertise in the field.

Creating Top-Shelf Content

For example, you could write posts about the latest trends in ecommerce sales strategies or share other helpful resources, such as detailed guides or tutorials on how to start an online store. You could also provide tips for optimizing product sales pages or increasing sales conversions.

This type of informative, expert-level content can help generate leads, increase sales, and build trust with your target audience.

Incorporate Video Content into Your Lead Generation Strategies

Video content is an increasingly popular way to engage potential customers on LinkedIn. Incorporating this type of content into your sales outreach strategy can help you stand out from the competition while engaging your target audience more meaningfully.

Video Content That Makes an Impact

For instance, you can use video content to showcase a product demonstration, give an exclusive sales pitch, or provide helpful tips and advice within your industry field.

You could cover a variety of topics, including:

• How to create a sales pitch that drives sales
• How to use video content to demonstrate a product's features and advantages
• Strategies for increasing sales through targeted ads on LinkedIn
• Ecommerce best practices

By using videos that showcase your expertise and commitment to excellence, you can effectively establish a rapport with potential customers and increase sales opportunities.

Take Advantage of the Power of Endorsements and Recommendations

By leveraging the power of endorsements and recommendations on LinkedIn, you can boost your credibility on the platform.

What Are LinkedIn Endorsements?

Endorsements are simply when another LinkedIn user endorses you or your products/services. This helps to validate your expertise and put your sales message in front of more people.

What Are LinkedIn Recommendations?

On the other hand, recommendations are when someone provides a written testimonial about you or your product or service.

Both endorsements and recommendations can be incredibly beneficial if you are looking to gain an edge over your competitors.

Monitor Competitors’ Activity on LinkedIn for Insightful Ideas

Like with many facets of business, finding out what your competition is doing better than you can be a game-changer for your creative and out-of-the-box thinking.

By monitoring competitors' activities on LinkedIn, you can gain valuable insights into their sales and marketing strategies while also identifying any opportunities they are missing that could benefit your own sales efforts.

By keeping an eye on your competitors, you can spot emerging trends in the industry or sales techniques that you can borrow and apply to your own sales efforts.

Whether you are learning from what your competitors are doing right or learning what not to do based on what they are doing wrong, there is a lot to be gained from paying attention to rival businesses.

Lead Generation Strategies That Work

LinkedIn has a host of lead-generation tools that you and your marketing and sales teams can use to build trust, make connections, and spread your sales message throughout the professional sphere. By leveraging the power of endorsements, recommendations, video content, paid ads, and more you can quickly maximize your outreach opportunities on this notable platform.

No matter which LinkedIn strategy you decide to employ, MarinOne has your back to maximize the effectiveness of your digital outreach efforts.

According to Pew Research, 72 percent of U.S. adults use at least one type of social media, and 23 percent of these use Twitter, making Twitter the 7th most used social media platform in the United States in 2021.

Twitter is a free social networking site that houses over 300 million active users, allowing people to post ‘tweets’ to engage, socialize and connect with users on the same platform. 

While the purpose of Twitter for each person or organization remains the same, the ‘hows’ of using the platform vary for regular Twitter individuals or organizations using Twitter as a marketing platform. 

Why Twitter Marketing—and How?

Digital marketing has a long history, and one can’t deny how it has transformed the way marketers and audiences consume content, especially on social media platforms like Twitter.

Twitter might seem like a daunting platform to venture into for marketing, mainly because, unlike Tiktok, YouTube, or Facebook, Twitter’s main algorithm focuses more on conversations rather than visuals. 

We’ll look at this tweet from the Climbing House as an example:

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Alejandra Leyva, a Content Manager working with Climbing House emphasizes, “Different social media platforms require different techniques for marketing. In this case, we tried to spark a lighthearted conversation around climbing as a go-to activity for a first date. This makes it easier for us to converse on Twitter and grab the attention of young or old people looking for exciting date alternatives while leading them to our website.”

This is what the magic of Twitter marketing is—conversations. As a social media platform, Twitter is well-known for its ‘trending’ lists, be it words or hashtags. This trending list shows Twitter users the most talked about topic at a given moment for a specific location or worldwide. This is one of the best ways to clue into what’s happening in the zeitgeist quickly and understand what topical conversations your team should pay attention to in relation to your industry.

Benefits of Twitter Marketing

Because the charm of Twitter is centered around conversations, the benefits of using this platform as a marketing tool are centered around this as well.

