Sharona Meushar, Author at CodeFuel

Native Advertising Explained – What Is It and How It Works

by Sharona Meushar | Jan 13, 2022 | Advertising, Monetization

Native advertising is a digital strategy focused on delivering a better user experience via unobtrusive ads. When you provide value to users, it results in better user engagement and conversions. This post will explain a guide to native advertising and how to make the most of this strategy.

In this post

What is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is the practice of placing paid ads that blend with the look, feel, and function of the digital property in which they appear.

You can find native ads as recommended, or sponsored content on a website, or in social media feeds. The thing with native ads is that they don’t look a lot like ads. They look like part of the page, which is their best advantage because they don’t disrupt the user experience. A native ad enhances the reader experience by adding value without sticking out as a sales advert.

Native advertising offers brands a way to connect with users more naturally. The native advertising’s contextual relevance results in native advertising producing high-click-through rates and conversions.

Native ads are advertising units that intend to draw the user’s attention while enhancing the user experience. You can find native ads:

While Scrolling Your “Feed”

You can find these ads while scrolling through your social feeds. For instance, the ads that appear before or after stories or reels.The feed may include user generated content (USC), business posts, articles, photos or videos.

Ads from Search and Promoted Content

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) groups these ads on what they call “product feed” They appear in searches and product, service or app listings. Common ad types include product or services ads.

Inside Content Related

The content feed ads appear like sponsored posts, editorial content that may include images or videos. They appear on editorial sites and recommendation platforms.

Source: IAB

How do native ads work?

Native ads are subtle. The idea is that users will barely notice they are paid ads; and when they do, the ads don’t bother them. The interest in native advertising started growing in 2012, because of the brands’ need for non-disruptive advertising.

Source: Google Trends

In native advertising, suppliers (publishers) offer their audience, reach, and quality of content to SSP, ad networks, or advertisers, with the aim to monetize their sites. On the demand side, advertisers and demand-side platforms (DDP) look for the best fit to reach their target audience and achieve their goals.

How can you tell if an ad is native?

That’s the paradox with native ads. Because they look like regular content, how can you tell it’s an ad? For instance, you clicked on an article for “Best Hikes Near Prague”, which led to a post review on the “Brand X hiking boots review”, sponsored by the boots brand. The boots brand pays the publisher of the article for your click. To ensure consumers are not misled, there is a requirement to disclose the content is actually an ad.

You may see some of the following features in a native ad

“Paid Post”, “Sponsored by”, “ Partnered with”, “Promoted”, “Powered by”. These phrases indicate sponsored content.

Source

Other times, a small icon on the top corner can show that is a paid ad. Or you can see the word “Sponsored”. This disclaimer is part of native advertising best practices.

Native advertising channels

Native advertising can be run manually or programmatically. Regardless of how you choose to manage it, you can run native advertising across three main channels:

Search

The sponsored search results that you see on top of your search results. Engines like Google or Bing started serving native ads in the form of sponsored search results.

SERP

Publishers can also insert a SERP (search engine results page) on their domain.

Social

Facebook and Instagram streamlined native in-feed and carousel formats. In-feed ads appear in between social media posts or in your news feed.

Open Web

There are content discovery platforms that serve curated content recommendations and in-feed ads on popular publisher websites.

Types of native ads

The interactive advertising bureau (IAB) identified six types of native advertising units.

In-Feed Units

In-feed units are paid ads that appear in-line with other content. When you see sponsored posts that appear in social media or in publisher’s sites like Forbes, for example, these are in-feed ads.

For example, here you can see an in-feed ad from PayPal on Entrepreneur.com

Source

Paid-search units

Paid search are those ads you can see in the coveted position zero in search results. Paid search results look like organic search results.

Promoted listings

These native ads, appear usually when you are browning for purchasing on an e-commerce site. They are paid by brands and look like any other organic listing.

Display ads with native elements

This type of native ad looks like a display ad, but they are different from a regular banner because they are contextually relevant to the meda they appear on.

Recommendation widgets

You can also find native ads on publisher sites, social media, and search engine results. Recommendation widgets are often at the side of a page or at the end of a post. These ads recommend additional content or products that you may like.

How to Develop Native Ads?

Native advertising is more popular every year, as companies realize its benefits for improving the user experience (and their bottom lines). That’s why organizations are spending more money on native ads.

Source

But, how can organizations ensure they spend wisely and get the best results for their native advertising strategy? Here is how to develop a great native advertising strategy:

1. Set your SMART campaign goals

As with every strategic plan, the first step is to know where you want to go. Clearly define what do you want to achieve. For example, if you want to generate leads, getting more sales, increasing website traffic, or more. Ensure your goals are SMART (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). Be specific so you can then track the success of your strategy.

2. Define your target audience

Once you know what do you want to achieve with your campaign, you should understand who is the receiver of your ad. You may have an idea of who is your audience, according to your buyer personas. Factor location, age, gender, and interests to narrow your audience. However, don’t be too narrow, as native ads are a great way to show content to new audiences. The right level of targeting can ensure your ads get to the right users at the right time.

3. Select where you will publish

No less important to know who to publish, is where to publish. As part of your native advertising strategy, you may choose to advertise through an ad network or directly with the publisher. If you choose to go the direct way, examine the publisher’s reach and the size of their audience. Most importantly is to check how relevant is their content for your users. Think as your reader would do, and select publishers that can provide value.

Leveraging an ad network produces more accurate results. An ad network evaluates thousands of publishers and finds the most relevant for your brand. And all of it happens by the time the publisher page loads, thanks to the magic of programmatic advertising.

4. Build attractive ads

The best strategy cannot succeed if the ads are not attractive to the user. The ads need to catch the attention of the user and encourage them to click them. Keep in mind to test several combinations (A/B testing) until you find out which ad is better for your campaign.

5. Define and allocate your budget

Assigning a budget for the campaign can make it or break it. How much your campaign will cost will depend on how much do you spend on your campaign items, like your cost-per-click. Identify what is your ideal CPC and how much is your spending limit.

6. Monitor, test and adjust.

Once you launch the campaign, you should track the performance of your ads. Test headlines and images, the KPIs like number of impressions, clicks, and conversions.

These six steps can help you design a successful native advertising strategy.

Best Practices for Native Advertising

1. Leverage other media types like podcasts and video

Static and dynamic ads are the most popular, but audio and video are increasing in popularity. Podcasts, in particular, are increasing in popularity. Podcasts’ ad spend is expected to rise to $1.6bn by 2022. Podcast ads are accessible and unintrusive because. Most users are doing other things when listening to podcasts. Therefore, when you add native ads to podcasts, they integrate with the content.

Video is another media that is increasingly popular. With the time people spend watching videos, video ads are proving to be extremely effective. As much as 78% of publishers get more traffic to their website by using video ads

2. Test often and accurately

Ads that blend with the surrounding content usually gets more clicks. Instead of standing out, they keep users on the site for longer. These days, native ads are not only placed on websites but also on e-commerce sites, mobile sites, and applications. To understand the impact of each ad, it is important to measure and track the right KPIs. Besides common metrics like impressions and clicks, measure the engagement of the users, comments, and shares.

3. Do your research and focus on the clicks that matter.

Ads shown in the search result deliver more value to users because they align more with what the user is looking for. Since the user intent is high, you get more value out of each dollar you spend in the campaign. Do your research about what type of content attracts more your users.

4. Use influencer marketing

A recent survey found 84% of consumers make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation. As consumers spend more time on social platforms, they are exposed to influencers’ content. Most people listen to influencers because they trust their expertise in the product or category.

While influencers have been around for a few years, their impact is growing, and set to be worth $15bn by 2022. For 2022, there will be an increase in short-form video content, and brand media programs.

5. Don’t forget mobile ads

Their mobile is where users are most of the time anyway, so investing in native mobile ads is the sensible way to go. Unlike interstitial ads, native mobile advertising blends with the experience and enhances it. According to one report, native ads show 18% more purchase intent than display ads.

Best and worst examples of native advertising

Now that we know what native advertising is and best practices, let’s see some examples.

The 3 best native advertising examples

The Onion’s Tax Ad

First, let’s start with a classic. Back in 2012, this well-known, funniest native advert starts entertaining from the headline: “Woman Going to Take Quick Break After Filling Out Name, Address on Tax Forms”.

Source

This advert is a textbook example of native advertising. The Onion created this piece for their client. At the time of publication, it was surrounded by the client’s (H&R Block) banners. It resulted in increased brand awareness.

Clarins makeup and skincare

More recently, The campaign of Clarins focuses on paid posts and blending content for mobile with the “Seven plant extract to boost your makeup routine and skin”

The article doesn’t look like an ad at all. The campaign delivers value to customers and fits seamlessly with the media where it appears. The article subtly promotes the advantages of Clarins, directing users to the promoted product.

8fit Fitness

8fit is an app that offers custom home workouts. Its native ads campaign appears in several premium publishers’ websites. They have different images, headlines, and content according to the media they appear, combining video, image, and sponsored content.

When you open the video that promises to burn 300 calories in 9 minutes, it drives you to download the 8fit app. Fitness lovers then can get access to workouts, meal plans, and progress tracking. The ads don’t feel like ads.

Worst Native Advertising Campaigns

Here is the Hall of Shame: “Will millennials completely shun the office?”. The New York Times.

Yes, at the top of the hall of shame is the New York Times. That’s proof that everybody makes mistakes.

This Dell sponsored post misses the mark on engaging the target audience (millennials). The language is not aligned with the New York Times editorial content. Therefore, it doesn’t hit it.

Pros of native advertising

For advertisers

Branded native content generates more trust from users. From Generation X and beyond, these audiences trust sponsored content more than traditional adverts. This type of content resonates with young adults because it is more entertaining and engaging.
Native ads generate more click-through rate than display ads. Native ads perform well for advertisers in several niches.
Builds brand awareness. With native advertising, it is easier to increase your brand awareness, on average 53% more views than traditional advertising.
Optimizes the targeting. Native can contextually target specific audience segments. As an advertiser, you ensure the ad reaches the right user.

