SPONSORED CONTENT AND NATIVE ADVERTISING

We understand that sponsored content and native advertising are relatively new to the advertising environment, so we have put together a few pointers and some advice to help you better engage with our audiences.

The difference

It can be difficult to understand the differences between these terms; some publishers and agencies may in fact define these differently to Momentum Media.

For us, sponsored content and native advertising refer to the headline, standfirst and link placed within our bulletin. However, there is one difference between Momentum Media’s native advertising compared to sponsored content – the difference is where the link takes you.

Sponsored content is typically a full article written by you, the advertiser, and provided to us to be hosted on our site, while native advertising will link directly to your own site.

While they are labelled differently, the costs are the same. No matter what package you purchase, the choice of how to house the content is entirely up to you and what you are trying to achieve with your advertising.

Some points to take into consideration when writing your content:

1. Get to the point

You have a short period of time to grab the audience’s attention, so get them engaged from the beginning and keep them interested.

2. Know your audience and the current environment

Make sure what you are writing about is relevant to the audience you are trying to connect with and is applicable to the current times. It is best to research trends within your industry, discussions currently playing out, and any roadblocks in the industry that your business can assist our users with. Keyword research on your industry can be provided if you need – contact your account manager for further details.

3. Make use of multimedia

If you have a great video that visually explains your point or an image that backs up your claims, then send it through to accompany your content. Do not use stock images or images of little relevance: if it doesn’t add value than it is just a distraction.

4. The Goldilocks length

This will depend on the outcomes you are trying to achieve, but generally you want to make the article long enough to get the message across but not so long that you give it all away. Providing too much information means that the user will not move on to your own site to find out more or register their details to receive further information.

5. Include a call to action (CTA)

After you’ve written the perfect article, make sure your readers know what to do next. Big, bold, hyperlinked words asking users to click to receive further information will ensure you get the conversions you’re looking for. Instead of text you could have a ‘button’ image designed and provided to us that will link to your landing page.

6. A soft approach to the sell

Remember that this is an opportunity for you and your business to display your expertise and become a voice for the industry. Don’t try too hard to achieve that big, immediate sale. You should be providing practical and actionable advice and sharing your knowledge. Your goal through advertising with us should be to get information about potential new clients, so that you can then follow up and achieve the sale through other means.

7. Fill out all the fields on the sheet

A submission form has now been created for these placements; try to fill out as many of the details as possible. A lot of the fields are designed to get your article as much exposure as possible, particularly through search. For example, providing a list of the most important keywords and names of people/companies mentioned in the article can go a long way to driving traffic to your page over a longer period of time. Remember, these articles stay on our site forever – the better your keywords, the more traffic you will receive. Keep in mind though, those keywords must actually be contained within the article itself. Restrict yourself from peppering the article with the top keywords in your industry – unless they add value to your content. Keyword stuffing will only ruin the flow of the article and take away from the end goal!