The benefit of Twitter marketing is that because people are used to conversations, tweeting multiple times a day is normal and is not annoying for most users. However, Twitter is heavily chronological in the sense that it could take a nanosecond for one tweet to be buried among the tweets of the other people your followers follow, so making the best out of your content that would make people stop scrolling should be one of your top priorities.

There are endless benefits to Twitter than you might think, and these benefits have become successful strategies that marketers have utilized over the years. 

Strategies for Twitter Marketing

Establish a Brand Voice

Twitter is one of the most excellent platforms for establishing a company’s brand voice. While selecting a brand voice and reputation takes time and effort, Twitter as a platform makes this easy.

A company’s brand voice can either come off as lighthearted and casual or serious and professional, and you can establish this through your tweets and interaction on Twitter.

Take, for example, this tweet from Felix:

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Kyle Zien, Director of Growth Marketing at Felix, says, “We aim to reimagine the Canadian healthcare experience, and we believe it starts with how we interact with our audiences. We try to build our brand voice in a casual, friendly way where people feel like they’re taking advice from a friend rather than an organization.”

Make a Content Calendar

Social media marketers often have a lot on their hands, juggling three to four social platforms simultaneously. Using a social media content calendar allows you to plan and organize content ahead of time, making strategic content posts rather than just winging whatever content at any moment.

What’s more, most social media content calendars let you schedule posts even without logging in to the platform, so you don’t have to fear forgetting to post your marketing content.

Create and Join Trends and Conversations Through Hashtags

If you ask any person who uses Twitter what’s the most significant feature of Twitter that’s most attractive to them, at least three out of five will have one thing in common—hashtags.

While other social media platforms also use hashtags, Twitter makes the most use of this feature through its trending tags list immediately visible when you log in to the website. 

An important aspect of Twitter's marketing campaign is that it utilizes hashtags to join conversations or create and invite discussions surrounding its product and services. 

An example is this tweet from Prize Rebel:

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A person who does not necessarily follow Prize Rebel will discover this tweet because it has joined in on the conversation about making money online or earning extra cash. 

According to Jerry Han, CMO of PrizeRebel, “Ever since we established our Twitter account, the use of hashtags has proven how easily people can see us when they search for the same tag on Twitter. We sometimes supplement this with a “retweet to win” CTA as a condition for the prize, which also gives us more visibility to our audience.”

This tweet from PluginHive about their FedEx WooCommerce plugin also uses several hashtags to help increase the tweet’s visibility among those looking for information on shipping through FedEx.

Get Verified and Increase Your Follower Count

Before the great Twitter overhaul by Elon Musk, getting the tiny blue checkmark beside your profile name meant that your profile was your ‘proof of authenticity. Today, two forms of verification badges exist on Twitter—the old blue checkmark (which can now be bought on Twitter Blue by any user) and the ‘Official’ badge found at the bottom of your profile name.

Technicalities of these verification badges aside, there is a sense of authority emitted by accounts with blue or official verified badges, making them more reliable to Twitter users. Working to increase your follower count also helps in marketing and spreading your content throughout the platform and also helps establish you as a reliable content creator and organization.

Sponsored and promoted ads

On Twitter, you can do both paid and organic social media ads. The question is how can you harness the power of both. 

This is an example of a paid ad:

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You should be able to see a “promoted” tag at the bottommost part of the post for a paid advertisement. Having a promoted tweet increases the visibility of a tweet and is just basically paid advertising, taking your tweet to users who might be interested in your products and services.

In the case above, BPI utilizes Twitter advertising to encourage more people to apply for a credit card with the bank. Not only are they getting more credit card applications, but they are also generating more leads using the information users input through the application.

Stay Human and Interactive

The best way to ‘attack’ Twitter as a marketing platform is to stay human. You may be thinking, “But wait…what does that even mean?”

To put it frankly, in many cases marketing posts sound like they were extracted from an AI machine and then copy-pasted to the platform. This is the last thing you want to do if you wish to engage and convert your Twitter campaigns.

Twitterverse loves conversations. So go ahead, converse! Just like this tweet from Fig Loans:

Jeff Zhou, CEO of Fig Loans, says, “Our Twitter marketing campaigns don’t only rely on regularly creating or posting content for our follower’s timelines. We interact and reply to our customers or anyone interested in our products and services. That way, they know they will get top-notch customer service with us.”