For publishers

Higher engagement. Ads are more relevant, which doesn’t disrupt the user experience, resulting in a higher engagement and click-through rate.
Better eCPM. Native ads usually bring high eCPMs, impressions, and engagement, resulting in more attractive placements for high-paying marketers.
Users stay longer on the site. Resulting in users being more engaged with the brand and content.

For users

More value. Native advertising is less “salesly” and provides useful information to users. Users then consider native advertising as more valuable than traditional ads.
Better experience. Native ads are more user-friendly. They integrate with the surrounding content giving a more natural experience to users.

Native advertising challenges

Native ads to have a lot of advantages. That being said, there are some use cases where native advertising can be challenging.

It can be tricky to measure. While some KPIs are not that hard to measure, measuring the ROI (Return on Investment), impact, and effectiveness of the campaign.
If you don’t leverage an ad network, it can be time-consuming. Creating native ads can be more complex than traditional ads, and may require many actors.
Choosing the right tool can be daunting. Any organization new to native advertising can get confused by the many tools available. Should you choose an ad network? An SSP? An ad exchange? CodeFuel makes it easy for you with an all-in-one monetization platform designed with publishers in mind. Leverage premium advertisers and publishing sites with an easy-to-use, high-yielding solution.

Pros of Native advertising

For advertisers

Generates more trust from users and brand awareness

Higher CTR

Optimized targeting

Pros of Native advertising

For publishers

Higher engagement

Improved eCPM

Longer time on page

Cons of Native Advertising

For advertisers

Creating native ads can be time-consuming without an ad network.

Too many tools available

Cons of Native Advertising

For publishers

Multiple KPIs to measure.

Too many tools available

Is native advertising effective?

Native advertising is generally more effective than traditional display ads. Here are some statistics to prove it:

Consumers pay more attention to native ads

25% more consumers see in-stream native ads than banner ads
53% of consumers will look at a native ad rather than a display ad

Native ads generate 9% more brand affinity than banner ads

32% of consumers share native ads vs. 19% sharing of display ads

What drives marketers to use Native vs. Traditional Ads?

Statistics source

What is Programmatic Native Advertising?

Programmatic native advertising is designed to make it easy for advertisers and publishers to buy and sell native ads. Brands and agencies use a demand-side platform (DSP) to set a budget and requirements to publish your ads. Publishers, on the other side use a supply-side platform (SSP) to sell their ad inventory. Both publishers and advertisers get matched up in real-time via native advertising platforms.

How to Choose The Best Native Advertising Network

Here are six factors to consider when choosing a native advertising network:

Audience: Check that the native advertising network’s reach covers your target audience. This includes verifying the locations where the platform drives traffic from. If your product is targeted to English-speaking countries, your ad network reach needs to target those too. Look at the niches and industries they cover.
Ad formats: The more variety of ad formats the ad network covers, the better. Choose a solution that can give you in-feed, recommendation widgets, mobile native ads, etc.
Targeting options: Different tools deploy different technologies. When you compare platforms, pay attention to the targeting options they offer. While one platform can let you select publishers, others won’t give advertisers that much control.
Bidding models: Each platform offers different bidding models. For example, manual or enhanced cost per click, cost per action, cost per view, cost per mile.
Reporting: Consider how the system will report performance. Choose a solution that offers the most information. Ask which KPIs can you measure, if you can export and customize reports, and what are the filters available.
Price and requirements: The signup price needs to align with your advertising budget. Before signing up, check the bidding models, requirements, and sign-up costs.

All Native Ad Formats

According to the IAB Standard, below are the six more common types of ad units deployed, with examples from companies (Image sources: The IAB Native Advertising Playbook).

In-feed units

Ads that appear in the feed, mostly on social feeds. It can be a summary or related to the sponsored content or an ad that takes the user to a branded content site.

Paid search units

This type of digital marketing strategy allows advertisers to pay search engines to place their ads higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Paid search ads usually work under a Pay per Click model.

Recommendation widgets

These are a type of native advertising where ads are delivered via a widget — icons, pull down menus, buttons and similar that invite or request an action from the user—.

Promoted Listings

Promoted listing are product ads appearing in marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and similar. They are included in search results, listing pages and other placements.

In-ad with Native Element Units

These type of ads are an ad within an ad, meaning, inside the ad there is another type of content relevant to the publisher. For instance, a recipe with a link to a cooking website inside an ad for a food product.

Custom

These ads may combine two or more of the types above.

The CodeFuel approach to native advertising

CodeFuel is a complete monetization platform with a mission to deliver native ads that enhance the user’s experience and journey. Serving highly targeted ads in a way that doesn’t disrupt the UX, will generate more revenue for the publisher.

CodeFuel leverages machine learning and advanced analytics to capture the intent of the user and the context of the digital media they are reading. The ads served with the CodeFuel line of products integrate smoothly with the context, delivering better results for advertiser and publishers. Learn more about the CodeFuel approach to native advertising.

Read Glossary Related Content:

Best Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business in 2025

by Sharona Meushar | Dec 20, 2021 | Marketing, Search

Here comes the holiday season, with plenty of opportunities for marketing and e-commerce. 2025 is entering its final quarter. But beyond that, how can you make the most of these last months?

In this post

This post will explore core strategies you can apply whether your business is geared for B2B or B2C if you are a small or medium company. We’ve prepared a top marketing strategy. you can use to finish the year with a bang

What Is a Marketing Strategy?

Marketing strategy is an umbrella term for a long-term approach and a forward-looking general plan for an organization to achieve a competitive advantage by understanding and meeting customers’ needs.

A marketing strategy is a broad strategy that includes the company positioning, the ad creative, strategic partners, the marketing mix, the channels you use, and the tactics you implement.

The strategy is what used to be called “branding.” It also includes its value proposition, the key brand messaging, target audience and customer demographics, and other high-level elements.

Difference between a marketing strategy and marketing tactics

Marketing tactics are part of a broader marketing strategy. Marketing tactics are the specific ways you choose to use to implement your comprehensive marketing strategy. For instance, you can have a content strategy for social media and then have specific tactics for each channel.

When you are developing a marketing strategy, you should follow a top-down order, from general to specifics:

Tactics are precise ways to grow your business included in a marketing plan’s broad set of marketing strategies.

Marketing Strategies vs. Marketing Plans

Too often, you will hear marketers and laypeople talking about marketing strategies and plans as the same thing. To do efficient work, you need to know where you want to go and how you will get there. This is the difference between your marketing strategy and your marketing plan.

A marketing strategy is your organization’s approach to achieving your competitive advantage. The marketing plan defines the activities and steps that will help you achieve them.

The strategy answers the question, “what do we need the marketing activities to achieve and why?. The plan responds to the when and how you will reach the goals defined on the strategy.

As for the question: which one do you need as a marketing team? You need both.

Here are the main differences between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan:

Timing

You should create a marketing strategy before starting marketing work as it sets the ground for your campaigns. Since the marketing strategy is encompassing, it shouldn’t change significantly for each campaign. A quarterly evaluation can help you make the necessary adjustments.

The marketing plan is created after the marketing strategy. You can have different marketing plans for each campaign or program. The plan should include other dates and milestones to complete.

Purpose

The purpose of the marketing strategy is to understand the marketing goals of your business, meaning what your product or service needs to reach the right customers. A marketing strategy keeps everybody aligned with those goals and gets the most value for your offerings.

The marketing plan aims to help the team visualize when and how you will accomplish those goals. The marketing plan sets the timelines and conducts your campaigns and programs to align them with marketing and business goals.

Components

A marketing strategy usually consists of the following:

Company vision and goals
Marketing goals
Initiatives
Positioning
Brand message
Buyer persona
Competitive landscape

The marketing plan consists of the following components:

The campaign goals
A timeline with milestones
The channels you will use
The budget
Activities
Dependencies

Why does my company need a marketing strategy?

Companies that try to get by without a marketing strategy often lose track of the vision, the goals, and the pain points the product solves. When this happens, the tactics can be erratic and lose effectiveness.

So a marketing strategy is not a static document that you hang on the wall. It is a dynamic process of discovering the marketing high-level goals and objectives and how to achieve them.

Without a marketing strategy, any campaign will be like shooting in the dark.

What are The 4 “P’s” in Marketing Strategy?

The 4 Ps of marketing is a model to define the components of the marketing mix when you take a new product or service to market. The 4 Ps refer to price, product, promotion, and place. These four factors are involved in the marketing of a product or service.

When you integrate all these marketing strategies into the marketing mix, organizations can consider all essential factors.

Price refers to how much your product costs for the customer to buy. The price of your product will depend on your competitors, the demand, the production cost for the product, and what consumers want to spend for it. This factor also includes the payment models.

Product is what your business provides to the target audience. It can be a product or a service.

Promotion involves the actions to let the company’s target market know about the product or service. Promotional activities include PR campaigns, social media, and content marketing.

Place refers to where people buy your product or service. It may involve a physical location, like a store, or a digital one, like an eCommerce or marketplace channel.

10 Marketing strategies you need for 2025

Optimize for Google’s Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are new metrics that form part of Google’s Page Experience Update.

The metrics will measure site load time, interactivity, and content stability and probably impact search rankings.

Besides the already known factors of a site being mobile-friendly, not having intrusive ads, providing HTTPS security, and safe browsing, Google considers anything that could annoy a user from the page.

Therefore, if you optimize your site for Core Web Vitals, you may be ahead on enhancing the user experience.

Prepare for cookie-less marketing.

In 2022 a significant change is coming for marketers: the end of third-party cookies. Organizations need to start focusing on building their list and gathering first-party data. The phasing out of third-party cookies will change how we target and track digital ads

“Organizations need to start focusing on building their list and gather first-party data to comply with the new regulations in 2025” CodeFuel. [Click to Tweet]

Focus on customer retention

It is known that it is cheaper to keep existing customers happy than to acquire new ones. Loyalty incentives, push notifications, and rewards can nurture an existing customer relationship and give it the impulse needed to convert. Mobile interactions, SMS, and mobile marketing are other ways to reach and remind your customers of your offers and promotions.

