Best Platforms to Use for Native Advertising: Taboola, Outbrain and More

As Native Advertising has been on the rise, more and more companies are turning to it as a means of marketing their products. Native advertising is seen by many to be a less intrusive way of reaching out to potential customers without getting in the way or being too salesy. It’s also less likely for people to block ads from appearing on their screen.

Native Ads are usually placed in areas where content is already being consumed. The Native advertising platform’s on the market allow you to have your ads easily accessible when people want to view or read a certain article, post or even video. It also lets advertisers control what type of ad they would like their potential customer to see making it incredibly useful for brands that have a range of products they want to promote.

Native ads are also seen as being less intrusive and more appealing for the viewer as it’s not too salesy or in your face which is why Taboola has been so successful. The company works with some major brands that you may know such as NBC, Conde Nast Publications and even

What platforms should you use if you want your Native Ads campaign? Read this blog post for some of the best ones!

Taboola, Outbrain, and others

Taboola is one of the most renowned Native Ad platforms out there with over 300 million monthly unique users across 187 countries. The company has had a huge success since it was founded in 2007 so their track record speaks for itself.

Through exclusive partnerships with many of the world’s top publishers, Taboola serve 360 billion content recommendations to over one billion people across the web each month. Those recommendations might show up on sites like Bild, Bloomberg, NBC News, The Independent, MSN and The Weather Channel.

They provides native advertising that has high-scale, access to unique content consumption data, and world-class AI technology. Consumers are open to discovery, and they see your content or product when in discovery mode. Taboola is effective across the buyer journey––from raising awareness to also driving online purchases.

Outbrain is another Native Advertising platform that has been around since 2006 with over 120 million monthly unique users. The company works by matching advertisers to the content on their site, for example if you have an article relating to fashion then there will be a dress advertisement next to it when someone views your article.

Taboola and Outbrain are two of the most popular Native Advertising platforms but there are many others such as Taboola Japan, Kinja and Nuzzel. Native Ads has also been seen to work well on social media platforms such as LinkedIn with Native InLinkedIn and Native Twitter campaigns.

6 Best Advertising Channels on Social Media

Social Media Advertising in 2021

Social media advertising is a great way to reach billions of people around the world. Channels such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Weibo are all very popular social media sites that advertisers can use to promote their products or services. This article will outline the best social media advertising channels that you should be using in 2021.

Facebook

The best place to start with social media advertising is on the most popular platform, Facebook. This platform has over two billion users and it’s constantly growing.

Regardless, if your brand stands to profit from sharing industry-related news, short (short-form) videos, graphics, and other visually appealing content—particularly if your primary audience is over the age of 30—consider having a Facebook presence. You might also consider using Facebook groups to bring your consumers or community together online. Facebook groups are not meant

You can advertise on the site by using their ads manager which allows you to set your budget, target age ranges and other demographics, as well as locations for ads you want people to see. With so many people on Facebook, you’re guaranteed to reach a lot of your target demographic in most parts of the world except for in China where the service is banned. If you want to advertise through Social Media in China, then Weibo is the right platform for you, as Facebook and other major western platforms are restricted in the country.

There are several methods to create a successful Facebook ad marketing, but if you make sure to use ideal timing, target your biggest audience, safeguard your brand, and encourage interaction, the platform may deliver the best results.

Both video content as well as imagery can be used for advertising on Facebook, across all of their available placements.

Instagram

Instagram celebrated its tenth birthday in the fall of 2020, reaching double digits. Despite the fact that Instagram has been around for some time, it is still quite young, and it continues to develop in new ways for businesses to expand their organic efforts into sponsored ones.

Instagram is a popular social-media network with over 1 billion monthly users. When we consider active users, Instagram ranks second after its counter-platform Facebook. With more individuals joining the network and viewing their Feed, Stories, Discover tab, and IGTV, the popularity of the service and regular new feature launches provide brands of all types with an opportunity to be successful on the platform.