Take another look at this Snickers-UNO interraction: 

There is a more lighthearted approach present here for both organizations. Engaging in conversation for your followers to see an unusual interaction between two verified accounts is a fun way to tickle and grab the attention of Twitter users. Not only is Snickers bringing fun to their initial post, but they’re also subtly implying how your next pre-football tailgate isn’t complete without Snickers. UNO calling them out on the typo was really the cherry on top to reaffirming that both companies are made up of real people behind the brands, having real conversations.

Why and How Twitter Marketing Matters

It should be no surprise that digital and social media marketing has been all the rave in the last few years. As humankind fixates on digital technology, marketers must adapt to these changes and be interacting where their target audience likes to hang out virtually.

These social media platforms are different in their ways and should be dealt with differently. Twitter, as a marketing platform, should center around conversations and engagement. This allows marketers to establish a brand voice and take valuable information and data about consumer behavior in return. 

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For help on strategically approaching any social media platform, meet with one of Marin’s marketing experts today. We will ensure your paid social advertising performs at it’s best.

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Rachel Melegrito is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

Affiliate content has skyrocketed in popularity alongside social media marketing and other digital marketing tactics. Since social platforms have inconsistent monetization policies, influencer content offers creators a way to vouch for their favorite brands while generating income. Lifestyle brands, in particular, can align themselves with creators whose audiences overlap with their own. 

Lauren Neels, Customer Engagement Manager and Marin Software’s resident expert on all things related to ecommerce, paid search, and digital marketing, shares some valuable insights about how lifestyle brands can use creator content to reach highly specific audiences more effectively. 

How influencer content can help brands reach their audience 

Shed the negative perceptions associated with advertising 

While advertisements used to be a popular way to reach large audiences, viewers seem to have had enough. According to research from Statista, 41% of people online find themselves regularly annoyed by advertisements. More than a quarter of web surfers went as far as installing ad blockers to make their browsing experience better. 

Advertisements are everywhere but Lauren shares that “people are more likely to trust influencer content since it comes from trusted creators that already have a relationship with their audience. This is evidenced by higher conversion rates experienced by businesses that leverage this type of content in their marketing campaigns.”

Allow your customers to engage with your content using actionable touchpoints 

It’s not enough for your customers to view your content. Businesses must be able to measure how their ads are performing and ensure that each investment is yielding the appropriate results. 

“Affiliate content is generally better than television ads for businesses that want to engage with the customer. This content is usually clickable or has some other CTA that customers can actively engage with,” Lauren shares. 

Encourage greater conversion rates compared to cheaper outreach alternatives

Businesses can sometimes show a preference for alternatives such as television or billboard advertising. However, each method of outreach has a place within a greater marketing campaign. 

Lauren explains that “paid ads work well for people who already have intent to purchase, but are less effective when people need convincing. Influencer content would be more effective at convincing or when trying to build a brand.”

Influencer content can be repurposed as paid social media posts or ads if needed

Some influencers have very niche audiences, but the reach of their content can be amplified when it is converted or repurposed as paid social media posts. However, Lauren warns that when creator content is converted to paid ads, “not all of that audience has chosen to follow that influencer so some of the trust won’t carry through to the new, wider audience. Conversion rates could go down but your reach is larger. This could help brand awareness, and boosted creator content would still have more trustworthiness than just a paid ad.”

Things to keep in mind while engaging creators for content

Social media trends often change before businesses can hop on them

All social media marketers are intimately aware of how quickly trends can change online. What is fashionable and topical today might be outdated next week. Businesses must always have their finger on the pulse of running trends and have employees that understand these trends to take charge of marketing campaigns that need to run alongside certain fads. 

“If trends change before your approval process is complete, you’re too late. Millennials, for example, have a good idea of how trends work online. Put them in charge and trust them when it comes to trends and how to use them for effective marketing,” Lauren suggests. 

Trends can differ wildly across platforms, content types, and audiences

Marketers often view social media as an effective channel for reaching younger audiences but each platform is unique. Trends, content types, audience demographics and more can differ significantly from platform to platform. TikTok, for example, is more likely to host a younger audience with a preference for short-form video content while Facebook is more likely to host a middle-aged audience with a preference for image-based content. 

Background checks should be conducted for every collaborator you work with

When businesses sponsor a particular creator, they connect the brand with the creator in the minds of the viewer. While this can be a powerful way to gain the trust of customers, it also means that any misdemeanor committed by the creator can be associated with the brand or can lead to backlash against the brand. 