Create an omnichannel marketing strategy

Another trend is to combine multiple channels—for instance, social commerce. In 2020, Instagram and Facebook launched shoppable posts, which enable users to shop directly on the platforms.

Source

Implementing a multiple-channel strategy that includes social media and digital ads can increase your chances of reaching the customer.

Build customer trust

After the pandemic, consumers became more selective of where they spent their money. Consumers buy from brands they can trust, share their values, and meet their needs. Building trust requires consistency in keeping your brand’s promise to your customers.

“Trust and integrity are fundamental to driving market momentum”(Harvard Business Review)

Optimize for voice search

Voice search is gaining momentum as consumers used voice-enabled devices while they were at home during the pandemic. Therefore, brands could gain a lot from optimizing for voice search.

How do you do it? Focus on understanding the long-tail keywords your customers use when asking questions or making requests to their voice devices.

Go Live

Video marketing and social video are the most significant trends going on now. Just look at TikTok, with over 500 million users. Since social media videos are more informal, they offer a chance to brands to let their hair down a bit, for example, with hashtag challenges.

Another part of this video trend is live streaming. According to the latest statistics (TechJury):

96% of people say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
79% say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app.
It is expected the live streaming market will reach $247 billion by 2027.
Social media videos generate 1200% more shares than texts and images.
Organizations using video have 41% more traffic from searches.
Video increases the chance of purchasing on mobile for 40% of consumers.

Live streaming started peaking during the pandemic as a way for businesses to keep the relationship with their customers, and it is not slowing down.

Use retailer media networks

Online retailers like Amazon and Walmart grew from the changes brought by the pandemic. Fueled by this growth, online retailers diversified their advertising portfolio. For instance, Amazon is adding units in video ads, display ads, and more. If your product or service is a fit for it, advertising on leading e-commerce sites can help you target your customers without relying on third-party cookies.

Leverage contextual advertising

If you want to widen your options and increase your targeting, consider leveraging contextual advertising.

Contextual advertising is the process where automation is used to match ads to relevant digital content.

A contextual advertising platform such as CodeFuel provides the highest level of targeting for your ads. Ads are matched according to the digital property’s content. As consumers look for something online, they find ads extremely related to what they are looking for. As a result, the enhanced user experience encourages consumers to click through the ad, creating revenue for the publisher and increasing traffic for the advertiser.

Learn more about Contextual Advertising in our complete guide here.

Create your community with influencer marketing

With streaming platforms getting more popular than ever, influencer marketing is growing steadily. A study by Tap Influence found that 40% of people reported they purchased a product online after seeing an influencer using it on Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. Amplified by the pandemic, influencers’ impact on online sales was meaningful.

7 Strategies to build growth fast

When defining your marketing strategy, you indeed have in mind to build growth. The problem is determining what measures to take to achieve the highest possible ROI. Here we are sharing some tips for taking into account when creating your marketing strategy.

1. Start with setting your goal and budget.

Every plan needs a goal. A marketing strategy needs to start with a purpose and a budget. That makes sense since, without a purpose and a budget, it is practically impossible to understand if the campaign was a success or not. Here are some tips for doing it right:

Set a realistic budget
Don’t over-measure. Stick to 2-5 Key Performance Indicators.
Once your goal is set, create a process (the marketing plan) to achieve it.

2. Build rapport with your customers through email

According to recent statistics, 59%of marketers say email is the most effective marketing channel. Building your email list has several benefits:

It helps you collect first-party data
It creates rapport with your audience
Supports your top-up offers and promotions.

3. Listen to your customers.

Understanding your customers is critical for your marketing strategy. Before creating your plan, you must define your audience based on demographics, interests, and other criteria.

But if you want to know what is happening with your existing audience, the good idea is to leverage surveys. To get the most out of this strategy, here are some tips:

Set a timeline for the survey
Carefully segment your audience
Use tools that enable you to collect and analyze data

4. Optimize your landing pages

Your landing pages are one of the factors you can leverage for an immediate impact on conversions.

It is important to assign a dedicated landing page to each marketing campaign. Even more important is to focus each landing page on a single goal. That means directing your user to take a single action.

When you put only one link on your landing page, you can capture the full attention of your user.

5. Leverage social media advertising

Social media has revolutionized the game of advertising. Today, small businesses don’t need large advertising budgets to achieve their business goals. Any any-sized company can promote its products through a Facebook, Instagram, Linked In ads account.

Leveraging social advertising allows organizations to reach their potential customers on their phones.

6. Prioritize retention

As we explained above, retaining customers is easier than acquiring new ones. Focusing on engaging your current audience, transforming your one-time customers into returning customers is the key to building a loyal community of users.

7. Focus on wooing your audience

Everybody loves a good story, and your audience is not the exception. Storytelling can drive conversions four times more than traditional marketing. So, if you want to engage your customers with a good story that showcase your values, here are some tips:

Be authentic: nothing annoys a user more than a fake story.
Determine the goal
Deliver a consistent message
Integrate the user to the story

Top 5 Marketing Strategies for B2B and B2C

One of the most critical factors when planning your marketing strategy is to whom your business is directed. Is your business selling to other companies? (B2B)? Or selling directly to the consumer (B2C)?. Here we bring you the best strategies for both.

Best strategies for B2B marketing

1. Inbound Marketing

Inbound consists of attracting and engaging customers by producing meaningful content. Is one of the most effective B2B marketing strategies. Why? Because the content is relevant to the customer, appearing in the right place at the right time.

Inbound marketing works for organizations of any size or type. Informs captures and directs customers in their journey. You can integrate inbound to any customer management or content management system.

2. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an essential strategy to capture B2B clients. As you are on social media, so are your customer’s companies. Social media shares and posts of video, images, and content influence users and impact SEO efforts. It is best to direct your efforts to a social media channel like Linked In, which is geared almost exclusively to B2B networking.

3. Search Engine Marketing / PPC

Search engine marketing is the process of growing a company’s traffic and conversions through paid online advertising. It uses tools and strategies to drive users to click on advertisements sponsored by the company. When the user searches for specific keywords, the business’s advertisement will appear on the search results page. Every time a user clicks the ad, the advertiser pays the search engine, ad network, or third-party site a fee.

PPC is broad in reach, cost-effective, and generates high visibility. It also adapts to multiple markets and audiences.

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing focuses on informing and educating the user instead of selling. This strategy focuses on creating meaningful content that closely relates to the user’s needs to answer the user queries. By emphasizing the relevancy of the information for the audience’s needs, content marketing attracts users most likely to purchase your product or service.

Content can be adapted to reflect your brand message and what your audience needs, including infographics, websites, blogs, white papers, video podcasts, and eBooks.

Content marketing is an integral part of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. Investing in content can effectively direct customers to the sales funnel. It also grows your brand exposure by aligning information with your target market.

5. Referral Programs

Referral programs are any program or incentive a company implements to encourage their customers to spread their voice about their company. It may include rewards, affiliate programs, and similar initiatives. Although customer referral programs often get a bad rap, they can effectively grow your customer base.

Best 5 Marketing Strategies for B2C

You will notice that some strategies work both for B2B and do B2C, but this doesn’t mean they are implemented the same way. Social media or paid advertising, for example, are carried on different channels for different strategies.

Talking directly to the consumer requires constant monitoring and tuning to your audience’s needs. Here is our pick of strategies for B2C.

1. Social networks and viral marketing

Social media marketing is the sum of tactics, processes, and tools organizations use to reach their audience via meaningful, shareable content. It increases brand visibility and traffic. Social media advertising has the added benefit of encouraging customers to convert.

2. Paid media advertising

Similar to B2B, B2C organizations may benefit from paid advertising. An ad network can be the best option to ensure your ads get in front of the right user at the right time.

When choosing an ad network, it is important to select one that provides contextual advertising. This feature increases the chance of your ads being clicked by high intent users.

3. Email marketing

The average ROI of an email is $42 per every $1 spent. With this number, it is not surprising organizations are implementing email marketing tactics. Email marketing is the process of targeting specific prospects to encourage them towards the purchasing journey.

Email marketing offers an advantage to B2C companies because it reaches directly to customers on their mailboxes. It allows them to engage, nurture and convert customers. You can also use email marketing to push offers, promotions, and new products. The possibilities are endless.

4. Earned media/PR

Earned media is different from paid advertising in that it is created through PR efforts. It is unsolicited and can only be gained organically—for example, a social media testimonial, an editorial, or newspaper article (not sponsored).

How to Write a Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy sets the direction and goals for all your marketing efforts for the next few years. This comprehensive strategic plan describes your business, the position of your product and services in your market, profiles competitors and target audience. It provides the base to build a marketing plan. So, there’s a lot at stake when writing your marketing strategy.

Here’s how to do it in four easy steps:

1. Set your business and marketing goals

It is best to align your marketing strategy to your business goals as described in your business plan. Then you can set the marketing goals to support them. When setting goals, it is important to stay on target. A good approach is to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. By adhering to these criteria, you can measure the results of your efforts effectively measure the results of your actions.

2. Know your market

Gather information about your market. Consider the size, growth, social trends, and demographics. The information you gather in your market research can help you develop a profile of your target customers and identify their needs.

The data of your market research also allows you to profile your competitors. You can identify what products they are using what their pricing and marketing strategy are their pricing and marketing strategy. Take this information to build your competitive advantage.

3. Define your strategies

Determine what strategies can attract and retain your target audience. For example, if you want to increase your brand’s awareness, you can leverage your social media strategies by posting engaging content about your brand and product.

4. Test your model

Once you get your marketing strategy designed, you should A/B test your ideas and see what works and what isn’t. You may need to review a mix of tactics to reach the right combination that gets to your customers.

Writing your marketing strategy may seem a daunting task. If you are short on time or don’t know where to start, the next section is for you.

3 Best Free Marketing Templates

Before going forward, it is best to understand the basic sections of a defined marketing strategy.

Section

Marketing goals

Marketing initiatives (high level)

Target market

Market analysis

SWOT Analysis

Positioning Strategy

Marketing Mix

Buyer personas

Competitor analysis

Description

A set of SMART goals that align with your business goals

High-level efforts to achieve the marketing goals.

