Your Go-To Guide To Getting Ahead With B2B Native Advertising

B2B Marketers are getting super creative with content in the coming months with 97% pursuing new kinds of content next year (exciting!). With so much innovative content available digitally, native advertising is becoming a popular way of reaching new audiences via promoted sharing.

But while only 34% of B2B marketers have used native advertising to promote content this year, it’s a trend that is set to boom in 2015. So what platforms specifically should B2B Marketers get started with? And is native advertising really worth some of that all-important budget?

Follow our quick go-to guide to understand and get ahead with B2B native advertising.

What is native advertising?

Native advertising is the process of using content to build trust and engagement with new prospects through paid channels. The difference between native advertising and traditional display advertising is that native ads will sit within the natural ‘flow’ of content on a social media platform or online publication.

One of the top examples of native advertising in online publications is this paid post from Netflix, featured on the New York Times website. The post was promoting season 2 of Netflix’s own Orange is the New Black, and is a great example of how well chosen content can promote for both the brand and the advertiser.

With native advertising, accurate targeting and relevant content are the key essential elements to drive engagement and ultimately those all-important leads.

What platforms should I use?

As mentioned above, accurate targeting is essential so you need to advertise where you know your audience is, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or an online publication popular within your industry.

If you’re just starting out, stick with social platforms first – they provide user-friendly interfaces and give you full control of audience segmentation, budget allocation and daily spend, meaning you can keep an eagle eye on optimising your cost-per-enquiry.

Native advertising with social media can be anything from promoted tweets, suggested Facebook posts or even LinkedIn sponsored ads. And when LinkedIn is 277% more effective for B2B lead generation than Facebook or Twitter, it’s a pretty good place to start – boost your content exposure and generate high-quality leads with LinkedIn Sponsored Updates.

What content should I share?

Relevant content is the second essential element to successful native advertising. This is your chance to educate an extended audience with informative and innovative content that you’ve made!

Use every opportunity to get personal by segmenting your audience and delivering relevant content to them. Think industry specific case studies and function related guides targeted at key decision makers in your target industries.

But remember, native advertising is designed to “blend in” with its host – there’s a fine line between promoted content and blatant selling, and if your reader can tell the difference, you risk bad press from the likes of comedian John Oliver – watch his take on the topic here

Is it worth the budget?

Native advertising gives B2B companies the opportunity to promote highly relevant content to a targeted audience, AND prove the return of that content based on ad performance – we think it’s a bit of a no-brainer (as long as you get it right)!

Native ads also generate an 18% higher intent to purchase and a significant increase in targeted brand exposure. If you’re a B2B company in a highly-niche industry, this could be a quick win to drive your brand reach and generate new leads.

 But don’t forget to measure, test and analyse your results to determine whether you’re promoting the best content, on the best platform for your business.

How can B2B Marketers make the most of the opportunity?

You’ll need to have clear targeting, and correct use of data to ensure posts are served to the right audience. 32% of web users say they would share native ad content, so if targeted correctly your prospects will naturally respond and share the content – pushing your social brand reach sky high!

With more and more B2B marketers creating innovative content strategies in the next year, it’s time to get ahead of the game and give your kick-ass content a sponsored boost to get in front of new prospects, generate leads and boost that all-important ROI.

Want to get started with native ads? Download The Ultimate Campaign Reporting tool to measure and prove the success of your native ad campaigns.

Are you a B2B marketer who’s seen native ad success? Tweet us @LeadForensics using the #UltimateROI.

This blog was originally posted on the Lead Forensics website. Read the original article here.

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