For those whos audience should be reached through visuals as opposed to heavier content advertising efforts, Instagram may be the best choice. Instagram’s ad formats are comparable to those on Facebook. All of Instagram’s ad formats appear in the user’s feed, with the exception story ads and which appear between Instagram Stories videos, and Reels ads, which appear in-between organic reels.

  • Photo ads: Single photo advertisements that show in the user’s feed. A single image, a description, and a call-to-action are all part of this form of advertising.
  • Video ads: Single video advertisements that play in the user’s feed. Single video ads may be up to 60 seconds long and can either be filmed in landscape or portrait orientation, with a caption and call-to-action included. Sound is available for video advertisements.
  • Carousel ads: The most effective ad formats are those that resemble the content a user is looking for. They include a carousel of photos or videos that the user may swipe through to discover more material, just as they would in a newsfeed. Carousel ads allow you to tell a more complete brand or campaign narrative, showcase a variety of products, and so on
  • Stories ads: Stories advertisements were originally launched in 2016. Between the user’s Stories, stories ads are immersive, full-screen adverts that play audio. If the user has sound enabled, audio for Stories ads will play automatically.

YouTube

Although YouTube may appear to be a simple video hosting website, it is far more than that. Many marketers neglect YouTube as a social media platform, but it creates unique connections in ways no other social networking site does.

YouTube’s reach is also noteworthy. On mobile, YouTube reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any other network or cable channel.

When traditional marketers wonder where their audience has gone, most of it can be found on YouTube.

YouTube also has a wealth of other features and services that you can take advantage of. Additionally, YouTube is more than a video-sharing website. Yes, if you produce for YouTube and distribute it on different platforms, you will get greater exposure for your work. The site is a community in itself.

The ability of social media sites to put you in a community is one of their greatest features. The comments, followers, and channels elements of YouTube allow the platform to be both huge and unique at the same time.

With so many users uploading and sharing material on YouTube, the site is a fantastic location to market unusual advertising content. Product evaluations, testimonials, walkthroughs, and unique demonstrations can all help a company get ahead of its competitors.

YouTube also enables the integration of conventional media and social media. There’s a reason why companies pay $5 million for a 30-second Superbowl commercial. Traditional media and advertising are still effective as well.

TikTok

Do you want to use TikTok Ads for your business or brand?

With over 800 million monthly users, it’s never been a better time to start. As one of the most popular software applications in 2020 with over 800 million monthly users — now is the moment to begin.

A creative and well-targeted TikTok campaign may drive excellent (and enormous!) results, whether you’re aiming to make sales, drive traffic to your website, or launch a new product.

TikTok Ads, which include targeting, ad creation, insights reports, and ad management tools, gives a strong yet simple-to-use platform to assist businesses and brands reach millions of users across the world.

TikTok Ads aren’t as popular as Facebook or Instagram ads yet, but they’re a fantastic way for businesses to expand their reach. And now is the ideal moment to start investing in TikTok advertising – because few firms and businesses have recognized their potential, meaning the CPC and CPM prices are still lower than many of its peers.

TikTok Ads has a lot of unique tools to help companies and organizations succeed, whether you’re a small firm with a tight budget or are launching a large, long-term campaign.

The process of developing, delivering, and optimizing your ads may be automated using TikTok’s advertising platform-tools, similar to Instagram Ad Manager.

TikTok Ads offers two budgeting options: daily and lifetime. Your budget isn’t fixed with either option; you may adjust it at any time throughout your campaign. You may also choose who you want to reach out to based on their gender, location, age, hobbies, and other personal characteristics.

Similar to Facebook and Instagram’s Ad Manager, you may create “Custom Audiences” and “Lookalike Audiences,” which can be used to target new audiences who are similar to your current ones.

Snapchat

This site best suits companies with a large budget. You can use their ad manager which allows you to set up campaigns and adjust your spending limits per day, as well as who sees the ads in different regions!