“While apologies are more readily accepted now, it is always better to be in a position where an apology is not required at all,” Lauren recommends that you should “do your research to check the background of people you might be sponsoring to make sure they’re legitimate and not problematic.” 

Rates can vary greatly depending on a creator’s reach, engagement, and more

As audiences become more diverse and use more social media channels, marketers must be strategic in how they spend on each platform and each creator. Marketers must always measure how much a creator is charging against their reach, engagement, history, alignment with the brand, and more. Each of these factors can lead to great variations in asking price from the influencer. 

Affiliate or influencer content should be part of a larger marketing strategy

Affiliate content is a great way to reach targeted audiences and improve engagement rates with the brand. However, it’s not enough for a marketing team to rely exclusively on affiliate or influencer content. Like every other marketing method, creator content should be a smaller part in a larger marketing strategy designed to cover all of a business’ customer bases. 

MarinOne’s modern optimization solution helps marketers ensure that each dollar spent on partner content and other marketing strategies yields maximum results. Our paid advertising management solutions creates automated recommendations to optimize your marketing configurations that will improve return on investment. 

If you would like to reach your customers with relatable and likable content, reach out for a free demo of our solution today.

Do you remember the last advertisement you saw on social media? Chances are the answer is no, and not just because your memory is poor. As soon as you (and most consumers) recognize an ad, you are far more likely to scroll on.

That's why native advertisements are becoming increasingly popular. These “disguised” ads are meant to blend in with their surroundings and give advertisers an extra moment to hook viewers. Native ads are usually found in social media feeds, but they can be used in other places like email newsletters and search engine results pages.

If you are interested in testing this marketing approach at your own business, read on for 8 native advertising examples you can use to start brainstorming.

What is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is a form of online marketing associated with branding that integrates promotions into the content that people are already consuming. Native advertisements are designed to blend in with the surrounding content, making them appear less intrusive and more natural.

Because of their strategic placement, native ads are a powerful way to build brand awareness and connect with a highly targeted audience. Most often found on social media and in long-form written content, these ads have the potential to drive much higher click-through rates and engagement rates when executed well.

Image Source

Keys to Effective Native Advertising

Native ads are meant to be a non-disruptive way to share your product or service, so it’s important to keep a few principles in mind when creating them. Here are three key elements to consider:

• Relevancy: Native ads need to be relevant to the user’s interests and what they are already browsing. While this is highly platform-dependent, native ads can be used to provide additional context around a topic, highlight a related offering, or feature customer-generated content.
• Creativity: Although they are intended to blend in with their surroundings, native ads still need to be creative and engaging enough to keep people’s attention. Use AI to create new images, visuals, formats, and messaging to see what works best with your audience.
• Authenticity: The modern consumer can see right past an obvious sales pitch, so it is necessary to be genuine and honest in your native ads. Native advertising should not feel overly promotional — instead, focus on providing value and educating your audience.

How Native Advertising can Backfire

Native advertising sometimes gets a bad rap due to the potential for users to be misled or taken advantage of. Native ads can easily blur the line between an organic post and a sponsored one, which can damage the trust and credibility of a brand.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, avoid these pitfalls:

• Overpromising: Native ads should never make unrealistic or exaggerated claims that don’t align with the product or service you’re offering. Even if the ad is more disguised than normal, always be true to your brand and the value you provide.
• Using misleading visuals: Native ads should never use visual elements that are intended to deceive. This includes images that don’t represent the product or service you offer, or presenting facts or data in a way that might not tell the full story.
• Not being upfront: Native ads should be clearly labeled as sponsored content and not made to look like editorial pieces. To maintain your brand's integrity and reputation, be transparent about who is behind the ad and make sure users can distinguish between promoted content and organic material.

8 Native Advertising Examples for Inspiration

Native ads are all about finding clever ways to advertise while still blending in with the surrounding platform. To give you an idea of what this looks like, here are 8 native ad examples to inspire your creativity:

1) Adidas on Spotify

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Adidas partnered with Spotify to create a unique experience and promote their new shoe line — the Nite Joggers. Users who opted into the interactive campaign would receive a "Nite Score" based on their evening listening habits as well as a personalized playlist. This soundtrack was a blend of favorite hits, new recommendations, and promotional content for Adidas.

This native advertisement is a great example of nondisruptive yet nondeceptive marketing. Although it was clearly an advertising campaign, Adidas was able to engage a targeted audience without interrupting their listening experience. Plus, the company effectively tapped into a growing marketing opportunity in the music streaming industry.

