Written by Laia Ordoñez
The word advertorial might not sound very exciting to you. You may not even see it as an effective tool for driving conversions, at least not nowadays.
However, today we're going to show you the key points of what an advertorial is as a piece of marketing content, and we're convinced that by the time you finish reading this post you'll have a completely different opinion of this format.
We're going to explain exactly what an advertorial is and how to create one to achieve a positive ROI. You'll see that it's possible (and not very difficult, either) to get a tangible return on this type of investment.
What is an advertorial?
An advertorial is a type of content that sits halfway between advertising and journalistic reporting. It is a format typical of the pre-digital era, and you have surely seen many advertorials in print magazines and newspapers. Today, they are also commonly found in digital magazines and newspapers.
Basically, an advertorial adopts the form and conventions of a news feature to convey a sense of objectivity and neutrality about the product, service or brand it covers; but the message is promotional, that is, it is clearly beneficial to the product, service or brand featured in the piece.
A well-made advertorial looks almost exactly like a news feature, and it is hard for the reader to spot the commercial interest behind it. That is precisely the key to its success: the reader consumes the content without questioning its accuracy, on the assumption that it is information and not advertising.
Among its additional advantages is the fact that it allows brands to appear in contexts where obvious advertising is problematic, thereby gaining visibility and making their audience more aware of their benefits or competitive advantages.
It is one of the pioneering forms of content marketing, and its use stood out even at a time when the concept of “content marketing” did not exist.
What is the main challenge of any advertorial? Depending on the format or angle given to the content, it can be very boring or uninteresting for the reader.
EXAMPLE: For example, we have all read the typical milk brand advertorial in which brands explain to us the health and safety processes the milk goes through, the quality of the pastures,the respectful treatment given to the cattle…
This approach assumes that the reader is interested in learning the ins and outs of the milk world. And that is not necessarily the case. The brand focuses the content on what it wants to tell and not on what might interest its reader. Most likely, the reader will immediately see the commercial interest of the brand and consume the content with suspicion and detachment.
Despite everything, there is still hope for the advertorial format. Because, although it may not seem so at first, this format has adapted wonderfully to the new digital communication paradigm. It's just that it has been renamed “Sponsored content” and seems like something else, but its essence is the same as that of the good old advertorial.
Advertorial example
A classic example of an advertorial could be a sponsored post on a travel blog. Suppose a travel company wants to promote its new vacation package. The blogger could then write a full article about how they enjoyed their vacation using that specific package. The goal here is to promote the vacation package in a subtle, natural way, without making readers feel that they are reading an ad.
Advertorials can also come in video format. A social media influencer could share a video of themselves using a product, such as a new makeup line. In the video, the influencer would show how they use the products and talk about their benefits. This is an advertorial, since the influencer is promoting the products, but in a way that fits seamlessly into their regular content.
Another example of an advertorial is a magazine article that presents the launch of a new car. The article may discuss the car's features, its benefits and how it compares with previous models. The key here is that, although the article is promoting the car, it is also providing useful and relevant information for readers.
Finally, an advertorial can also be a sponsored podcast. In this format, the host can talk about their personal experience with a product or service. As in the previous examples, the goal is to promote the product or service in a way that feels natural and appealing to listeners.
Benefits of the advertorial as a communication format
Are you interested in adding this format to your communication strategy? Would you like to know how it can help your project?
To assess it, you need to know what benefits it can bring to your brand. Below, we'll tell you about some of the most notable ones, which will help you with this.
#1: Natural integration into the flow of information
The average Internet user is exposed to thousands of ad impressions every day. Many of them come from PPC campaigns, which mercilessly bombard anyone who runs a search, checks their social media or reads an article in any media outlet or blog.
What happens? This tends to make users develop a kind of blindness to these explicitly promotional impressions. In a way, they become selective with their attention and are only receptive to what has a very high level of interest.
However, the advertorial or sponsored article, if you prefer that name, presents itself as a piece of content along the lines of what a contact might have shared on their Facebook wall or on Twitter. It is much more integrated into the user's browsing experience and into the flow of information (not advertising) they interact with every day.
That organic feel of the advertorial, along with the natural tone of the communication, means it is not perceived as an advertising move, even when the reader or viewer is used to living with it.
The speed at which we browse through that flow of information makes us much less reflective about content that looks like information, especially if it comes from sources we usually trust to stay informed, such as general newspapers or specialized magazines/blogs.
#2: Alignment with the outlet's values and relevance
One of the aspects that contributes most to the strategy is, in this case, the outlet itself that distributes the advertorial. There is an old communication maxim coined by Marshall McLuhan that says: “The medium is the message.”
By this we mean that any information that appears in a specialized newspaper or blog establishes a symbiotic relationship with it and is identified with its values, authority and relevance.
Given that relevance and context are precisely two of the most important factors when we talk about the Internet, being able to publish a feature in an online outlet aligned with the interests of our target audience not only brings that authority in the reader's eyes: it also does so for the algorithms used by search engines, which boosts our search engine rankings if the outlet links to us.
Decades have passed since McLuhan's phrase, but it is still relevant in a media landscape that has evolved enormously.
#3: Depth and expertise in how the information is handled
Sometimes we become obsessed with brevity.
It is true that the digital channel is characterized by a more limited attention span than usual, which forces us to be more specific and to condense the message as much as possible, almost into the 280 characters of a tweet.
However, the advertorial offers us an alternative that complements that general strategy of brevity. It is a counterpoint that allows us to expand, go into detail, tell more, illustrate it better… and fully show our authority and our expertise.
Alternating the quick flashes that other formats generate with occasional advertorials helps enrich the way you communicate,covering aspects that cannot be conveyed in a banner.