Wechat

This site is best suited for businesses with mid-sized budgets and less than five employees. It’s also best if you want more control over your social media advertising as it allows you to upload offline content, link videos from other sites, and best of all, it’s a mobile app.

8 Things To Do When Internationalizing Your E-Commerce Business

Internationalizing your E-Commerce business can sound like a substantial project, especially when you want to localize your activities in all the new markets that you are about to enter. However, due to the substantial improvements which have taken place from a operational and technological point of view in the past decade, creating a global infrastructure for your E-Commerce business does not have to be as complex as it may sound – and you (and your team) don’t necessarily have to even leave your current physical location to realize the project.

Things to Consider When Internationalizing Your E-Commerce Business

1. Bespoke Website for Each New Market

Similarly to other major successful E-Commerce business (e.g., Amazon, Zalando, Asos, THG) I definitely suggest that you should develop a localised website for each market in which your firm operates. By fulfilling various requirements for each website (which will be outlined in the next sections) the idea is to create localized consumer facing experiences which will make the customers comfortable as their shopping experience resembles the experiences of actually shopping on a local website from a national company. The localised setup will naturally increase confidence and trust, and thereby the appurtenant conversion rate on the website – even though that and your company might not be physically present in the country form which the consumer is from.

2. Local Languages

By launching a new country-specific website in the local language, it will be easier for the national consumers to navigate around on the site. Think about yourself: Assuming you are from an English speaking country, you would most likely not visit and shop on a website in an Italian or Spanish language. It’s the same mentality in most Non-English countries. Even though the English language in many ways is seen as an ‘international standard’, consumers from Non-English speaking countries still very much prefer to shop on websites in their local language. If you already have an English flagship website, then you don’t necessarily have to hire – say – a Spanish person to be able to launch a Spanish store. Your master information from the English page can easily be translated through freelancers whom you can create a close partnership with. In many countries where local marketing channels doesn’t necessarily have to be used to grow an online business, one English speaking E-Commerce Manager will be able to manage several localized stores through a network of external or internal translators.

3. Local Currencies

Adding the local currency does naturally increase the conversion rate as consumers always prefer to shop in their natural currency. It’s a habit. Even though the credit card fees might be the same, it’s almost certain that 10 out of 10 would always pick his / her national currency in a transaction, if it’s available. For this reason, it is always suggested to launch the local currency on every local sub-site which you may launch. If you only have one master store, then it is suggested to have multiple currencies on that store – ideally covering all the markets which the website has a present in.

4. Local Payment Methods

Similarly to the local currencies, local payment methods will also reduce the checkout abandonment, thereby increasing the conversion rate on your website. Alternative Payment Methods (APM’s) – also known as digital wallets – have become of substantial importance in the past years, and in some countries it is in fact close to impossible to build an E-Commerce business which only accepts credit cards and other more basic payment solutions like Paypal. In China, the majority of the transactions do as an example take place through Alipay, WeChat Pay and a few other APM’s – more than 50% of all transactions do in fact take place through APM’s. So regardless of where in the world you’re launching, make sure to implement the right APM’s from the very beginning, as this will enhance your conversion flow. A separate article will be written on APM’s at a later stage.

5. Local TLDs – Country Level Domains

So this one is actually tricky. Whether to launch a localized E-Commerce setup through Top-Level Domains (TLD’s) or subfolders have always been a large discussion point in the E-Commerce community. However, I’ve always been a strong advocate of a localized setup through TLD’s – and here is why. When using a country level domain structure (i.e., when a German website as an example uses the .de domain, a French uses the .fr domain, and a Korean uses the .co.kr domain) the presumption of consumers is usually that they are shopping from a national company. A foundation for the store is here created, where consumers can feel completely comfortable, as the domain structure doesn’t deviate from the local competitors. This is the absolute most important tricker to facilitate conversions; that is, trust. Having just one .com website, which then has several other languages in a dropdown is also a good solution, but will never be the same a launching a local store with a TLD. With people becoming more digital and e-commerce savvy over time, the importance of TLD’s will slowly vanish, but for now I would still very much do it. The main downside is of course, that you’ll have multiple stores that are separated from one another when launching them with local TLD’s, and this means that your SEO strategy in particular have to be executed on a more granular level.