2) General Mills on The Guardian

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General Mills wisely sponsored content on The Guardian to align its brand with regenerative agriculture and small-scale farming. These themes are reinforced with high-quality closeups of their sustainable practices and the families that they work with.

The photos and videos show the human side of food production, which helps viewers establish an emotional connection to the brand. Other than its "Paid content" label, this informative article looks and feels like a regular piece of expository news on The Guardian — making it a powerful example of subtle native advertising.

3) SpongeBob on Instagram

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Where are SpongeBob's original fans hanging out? On Instagram, of course. Nickelodeon's hit show recently partnered with Instagram to create an interactive filter called "What SpongeBob character are you?"

This collaboration is one of the most engaging native advertising examples on this list because it tapped into the nostalgia of an older generation and made it easy for anyone to participate. The SpongeBob fan base didn't care whether it was a marketing ploy or not. This filter was genuinely fun, it fit in with other content on the platform, and it allowed people to reconnect with the characters they love.

4) Purina with BuzzFeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJPJUaZZOss&t=12s (to embed)

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Purina teamed up with BuzzFeed to create a clever marketing video from the perspective of a cat. The cute and comical two-minute production explains how cats view their responsibility to take care of humans.

Although it highlights Tidy Cats, Purina's cat litter product, the video is not purely promotional. In fact, it offers real entertainment value to its targeted audience and anyone who can appreciate cats' quirks. Even almost 10 years after its creation, this content marketing example still sets the standard for how to both reinforce brand identity and drive sales.

5) Taco Bell on Snapchat

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Taco Bell created a Snapchat filter that turned users' faces into a taco. Released just in time for Cinco de Mayo, the filter was an instant viral hit with more than 224 million global views.

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This campaign was a success because Taco Bell nailed both the timing and the culture of Snapchat with its native ad placement. Plus, the company was able to boost brand awareness by prominently including its logo on every snap. 

6) Netflix on WSJ

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To promote its upcoming show Narcos, Netflix worked with the Wall Street Journal to create an interactive webpage on "Cocainenomics", the business of the Medellin cartel's drug trafficking operation. This detailed profile of a $4 billion underground empire is the perfect fit for the business and finance-minded readers of the WSJ.

Netflix put together one of the most compelling native advertising examples on this list by elevating a standard piece of content from the daily newspaper. The article reads like a piece of investigative journalism but is paired with clickable maps and timelines, and a timed quiz.

For most WSJ consumers, the portal likely serves as one of the most interesting stories they read that day. And if readers are hooked by the topic, watching Narcos is a natural next step for even more detail.

7) Allbirds on The New York Times

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Allbirds partnered with The New York Times to create an incredible full-page experience for readers, complete with sound, vivid imagery, and responsive video. This native advertisement ran as an article in the paper, but rather than promoting its signature footwear directly, the brand instead focused on sustainability.

The Allbirds article dives into the importance of birds to our environment, and what eco-conscious readers can do to help birds. At the conclusion of the post, the brand offers a single call to action — visit the Allbirds website to learn more about conscious commerce.

8) Samsung on TikTok

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To raise awareness for the Galaxy Z Fold3, Samsung launched a Branded Hashtag Challenge on TikTok. Boosted by TopView ads, Brand Takeover ads, and Reach & Frequency ads, the phone maker was able to eclipse more than 1 billion video views.

Samsung's "I'Mpossible Generation" campaign slogan was a nod to the innovative foldable smartphone. And the challenge's catchy tune and promise of prizes engaged creators from all over Vietnam. The native ad strategy not only caught fire boosting Samsung's brand awareness, but it also proved social commerce is alive and well with a 14% uplift in sales.

Final thoughts

Native ads have the potential to hook viewers in a more subtle way than traditional advertising methods. With relevant and engaging content, brands can communicate their values, foster an emotional connection, and fill their marketing funnels.

The most successful native advertising examples leverage creative content and fit in seamlessly with the surrounding user experience. By matching the appropriate look, feel, and voice of the adjacent content, brands can break through the noise to capture attention and form authentic relationships with potential customers.

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Daniel Anderson is a guest contributor to Marin Software.

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From emails to chatbots to scheduling, automation has transformed the way we work—and it’s only getting bigger: 86% of employees surveyed think automation will help them improve their efficiency, productivity, and growth. And one area that’s grown by leaps and bounds recently is creative automation. 

