Dozens of different ad formats have been created since the inception of digital marketing, but native and push campaigns have become the golden standard for affiliates.

The average smartphone user in the US receives more than 45 push notifications per day, and the CTR of this ad format can be higher than 4%. Meanwhile, native ads register 53% more views and can yield 40x higher engagement than conventional display adverts. With these numbers, it’s easy to see why both, native and push campaigns, have become a favorite among affiliates and digital marketers in general.

With this in mind, setting up native and push campaigns is not that simple, especially if you’re not familiar with these ad types. In this article, we’ll go over push notifications and native ads, plus we’ll also share a complete checklist to help you craft a solid campaign from the get-go.

Push Notifications and Native Ads at a Glance

Native ads and push notifications are similar because they don’t work or look like conventional ads. Even though they are fundamentally different, both of these create an emotional connection with the audience while delivering your message in a non-intrusive way.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are sent by browsers or apps as independent alerts. These can appear on both desktop or mobile devices, but behave slightly differently depending on the platform.

It’s important to understand that push notifications are delivered in the same way as messages, emails, and other updates, so they don’t trigger a negative reaction when they are received. Additional benefits of push notifications include:

• Suitable for various verticals
• Multiple quality traffic sources available
• Create a personal connection with the audience
• Can be used to share useful content
• Require user opt-in

Native Ads

Native ads are unique because they blend in with the publishing platform’s existing content. Therefore, it must follow the same style and, most importantly, give users something useful in each advert. This ad format is a great alternative for affiliates that want to use branded content and tell a story while keeping readers engaged. Native ads are also ideal because they:

• Attract attention organically
• Allow for the development of useful long-form content
• Are not affected by banner blindness
• Are ideal for branded content
• Have higher CTR than conventional display ads

Push and Native Campaigns Checklist for Affiliates

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s go over the push and native checklist for affiliates.

Launching your first native or push campaign is exciting, but you have to take a structured approach to simplify your workload. We’ve broken down the campaign development and management into five different points. These are:

1. Strategy and Objectives

As with other ad formats, the first step is to set tangible objectives and define the strategy you’ll follow. At the same time, you should figure out what structure you’ll implement throughout your campaign.

1.1 Define Your Goals

The goal of any affiliate marketing campaign is to generate profits, but you have to get more specific. For example, your objective can be to generate a certain amount of revenue, achieve a specific ROI rate, or produce an exact number of conversions.

Setting multiple goals is a good idea. That said, experienced affiliates that are making the leap from other ad formats may want to start small and build up their list of goals after learning how to consistently produce successful campaigns.

1.2 Identify the Best Strategy

Next, affiliates have to figure out the approach they want to take. Using push notifications and native ads in unison can increase your chances of success. But, this can also multiply your workload, which may not be ideal if you’re just getting to know how these types of traffic behave.

Creating both campaigns at different times will allow you to focus on each one individually, but it won’t be as fast as running both at the same time.

All marketers are unique, so you need to take the time and determine what strategy suits you best.

1.3 Structure Your Campaigns Appropriately

Complex campaigns don’t always yield the best results and they are always hard to manage. Implementing a simple, yet solid structure will simplify all aspects of your campaign. Besides separating campaigns based on ad formats, you can create a different one for each country you’re targeting.

It may seem counterintuitive because you end up with more campaigns to monitor, but each one will be easy to manage and optimize later on.

2. Offers and Verticals

There are many different CPA offers out there and not all of them are created equal. Likewise, the vertical and product you choose to promote will also impact the performance of your ad.

2.1 Don’t Settle for Bad Offers

Finding a good offer is becoming more challenging, but there are still plenty of good alternatives out there. Take your time and thoroughly research all of your options until you find one that’s suitable for you. You won’t be able to recycle content, but looking for an offer in an industry you’re familiar with will only help your chances of creating a successful campaign.

2.2 Ensure that the Vertical is Compatible with Push and/or Native

This is where the differences between native ads and push notifications become very apparent. While researching CPA offers, you have to make sure that the industry is compatible with the ad formats you want to use.

Most marketers are aware that push notifications are ideal for gaming. But, this format is also suitable for the nutra, video streaming, job search, gambling, mobile apps, ecommerce, and sweepstakes verticals as well, just to name a few.

As for native ads, some of the best performers include education, financial services, technology, healthcare, luxury goods, and other industries that benefit from storytelling and long-form ads. This is by no means a full list, so look at the vertical you want to work with and evaluate whether it will perform well based on what you know about the industry.

3. Targeting and Tracking

Targeting and tracking are crucial parts of all affiliate campaigns, including push and native ads. Investing in independent tracking software is always a great idea. Moreover, keep in mind that targeting is a gradual process so you need to monitor the performance of each variant and adjust your selections accordingly.

3.1 Choose a Tracking Software

There are dozens of tracking platforms at your disposal. In addition to the basic statistics, many platforms also offer unique metrics so there is no silver-bullet solution. You’ll have to assess your requirements and find a tracker that allows you to measure performance without breaking your budget.

3.2 Set Your Starting Targeting Settings

As we mentioned before, targeting settings need to be curated over time. That said, you don’t want to start your campaign with wide targeting settings.

Instead, look at the offer and figure out what you need to secure conversion. In most cases, the offer will tell you the location, device, and other requirements that need to be met in order to receive the payout. Implement these as the targeting settings early on and adjust them once you collect enough data to optimize your campaign.

4. Crafting Ads and Content

The ad creation process for push notifications and native ads is very different. Push notifications appear as small alerts, so the copy and creatives need to match their size. Native ads, on the other hand, are bigger and often allow longer ad copy, which gives affiliates more space to be creative.

4.1 Ad Copy

The written content on a push notification has to be short, but you can play on the user’s curiosity. You want to use active language and transmit a relatively simple message. You may also be able to be mysterious, but this usually works best for gaming and entertainment offers.

Native ads also have a relatively low word count on the advert itself, but the landing page allows affiliates to elaborate and discuss the product’s benefit in detail.

4.2 Alluring and Appropriately-Sized Creatives

Rich media push notifications can feature images and other creative elements. That said, they usually measure a few hundred pixels in size, so make sure that users can see the creative elements clearly.

Native ad creatives are much bigger in size and the landing pages can include multiple images, so affiliates have a lot to work with. As with any other format, the creatives need to be appropriately sized and the images must be of the best possible quality.

5. Test and Optimize

The final stage is to optimize and test different variants. It’s crucial to wait until you have a statistically significant amount of data before reviewing the performance of your ads. This will vary based on the offer, so analyze each campaign separately to determine the magic number.

A/B testing can be set up from the beginning or during your first optimization. As a general rule of thumb, you want to start off by testing big variations and fine-tuning smaller elements once you find a solid base.

Learn More About Push Notifications and Native Ads

Native campaigns are revolutionizing the way consumers interact with advertising. Adding native and push campaigns to your skillset can open a new world of opportunities and give you additional resources to further improve your campaigns. But, you’ll also need to be patient and test the waters until you find a good groove.