6. Local Logistics Partners

As a function of the rapid adoption of E-Commerce in the past decade, consumers expectations towards your service level have also sky rocketed. In the past years, the delivery times have been reduced exponentially on a year on year basis, now reaching a level where many brands have same-day delivery in certain markets. Having a one week delivery time is simply just not acceptable any longer, which is why it is very important to establish an adequate operational infrastructure from day zero. The good news is that most international courier companies now have established a global infrastructure which allows them to ship goods cross-border from one day to another, meaning that local storage for fast deliveries isn’t a necessity anymore. Large brands such as Zalando, The Hut Group, and others, fulfill a global demand from just a few warehouses globally. In fact, I’ve once worked for a brand which generated +£100 million in a country, without having any local storage our people situated in the country. The point here is that you can create an international e-commerce setup with just a few warehouses globally – even one is enough in the beginning – the only requirement is just that you find a 3PL partner which has good agreements with courier partners that can deliver to all your core markets within a short time period.

7. Local Customer Service

Having a customer service function which is localized for your core markets is very important to consider early on in your internationalization journey, in the markets where the average English language skills of your target customers aren’t very high. Of course, if your brand primarily targets English speaking markets, as well as markets where the target consumers on average have adequate English language skills (e.g., Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and the like) then an English speaking customer service agent can be sufficient. However, if you enter various different markets, where the target consumers don’t have adequate English language skills, then customer service agents for each of these markets will become important. If you are a part of a company which have limited capital, then it is recommended to use other functions internally for this work stream on an initial basis, where the “pressure” from the consumers isn’t very high. In case you have a Country Manager or Market Manager structure in your company, then these functions can manage the customer service work stream in the initially, whereafter local agents can be hired internally or externally when the amount of tickets / inquiries exceeds a certain level.

8. Local Campaign Strategy

A local pricing and campaign strategy can be crucial for your success when localizing, especially if you are internationalizing across multiple territories which are very different from a cultural perspective. Establishing prices for your product(s) / service(s) is more an art than a science, and the campaigns which you may be running from time to time will differ substantially if the markets that you operate in vary a lot.

Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools For E-Commerce

Being a frontrunner when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be challenging, especially in the beginning of your digital career / journey. Based on several years of testing various tools, and having spend a lot of time and capital in doing so, I’ve decided to make a top 10 list of the tools which my team and I have found to be most useful (and valuable based on the cost of each tool). Hopefully, this will allow you to select the right tools from the very beginning.

Best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

Ahrefs: SEO Keyword Tool

Ahrefs is one of the most used and recommended SEO tools on the internet. When it comes to major website crawlers, it is only second to Google. Ahrefs’ Site Audit feature is the best SEO analysis tool available, and SEO specialists cannot get enough of it. The tool will show you which areas of your website need to be improved to rank higher in search engines. In addition, you will most likely utilize Ahrefs to determine your competitor’s backlinks to use them as a starting point for your brand during competitor analysis. This SEO tool can also help you find the most linked to the content in your niche, verify and fix your broken website links, along with getting an overview of your top-performing pages (so that you can get an idea of which information is attracting the visitors).

SEMRush: Marketing SEO Tool

SEMRush and other marketing SEO tools are common choices among SEOs. Experts adore them as such tools let you evaluate your ranking along with identifying the changes and new ranking opportunities. The Domain Vs Domain comparison, which allows you to compare your website to your competitors instantly, is one of the most popular aspects of this SEO tool. You will be able to compare keywords and websites if you seek analytics reports to understand better your website’s search data, traffic, or even your competitors. In addition, the On-Page SEO Checker tool lets you keep track of your rankings and get a recommendation as to how to enhance your website’s performance.