Creative automation can be a lifesaver for small and/or stretched marketing teams (which is probably every marketing team ever) because it does the heavy lifting for you when it comes to some of the most time-consuming parts of creating, launching, and managing ads.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how marketers can take advantage of creative automation to save time. 

What is creative automation?

In a nutshell, creative automation uses technology to automate the creation and/or optimization of your ad campaigns. This can include anything from simple A/B testing to more complex machine learning algorithms that will automatically generate new ad variations based on past performance. 

There are a number of different platforms that offer creative automation, each with its own unique features and capabilities. Some of the more popular ones include Creatopy, BannerFlow, and Celtra. 

How does creative automation work?

Creative automation apps create multiple versions of a base template automatically. Dynamic elements like text and audio are customized on top. Teams then link these components to a field in a data repository spreadsheet. When something in the spreadsheet changes, the dynamic elements respond. This makes it possible to launch an entire ad campaign with just a few clicks—and without ever having to leave your creative tools.

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Why use creative automation?

Saving time is a major benefit of creative automation, but it's not the only one. Here are a few more reasons to consider using it in your marketing campaigns.

• Improved quality: By running multiple versions of an ad simultaneously and letting the data determine which performs best, you can be confident that you’re always putting your best foot forward.
• Increased efficiency: Automating the ad creation process frees up your team to focus on other tasks, like strategy and analysis. It also makes it easy to align your marketing campaigns, collect data, and learn what’s working (and what isn’t) faster. 
• Better organization: With all your creative assets stored in one central location, it’s easy to keep track of everything and ensure that everyone is working with the most current and effective versions.
• Reduced production costs: By using automation to create ads, you have shorter production cycles, which saves time and therefore keeps costs low (not to mention reducing your dependency on agencies).
• Better brand consistency: Automated ads can be templated to match your brand guidelines, ensuring that every ad that goes out meets your standards.
• More scalable: As your business grows, you can quickly and easily scale your ad campaigns to reach more people without having to increase your team’s headcount.
• Easier marketing localization: If you’re running campaigns in multiple countries, creative automation can help you customize your ads for each market while still maintaining brand consistency.
• Easier A/B testing: A/B testing is famously time-consuming. With creative automation, you can test multiple versions of an ad—from banner ads to Facebook ads—to concurrently and quickly gather insights to inform your next round of tests.

5 Ways to get started with creative automation

If you’re convinced that creative automation is right for your business but you’re not sure where to begin, here are a few tips to help you get started.

1. Define your goals

What do you want to achieve? Do you want to save time on ad creation? Improve campaign performance? Collect data? All three? Be sure to establish some clear goals before you start shopping for a solution.

2. Do your research

Not all platforms are created equal. Spend some time researching your options to find the one that best meets your needs. 

3. Consider your team’s needs

What does your team need from a creative automation platform? Make sure to take their input into account before making a final decision. Things like a user-friendly interface and good tech support are a must.

4. Compare features

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, it’s time to start comparing features. Which platform offers the features you need at a price that fits your budget? Create a shortlist. 

5. Test it out

Don’t forget to test out the platform before committing to it. Most providers offer free trials so you can explore the features and see if it’s a good fit for your needs.

Discover MarinOne, the all-in-one advertising platform 

Once you've determined the right tool for automating your creative assets, you can then save time with a tool for automating the distribution of those assets. Paid media management puts all your ads in one centralized campaign manager, from TikTok to Facebook to Google Ads…so you can see what creatives perform well on multiple platforms and what creatives will need to go back to the drawing board.

MarinOne is the most versatile PPC management tool on the market. It makes it easy to plan, buy, optimize, and report on all your campaigns. Plus, with our automation insights feature, you can easily uncover opportunities for reducing spend, make the most of high-performing areas, and analyze data across your channels to improve your campaigns with ease. 

Request a demo today to see how we can help you streamline your ad creation process and improve your campaign performance.

Native advertising is the use of paid advertisements to make your content look more attractive by blending in with their organic surroundings, somewhat veiling the fact that a native advertisement is indeed paid placement. 

You may find native ads in various social media platforms as they are recommended on the feed, videos, images, etc. For example, posting an informative article to Facebook instead of promoting a traditional banner ad makes the article an effortless part of the editorial flow of the page. 

Native ad placements can be found anywhere online, not just on social platforms, as millions of websites sell ad space on their site pages through networks like Outbrain, Basis, and Yahoo Gemini. 

Why is native advertising important? 