The segments of customers with characteristics that align with your product or service.

The research of market factors that may impact your business

Research your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to the market.

Analysis of where you are positioned in your market compared to your competitors and the benchmark and the strategy to improve it.

The combination of tactics and efforts you will carry on to achieve your marketing goals.

The detailed description of an ideal target customer helps pinpoint the campaign and content.

Analysis and ranking of your competitors based on their strengths and weaknesses.

To make your life easier, we searched for the best free marketing strategy templates. Here’s our pick:

1. Hubspot Free Marketing Plan Template

The most complete of the three options, in our opinion, this template helps you detail your marketing strategies and develop a marketing plan all in one. You can download it here for free.

What do we like? It is comprehensive and covers all sections of a marketing strategy and the next marketing plan. It is easy to use and can give you an overview as a glance of your goals and actions.

What are the downsides? It is not as in-depth as other templates.

2. Aha! Free Marketing Strategy Templates

Aha! Offers marketing templates for each section of the plan. They cover all the areas, from stating your marketing goals to analyzing your competitors. You can download them here for free.

What do we like? They are easy to use in clear spreadsheet form. Good for beginners.

What are the downsides? It could be better to have each spreadsheet into a single document.

3. Miro Free Market Strategy Template for New Products

They offer a template for new products called the go-to-market strategy template. This single template covers your marketing goals and values to the buyer personas and your action plan. It is collaborative and can be used by several team members at a time.

What do we like? That is comprehensive, with an easy-to-use interface. The collaboration option is a nice feature.

What are the downsides? It has a bit of a learning curve.

Simple 7 Practices for Building a Marketing Strategy

The steps you need to follow to build the best marketing strategy for your business can be divided into four categories:

Brand strategy

Define brand values and offering

Identify customer’s pain points and expectations

Detect market trends and competitors

Marketing strategy

Define your value proposition

Define your target audience and buyer personas

Digital marketing plan

Plan the core message, voice tone, creative ads

Decide the channels you will use

Create specific tactics that adjust to the budget

KPIs

Measure customer experience, how the marketing is performing, and the results for the business.

It may seem too much, but don’t worry, we will take the approach step by step. Let’s start:

1. What’s your brand offering and value?

Define your core values that align with your potential customer needs and wants, your product, and your product. While not easy, this task ensures the rest of the marketing strategy will go smoother.

Take, for example, Patagonia, the sustainable clothing brand. Their core values are:

Build the best product
Cause no unnecessary harm
Use business to protect nature
Not bound by convention

All their marketing activities and PR efforts are geared to showcase those values. Look at their Instagram; their bio-caption is:We’re in business to save our home planet.

They also promote campaigns that align with their values

Like this one, where you can send back used Patagonia clothes and shoes (in good condition) for store credit.

How do you find the values that define your brand?

Think about the problems you solve.
Write those using value-based language.
Ensure it aligns with your business goals.

2. Who are your customers? What are their pain points and expectations?

Start by defining who are your customers. Then, find out their pain points. Tap into the demographics and interests of your audience to create your buyer persona. Then, find out their pain points.

Source

Many people confuse pain points with solutions. This is one of the reasons products or services fail. A pain point is an outcome the customer needs. People may have different pain points:

Convenience: If your product makes people’s life easier, you may have a winner. Take the classic example of how streaming services replaced video clubs because they offered convenience.

You can see the full infographic and the study on “How Netflix Bankrupted Blockbuster.”

Service:Sometimes, value more a good user experience than price. If your product or service produces a better user experience than your competitors, it may solve your customer pain point.
Financial: Saving money is one of the top considerations of many customers and is one of the basic pain points. If your product helps your customers save money, it will provide value to your customers.

How do you find your customers’ pain points? Here are some ideas:

Run a customer survey.
Check customer reviews of similar products.
Study your competitors

3. Who are your competitors?

The next step of your marketing strategy is creating a competitive analysis. You do that by identifying and analyzing your competitors. The first step is to detect all the companies that offer similar products or services to your target audience. Then, rank them according to relevance. Look at their marketing efforts, social media, advertising, and branding.

An excellent way to understand your competitors is to conduct a site audit. This will enable you to understand their position in the market, discover opportunities and threats.

4. Who can collaborate with your business?

Collaborators and partners help your organization to reach your customer. Examples of collaboration can be online communities, forums, marketing partners, advertising networks, etc.

5. What’s the core message of your brand? How are you going to spread the voice?

This is the next step after defining your core values. Take them as a base to translate them into a consistent message. Define what you are delivering and to whom. This includes creating your value proposition.

6. What marketing channels are you going to use?

Once you know what you want to communicate and how it works, choose what media channels you’ll use. Choose the channels that reach your audience while fitting your brand and product. Here are some of the channels you may use:

Social media
Social advertising
Paid advertising
Influencer marketing
Email marketing
Push notifications
Messaging promotion
SEO
Content marketing

You should define a strategy and budget for each channel. To ensure you are doing it right, dig into your market research. Find out what you can achieve with each channel and how they align with your business goals.

7. Analyze your results

Now that you have your marketing strategy in place, it is time to test how it works. Carry on A/B tests so you can find the right marketing mix for your campaign.

The Most Successful Marketing Strategies Stories

Do you want to know how it is done? Here are our top three examples:

1. Nordstrom: Intelligent retargeting

Nordstrom is addressing the problem of cart abandonment with intelligent retargeting. The company uses emails and ad retargeting campaigns to remind users of items they liked or added to their cart.

2. GoPro: Leverage user-generated content

GoPro is the king of user-generated content. Their cameras are a favorite among athletes, extreme sports fans, and adventurers to record and capture images and videos that are impossible with traditional cameras.

One of GoPro’s best strategies is to share user-generated content. They encourage users to edit and create videos with frames that feature GoPro’s branding. Then the company shares the videos on social media.

Source

Nike: Focus on your values

Nike and its “Just do it” slogan is one of the most recognized brands in the world. The brand focused its marketing efforts on promoting its core values, such as resiliency or innovation.

Nike uses storytelling in its social media and ads to inspire positive emotions. This approach encourages Nike’s audience to share in the brand’s values and creates loyalty.

FAQ’s

What is the main benefit of planning my marketing?

Planning your marketing strategy can help target and increase the penetration into your target market. When you plan your marketing strategy, you can ensure to cover everything to achieve your business goals.
How often should I update my marketing plan?

While it is helpful to review progress every month, it is better to get a more in-depth review twice a year. The marketing strategy can be reviewed every two years, but specific marketing plans may need to be checked for each campaign.
How do I track if my marketing methods are working?

There are several methods to find out if your marketing plan is working. You can track KPI metrics or look at the number of new leads. Make sure to measure all your marketing efforts.
What are common mistakes when planning my marketing strategy?

Don’t underestimate the timing. It is very likely the actual execution will take longer than expected. Make room for unexpected expenses.
What is the main benefit of planning my marketing?

Planning your marketing strategy can help target and increase the penetration into your target market. When you plan your marketing strategy, you can ensure to cover everything to achieve your business goals.
How often should I update my marketing plan?

While it is helpful to review progress every month, it is better to get a more in-depth review twice a year. The marketing strategy can be reviewed every two years, but specific marketing plans may need to be checked for each campaign.
How do I track if my marketing methods are working?

There are several methods to find out if your marketing plan is working. You can track KPI metrics or look at the number of new leads. Make sure to measure all your marketing efforts.
What are common mistakes when planning my marketing strategy?

Don’t underestimate the timing. It is very likely the actual execution will take longer than expected. Make room for unexpected expenses.

How CodeFuel Helps Leverage Top Marketing Strategies

Creating your marketing strategy can be a time-consuming task. However, leveraging an automated solution can take most of the hassle and provide results. CodeFuel is a complete monetization solution for digital properties.

By leveraging search and shopping ads with an intent-based approach, it provides highly targeted contextual advertising. When users get served ads with precisely what they are looking for, they are more likely to convert. Therefore, using CodeFuel enhances and improves the performance of your marketing strategy.

Learn more about CodeFuel by signing out today.

How to Make Money From Mobile Apps (8 Proven Tips)

by Sharona Meushar | Dec 19, 2021 | Monetization

There’s an app for everything, right? Mobile apps are one of the best ways companies have to engage their customers, bring revenue, and enhance brand recognition. When you build an app, your first question is how to make money from it? Here are 8 tips to follow.

Why Build a Mobile App?

Consumers demand convenience and simplicity. Companies looking for ways to engage their users are adapting their strategy to reach their users where they are, on their phones.

Here are some mind-blowing statistics on mobile app usage that prove that making an app is a great marketing strategy:

1. There were 218 billion apps downloaded by the end of 2020, according to Statista.

2. 55% of website traffic worldwide comes from mobile as of the first quarter of 2021.

3. Mobile app revenues can reach $935 billion by 2023.

A mobile app can give your users a convenient way to use your services. Companies can have several reasons to build a mobile app:

To generate revenue

To save money

Because of FOMO

Source

The main reasons companies would like to build an app are:

Increase sales: many apps, for instance, e-commerce apps, can generate direct profits.
Improve customer experience: a mobile app can enhance the communication between users and your company, improving customer service and the user experience.
Have a competitive advantage: mobile apps can optimize your operations, saving costs.

It is true that building an app enhances the relationship with your customers, but ultimately, the main effect of adding a mobile app to your strategy is to improve your revenue. How do apps improve your ROI? It’s easy to understand, considering your customers are browsing products on their mobiles more than via a computer.

Let’s see the impact of mobile apps on user buying habits:

4. Half of the customers prefer to shop from their mobile phones

By the end of 2021 it is expected that 53% of all e-commerce will be m-commerce.

5. App conversions are 3x higher than mobile site conversion rates

According to a report by Criteo, Shopping apps generate conversion rates more than 3 times higher than on the mobile web.

6. The number of smartphone subscriptions worldwide is over 6 billion.

It is expected to reach 7.5 billion by 2026.

How much money can you make from an app?

