Native ads vs. social media ads: The pros and cons

You want to attract new customers. Which online advertising channels are suitable for you depends heavily on the respective objectives.

Today, we're comparing social ads and native ads.

Regardless of which industry they work in — marketing managers usually have similar goals and challenges. They want to:

• Increase the awareness of a product or service among your target group.
• Generate interest among potential customers.
• Encourage customers to take active action (click, register, buy)
• Retain customers to the brand over the long term.

There are many ways to attract customers. In the digital age, however, there is no way around online advertising. But which form of advertising is best? There is no general answer to this question, but depends heavily on the respective objectives. We have already examined the differences between search engine advertising and native advertising. Today, we're comparing social media ads and native ads.

Social media advertising

Social networks such as Facebook or Instagram offer high reach and precise targeting options. This helps to reach your own target group without large wastage losses. At the same time, a variety of brands are now vying for attention on social media. Generating conversions is therefore becoming increasingly difficult and involves high costs. Only those who have the opportunity to invest a lot of time can take full advantage of the benefits of social media advertising.

Another disadvantage of advertising on social media is that as a brand, you cannot control the environment in which the ads are displayed, the ads cannot be played out contextually and there is no appropriate context to prepare the user for communication.

• Benefits of social media advertising: Very high reach
• Disadvantages of social media advertising: Many competitors and possibly high CPM costs. No influence on the context and environment of the game.

Native advertising

As a study by eMarketers for the US market shows, the majority of media budgets still flow into social media advertising. However, the trend is that native advertising can grow continuously and that more and more budget is also flowing into this form of advertising.

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What are native ads anyway?

The term is broad and can include many different forms of advertising: image/text ads, advertorials, sponsored content, and more. What all formats have in common, however, is that they are adapted to the style requirements of the website and therefore look like a “separate” or native contribution to the respective website. Nevertheless, labelling as advertising is of course mandatory. More information is available in the new IAB Native Playbook 2.0 to find.

Why are native ads becoming more and more popular?

In familiar environments, advertising is generally perceived more positively because it is less intrusive. At the same time, native ads are played out in a thematic environment, where the user's interest in the advertised content can be assumed. While social media advertising has to accept a higher bounce rate because the user is not in a contextual mindset, the reader clicks on the native ad out of personal interest to view the advertised content. The user interaction and active participation of the user is therefore greater than with native ads, which is why an overall advertising effect can be expected to be improved.

Take a look at some examples of native ads here

• Benefits of native advertising: High scalability and improved advertising impact.
• Challenges of native advertising: The composition of advertising media strongly influences the performance of the campaign.

What do I need to consider with a native campaign?

• Reach and scalability: On which channels do I have to launch the campaign so that I can reach a high level of reach within Switzerland and reach my target group precisely?
• Brand safety: The environment in which advertising is displayed is relevant. In order to guarantee brand safety, it is therefore crucial that a premium environment is chosen.
• Targeting options: The best advertising is useless if it doesn't reach users who are actually interested in the advertised product/service. Appropriate targeting options (e.g. by region and part of country) must therefore be considered.
• optimization: Which KPIs can be optimized with a native campaign? Can this channel help you maximize specific KPIs?

Which should I choose?

Each form of advertising has its advantages and disadvantages. However, native ads are an increasingly popular way to generate attention, increase traffic, and acquire new customers.

With Yaleo's free ad manager, it's never been easier to run a native ad campaign. The native ad is recorded independently and then delivered to the desired target group within Audienzz's Yaleo network on 170 premium websites and apps throughout Switzerland. The benefits:

• The native ad dynamically adapts to the environment of the website on which it appears.
• You define the price you want to pay per click on the ad yourself. This means that the campaigns that run via the Native Ad Manager remain easy to calculate and the advertising budget can be used cost-effectively.
• Thanks to access to Audienzz's Adconsole, campaign performance can be monitored in real time and adjusted as needed.

Sounds interesting? Find out here how to design your first native ad campaign yourself in 5 easy steps with the Yaleo ad manager.

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