Now that you have a bit of an idea of what native advertising is, you are probably asking yourself where it falls in importance within the advertising ecosphere. Surely most consumers know an ad when they see one, so is the guise of “blending things in” even helpful anymore? 

For the modern consumer, native advertising simply offers users the opportunity to connect in a format that the user chooses themselves. While studies suggest that most people searching online know they are being advertised to almost constantly, many consumers still take kindly to the effort of making content relevant and unobtrusive. By personalizing content as much as possible, and letting your ads be an organic part of a users’ online experience, your brand will have a higher likelihood of building a favorable reputation amongst new potential customers.

Additionally, you can expect to produce a good amount of brand lift through high engagement rates, click through rates (CTR) and pageviews with a well-produced native ad strategy. 

Types of native advertising 

One of the great things about native advertising is that there are several different types, allowing ample opportunity to take the same piece of content and produce multiple variants for promotional distribution. Most native ads are designed to help keep the general viewer engaged in a piece of content they are reading. This is one of the most common types of marketing tactics that can be used by new businesses to expand their products and amplify brand awareness. 

1) Content recommendation 

The first and the most common native ad type is the content recommendation. These are simply ads that appear as recommended articles and blogs. One thing about them is that they appear in the middle or at the end of an article rather than being on top. 

2) Search and promote the listing 

Another type of native advertisement is the search and promoted listings which essentially appear at the top of an article so that viewers can engage in the ad. Besides appearing on top, they may also appear on the side page of the article so that as viewers scroll down the article or blog, they can watch the ad. This is a great way to attract more viewers to any website. 

3) Feed advertisements 

The third type of native advertising is the in-feed advertisement which are ads that appear as social media posts as you scroll through social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter. Since so many people use Instagram and other social media daily, these advertising types prove to be extremely useful for improving your overall engagement or top of funnel visibility. 

Relevancy of native advertisement 

Since native advertising has been around for a bit longer than other digital marketing methods, like video ads or social commerce, it’s easy to be enamored with newer, shinier pennies. But do not underestimate the value that this advertising method can bring to your holistic marketing plan. Native ads continue to be a relevant tactic for many businesses as they build brand trust and authority with users, due to their inconspicuous nature. The success of these ads depend on the quality of their content. If the content is memorable and gripping, it is more likely to engage an audience and bring new people into your customer funnel.

Native advertising best practices

You should be following best practices to get the most out of a native ad strategy. That includes:

• Plan and budget all of your campaigns. Setting achievable goals by campaign type also helps a lot.
• Save time and effort with high-quality content.
• Targeting is important here, so you can make sure to optimize your reach and impact.
• In order to provide a good user experience, test and optimize creatives so that you always show the best variant for the audience.
• Data analysis can help you identify the best content for each geographical region to which you are advertising. With content-driven marketing it is particularly important to ensure culture and regional context is considered.

Be a storyteller

Brands are shifting their strategies for more effective native ads; instead of running ineffectual campaigns, they're prioritizing storytelling and putting content in the right context.

This includes tangible assets such as advertising on premium publishers with a clear brand message to tell. Many brands already apply this methodology other channels such as PR and SEO, and the same can absolutely be done with a well thought out native advertising roadmap. Be in control of you brand's story. 

Meet with a MarinOne marketer today on how we can tie all of your advertising campaigns together in one place…including your native advertising.

We’ve recently decided to do an experiment to see whether an On-Demand webinar would attract more viewers than the typical approach of picking a date and broadcasting the webinar live.

Marin regularly hosts “live webinars” and we typically get thousands of participants, but only about half the viewers attend the live session, the rest view the webinar when we send out the recording. In a Netflix world, our hypothesis was that people would prefer to have the content right away and by offering immediate access to the webinar, we would get better results. So we decided to do a test.

During this tough time for everyone, we wanted to share our results as they might be helpful for you to engage with your audience by hosting webinars while most of us are working remotely and self-isolating. Now is probably the best time to create more digital content to reach out to your customers.

Evaluating Engagement Metrics

First and foremost with a test, you want to define how you measure success. We have two goals for webinars: 1) Generate new leads who might be interested in our digital marketing platform 2) Build our position as thought leaders in the market by presenting amazing content that delivers actionable suggestions for digital marketings.

With these two goals, the key metrics are registrants and attendees. Moving forwards, two more important metrics are “Audience Retention” and “Audience Engagement”. In order to really measure the success of our webinar, we firstly view how many people started watching our content and how many dropped off during the session. Finally, did the audience engage with us during the Q&A session?