We have seen the number of apps ballooning in the last few years. But, when you look at how much money they actually make, the numbers are not so great. In fact, 90% of apps are free.

From the apps in the App Store and Google Play, not all make money, and there is a big drop from the top-performing apps to the next-in-line.

The top 200 apps on the App store make on average $82.500 a day

Those in the top 800 make $3.500 a day, which is not a bad number. However, choosing the right monetization option for your mobile app is key to getting a nice revenue.

8 Proven Strategies to Make Money from Your Mobile App

In-app advertising

This is the most common monetization model for mobile apps. The term in-app advertising refers to including ads when the app is in use. It is one of the easiest ways to make money from a mobile app and it only requires the developers to sign the app with an ad network. The ad network then displays relevant ads that show when a user is using the application.

According to Statista, the amount of advertising spending is growing from $234 billion in 2019 to reach $495 billion by 2024. Mobile in-app advertising revenues reached over $100 billion in 2020.

How do you get paid?

Per impression: every time the ad is displayed to the user. According to Google, the ad needs to show for a second or display at least one pixel to count as an impression. Usually the impressions are counted in increments of a thousand.

Per click: every time a user clicks in the ad, you get paid.
Per install: if you display ads for complementary applications, and the user installs the advertised app, you get paid.

What types of ads can you display?

Interstitial

These ads appear at set intervals, during the usage of the application. Often in the form of full-screen pop-ups, these ads appear at specific times. For instance, when a user opens the app or finishes a particular stage. Users can close it in the top corner.

Native

They blend seamlessly with the app content, enhancing the experience instead of interrupting. Native ads are designed to appear as part of the app while promoting a product or other application. The advantage of native ads is that they get more engagement than other types of ads.

Banners

You can find these common ads at the top or bottom of the application screen. While they are very popular, the small screen of a phone makes them hard to view. So, banner ads often get a lower conversion on mobile.

In-app video

Videos engage, entertain and provide extra information that doesn’t fit in a static ad. However, sometimes they can disrupt the experience of the app. Gaming apps often use rewards to get the user to watch the video. For instance, users can unlock additional levels or get the game currency.

Pros

It increases the application’s income via click-through-rate

You can measure user engagement via your apps.

Targeted in-app advertising is better for reaching your audience.

Cons

When the ads are not relevant, they can annoy users and hurt your brand.

This model works best if your app has a large base of users.

It can be done in an interruptive way, disturbing the user experience.

2. One-time payment

In this model, developers and app publishers charge users for downloading the product. Sometimes publishers combine this method with a free trial or ads. This strategy is not that popular since most users don’t want to pay to download applications.

You should take into account that in order to get users to pay per download your app needs to offer a high value, something that they cannot get from anywhere. Niche apps with premium features work best for this method.

Pros

Can increase your revenue right away.

You can combine it with a free trial period.

It can work best with apps that offer a high value.

Cons

It may attract fewer users since a paid app has to compete with many free apps in the app store.

Not suitable for all types of apps.

3. In-app purchases

This method enables publishers to earn money by providing special content or features users can buy from within the application. Publishers can then sell virtual items from the app. Gaming companies like Angry Birds or Clash of Clans sell upgrade packages, gaming currency, and additional features.

According to a report, In-app purchase is one of the most profitable methods for app publishers, accounting for almost half of mobile app earnings.

Pros

It can generate a high profit even when your application is free.

This model works best for gaming apps.

This can open the way to provide advanced services through your app.

Cons

Too many in-app offers can annoy users and get bad reviews.

User expectations are higher when using an app with in-app purchases.

Designing and developing an app with in-app purchases can be more expensive than simple apps.

4. Crowdfunding

Another way to monetize free apps is via crowdfunding. This method is becoming quickly popular with startups. They can share their projects on platforms like Patreon, Indiegogo, or Kickstarter. There, potential users can collaborate to fund the development and marketing of the application.

There is a caveat, though, in crowdfunding platforms, gaming apps are not very popular. Non-gaming apps raise more funds compared to mobile games.

Let’s check what are the advantages and disadvantages of crowdfunding:

Pros

Gives the project exposure

Access to multiple investors

You can get pre-funding

Cons

The fundraising can take longer than expected.

There are no guarantees that you will raise the money you need.

You need to invest in promoting the project with videos and prototypes before you can ask for any money.

5. Subscription

Many applications choose to go the subscription route since it is a way to have recurring income. App publishers can choose to offer the app for free for a limited amount of time and then charge a subscription fee. Other publishers will offer the app for a subscription right away, but it is best to give some trial period. Subscriptions can be monthly or annually and they allow users to access all the content in the app without restrictions.

Pros

It is a good model for applications that provide recurring services, like health monitoring apps.

Generates a more engaged audience to use the functionality of the app.

It generates a reliable income.

Cons

You need to continuously innovate the app content to keep your users engaged.

If you currently offer your app for a fixed price, changing your payment terms to a monthly charge can annoy users.

6. Sponsorship

It is not a very common method, but it can bring a nice income. App publishers can look for companies that will sponsor the app. A good example is the Marriot’s credit card sponsoring the Gayot.com mobile application that reviews restaurants. There, the Marriott chain can target the audience of Gayot, people interested in professional restaurant reviews.

Now, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using sponsorship for your app.

Pros

You can offer advertising space in your app for brands that target the same audience.

Brands can increase their exposure to the app.

There is no disruption of the user experience.

Cons

To get sponsors your brand needs to be strong, with sophisticated ads and users.

It is important to use performance tracking so you can measure success.

7. Freemium

Freemium apps usually are free to download but have paid or premium features. Users can access these paid features from inside the app.

Users can try the application for free with basic features, and if they like it, get full access to all features by purchasing a subscription. This method allows application publishers to get new users easily. This strategy is common for educational, wellness, or sports apps that users can top up.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of freemiums?

Pros

No interruption of the user experience with ads.

You can combine this model with the other approaches

It requires low maintenance

It is widely used because it gives users a free taste.

Cons

There can be fluctuations in the income as a number of users may not want to go forward with the premium features.

Since the application is free, they may combine it with other methods to make money.

8. Referral marketing

This strategy involves promoting another company’s product or service from within the app. App publishers can promote affiliate products or services and get paid when a user clicks on the link or install the promoted app. App publishers often use pop-up ads to carry the affiliate link.

Pros

It is a great way to promote the application or product inside the application.

Referral customers tend to have a higher intent of purchase.

Cons

It can be time-consuming to set up a profitable referral program.

You have to be careful with the referral links you install in your app.

Tracking a referral campaign can be complicated.

You cannot carry multiple referral programs.

Pricing models

Companies using app monetization strategies may choose to get paid according to different pricing models:

Cost-per-Click (CPC): you get paid when a user clicks on the pop-up ad or link to go to the affiliate store.
Cost per action (CPA): you get paid when a user performs an already set action, it can be clicking on the application or making a purchase.
Cost per view (CPV): you get paid based on the number of people that view the ad or video.
Cost per install (CPI): you get paid according to the number of people that download the application.

How do free apps make money without ads?

If you will offer the app for free, you can find other revenue avenues. Look at the most popular monetization ways in this chart from Statista:

Free apps don’t charge for installing the application. Therefore, there are other methods they use to generate revenue. These include in-app advertising, in-app purchasing, and the other methods mentioned above.

How much money do apps make per download?

The average revenue per app download varies greatly according to the app and the category. But a broad range of rates goes from $0.60 to $1.20. Paid ad ranges decreased to 37% in 2021 from 75.9% in 2019.

Free apps don’t make money from downloads, and Amazon underground is the only platform where you get users that pay to download your app.

Who’s Worth More – Free Apps vs. Paid Apps

Maybe you are not sure if you should offer your app via paid download or launch it for free with other monetization options. Will your choice will depend on your app type and audience, here are some statistics and points to consider:

Free apps are considered more popular

In the Google Play Store, as of March 2021, 96.7% of apps were free.

Source:Statista

So, what are the reasons to choose to develop a paid vs a free app?

Paid vs Free Apps

Pros

Has fewer downloads so it should be more targeted.

The user has higher expectations since they are paying for the app.

These apps need to provide very high quality in design, usability and give value. Because of that, the design and development can be more expensive.

The monetization options are limited to the payment options, like monthly or yearly fees.

Cons

Provide more exposure because of attracting more users.

They are less expensive to build because most of them don’t offer complex features.

They can use several monetization options and even combine them.

Tips to build an app that makes money

Building an app and choosing a monetization method doesn’t guarantee that you will make money from it. In fact, many applications in the Play Store don’t make any revenue. Here are some tips to avoid common mistakes when building and promoting an application.

Grow your audience to grow your income

To have success with your app, you should start to grow your user base. After all, the more users your app has, the more chances your income will grow.
The more people know about your app, the more they want to download and use it. Therefore, promoting your application is critical even before you launch the application. To be successful in promoting your app, there are a few key steps to consider:

Target your audience carefully: invest time and effort in finding who is the audience for your app and what problem your app solves. The more you know your audience, the better you can target and adjust your application to their needs.
Release a beta version: this will give you the opportunity to interact with your potential customers and make changes to your app before the launch.
Engage social media: use social media to spread the news about your application. Ask questions to your potential users, promote the app, plan a giveaway or perks for sharing the news.

Increase your user engagement.

In our previous article on app monetization, we talked about the importance of enhancing user engagement. Give returning users discounts, freebies, special features, or perks to increase their loyalty.

When promoting your app on social media, use ads that link from sponsored social media posts (like Facebook posts) to your application. Also, don’t forget to promote your application on any platform your potential users may be. This involves listing both in Google Play and Apple Store but also in other app stores in markets like India, Europe, or even China.

How to avoid common app monetization mistakes

Choose the monetization method before developing the app

If you don’t do so, you may end up having to rewrite the app because the ad format is not available on the chosen platform. If you want to build both Android and iOS versions, take the time and choose the most appropriate monetization methods for each version.

Heed the Stats

Analytics is like gold for app publishers. You can have all the information about how many people are installing your app, who is actually using it, and the demographic details of your actual users. This gives you a clear indication of where to direct your monetization efforts.