#4: Apparent neutrality and objectivity
In this type of content, we have the advantage of the neutral, journalistic tone in which the content is produced.
Why is it an advantage? Basically because, in the reader's eyes, it seems more objective, since they understand that behind the text there is a journalist or a subject-matter expert rather than a brand in the middle of a marketing action.
We should not underestimate the reader either. They often understand perfectly well that they are looking at a sponsored article, but if the advertorial is well focused (it aligns with the outlet's values, is thematically relevant, covers the topic of interest in depth and with expertise, and fits naturally into the user's flow of information), it does not usually lose effectiveness even if the reader notices that it is promotional content.
It is simply another way of approaching communication, without an explicit direct-sales goal, so the reader or viewer does not perceive blatant commercial pressure.
What do we mean by ROI?
You probably know that ROI is the acronym for return on investment. Calculating it is as simple as assessing the difference between what you invest and what you get in return, usually in tangible form (sales directly attributable to the content) but sometimes also in the form of intangibles (such as visibility, Top of Mind, reach or influence).
The investment in creating this type of content will depend on the medium you choose to launch it on (a written article is always cheaper than a video), your in-house production capacity, the resources you allocate to it and the amount set out in the media plan for its publication.
As we pointed out above, the easiest way to assess the return is to assess the conversion, that is, the data on the sales directly linked to the feature itself. You can also try to assess the intangible aspects of the return; to the ones we mentioned above, you can add other equally important ones, such as the positioning of the brand or even the generation of leads.
You can also go a bit further and consider how attribution is being done. Keep in mind that conversion does not necessarily have to be direct.
A user may learn about our company through the advertorial and even visit the site without buying. Some time later, they may search for our brand on Google again, come in and convert as a direct visit when, in reality, it is a referral.
You can bring all these variables into play, altering and transforming them depending on the level of analysis you want to carry out. Although we will stick with the initial definition (assessing sales), it is important to highlight these possibilities.
4. Analyze the content that already exists on those topics
Now that we are clear on the benefits and on what an advertorial can bring to a brand or a product, let's move on to the second part of the article to dig deeper into how you can achieve a positive ROI.
Creating a cross-channel strategy
Ideally, in online marketing, actions should not be seen as independent. Everything you do needs to be part of the gears of a campaign. So consider using the advertorial within a complete strategy.
It is true that an ad on Google's search network or on Instagram can convert on its own, but it will not be as effective as it could be if you plan other content marketing actions.
Give the advertorial its role in the strategy, a role that will always be closer to what is known as “brand awareness”, or brand recognition. By definition, this content is always (or almost always) at the very top of the conversion funnel.
Once the customer has been “worked” in the awareness stage, that is when the rest of the channels should start working.
Advertorials + PPC
The most efficient approach is to play with retargeting. Once the seed of interest has been planted, customers will be more receptive to ads for our brand or product. What we are achieving is that the customer associates those ad creatives and messages with the information they previously absorbed in our feature.
Retargeting is always a card worth playing and a resource that raises the effectiveness of campaigns. But it is especially relevant when we work with products or services that do not have a high direct conversion rate or that are high-ticket products. In those cases, it pays to stay on the customer's mind during the consideration process.
Obviously, retargeting is just one more option. More standard search, shopping or display campaigns can also be indirectly improved by the effect of the advertorial.
Advertorials + SEO
Without a doubt, this type of content is very important for SEO, and at different levels, too.
On the one hand, we are building a brand. By appearing in different media outlets and blogs, we are giving visibility to our trade name and our products.
In the end, this will always boost keywords of the branded or brand-name type, which, although they are the most basic SEO, are also the words that, as a rule, enjoy a higher conversion rate.
Then there is the matter of relevance, because if we carefully choose where our campaigns will appear, we will be earning important links.
One of the keys is that they must have a close topical relationship with the niche our company works in and with the interests we share with our customers. So those links will benefit our domain as a whole, improving its visibility.
And since we have control over the content, we can play strategically with the number and destination of the links, including different anchor texts to amplify the SEO effect.
Advertorials + social media
Any company's social media ends up being a true content-devouring machine. Using advertorials to feed your social profiles (or using social media to spread advertorials) is a way to get a return through more than one channel on the investment made in those features.
On our profiles, the content will be shared almost as if it were content curation: simply a third-party article that mentions us. When they are well executed, advertorials are interesting in themselves and can potentially generate engagement in the form of comments, likes and shares.
And, as if this were not interesting enough already, media outlets and blogs with a certain track record usually also have their own social profiles and the community that supports them. That amplifies the reach of the post and, consequently, the chances of conversion.
Advertorials + email marketing
In a very similar way, features can also be included in our email marketing strategy and in that of the outlets where the advertorial appears.
It is still well-developed, well-argued brand content. It is true that most of the contacts in our database are customers and the information may be somewhat redundant, but with proper segmentation we can create lists in which the advertorial has an effect on conversion.
To give a couple of examples, we are talking about those leads that have not closed yet or inactive customers for whom we can create a reminder to try to win them back.
Advertorials + affiliate marketing
If we want to extend and multiply the effect of the feature, we can reach some kind of collaboration agreement with media outlets or with influencersin our industry. Affiliate marketing is always a great resource in this case and helps achieve a positive ROI.
Basically, we are offering the outlet or influencer a commission per sale, and this, logically, translates into greater interest on their part. They will give the content greater visibility, placing it on their homepage, sharing it widely or including it in their newsletters. They will be just as interested as you are in closing sales, since it affects them financially.
What do you think of this content marketing format? Are you ready to create an advertorial that gives you a positive ROI?
Laia Ordoñez
Laia Ordóñez is a content marketing expert for ecommerce with 12 years of professional experience, combining creative writing, marketing, communication and the management of large advertising accounts.