The Test

The test methodology was straight forward, we split our audience randomly into two groups, half received a series of emails inviting the users to a live webinar approximately three weeks from the first email. The second group received the same emails, but the call to action was to view the webinar on demand at their convenience.

Which One Wins?

We pulled out the results and here is what we’ve got:

So more registrations, more attendees and deeper engagement with the content for the live approach. We were shocked, clearly our hypothesis was wrong and people are more attracted to a live event. While the test was done in a pre COVID-19 world, we would expect the results to hold up as people are looking for opportunities for social interaction to break up their solitary days at home.

Ready to learn more?

Whilst we are all at home in isolation, now is the perfect time to get free training on Digital Advertising content. Marin has a list of webinars with the best practices in Digital Advertising, starting from Outsmart Smart Bidding to Amazon Advertising to Developing a Successful Marketing Strategy with Instagram Stories. Get Started Now!

This is a guest post from Sophia Fen, Mobile Account Manager at 3Q Digital.

As a digital advertiser, you most likely spend the majority of your digital media dollars on Google and Facebook. It makes sense—eMarketer forecasts that together, the two tech giants will make up more than 46% of global digital ad spend this year.

However, once those platforms are set up and optimized, where do you go from there? What else should you test?

In the mobile app world, a next step and expansion opportunity is running on mobile ad networks and DSPs. These offer scale, additional inventory, and targeting capabilities to help take your campaigns to the next level.

What is a Mobile Ad Network?

A mobile ad network is a collection of multiple ad inventory sources (includes both in-app and mobile web inventory) that allows advertisers and agencies to reach broad audiences relatively easily through targeted buys.

What Is a DSP?

A DSP is a demand-side platform. This is where you can run real-time bidding (RTB) campaigns, accessing a large amount of inventory by plugging into multiple ad exchanges and ad networks.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Working with Mobile Ad Networks?

Pros:

• Large amounts of inventory
• Wide variety of inventory types—inventory grows and changes daily
• Usually an untapped growth channel for advertisers
• Many ad networks will let you buy on a guaranteed cost per install (CPI) or cost per action (CPA)
• Most ad networks have sophisticated machine learning algorithms that learn your campaign and objectives over time. They also maintain databases with millions of unique device profiles.

Cons:

• Often there is less transparency
• Traffic volume can be sporadic, and pacing has to be adjusted frequently
• There is a lot of fraud and distrust in the space. However, more advanced fraud protection tools and guaranteed pricing models are helping to mitigate that.

What Types of Ad Units Can You Run on Ad Networks?

Most ad networks run banners, interstitials, video, native, and offer walls. [Offer walls should be reserved for incentivized burst campaigns only, as the user is likely not highly qualified since they’re downloading the app to receive something in return (coins or points for a game, for example).]

How Is Targeting Done on Ad Networks?

Targeting capabilities vary between ad networks, but most have some type of algorithm that uses a variety of data points to determine valuable users and audiences. These data points can include types of apps installed on the user’s phone, how the user engages with their apps, demographic and behavioral information, and location data.

Once a campaign has a substantial amount of valuable converters, you can then generate lookalikes for targeting for scale. You can also target by category (e.g., serve ads for a financial advertiser in other finance apps) or whitelist based on inventory sources that have performed well for other advertisers in similar categories.

If you decide to test into the ad network space, make sure you’re asking the right questions to ensure you’re set up for success. The below checklist is a good starting point.

Checklist: Discuss/Ask about these items when evaluating an ad network:

• Main differentiators
• Pricing models and minimums: Do they offer a fixed CPI model? Do you need a certain amount of spend to run a campaign?
• Out clause terms: Usually these are 48 hours
• Targeting and re-engagement capabilities
• Operating system scale: Do they skew more heavily toward Android or iOS?
• Geo-targeting capabilities: Can they target down to the zip code level?
• Level of transparency: Will they share site/app level data and provide dashboard access?
• Customer Support: Will you have a dedicated account manager?
• Inventory overlap: Are they buying from other networks?
• Types of ad unit: Do they run video, interstitial, banner, native etc.?
• Type of inventory: Do they skew more toward in-app or mobile web?
• Fraud: What are they doing proactively to combat fraud? What’s being done if fraudulent activity is detected? If you’re interested in learning more about mobile ad fraud in general and best practices for preventing it, take a look at this useful target="_blank">blog post.