Native Ads: The 4 Essential Formatting Elements

As the traditional banner ad continues its fade into obscurity, native ads, which coexist more naturally and comfortably with both the flow of editorial content and users’ sensibilities and interests, continue to grow in prominence. The most well-publicized examples are Sponsored Stories in Facebook, Promoted Videos on YouTube, and Promoted Tweets on Twitter. Other editorial sites that trade in native ads include Gawker Media (Sponsored Posts), Reddit (Sponsored Links), and Huffington Post (Sponsor Generated Post).

But as the native ad phenomenon grows, it expands beyond advertorials and paid links. Technology is enabling publishers to stitch together content that appeals to their readership and that fits within the confines of an ad spot. The same technological tools also now allow a small design team to create native ads that match the look and feel of the site, and that even include the types of entertaining and informative content that can be consumed and engaged with within the ad itself.

While its forms vary and innovation continues unabated, there are four  essential elements of a native ad format that performs well and fulfills publishers’ expectations:

  1. Native ads conform to site aesthetics.

Best of the Best Practices: Rich Media Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising today is the Wild Wild West. There are few rules, fewer standards, and no established way of doing things.

Yet mobile traffic continues to skyrocket.

In India for instance, mobile internet traffic has already surpassed desktop traffic, with other countries soon to follow. Experts predict that by 2014, there will be more on-the-go web experiences than on-the-desk.

So as traffic surges toward mobile devices, display advertising must find its footing and fast.

Here are the best practices that will help us get there.

3 Easy Ways to Create High Impact Touch Ads

HTML5 rich media advertising is still uncharted territory for a lot of advertisers, publishers, and ad designers alike.

As a Product Manager at Flite focusing on our Touch Ad Studio, I’m constantly getting asked about easy ways to create great rich media Touch Ads. Here are three simple suggestions to supercharge your mobile advertising products with our user-friendly Touch Ad Studio.

1. Build an expandable banner

Feeling suffocated by that 320x50 pixel gutter? Need more space to get your brand’s message across?

Why the Ad Server Must Become a Content Management System

The display ad isn’t a file anymore. It’s a content container, bought real-estate for a brand’s message in front of a specific audience.

And the ad ecosystem has become unbelievably fluid. With just a few clicks, marketers can make rapid changes to audience, content and cost. So why are we still trafficking banners like it’s 2003?

It’s time display advertising follow in the footsteps of blogs and websites, and to do this, ad servers must become content management systems. This is a very powerful and necessary step in paid media.

Owned Media vs Earned Media vs Paid Media: Definitions

In the digital advertising and marketing industries, the terms owned media, earned media and paid media are becoming increasingly popular as the approach and potential outcomes of each of these content marketing segments are quite different. Each provides its own value but should ideally work synergistically, making the most efficient use of common campaigns and creative assets, and maximizing audience reach. Let’s start with some definitions:

  • Owned Media: placements on properties which you own and/or control. This can include your sites, landing pages, and microsites, hosted press releases, your blog, and your Twitter account and Facebook page (assuming these are monitored and moderated).

What are Native Ads?

Native ads work because they blend in. Photo Credit: Beezy

Native ads rose to popularity on social media, where ad products are shown as sponsored posts or as a feed of small ads that flow through the sidebar.

On the tails of the success of native social ads, publishers are going native with their premium ad products in display and video advertising. In fact, according to a recent study by Solve Media, 20% of publishers are expected to offer native ad products this year.

These native ad products have some common characteristics:

3 Secrets to Super-Charging Your Flite Reporting

As a Product Manager here at Flite, my role is focused on reporting, data, and analytics in our platform. I wanted to let you in on the “Easter eggs” -- useful tips that you may not know of yet -- that I’ve found useful working in the Flite platform.

These “Easter eggs” won’t be secret codes or special powers that you’d normally find in video games, but they will arm you with features to help you take full advantage of our platform.

Let’s get this Easter egg hunt started!

1. Layer Reporting 

Layer Reporting can be found on the Placement Overview page in the Measure module of a single ad.

By unlocking this feature a user will be given the ability to analyze various layer structure elements of an ad. The data will be broken out in a tabular format with options to pivot the data in 3 different views. Uncover an additional feature by clicking on the Preview button which opens the ad in a floating window. As the user hovers over the ad the interactions on that layer are highlighted in the table behind the Preview.

You Can’t Hurry Love and You Can’t Wish for Earned Media - Guest post by Todd Parsons, Aditive

Photo credit: mothering21.com

Technology is now enabling brands to scale engagement by re-igniting consumer interest and trust through their paid media.  Approached thoughtfully, this fuels an opportunity to extend engagement by enabling and encouraging social sharing and other earned activity.

In the same way that offering content to an audience through paid media publishing drives engagement, earned media depends on friends sharing something they find interesting, clever, or valuable.

Real-time Marketing in the Superbowl

AdAge.com

The Superbowl has always been an important time for advertisers who spend millions on 30 second commercials. This year, a few savvy brands acted quickly when a power outtage occured at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans mid-way through the game. These brands had been closely monitoring all the social media channels closely before the blackout, and were thus able to react quickly when the unexpected occured.

Why the Mobile Ad Industry Needs Standardization

Source: AdAge

Mobile allows advertisers to connect with consumers more closely than ever, and advertisers and publishers alike are watching closely to see how the medium evolves. But due to the variety of smartphones, tablets, and apps, mobile ad unit inventory lacks much-needed standardization.

The result? Brands are wary of adjusting their ad spend toward mobile at the rate at which it is growing versus other mediums.