Tag: native advertising

Version Who?

Version Who? – Michael

Hi Michael! Let’s get into it, How long have you been in the performance marketing industry?

I’ve been in the industry for 5 years now. I started off in performance marketing at ContentClick which then got acquired by Revcontent.

And now you’re at Version Two, what do you like most about working here?

Ooo so I would say that Version Two aims to bridge the gap between scalable offers and true brand quality.

What i’m most excited about doing is bringing some really interesting and unique emerging brands to market and introducing them to affiliate marketing. I’m also looking forward to connecting top affiliates to brands they might never have thought about working with in the past.

The way I see it is we want to match the best with the best.

We hear that you in-fact had a background in archaeology. That’s quite the career change! Can you tell us a bit more about that?

I did indeed! I ran projects as far as afield as the Caribbean. I’ve gone from archaeology to affiliate marketing, having been an antique dealer for a short while in between. My friends say I’m just working through the alphabet. Maybe i’ll be a zookeeper one day!

Ha! The Caribbean sounds like a pretty nice place to spend your days working. What sort of companies/brands have you worked with in your career?

A huge mixture, some notable brands off the top of my head are Time Inc, Red Bull and The Telegraph

Nice! And in regards to networking, which affiliate conferences would you recommend?

Affiliate World is for sure my number one. Great for business and the social side is unrivalled. Affiliate Summit a close second. And everyone should do MWC at least once in their lifetime if they’re a fan of mobile tech.

Noted! Are there any newsletters you subscribe to that you’d recommend?

WHAT THE AFF is a great one for know how. STM is a good one too. Oh, and Archaeology Magazine!

What new things do you see happening/working in online marketing for in 2019?

I think this will be a big year for ecom, and we’ll start to see a changing landscape. We all know the issues that the world of affiliate marketing has faced of late, which is exciting for us as we look to disrupt the market with our unique take on the industry, and where we think it’s going. That’s what we want to be a part of.

Tips and Tricks

The Common Pitfalls of Native. Don’t Fall In

We’ve managed individual campaign budgets of over $5 million across many native sources. Native advertising should be seamless and unintrusive, an ad format that compliments users online behaviour – not detract from it. Which leads to greater ROI and lifetime value. But, with so many native options out there now, it’s not always easy to get it right.

Some of the largest native networks have a lot of traffic and work with tens of thousands of publishers, meaning getting the targeting right is not always straightforward. Here are the two most common mistakes;

1. Ultra-niche targeting.

Whilst this sounds like a logical thing to do, advertisers often suffocate their campaign before it has time to convert. A too tightly targeted campaign could result in receiving traffic from a very small percent of the publishers. For example, a drone offer may work just as well if not better on a premium financial website than it does on a tech site. Put simply, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Test broad and then optimise out the sources that don’t hit target.

2. Start low and then scale.

Again sounds logical but if your budgets and CPC are set too low you’re setting yourself up to fail before you begin. Why would a network algorithm prioritise your ad over another that has a greater rate and larger budget. Start your CPCs too low and you will only receive the traffic sources everyone else has blocked. Instinct is then to lower CPC to offset poor performance, taking your campaign even further from the quality publishers. Test failed. Budget wasted.

Having knowledge of the network, algorithm and price points are key.

If executed in the right manner, native campaigns can find new markets and customers the advertiser didn’t even know existed. This is how to get the most of out your native campaigns. Don’t be afraid to test and step out of your comfort zone. Get to know the algorithm. If an ad is not generating a competitive CTR or enough impressions, and is not converting – kill it. But be careful when testing new creative, it can be a painful thing to suddenly see your CTR drop on your best converting creative at the same time your new ads take off without even converting. This can be hard to reverse once the algorithm has its teeth into something. Once you’ve found the winning formula, test sparingly.

And finally, it might sound obvious, but remember that your native account manager is your friend. They know the traffic and what works and what doesn’t. So it inevitably pays to listen to them and heed their advice.

If you want to know more about setting your campaign up in the best way to get results fast give us a call, we’re a friendly bunch.

Tips and Tricks

What the Hell are Push Ads?

Push ads are a new type of native ad format, offering a non-intrusive, user-friendly and highly-engaging way for advertisers to reconnect and expand their audiences. Push notification ads can be delivered directly to users’ mobile, tablet or desktop devices anytime.

Users knowingly agree to receive push notifications via an ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’ subscription on the website, meaning you can almost guarantee elimination of any ‘non-human’ traffic.

To maintain the non-intrusive nature of push notifications, customers will only receive a limited number of notifications a day, with an option to unsubscribe at any time. These measures ensure high-quality traffic and significantly better user engagement.

The type of sectors that Push ads are most effective in include, E-commerce, Lead Generation, App installs and Sports Betting. The click on the Ad typically goes straight to the Landing Page, direct offer or Install – meaning the user journey is short and highly engaged without putting the user off.

Performance can differ depending on the campaign/offer, as well as the ad creatives and geo’s that are being targeted, but in our experience of spending unto $10 million a year on push traffic is that you can see CTR’s of up to 40%!

Push notification ads really exploded onto the scene in 2018 and they are predicted to be an amazing source for performance marketing moving forward. If you get a solid campaign/offer and get it working through push ads, then the rewards are there!

In the words of Salt-N-Pepa…

“Push it, Push it real good”

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