Price it right

Sometimes developers are disconnected from market rates and they’ll follow the need to cover costs and make a profit when pricing. This can lead to apps that are too expensive (on in-app purchases or freemium models). The opposite is also true, with apps so low priced that they don’t bring enough income. Take the time to check market rates and how your competitors are monetizing their applications.

Best Niches to Make Money Fast From Apps

When you build an application, you want to be where the money is. Therefore, choosing a profitable niche is key. The goal is to choose a market that is established and has longevity, not necessarily trendy markets. Here is our list of the top 5 niches to make the most revenue:

1. Investment

Image source

Managing your finances is one of the most common problems humans have. Understanding investments may appear like unintelligible jargon for non-finance professionals. Therefore, investment and financial management apps are very popular in helping people take control of their budgets and investments.

2. On-demand Service

Image source

On-demand service applications are apps that collect several activities into a single app. For instance, instead of booking each hotel on its one application, you have a hotel booking app that provides information on thousands of hotels worldwide. The same happens with other services, such as bill payments, transportation services, or even grocery shopping.

3. Fitness and Health

Image source

This is one of the top online business niches, so it is not surprising that the popularity extends to applications. People around the world are increasingly more concerned with health and fitness.

Achievements that were once reserved for professional athletes (like running 5 or 10 miles run) are now possible thanks to apps that train virtually everybody. With the appearance of training wearables, these types of health monitoring apps, that track from the number of steps to the amount of oxygen in the blood, can be on anybody’s wrist.

4. Online shopping

Image source

Online shopping is steadily transforming into mobile shopping. Many users prefer to purchase from their phones, through mobile e-commerce platforms.

Companies are also choosing to invest in mobile sales since they are less expensive than opening a new store. Also, the company can expand its reach through an app that can work globally.

5. Gaming

Image source

Gaming is one of the most popular uses for mobile apps (and phones). Not only for young users anymore, but people of all ages also search in the Play Store for games to play during downtime. There are games for every taste. From people looking for entertainment to gamified educational apps (like Duolingo, the language learning app).

How Much Does it Cost to Build an App?

The cost will depend on how complex the application is. Developing an app can go from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands. Highly complex applications, such as banking and finance ones can be the most expensive. Some features, like payment integration and PI use, can easily ramp up the price.

Marketing the application is another cost you should take into account. It is common to spend up to 15% of the budget on marketing.

FAQ’s

What is the main benefit of planning my marketing?

Planning your marketing strategy can help target and increase the penetration into your target market. When you plan your marketing strategy, you can ensure to cover everything to achieve your business goals.
How often should I update my marketing plan?

While it is helpful to review progress every month, it is better to get a more in-depth review twice a year. The marketing strategy can be reviewed every two years, but specific marketing plans may need to be checked for each campaign.
How do I track if my marketing methods are working?

There are several methods to find out if your marketing plan is working. You can track KPI metrics or look at the number of new leads. Make sure to measure all your marketing efforts.
What are common mistakes when planning my marketing strategy?

Don’t underestimate the timing. It is very likely the actual execution will take longer than expected. Make room for unexpected expenses.
What is the main benefit of planning my marketing?

Planning your marketing strategy can help target and increase the penetration into your target market. When you plan your marketing strategy, you can ensure to cover everything to achieve your business goals.
How often should I update my marketing plan?

While it is helpful to review progress every month, it is better to get a more in-depth review twice a year. The marketing strategy can be reviewed every two years, but specific marketing plans may need to be checked for each campaign.
How do I track if my marketing methods are working?

There are several methods to find out if your marketing plan is working. You can track KPI metrics or look at the number of new leads. Make sure to measure all your marketing efforts.
What are common mistakes when planning my marketing strategy?

Don’t underestimate the timing. It is very likely the actual execution will take longer than expected. Make room for unexpected expenses.
Should every business have an app?

Building an app can feel like the ultimate solution for generating revenue and creating a great user experience. While the figures of app revenue may be tempting, not every business is suitable to have an app.

The golden rule should be: if your app solves a problem for your audience, then build it, if not, don’t.

There are many apps out there that are attempting to solve problems not relevant to the company’s audience. For an app to be really useful for your users, it needs to meet the needs and give value. If your customers don’t find it practical and useful they won’t use the application for long.
How much money can an app make per ad?

Most app publishers using an advertising model follow the cost-per-click (CPC) model. When a user clicks on an ad, the app publisher gets paid. With in-app advertising, the average revenue per impression per banner is just $0.10. Interstitial ads pay better, at $1-$3. Video ads are the ones that pay most, at $5 to $10 per view.
How much money can you make with a free app?

Free apps can monetize with in-app advertising, getting paid per display, per click, or per install. The range of revenue can go from a few thousand dollars a month to $50,000 or more per day.

How CodeFuel makes it simple to monetize your app.

CodeFuel offers a complete solution to monetize applications. You can find typical monetization features like working with several ad networks to provide optimal in-app advertising. You can also leverage different types of ads like search and shopping and even news to maximize your app revenue potential.

Ready to monetize your application? Learn more.

Advertising Media Channels: How to Choose & Types

by Sharona Meushar | Dec 19, 2021 | Advertising, Media buying, Search

An integral part of your advertising campaign is choosing where you are going to advertise. Which marketing and advertising channels can give you the best results for your campaign investment? The right media channels help you reach high intent consumers, encouraging conversions. Choosing the wrong channels can waste your time and money.

But, how do you choose among so many channels available? Should you advertise on social media? Should you run display ads? There are many “experts” out there claiming this or that is the right channel to do. In reality, the best media channel is the best for your strategy.

This post will give you an overview of advertising media channels and tips on choosing the right mix for your campaign. Let’s get started.

What do you mean by advertising media?

Definition of Media Channel

Advertising media consist of the media channels you use for communicating a promotional message.

Examples of advertising media can include online banners, billboards, print media. When media planners and marketers create their marketing campaigns, they weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each type of advertising media.

The role of the advertising media channels

Marketers leverage different types of advertising media, creating a media mix. The media mix allows them to engage with different audiences in different ways. In online marketing, advertisers use advertising media on digital properties or in email marketing campaigns. Advertising media aims to catch the customer’s attention and encourage them to move down the purchasing funnel.

Some media channels are more expensive than others. Television, for example, is the most expensive. Even among online advertising, some advertising models are more expensive than others. That is why you should be very careful and evaluate which ones make the greatest impact for the least cost. More importantly, you should choose them based on the campaign’s goals and the channel’s capability to reach your target audience.

What is a media planner?

Media planners specialize in identifying which media platforms will advertise the client’s brand to the target audience. They work with media planning or advertising audience. A media planner chooses the media channels and creates a media plan to maximize the impact of the advertising.

Media planners work in advertising and marketing agencies and publishing houses. These marketing specialists know how to make the most return from the media plan. Their specific responsibilities include creating the media mix, coordinating ads, and monitoring the success of advertising campaigns.

How to get the most impact per exposure by media planning?

It all starts by designing the right media plan. Before you can choose the advertising channels, you need to know your goals and how you will achieve them. That includes knowing who your audience is, what budget you count on. Then you can choose what is the best media mix to achieve your objectives.

Here is a quick step-by-step from our article: What Is Media Planning? Essential Guide and Best Free Templates to Download

1. Define your goals

Write down what do you want to achieve with your media plan. To find out, look at the organization’s business goals and check how the campaign will align with them. Doing this will help you define the media goals for the campaign. Analyze your organization’s positioning in the market and the marketing problem your campaign will try to solve.

Remember to create SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely), so you can track them with KPIs.

2. Define your target audience

Now that you know the What, it is time to define the Who. Who are you creating this campaign for? Gather as much information as you can about your target audience, their demographics, habits, and interests. Then craft the plan around your ideal buyer persona. The more you fine-tune your message, the better the results.

3. Think about your budget, frequency, and reach

At this stage, you have the perfect media plan idea, so it is time to know how much you can spend on your campaign. To determine a budget, start by considering how often you need to run ads for your audience to respond.

Finding the perfect frequency is critical. You want to hit that spot where your ad is repeated enough for the viewer to remember it without falling in the “oh no, that ad again.” At least ten exposures are needed to encourage action from a customer. But be careful; one too many repetitions and your engagement plummet.

4. Select the media channels

Now is the time to choose carefully where you are going to advertise. Consider which platforms you will use, methods, and their pricing models. Use the information you already know about your consumers and your campaign goals to select which channels can have the most impact with less cost.

5. Write the plan

Put everything into writing. A media plan should be as detailed as possible and measurable. Details like the number of impressions you need, the frequency, specific channels, everything should be in your media plan. But don’t worry, you don’t need to write it from scratch. In the article, we mention that you can have a selection of free templates to download.

6. Monitor, measure, analyze.

When running the campaign, analyze the goals and track engagement, conversions, and clicks you set in your media plan.

How to measure the impact of your campaign?

A lot of research and planning goes into your media buying strategy. The more refined your media plan, the better. However, without proper measurement, your efforts can be like shooting in the dark. How to measure the success of your media mix will depend largely on what you want to achieve with it. Here is our pick of the metrics you can’t miss:

Impressions

How many times are your ads served (how many people saw your ads)? Most publishers rate their ad space by thousand impressions (CPM). Cost per Mille (per 1000 impressions) is calculated by dividing the campaign’s cost by a thousand.

Cost per Mille: 1000 * cost/impressions

Clicks

The number of users that clicked your ad after seeing it. If you want to know how many times people click on your ad related to the number of times it is served, you need to measure click-through rate The click-through rate is calculated by dividing the number of impressions between the number of clicks.

CTR: (Impressions / clicks) * 100

For example, if your ad was served 20,000 times, and of those, 450 people clicked on it, your CTR is (20,000 /450) = 4.44%

CPC

This metric measures how much it costs each click on a campaign. It is calculated by dividing the total advertising cost of the campaign/ the total number of clicks. This will give you the average cost per click. To calculate the actual CPC, you need to factor in your competitor’s ad rank and your quality score in GoogleAds.