Google Search Console: Top SEO Tool

Google Search Console is a free tool that allows anyone with a website to monitor and report their site’s status in Google SERPs. You are required to simply add a code to your website or go through Google Analytics to check your website before submitting your sitemap for indexing. Although a Search Console account is not required to appear in Google’s search results, you may use it to control what is indexed and how your website is being represented. Search Console can help you understand how Google and its users are viewing your website and assist you to adjust for better performance in Google search results as an SEO checker tool. It is crucial for new websites because it allows site owners to submit web pages for indexing by search engines.

Moz Pro: SEO Software

Moz Pro, an SEO software, keeps coming up as one of the top SEO tools that professionals actually use. According to experts, despite Google’s constant algorithm updates, Moz was always up to date. Others complimented Moz’s chat site, as it allows them to always provide them with a thoughtful response to every question they ask. Moz is a full-service powerhouse that can help you with keyword recommendations or a site crawl. You may learn a lot about how well your website is working, including how to improve it. You can also download the free MozBar toolbar to see your website’s stats while visiting any page. If you are interested in learning more about SEO, you should attend their annual conference, i.e., MozCon

Google Trends: SEO Tool Checker

Google Trends has been around for a long time but is rarely used. It not only provides information about a keyword but also provides significant insight into the trends around a particular topic, which can be helpful at any phase of a company’s development. Look for keywords in any region of the world to get the latest information about them, such as top searches, rising queries, interest with time, and geographical locations based on interest. This is the finest SEO tool to use if you are unsure which trends are most appropriate for you.

Screaming Frog – Online SEO Tools

Experts consider Screaming Frog to be one of the top SEO tools available online. They appreciate how much time they save while using this application to execute site audits because it analyses your website so quickly. Everyone we spoke with attested that Screaming Frog provides insights faster than most SEO tools available online. This tool also alerts you to duplicate material, problems that need to be fixed, incorrect redirections, and areas where link building may be improved. Top SEO specialists rated their SEO Spider tool as the best feature.

Majestic: SEO Marketing Tool

According to experts, Majestic is one of the greatest marketing SEO tools. It contains a plethora of useful features, such as The Majestic Million, displaying a ranking of the top million websites. Is your website one of those that made the cut? The Site Explorer function gives you a quick overview of your site as well as the number of backlinks it has. It also functions as an SEO keyword tool, allowing you to determine the ideal keywords to target while also comparing websites and tracking your ranking.

Keyword planner for Google Ads

When it comes to writing web copy, knowing the correct keywords to target is crucial. Google’s free keyword tool, which is part of Google Ads, is quite simple to use. Insert your website’s URL in the box, go through the suggested keywords, and you are all good to go. Jill Whalen, CEO of HighRankings.com, is a fan of keyword optimization and advises newcomers to “employ those keywords throughout the content of your website.”

While the data offered are beneficial for keyword research, it is vital to remember that they are sestimates rather than actual data, and they are meant to serve as a pointer to popularity rather than accurate real-time search traffic.

SEOQuake: Free Online SEO Tools

SEOQuake is widely regarded as one of the greatest free SEO tools available. This Chrome extension serves as an SEO checker tool that runs on-page site audits, evaluates internal and external links, and performs website comparisons to see how you are performing against your competitors. Keyword analysis, such as keyword density, an easy-to-understand SEO dashboard, and an export option that allows you to download and share data with essential team members, are some of the other features of this SEO analysis tool.

SEOptimer

You may also get a free SEO audit with this tool. The paper examines challenges in five categories: SEO, usability, performance, social media, and security. It also goes into great details about how you can actually resolve or improve the prevailing issues.