Why You Should Run Native Advertising in South Africa?

Over the past decade, the number of smartphone users has exploded in South Africa. Looking at data from eMarketer, around 31.5 million of the South African populace has a smartphone within arm’s reach– which accounts for over half of the country’s total population at nearly 55%.

This is significant for marketers because most internet access in South Africa is through mobile– close to 79%– and this is the perfect opportunity to create a successful campaign using native advertising. Why native? Because it blends with the site content without obviously selling the product. It is a non intrusive advertising format. The ads replicate the format of the platform and impact the user in a more friendly way.?

We’re going to explore what native advertising is, why it’s a must for advertising in South Africa, and then finally finish up by explaining how Smadex by Entravision is your One-Stop-Shop for meeting growth goals and taking your business marketing strategy to new heights.

What is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is a marketing solution that integrates paid ads seamlessly, into content audiences are already viewing without disrupting their experience. It does this by matching the look and feel of the platform where it’s displayed– hence the “native” part of the name.

They differ from traditional advertising methods such as banner ads, display ads, and pop-ups because those stick out like a sore thumb– and often annoy users. Native ads, on the other hand, expose the user to adverts in an unobtrusive, natural way. Because of this, they’re extremely effective in getting people to click on them and converting them to buyers.

You’ve likely come across native ads when you’re using the internet in your personal life. For example, when you read an article on your favorite news sites, some of the articles or posts are marked as “Recommended For You,” “Suggested Post,” or even “Sponsored.” Those are examples of native ad content.

That’s native ads in a nutshell, now let’s see how they’re a powerful solution when used in South Africa.

The importance of using Native Advertising in South Africa

When looking at marketing in South Africa, digital and mobile advertising outranks all other forms such as TV, radio, and print. Beyond that, native advertising is proving to be one of the most effective strategies.

When looking at the various forms of native ads, content marketing appears to be the most popular and effective method. These are the advertorials, sponsored articles, reviews, etc. This type of native ad is powerful because it builds confidence and trust with South African consumers. BusinessTech found that South African consumers trusted sponsored articles over all other online advertisements.

3 Tips for Creating a Winning Native Ad Campaign in South Africa

If you want your native ad campaign to be successful, you need to have a clear understanding of what trends and best practices work for native advertisements. In this section, we will look at 3 tips and trends that will help you create an effective winning native advertising strategy throughout 2022 and beyond.

1) Mobile Reigns Supreme

As mentioned in the introduction section, roughly a third of the country uses smartphones with around 80% of all internet traffic coming from these devices. If we look at expected mobile advertising revenue for 2023, Statista forecasts it will reach nearly $4.5 billion.

From the consumer side, South Africans are expected to spend around $572 million in the app market, and it’s expected to grow to nearly $793. And if we look at eMarketer’s Evolution of Smartphone Users for South Africa, we can see that the number of smartphone owners is expected to explode within the coming years. Their forecast predicts the number of users to jump to 34.8 million, accounting for almost 60% of the total population.

With such a golden opportunity on the horizon, marketers can expand their reach by running native ads across smartphone devices. Since consumers are already there and engaging with the content, and it’s evident native ads such as sponsored articles garner high levels of trust, it’ll be easy for brands to get their products and services in front of new customers.

2) Follow These Best Native Ads Practices

While these best practices can apply to most marketing strategies, they’re paramount for creating a winning native advertising campaign:

● ? ? Develop clear and concise goals

● ? ? Add value for the audience: create ad content that provides value to the audience, whether it’s informative, educational, and entertainment.

● ? ? Test, re-test, then test again: develop multiple variations of your ad and test them against each to find what works best for your audience.

Following these steps, it will help create a path for making native adverts that work and convert.

3) Automate the Process

Technology simplifies the process with programmatic campaigns and allows you to engage with users throughout their journey. Automatic also offers many benefits such as saving time and money. It also gives you the ability to optimize your ads across multiple target audiences and channels.

However, the key to success is finding a platform that provides you with the tools and support to succeed and grow. Let’s take a look at Smadex by Entravision and see how it benefits your native ads marketing strategy.

Expand your reach and Grow with Smadex by Entravision

Let’s take a look at Smadex by Entravision and see how it benefits your native ads marketing strategy. With nearly a decade of in-house experience, Smadex is a one-stop solution for creating user acquisition, retargeting with a focus on premium subscription services. We’ve partnered with various businesses and organizations across the globe including merchants, content providers, anti-fraud companies, payment aggregators, and more, to reach and engage with high Lifetime value customers.

With a network of over 50 Premium SSPs and Ad Exchanges (including Google), our Smadex DSP provides invaluable benefits to the companies and brands we partner with.?

In Smadex by Entravision, we have access to a large portfolio of Native advertising suppliers such as Google, Pubnative and Smaato. We have been running ZA subscription based campaigns for over 5 years, and around 600+ native advertising campaigns over this period. In the past month alone we ran around +30 native advertising campaigns, generating on average +2800 subscriptions on a weekly basis mainly targeting Vodacom and MTN carriers.

Want to learn more about Smadex and how we can help you develop a winning native ads campaign in South Africa (or anywhere else on the planet)? Then reach out today to speak with one of our friendly professionals. We look forward to partnering with you and helping you reach your growth goals.?