Average CPC: Total advertising cost of the campaign/ total number of clicks

Adwords quality score

Google uses this measure to assess the relevance of the keywords you target. They consider factors like the click-through rate, the quality of your landing page, and the keywords related to the ad.

Campaign Engagement

Campaign engagement consists of the sum of the total engagement taking place in an ad campaign. This metric considers a combination of interactions, not only clicks but shares, comments, and reactions.

Campaign Engagement Formula

Sum (total posts interactions) + (Sum (Campaign Clicks))

We can understand it better with an example. Your campaign consists of two ads, ad “A and ad “B.”

Ad “A” receives 300 reactions, 15 comments, and 100 clicks to the landing page.
Ad “B” receives 200 reactions, ten comments, and 50 clicks to your landing page.

The campaign engagement for this ad campaign will be the sum of this interaction for both ads: Sum (300+200+25) + (150) = 675

Conversions

Regardless of the platform you are using, conversion tracking is essential. Without it, you cannot understand how your channels are faring. You get the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions between clicks on the ad.

Conversion rate = Total clicks/ conversions

For example, let’s say your ad got 450 clicks in a set time, and from these clicks, only 45 people finalized the action intended with the ad. Your conversion rate is 10%.

Types of advertising media channels

As we saw before, media planners should clarify the overall objectives behind their media campaign. Then they should consider which channel is the most appropriate for the type of advertisement they will run and the target audience. Here are the three most popular

Video advertising: pros and cons

The popularity of video advertising is growing. It is expected that 82% of internet traffic will be video. Not only do more people online watch videos but the amount of video content is increasing too.

Source

Video ads expanded to include website video ads, app video ads, and social media. As a result, media planners can serve their advertisements in an array of digital properties. Here are the pros and cons of online video advertising:

Pros

It is cheaper: An online ad is cheaper than traditional media like television. A TV 30s ad prime time slot can cost over $100,000. A short video that can be skipped after the same 30s on YouTube can cost you $0.030, per view, with an average cost of reaching 100,000 viewers of $2000.
You have instant results: with online advertising, you can track the performance of your ad in real-time and can take action immediately.
Multiple formats: rich media ads come in several formats. You have reels, stories, and short shoppable videos besides video ads if you use social media.
Across devices and screens: online video ads are always with the consumer, on their phone and desktop. The ad can show everywhere there is a screen.
Global reach: online video gives you the possibility to expand your reach. You are not limited to local engagement (unless you want to).

Cons

Option to skip ad: this option significantly reduces the chances your user will view your ad twice. At least, you can set non-skippable or skip-after-30s ads.
Ads can be placed in the wrong slot: or next to the wrong content. Sometimes this happens. That’s why it is important to choose the right platform that will give you contextual targeting.

Audio – podcasts: pros and cons

Pros

The podcast is a newer form of audio medium that has been gaining momentum in recent years. It has an advantage over visual ads— the consumer doesn’t have to see the ad —. That gives an extra level of convenience for users. 54% of users will consider a product mentioned in a podcast. As 1 in 4 Americans listen to podcasts, the field has much to offer.

Cons

The other side of the coin with podcasts is that the listener is often occupied with other things, like driving, working, shopping. Additionally, it is difficult for an audio channel to illustrate a product.

Digital content – digital ads pros and cons

Digital ads have different formats, banner ads, interstitials, pop-ups, the list is long. In our guide, Ad Revenue: What Is and How to Increase it? You’ll find a detailed explanation of the different ad types. Here are the pros and cons of digital ads:

Pros

You can target specific segments: you can focus your ad in detail over a particular market segment, according to their location, gender, age, interests, and past purchases.
It is cheaper than offline advertising: digital ads are more cost-effective and offer a wider reach than traditional media like TV and print magazines.
You get accurate result statistics: ad networks and monetization platforms offer real-time tracking of the success of your ads.
Provides improved customer experience: the convenience of having an ad the consumer can click and buy instantly cannot be compared to traditional one-way advertising.
Features a wide range of formats: banners, half page, interstitial, in-app, the list is endless. There is an ad format for every marketing need.

Cons

Ad space is limited: the ad format requires your message to be short, bold, and catchy. Visuals are everything when it comes to catching the viewer’s attention.
The number of clicks decreases with the number of impressions: click-through rates are decreasing. At the beginning of digital advertising, it was fairly easy to entice users to click. Now you have to overcome ad blockers and users ignoring your hard work. Some ads are unpopular because they disrupt the user experience. The secret: make the ad enhance the user experience instead.

How to Choose the Right Advertising Media?

A successful media plan requires creating a calculated strategy that enables you to reach the right user with the right message at the right time and via the right channel —within your budget—. While there isn’t a magic formula to know exactly which channel will give you the best result, you can increase your accuracy by thorough research.

Start by looking at your competitors.

Where does your competitor advertise? By conducting a competitive analysis, you can learn where you may get the best results. Look at the channels they are using, their ad formats, and their types. Do they rely most on video or display ads? Do they use social media? Since you share the same audience, you can get helpful insights into your brand by looking at their strategy.

Do you know your audience?

This is the most important step. You should know where your audience is, where they shop. Most importantly, pay attention to what they value most, what they are looking for from your product or service, and align your message to them.

The importance of the buyer persona

A buyer persona is a construction of your ideal customer. It has a name, an occupation, interests, and expectations. Buyer personas enable you to understand better the needs of your customers. You can tailor your marketing efforts towards the right user when you write for a specific person instead of a generic customer base.

Buyer personas help marketers understand how buyers go through the customer journey. They help you attract and retain more targeted users.

Know your budget

You should budget carefully. Use your media plan to fine-tune yourself as much as possible. Figure out how much money you have for your campaign. This will save you much hassle and heartache when choosing your channels. Then you can prioritize the channels that will give you the best results.

Keep in mind that spending a lot of money on your campaign doesn’t guarantee the best results. To avoid wasting money, craft your message carefully, so your ads get through to the right user.

Set SMART goals and measure them

It is worthwhile to say it again, knowing what you want to achieve is critical for success. To achieve that, ensure your goals are as SMART as possible:

Instead of stating “increasing our sales”, try: “ increasing our sales in the X segment by 30% in the next quarter”. The more realistic and attainable your goals, the better results.

How to Mix the Advertising Media Channels Right

You cannot give all advertising channels the same weight in your budget. Prioritizing your channels isn’t easy. Here is an easy score system that can help you:

Find out the impact of your digital marketing channel

This metric will tell you what kind of results you can expect from this channel. When you implement a campaign or strategy, you want to make the most impact. High impact channels bring results quickly. Assign a number from 1 to 10 for the possible results of a campaign based on case studies.

What is your channel’s confidence?

The next metric you need to measure is the channel’s confidence. Taking risks with a channel you haven’t used can have its rewards, but investing in channels you trust is best. Again, assign a score from 1 to 10 to the confidence of each channel.

Understand how easy your channel is.

This metric will tell you what kind of results you can expect from this channel.

An easy channel is one where you can quickly and efficiently implement your campaign with your resources. A difficult channel requires you to acquire skills, add staff or resources. Again, give a score to each of your channels.

Once you have all scores assigned, add them to find your final score. Then prioritize the channels based on the score. The channels with the highest scores will be the ones you should give more of your investment.

Pro-tip: use search and programmatic advertising

According to a study, by the end of 2021, 88% of digital display marketing in the US will be done via programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising can simplify advertising and target prospects more effectively.

Programmatic advertising overview

Programmatic advertising is the use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to buy and sell advertising in real-time.

Instead of negotiating ads directly between publishers and advertisers, ad networks were created. These are platforms that gather unsold inventory from inventories and sell it to advertisers at a discount rate.

Ad networks and other monetization platforms use real-time bidding (RTB) to make transactions in real-time when it gets to load a web page. When a visitor enters a website, a request is sent to an ad exchange with information about the website. This information is matched against available advertisers, and a real-time auction happens between the advertisers. The highest bidder gets the ad space instantly.

Programmatic advertising, especially if including contextual marketing, enables you better target your users. That means only visitors who are in your target audience can be served the ad.

How CodeFuel simplifies the media mix management

CodeFuel is a complete monetization platform that leverages the power of contextual advertising to reach the maximum impact on your campaigns. The platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver intent-based ads.

You won’t need to endlessly pour over statistics to find the perfect channels to deliver the best results. CodeFuel platform does it for you. Start monetizing today.

What Is the MarTech (Marketing Technology) Industry and How Does It Simplify Media Trading?

by Sharona Meushar | Dec 14, 2021 | Media buying, Search

Long gone were the days where a marketer will conduct research and campaigns manually. The current marketing industry relies primarily on technology. These tools, known as MarTech, simplify most marketing activities, including media trading. In this post, we’ll explore what is MarTech and how it makes media trading a breeze.

In this post

What Is MarTech (or Marketing Technology)?

MarTech is an umbrella term for the group of software tools marketers use to plan, execute, and measure marketing campaigns. These tools are used to simplify marketing processes through automation. They collect and analyze data, streamline campaign management and engagement with your target audience. The group of tools the company uses for marketing activities is called a MarTech Stack.

Why is Marketing Technology Important?

Modern marketing wouldn’t be possible without marketing technology.Every time you use an email platform to distribute an email campaign or analyze your website analytics, you are using MarTech. Here are some reasons why MarTech is important:

MarTech integrates marketing and operations

Marketing technology fosters collaboration between the marketing and operations departments. MarTech tools, teams get real-time data to make data-driven decisions.

MarTech enables you to assess the entire customer journey

When you integrate MarTech you get to look at the customer data from the first visit to the purchase. MarTech enables you to answer questions about your customer like:

How do they find you? What was their first interaction with your brand?
Which of your channels convert better?
How can you improve your marketing strategy and help your customers convert?.

MarTech helps you market smarter

When you use MarTech tools, you can automate efficiency, streamline data and processes. As a result, leveraging technology enables you to market faster and smarter.

What Is MarTech Used for?

The combination of digital tools you use to optimize your work is called the MarTech stack. It addresses most marketing activities and several use cases such as:

Data and analytics solutions

Marketers collect statistical data, analyze it and use it to determine trends and actions.

