Expanding Beyond Meta Ads:
How to Test Native Advertising for Lead Generation and E-commerce Sales

If you’ve been running successful ad campaigns on Meta for lead generation or e-commerce sales, it might be time to scale your efforts by branching out into native advertising. Platforms like Taboola, Outbrain, MediaGO, and Newsbreak offer advertisers the opportunity to expand their reach, connect with new audiences, and diversify their advertising strategies beyond social media.

By testing native advertising in conjunction with your Meta ads, you can maximize performance while tapping into new channels to drive leads and sales.

Why Advertisers Should Consider Native Advertising

Native advertising is designed to blend seamlessly with the content in which it’s placed, making it less disruptive and more engaging for users. Rather than looking like traditional display ads, native ads appear as recommended articles or sponsored content within trusted editorial environments. This format helps advertisers reach potential customers at a moment when they are already engaged with relevant content.

For advertisers seeing success with Meta campaigns, native advertising can be a valuable addition. Native ads can:

• Expand audience reach: While Meta offers a vast audience, native platforms give access to users across major publisher sites that Meta ads might not reach.
• Offer diverse placements: Native advertising allows for greater flexibility in ad placements, whether it’s through articles, widgets, or in-content recommendations.
• Scale efficiently: Native platforms offer a variety of ad types and pricing models that make it easier to test and scale campaigns without completely shifting away from your social strategy.

By leveraging native advertising, businesses can continue to capitalize on their current success while exploring new areas for growth.

Key Native Advertising Platforms to Test

Here are four native advertising platforms that advertisers should test to scale their campaigns beyond Meta:

1. Taboola

Taboola is one of the most well-known native advertising platforms, with a large network of premium publishers. It specializes in content discovery, often placing ads at the bottom of articles as "recommended content." For businesses focused on driving traffic, leads, and e-commerce sales, Taboola’s extensive network offers access to millions of users daily. Its robust targeting options make it easy to focus on the audiences most likely to convert, making it an ideal platform for both lead generation and direct sales.

2. Outbrain

Outbrain is another major player in the native advertising space, known for its strong presence on top-tier publisher sites like CNN and The Washington Post. Outbrain’s algorithms help optimize ad delivery based on performance, ensuring that your content is placed in front of the right users at the right time. With powerful retargeting options and extensive publisher partnerships, it’s particularly effective for lead generation campaigns. If you're looking to extend the success of your Meta ads into a content-rich environment, Outbrain is worth testing.

3. MediaGO

MediaGO is a growing native platform that offers more competitive pricing compared to some of the larger players. It also provides advanced targeting features that allow advertisers to reach specific segments of the audience based on behavior, interests, and demographics. MediaGO is especially appealing for e-commerce advertisers looking for cost-effective ways to scale performance. Its ability to serve ads across a variety of content types makes it a strong candidate for those seeking conversion-driven advertising.

4. Newsbreak

Initially recognized for its local content focus, Newsbreak has grown into a nationwide platform, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes, including large enterprises looking to scale their advertising efforts. Newsbreak provides access to a massive audience through its app and website, and it’s a great platform for performance-based campaigns that prioritize visibility and conversions. For advertisers looking to complement their Meta campaigns with a reliable, broad-reaching native platform, Newsbreak is a strong option for scaling.

How Native Ad Tactics Mirror Meta Ad Success

One of the main reasons advertisers should consider native advertising is the similarities it shares with Meta’s ad ecosystem in terms of strategies and tactics. Native advertising platforms like Taboola, Outbrain, and MediaGO offer features that will feel familiar to Meta advertisers, allowing for a smoother transition and easy integration into your overall advertising strategy.

• Audience Targeting: Native platforms allow for detailed audience targeting, similar to Meta’s tools. You can define specific audience segments based on interests, behaviors, and demographics, ensuring that your ads are reaching relevant users.
• Retargeting: Just like on Meta, native platforms enable retargeting strategies that allow you to re-engage users who have interacted with your brand before. This is especially valuable for e-commerce advertisers who rely on retargeting to drive abandoned cart conversions.
• Creative Optimization: Much like Meta’s ads, native platforms rely heavily on eye-catching creatives and compelling headlines. Using data from your successful Meta campaigns, you can optimize the visuals, copy, and headlines in your native ads to maximize performance.

Additionally, advertisers can use performance insights from their Meta ads to inform their native strategies. For instance, if a particular creative or headline performs well on Meta, it’s worth testing similar variations on native platforms. Cross-platform remarketing, where you retarget users across Meta and native channels, can also amplify your reach and engagement.

Tips for Transitioning From Meta to Native Advertising

Testing native advertising platforms doesn’t require a massive shift in your strategy—just a few tweaks to make the most of these new opportunities. Here are some tips for getting started:

• Start small: Begin by testing a few campaigns on native platforms with smaller budgets. This allows you to gauge performance and fine-tune your targeting and creative before scaling up.
• Leverage lookalike audiences: Use data from your successful Meta campaigns to create lookalike audiences on native platforms. Many native platforms offer similar audience modeling tools, so you can target users who resemble your best customers.
• Adjust your creatives: Native ads often require a different creative approach compared to social ads. Native platforms typically prioritize longer headlines and less aggressive branding. Focus on creating ads that feel like natural extensions of the content they appear alongside.
• Monitor native-specific metrics: Pay close attention to engagement metrics such as click-through rates, engagement time, and conversion rates. Native platforms also track viewability, which measures how long an ad is in view, providing deeper insights into performance.

In conclusion for advertisers who are already seeing success with Meta ads, native advertising offers a scalable way to diversify and grow your lead generation and e-commerce efforts. By testing platforms like Taboola, Outbrain, MediaGO, and Newsbreak, you can expand your reach, connect with new audiences, and optimize your campaigns for even greater performance.

Now is the time to take your advertising strategy to the next level—reach out to Stringo Media to schedule a discovery session to see how native advertising can help scale your business!

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