Here's a startling statistic from a recent
study from HubSpot. 84% of millennials don't trust traditional advertising at
all.
The reality is that consumers are becoming
more and more jaded by what seems to be traditional advertising. I'm referring
to, banner ads and aggressive offer ads that are completely focused on getting
you to make a transaction.
Millennials have grown up in an age where
content marketing is the norm, and they expect content instead of advertising.
In fact, even when a millennial knows that a
piece of content is an advertisement, they are happier and more likely to
invest the time in consuming that content and purchasing that content than they
are a traditional ad.
Millennials are 44% more likely to trust
experts who happen to be strangers than advertisements and 247% more likely to
be influenced by blogs or social networking sites. 83% of millennials believe
that online content is very useful in helping them make purchasing decisions.
Only 9% of millennial respondents said they'd
immediately ignore a post if they found out it was sponsored.
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is creating advertising
that feels native to the environment that it's being consumed in.
If you're in Instagram viewing Instagram
posts, a native ad would be inside of Instagram that seems just like a normal
Instagram post, or a post inside of Facebook, or an article that you're reading
on a website that. Again, feels just like a normal article.
It may, in fact, be a piece of content that
was created specifically as an advertisement and being paid to get visibility
to it. But if the piece of content is useful and it feels native to the
environment that it's in then today's consumers are much more likely to
appreciate that content and to be willing to buy from it.
85% of millennials say, **_"Infeed native ads are the_**
**_same or better than other content on the page."_**
If you're creating high-quality content, it
doesn't matter if it's sponsored. What matters is that it has quality and value
to the customer instead of just being a pitch.
In fact, **58%**
**of millennials**
think publishers should only use native ads and not accept
any other form of advertising.
All of this speaks to the need to consider a
native advertising strategy at your business and to move away from traditional
ads.
While you don't necessarily have to move
completely away from traditional ads today, it is worth noting that as more
millennial consumers come of age as buyers in the marketplace, their
expectation will be quality content instead of traditional ads.
Look for ways to include native advertising in
your strategy right away.