The marketing technology helps marketers to plan, and run marketing campaigns. Digital analytics software helps marketers analyze consumer behavior by gathering and understanding data. They also allow marketers to measure and understand the performance of the campaigns.

What type of solution do you use for this use case? Digital analytics software (think Google Analytics)

Commerce and sales

Another part of the marketing stack is sales automation solutions. These technologies include the automation of the sales process from lead acquisition to purchase. MarTech tools enable collaboration among marketing, sales, distribution, and logistics, across the supply chain. By doing this, MarTech tools then help bridge the gap between marketing and sales, driving lead generation, and improving customer experience.

Solutions you may use for this case: CRM software, sales software (for example, Salesforce, Shopify)

Content and experience

Marketing tools can help companies manage their content efficiently and create a holistic experience for the customers. Content and experience tools that help marketers even build a website so they can manage their web presence and deliver engaging and informative content. Other tools help with search engine optimization, search marketing, or social media.

Customer relations

Customer relations implies strategies and practices which manage the relationships and interactions with customers across their journey. These solutions help automate repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and giving a personalized experience to customers.

Marketing management

There are marketing solutions too to manage marketing talent, collaborations, and product management.

MarTech Best Practices

As the organization’s digital marketing needs grow, the solutions also multiply. As a result, marketers often struggle to find the right tool from thousands of different platforms. The growth of the Internet made the number of digital marketing solutions explode exponentially..

While in 2011, the number of companies was around 150, now this number surpasses the 5000.

Source

With such a dynamic environment, marketers cannot afford to make mistakes. Therefore, to gain the best ROI from the marketing stack, here is a list of best practices:

Audit your existing stack

Before adding new technology, check what solutions you already have. If you don’t, you risk overlooking errors and ending with several solutions that don’t talk to each other. By doing this, it will help you assess the capabilities of your stack and prevent issues.

Ensure the new marketing technology integrates with your existing solutions

Once you choose a solution candidate, consider how the new technology will integrate with your existing stack. Lack of integration is one of the most common issues mentioned by marketers. The new solution needs to align with your business and marketing goals, support your use cases and business needs.

When outsourcing, choose a company that takes charge of the implementation

If you choose to buy the tool and implement it by yourself, make sure your team knows the fine details of implementing and running the tool. Otherwise, you can outsource the technology. In this case, ensure the vendor will take care of the setup and training.

Monitor marketing metrics

Monitoring and tracking metrics such as open rate, conversion rate, and such, can be time-consuming if done manually. Moreover, you risk missing the mark. Choose a solution that automatically tracks and measures your metrics and offers recommendations on how to improve your campaign for best results.

Leverage automation

To make the most of your MarTech, you should use it to automate your marketing system as much as possible. Automation helps you streamline your system, create more leads in less time, analyze customer data, and overall work faster and more effectively.

Don’t tamper with your marketing strategy

With the many tools available for your stack you will surely get a lot of recommendations to improve your strategy. However, don’t be tempted to change your entire strategy at once. This might create more problems than solutions. Build your MarTech stack around your sales and business goals and not the other way.

Leverage your data

Accurate data is like gold for marketers. To benefit from your data, the data center should have not only a lot of available data, but you should use the right tools that help you make sense of it. Keep in mind to segment your data and label your customers so you can maintain the data integrity and simplify accessing it.

Difference Between AdTech and MarTech

There is confusion among business owners and even marketers between AdTech (advertising technology) and MarTech (marketing technology). Although closely related, these technologies perform different functions. Let’s understand the difference between them.

What is AdTech?

AdTech is a group of technologies that simplify ad buying and selling programmatically. These solutions cover all the demand-side platforms, the supply-side platforms, and ad exchanges.

AdTech makes it possible for companies to target specific audiences and optimize their advertising spending.

Source

Ad technology is encouraging companies to leverage more digital advertising. As a result, ad spending has increased steadily, despite the pandemic impact, and is expected to reach $220.93 billion in 2022.

The full guide about what is AdTech

Difference in Platforms

First, the platforms used for online marketing and digital advertising are different. Most platforms are unique to each field. For example, advertisers use demand-side-platforms while a marketing agency will usually use an email automating tool.

Difference in Function

Ad tech is based on a working campaign. The advertisements and the measured metrics are designed to possibly create, execute and manage digital advertising campaigns. Ad tech makes it easy for publishers like app and website owners to sell their ad inventory available.

MarTech encompasses AdTech, and it includes also creating a sales funnel, nurturing leads, and testing campaigns.

AdTech Platforms and Tools

These platforms are used by the ad tech industry:

Demand-side platform

A demand-side platform is a software solution that allows media buyers buy inventory in ad exchanges and supply-side platforms. DSPs implement real-time bidding so advertisers buy media per the impression.

Supply-side platform

An SSP is the supplier-side version of a demand-side platform. It automates the offering of the inventory on an ad exchange. The technologies used in an SSP enable publishers to maximize their yield by getting the highest possible price for their inventory.

Ad network

An ad network usually buys inventory from suppliers and ad exchanges and sells them to advertisers. Learn more about ad networks and which are the best for publishers in our article 11 Best Ad Networks for Publishers in 2025.

Ad exchange

An ad exchange is a tech-powered marketplace that simplifies buying and selling ad space and impressions between suppliers and advertisers. The exchange manages the buying and selling process automatically via programmatic real-time bidding.

Ad server

An ad server is a software that determines which ads will be displayed on a digital property. This software serves the ad to the user according to the specifications set by the advertiser on the ad network or ad exchange. It also collects data about the ad’s performance, like clicks and impressions.

Search engine marketing platforms (SEM)

These platforms use programmatic paid advertising to promote a website on search engines. To achieve that, they connect to ad networks and exchanges.

The MarTech Stack

There are essential technologies both for B2B and B2C marketers:

Content management system: the software that helps you power your website, blog, or any other content where the marketers try to engage your potential audience.
AdTech platform: your AdTech stack should be part of your marketing stack. Consider signing up for an advertising network or monetization platform. Combine different types of display ads, retargeting, and ad tracking software.
Email marketing software: email is one of the most effective marketing channels and you need to have it in your toolkit if you want to engage and nurture your customers. Email marketing is sometimes part of inbound marketing solutions.
Analytics software: not only website analytics but business analytics capabilities should be included in your stack. In large companies, it could be necessary to leverage data warehouses or content intelligence solutions to understand your data in large companies.
Experiential marketing and optimization: event marketing is gaining momentum with the growth of virtual events. To make the most of experiential marketing, there are event management tools to add to your stack.
Social media management: who isn’t on social media these days? Ensuring your posts and content gets published on time, monitoring social activity, and increasing social engagement will depend in part on having the right tools.
Search engine optimization: great SEO can increase your brand exposure in search engines and drive organic traffic to your website. There are many solutions available to help with keyword research and other SEO-related initiatives activities.
Customer relationship management: Lastly, but not less important, the right sales and CRM solution can help you track the results of your marketing efforts.

How MarTech Simplifies Media Trading

Without MarTech, modern digital marketing and advertising wouldn’t be possible. The different solutions that comprise the MarTech stack help businesses streamline their marketing processes, among them, media trading.

What is media trading? It is the buying of ad space in real-time through an automated process (real-time bidding). Advertisers use programmatic tools to buy from publishers that make their inventory available on ad exchanges. Media traders are the people in charge of optimizing this process.

MarTech and AdTech tools help publishers maximize their yield and match advertisers’ demands. There is no need to be contacting advertisers directly to sell inventory because the tool takes care of everything in a matter of seconds.

Conclusion

It is without a doubt that the MarTech industry has revolutionized the way marketers and advertising agencies work. Leveraging MarTech tools like CodeFuel can simplify the process even more. By offering a complete monetization platform, you have an all-in-one solution to monetize your digital properties.

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What is Native Advertising?

While Scrolling Your “Feed”

Ads from Search and Promoted Content

Inside Content Related

How do native ads work?

How can you tell if an ad is native?

Native advertising channels

Search

Social

Open Web

Types of native ads

How to Develop Native Ads?

1. Set your SMART campaign goals

2. Define your target audience

3. Select where you will publish

4. Build attractive ads

5. Define and allocate your budget

6. Monitor, test and adjust.

Best Practices for Native Advertising

1. Leverage other media types like podcasts and video

2. Test often and accurately

3. Do your research and focus on the clicks that matter.

4. Use influencer marketing

5. Don’t forget mobile ads

Best and worst examples of native advertising

The 3 best native advertising examples

Worst Native Advertising Campaigns

Pros of native advertising

For advertisers

For publishers

For users

Native advertising challenges

Is native advertising effective?

What is Programmatic Native Advertising?

How to Choose The Best Native Advertising Network

All Native Ad Formats

The CodeFuel approach to native advertising

Related Content To Read:

Read Glossary Related Content:

What Is a Marketing Strategy?

Difference between a marketing strategy and marketing tactics

Marketing Strategies vs. Marketing Plans

Timing

Purpose

Components

Why does my company need a marketing strategy?

What are The 4 “P’s” in Marketing Strategy?

10 Marketing strategies you need for 2025

Optimize for Google’s Core Web Vitals

Prepare for cookie-less marketing.

Focus on customer retention

Create an omnichannel marketing strategy

Build customer trust

Optimize for voice search

Go Live

Use retailer media networks

Leverage contextual advertising

Create your community with influencer marketing

7 Strategies to build growth fast

1. Start with setting your goal and budget.

2. Build rapport with your customers through email

3. Listen to your customers.

4. Optimize your landing pages

5. Leverage social media advertising

6. Prioritize retention

7. Focus on wooing your audience

Top 5 Marketing Strategies for B2B and B2C

Best strategies for B2B marketing

1. Inbound Marketing

2. Social Media Marketing

3. Search Engine Marketing / PPC

4. Content Marketing

5. Referral Programs

Best 5 Marketing Strategies for B2C

1. Social networks and viral marketing

2. Paid media advertising

3. Email marketing

4. Earned media/PR

How to Write a Marketing Strategy

1. Set your business and marketing goals