What’s More Profitable? – Native Ads vs Push Ads
There’s a lot of confusion in the affiliate marketing world surrounding push ads vs native ads, especially when it comes to new affiliates starting out and wondering where they should focus their limited budgets.
I’m going to lay it out for you and give you my opinion on which ad type is best suited for affiliates or performance marketers.
I’ve been running a lot of native ads and a lot of push ads and I’ve been doing quite well with them. I’ve been showing some case studies inside Powerhouse Affiliate regarding push ads vs native ads.
I’m getting a lot of people coming in and wondering if these are really the best traffic sources.
There are some good reasons why affiliates use these traffic sources for performance marketing, but if you’re just starting out as an affiliate marketer, these might not be the best sources for you.
I’m going to explain that as I go through some examples.
Let’s cover the basics because some people are probably wondering exactly how these ads work.
Table of Contents
What Are Native Ads?
Native ads are a type of online advertising that blend in with the surrounding content on a website or app. Unlike traditional banner ads, native ads are less intrusive and more likely to capture the attention of users.
Many sites like CNN, Forbes, and Mashable use native ads to generate revenue. These platforms work with advertisers to create sponsored content that fits the look and feel of the site or app it appears on.
Native advertising can be an effective way to reach new audiences and promote your brand.
However, it’s important to make sure that your native ads are relevant and well-designed, so that they don’t distract or annoy users. You should also be transparent about your relationship with the advertiser, and focus on providing high-quality content that delivers value to your audience.
Where Can You Buy Native Ads?
There are a few different places that you can buy native ads. You can purchase them through online ad networks, direct from publishers, or through ad exchanges.
Online ad networks will typically have a variety of native ad inventory available for purchase. You can usually target specific demographics and interests when buying through an online ad network.
Common platforms include Revcontent, Taboola, Outbrain and MGID.
MGID offers a special promotion to our readers – you can get up to $1250 in Free ad credits here.
What Are Push Ads?
Push ads are a type of online advertising that allows businesses to send messages directly to consumers’ devices. This can include smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Push ads are typically used to promote products or services, and can be highly effective in driving sales and leads.
While push ads can be a great way to reach potential customers, it’s important to keep in mind that they can also be intrusive and annoying if not used properly. As such, it’s important to use push ads sparingly and only when you’re confident that they will be well-received by your audience. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and avoid using push ads altogether.
Where Can You Buy Push Ads?
Push ads are a great way to reach new audiences, especially those that you would not be able to find using traditional forms of advertising methods. If your business is trying to expand and grow, it can be very lucrative for you to invest in push ad campaigns.
There are many different places where you can buy push ads through vendors or on websites that specialize in this form of advertising.
Here are some places to get started:
Native ads vs Push ads How do They Differ
Now the difference between native ads vs push ads is quite obvious. NAtive ads appear on websites, and push ads appear in your devices.
In many cases native ad platforms also offer push ads as an option. This is why they are often associated together.
With push ads I don’t even need to be on a website or on the internet.
My phone or computer could just pop up a push notification because I might have subscribed to somebody’s push notifications, or installed an app and they’re monetizing it by pushing notification ads to me.
Advantages of Push Ads vs Native Ads
Why do we run these ads instead of going to Facebook or Google ads?
It comes down to compliance and cost per click.
Afiliate marketers are not generally welcomed into places like Facebook and Google. They don’t really like 3rd party ads.
No matter what offer you’re running as an affiliate, you’re generally going to have a hard time getting approved for the long haul and trying to scale it.
That’s where native and push ad networks come in.
They accept more things that would generally be disapproved on other platforms.
Disadvantages of Push Ads vs Native Ads
Requires in Depth Knowledge of Tracking
If you don’t have skills in targeting, you don’t know how to find placements, and you don’ know how to analyze data than neither push or native ads are going to work for you.
If you are going in blind you’re really setting yourself up to waste a lot of money.
Here’s a case study using direct click traffic from Propeller Ads that explains data analysis in more detail:
Lots of Bad Placements
Even though the cost per click is really low, you’re going to get a bunch of sites or placements that don’t convert.
Click Fraud
In some cases both native ads and push ads have click fraud happening.
Some placements won’t be sending you real traffic so you need to be able to detect this.
For a detailed look at how to set this up and how to properly track your data, check out the case studies inside PowerhouseAffiliate. You can see actual widgets and how we optimize them.
How to Maximize Profit with Push Ads vs Native Ads
Now let’s just say you want to run native ads and push notifications.
First of all, you need an offer that mass appeal on both platforms. This means something that most people would be interested in.
For example, diet, finance, installs, gaming, health and fitness, love and relationships, etc.
There is not alot of targetting options on these platforms in ters of interest based targetting like Facebook.
Use an Ad Rep
If you’re going to these native and push ad platforms and you’re not using an ad rep, you’re basically blasting money blindly at everything and hoping something converts. That just is not going to work for you. That’s why you need an ad rep.
Your ad rep will be able to set up a blacklist or whitelist.
Tracking Native Ads vs Push Ads
Ad tracking is a critical aspect of marketing. Without ad tracking, you can’t optimize your campaigns or measure the effectiveness of your ads. Ad tracking allows you to keep track of who’s clicking on which links and when the clicks are happening. This information is useful for improving your campaign performance and seeing where your customers are going on your website.
Typically with native ads its easier to know exactly where your ads are showing. This is because you can track referring domains and see the sites. If you visit one of those sites and see it doesn’t have an audience that would be interested in your offer you can block it or adjust the bids.
Unfortunately with push ads all you see are placement ids and you will not see domains because your ads are being served through some type of app or notification system.
How to Find Profitable Campaigns – Push Ads vs Native Ads
Thanksfully there are many competitive intelligence tools you can use to find profitable native and push ads.
How to Detect Bad Placements Using Analytics
You can see that you really have to do your research and use tools that can help you find good placements.
If you’re suspecting that you have bots or you have fake traffic coming in, yu can use Google analytics to track placement ids and see how long they are staying on your page.
Look at the bounce rate. If it is high this isn’t a great site or placement. Their visitors are not really engaged. Block it.
Are Native Ads Better?
If I was to start out as an affiliate marketer, I would probably start out on Native Ads simply because of all of the targeting options and you can see the domains your ads serve on.
Keep in mind, you need to track data. You need to find placements that will work for you, and you really, really need an ad rep.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article gives you a little insight into native ads vs push ads and answers the questions of why you might want to use them, and why you might want to use them right now.
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