How Can Brands Appear Native To Their Customers In Social Media Channels

It is not coming to you as news when I say here that daily consumers are bombarded with ads from numerous businesses.

This has led to two worrisome predicaments for advertisers:

One is that ad blocking has been increasing through the years as more and more people actively avoid ads.

And the second is that people’s habits are changing as they automatically turn a blind eye to ads – a phenomenon called “banner blindness.”

Tuning out the “noise” is increasingly becoming instinctual. And now the Internet gods have decreed that “no more shall thou bombard thy customer with ads” with Google Chrome and Safari now actively blocking particularly disturbing?types of ads.

The only way out of this conundrum is for?brands advertising?on?social media?to make their ads appear native to their customers.

It means the way to win with social media advertising is to create ads that consumers want to see.

So what exactly is?native advertising?and how can brands leverage them to make their ads appear native to their customers? This article carries the answers to these questions, continue reading to find out.

What Is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is a form of paid advertising in which the ads look, feel, and function like the media source where they appear.

This type of ad fuses seamlessly with the surrounding content it doesn’t look like a?paid ad?at all. This format is perfect for building?audience engagement?and?brand visibility?for not just advertisers, but also publishers.

In contrast to?banner ads, native ads don’t look like real ads. They appear to be an element of the page’s editorial flow. It is non-disruptive and it exposes the viewer to promotional content without hitting the thumb.

How to Use?Native Advertising?On Social Media Channels

#1. Instagram?Sponsored content

Sponsored photos and videos on Instagram can be an effective way to connect with your target customer.

A huge 1.32 million active users can be reached by advertising on Instagram, making it an excellent choice to extol the virtues of your brand.

Instagram users have also shown to be receptive to advertising, 90% of the platform’s users follow at least one brand on Instagram, showing that there is already receptiveness to hearing from, and connecting with brand messaging.

Research has found that users are 10 times as likely to engage with brands on Instagram 10 times more than they are on Facebook.

So, how do you reach and engage customers on Instagram in a native format? There are two basic ways to sponsor content on Instagram: via the platform itself in the form of promoted content or by partnering with influencers via paid sponsorships.

Promoted content look and feel like everything else on Instagram but will clearly be labeled as sponsored content.

Brands can leverage Reels, Stories, Instagram Videos, or Feed Video to put their stories in front of prospects using Instagram.

Whichever form the ad takes, the idea is to present the sponsored post in a way users already know and enjoy.

Instagram has effective advertiser tools that enable various ways to define and target a prospect. These ads can be created, targeted, and twitched in Meta’s Ad Manager, the same platform used for sponsored articles on Facebook.

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