Have you ever pondered about what style of ads is more effective?
If so, you might have thought about why a blatant ad like a banner ad works for some businesses and why subtle promotions with native ads does it for others.
For example, prominent companies like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola don’t veer away from hard selling. Why is that?
And why do most lesser-known businesses look for more unobvious ways of getting attention?
Why Banner Ads Work for Popular Companies
For well-established brands, banner ads are effortless and cheap constant reminders to the market. Also, they can be effortless introducers of their new products.
Big companies can simply stick their logo, a picture of a product and its title, a promo of 30% off or lower, and get clicks, leads, and customers.
Established brands no longer have to exert effort into making themselves known to people because generations have known them, and they saturate most communities in their market.
Disney more than hardly doesn’t need to introduce their brand to anyone. There are at least nine people in a 20ft radius who know at least five characters from any of their franchises.
For the entertainment magnate, their banner ads will usually be for posters of their new movies and sometimes merch.
Big brands will use banner ads because they are easy, and they don’t need to make extra effort doing harder ads.
On the other hand, they will rarely need to do subtle promotions. They barely need it.
What are native ads for?
Surely like many businesses, banner ads will be the first go-to promotion you will go for as part of your efforts in getting leads. But for a brand that’s not as big as Nike, you must look at other methodologies.
You can go for native ads.
Native ads are promotional efforts that require subtlety and are done in a way that they become an integral part of the platform on which they appear.
For example, Brand X hot sauce company can release a video that doesn’t say “buy Brand X Hot Sauce” but rather teaches audiences “How to Cook Spicy Meatballs,” and one of the ingredients is the Brand X Hot Sauce. To make it subtle, the video focuses on the recipe and not the product.
The game is subtle indoctrination. You’re subconsciously teaching people to value a product without explicitly promoting it.
Another native ad method is to have a product referenced in an article without being the focus. Also, a native ad can appear to be a normal “non-selling” value-oriented social media post appearing on someone’s feed.
If you run an established brand, maybe you will no longer need subtlety, but if you are running a brand that hasn’t blown up yet, you could leverage not being obvious with native ads while also benefiting from banner ads at a scale.
Unestablished brands haven’t yet won the trust of multitudes of consumers. Therefore, you need to prove yourself valuable to many people first, and to do so, you should know how to properly use banner and native ads to your advantage.
Hence, you will have to pay attention to the pros and cons of banner and native ads.
Pros and Cons of Banner Ads
Pros
- Banner ads are direct and unapologetic. They say what they have to say, which is “here’s a nice product and its price, buy it now from this outlet.”
- Even when people do not pay full attention to a banner ad, its mere presence can subconsciously leave an imprint of information, especially if the person has some knowledge of the brand.
- They require less thinking to make. A catchy phrase, exciting visuals, and a celebrity will do.
- When done well in a way that stirs emotions, they can be significantly effective. A 50% off announcement stirs emotions of excitement and joy.
Cons
- Banner ads have been a staple brand communication method for so long that many people are desensitized to them.
- They are and look obviously paid, and some will think that the brand is giving itself a tap on the back by praising its own product with an unproven basis.
- The values and promises promoted through banner ads can seem fabricated.
- Many people are desensitized even to 50% off announcements.
- Banner ads can barely leverage the human vulnerability to storytelling and indoctrination (something big brands don't always need).
- Banner ads can be ad-blocked.
- They barely improve brand awareness for relatively unknown businesses.
- They cost more because you have to pay for production and the platform where you run your ads.
Pros and Cons of Native Ads
Pros
- Native ads mostly bring value that a person can strongly associate with a brand. This is especially true with story-based or educational platforms like a tv show or movie where the product cameos.
- Many people are sick of commercial-type media, and native ads are a way for you to advertise without associating yourself with that dated genre.
- They effectively increase brand awareness.
- Native ads capture the audience’s attention and are better received by people than banner ads.
- They cost way less than banner ads.
Cons
- The subtle promotion will go over the head of a few people - not everyone will get it or be conscious about the brand. For example, I can use Brand Y hot sauce for the recipe that uses Brand X.
- They require a decent level of creativity which many business people struggle with without help.
Native Ads Will Help You Expand
By utilizing native ads, you will be able to get excellent leads that you can turn into loyal customers who will become your proof of worth. As your clientele’s populace expands, you will gradually turn your business into an established brand.
To speed up your rise to the top, you will have to run multiple native ad campaigns on various platforms.
Doing so will add another challenge - tracking, organization, and management.
The good news is that you have Brax.io to help you manage and run your native ads from a single easy-to-use dashboard.
Brax.io is used by leading performance-focused brands & agencies like you. So you can leverage Brax to create, optimize, and scale your native ads efficiently and effectively.
