Digital advertising is a competitive field, with endless opportunities across email, social media platforms, apps, websites, content marketing, and more.
Online marketers need to be savvy and innovative, thinking beyond traditional advertising principles to drive increased engagement and revenue.
Especially in email, where your audience has opted-in to receive messages from your brand, it is even more crucial to determine the right type of ad content and formats to increase conversion rates and reach your target audience in optimal ways. When considering your advertising strategy, online marketers will hear about native and display ads.
Choosing between display and native advertising for your content and email template goes a long way to supporting higher conversion rates. But, how do you know which is the choice for you? In truth, all of these ads have something to offer, and you’ll probably use each of them in different ways. Here’s what you need to know about these ad types and the differences between them.
What are Display Ads in Email
A display ad in emails looks a lot like the banner ads you might see on a website, but they’re included in. Placement is at the top, to the side of the email is designed with columns or on the bottom of the message. A form of paid advertisement, they generally advertise or promote a separate product or service, usually unrelated to the email content and with a specific objective or promotion. Like traditional advertising, display ads can be of varying sizes and fit in various placements.
If your entire ad fits one of the following size formats, then display ads via email are an option:
- 300 x 250, which is almost a square and works well for side placements or placements alongside other images at the top or bottom
- 728 x 90, which is a slim horizontal rectangle that can provide a discreet ad at the top or bottom of an email without interfering greatly with readability on any type of device
- 970 x 250, which is a larger rectangular ad that can be used when more imagery is required
In any of the above cases, the ad image size must be 1MB or smaller to ensure emails load and perform well. Otherwise, users may delete them without reading any of the content, which is bad for advertising and publishers alike.
Display ads are flexible and offer tried-and-true functionality. People usually inherently recognize them for what they are, and as long as they don’t intrude on the email experience and they’re relevant and high-quality, they aren’t overly bothered by in-feed ads. In fact, many will click through on ads that they find interesting.
Choose display ads when you want to test ad content, have a product or service that’s highly relevant to the email subscriber base or rely heavily on images to engage the user.
What are Native Ads: A Seamless Blend in Content
Native ads are designed to look like part of the email content, which helps ensure people read and look at them. The size and design of this content ranges widely because it seeks to mimic other editorial content in the email or newsletter.
For example, if the newsletter is sectioned into topical highlights with links to a longer article, a native ad would be the same type of content and link to a landing page. Since the objective of native advertising is to integrate seamlessly, these ads can be in the form of articles, images or video content.
They also present an exciting opportunity to build upon the trust of your existing subscribers by delivering them ads on subjects that they want to see. You already know what they are interested in so native ads allow you to utilize that and motivate users to support your sponsored content through on-brand advertising content.
Native ads provide an additional pathway to delivering the relevant and engaging content that your target audience wants. Another plus is that native ads typically circumvent ad-blocking software so you can rest assured that your message gets seen and your native ad engages.
The biggest downside of native ads is that they come with strict requirements for marking them as paid or sponsored content. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as being transparent about the content helps improve reader trust, making native advertising one of the most highly engaging and effective options for content marketing.
Choose native ads if you can work closely with publishing partners to create advertising that slips seamlessly in with their other content.
Benefits of Native Advertising
Here are five benefits to using native ads and why they are effective for successful marketing.
- Value-added content: Native ads show off products or services in a manner that is helpful and creative. They are more unique than traditional advertising and present a deeper dimension with helpful tips or information that readers want to see. Native ads enrich user experience online by engaging and informing rather than simply making a hard sell.
- Seamless integration: When using the right strategy, native ad placements don’t disrupt user experience. Unlike standard ads on social media or news sites, most consumers don’t even notice native ads because they don’t clutter the screen or detract from usual content.
- Engagement: Our research has found that readers generally look at native ads for the same amount of time as they would editorial content. Native ads are noticed at 53% more frequently than display ads and have higher purchase intent.
- Action-driven: About two-thirds of consumers say they would click on sponsored articles over banner ads. Overall, native advertising typically has higher conversion rates thanks to the far-more-targeted response from your target audience.
- Adaptive: Native ads can be promoted across multiple channels. They are portable across campaigns and easily amended to reach various target audiences. Because of their flexibility, native ads offer advertisers easy ways to garner maximum exposure.
Both display and native ads have their assets. This chart compares the major differences between the two leading ad types.
Getting Started with Native Ads
It’s not as hard as it sounds, even if you’re managing multiple campaigns and platforms. Developing your first native ad campaign requires a base of content to feed these ads, which many publishers already have. Then, you will need an ad server to send targeted native ads to your users on the right channel and in the right format. This can be done manually or by recruiting a native advertising platform to excel in digital advertising and benefit from increased conversions.
Jeeng AdFill provides the maximizum by automatically filling advertising slots with relevant and engaging ads from our AdMarket. Everything is tagged and optimized so the right sponsored posts meet the right audience.
Plus, with Jeeng AdServe, you can get native ads placed in your email campaigns directly from your existing GAM inventory.
Within one newsletter template, you may even use both native and display advertising. Jeeng can help you understand your ad options and launch advertising campaigns that fulfill your marketing goals, including increased traffic and revenue. Follow the link to learn more about the differences between native and display campaigns or contact us today.
