What Is Sponsored Content Advertising [Ultimate Guide]

Advertising is the de facto way to market and promote your brand, service, or product. When it comes to that, traditional advertising methods, even though effective, are becoming outdated as brands and businesses are switching to digital advertising strategies to reach target audiences easily. When it comes to digital advertising, there are many ways and one of them is sponsored content advertising. Considered a highly popular way to drive traffic and attract customers, let’s learn more about this and understand why it’s better than traditional advertising.

Uncovering Sponsored content advertising

As the name implies, sponsored content and advertising is defined as the content that is paid by a brand to a particular publisher to create and distribute. You must have seen certain content with phrases such as sponsored by, promoted, in partnership with, etc. These are all sponsored content and their goal is to bring in sales and increase brand awareness. What makes it attractive is that it can seamlessly blend in with the distribution platform’s regular content, making it feel less like an ad.

Types of sponsored advertisement

If you think that sponsored content is something like an image, video, or blog post, it’s anything that is paid by the brand/business for including it on a publisher’s platform. Depending on the platform and target audience, the content may come in various forms. Let’s see what they are:

Articles

One of the most common types of sponsored advertisement is articles. Normally articles that are intended for sponsoring are written in a similar tone and style to that of the content on the platform where it’s published. This makes the content feel more natural rather than just an ad.

Visual contents

This usually involves photos, videos, and infographics that use visuals to inform or educate visitors about a particular product, or topic while also incorporating brand promotion. Implementing striking visuals makes it easier for customers to process the content engaging as it conveys more information than text.

Podcasts

Podcasts are becoming more preferred among customers of all types and no wonder this is a great platform to implement your sponsored content and advertising. Here the brand pays the platform to integrate their brand message into the podcast. Since it offers a fresh and personalized take on content listening. By hearing the best seo podcasts people are more likely to know about your brand message and build a connection.

Analyzing The dos and don’ts of sponsored content

Now that you know what sponsored content advertising is and the various types involved, there are certain things you should do and shouldn’t when planning to create the ideal sponsored content campaign for your brand, let’s get to that in detail.

The Do’s	The Don’t’s
Mark your content as sponsored by using labels such as “sponsored”. This helps build customer trust and shows that you comply with the advertising regulations.	Promotion is needed but don’t do it too much as it easily turns off customers who might feel it is forced rather than something useful.
Have a clear idea about your target audience. Knowing their needs will help you create content that engages with them.	If your content is being sponsored, don’t hide the fact about it being sponsored. Customers should know exactly what type your content and hiding it results in trust violations, legal actions, etc.
Your content must be valuable to the visitor. Whether it’s an article, a to-do guide, or a solution, customers are more likely to engage with something that has value.	Never compromise on quality when creating content. Customers and even search engines value and rank well-written quality content
Know how to choose the right platforms because certain content suits specific platforms and target audiences well. Choosing the relevant platform ensures your sponsored content marketing will work as intended.	Don’t neglect customer feedback. This is what helps you improve your contents and make it better in the future.

Ideal Platforms For Sponsored Advertisement

When creating the best native advertising examples for your brand, the ideal platform has to be chosen to get the intended results. Let’s see some of the most popular and commonly used social media platforms to integrate sponsored content:

LinkedIn sponsored content

LinkedIn is one of the widely used networking platforms by businesses and brands worldwide. Being more of a business-oriented platform, you can create and easily promote sponsored content to engage with professional communities. Some of the LinkedIn-sponsored content includes webinars, case studies, lead gen forms, business insights, etc.

Instagram sponsored content

If you are into creating short-form sponsored content and advertising, then Instagram is the place to promote them. As reels dominate this platform, creating short and engaging videos helps capture the immediate attention of your audience, this is one of the benefits of Instagram reels. Also, you do get the option to post them as stories which can further reach and attract a newer customer base.

Sponsored Facebook post

If you ask us the most popular social media platform for advertising sponsored content, Facebook would be the answer. With more than 3+ billion active users, Facebook’s How to Advertise offers a ton of features that make it great for publishing a variety of sponsored content such as product launches, carousel ads, etc. The main highlight is that the sponsored Facebook post appears on the target audience’s feed directly and can be tailored for specific target groups.

Must try sponsored content marketing practices

Creating the perfect sponsored content isn’t easy as it involves a lot of work, time and effort. Since you are paying for a publisher to include your content, sometimes you may have to work with them. If you are in the process of creating one, then trying out these tips is a good idea:

Run Multiple Campaigns

Running multiple campaigns instead of one is a logical way to analyze which of them works well and which all need improvements. After all, advertising is all about trial and error to find the right one. When it comes to sponsored content and advertising, the multiple-campaign approach offers flexibility and also works well. 

Work with the right people

Depending on your content type and intent, it’s wise to partner with sponsors or social media influencers whose profile or audience resonates well with your brand. This might tempt you to choose the most popular one with the highest follower count but if the audience isn’t right, you won’t get anywhere.

Evolve with the trends

In digital marketing, the trends are constantly evolving and so are customer preferences. What worked once may not yield the same results again, therefore, it’s important to make your PR-sponsored content campaign flexible and updated by incorporating the latest social media trends. This enables better customer engagement.

Start Your Sponsored Content Marketing with GTECH

Sponsored content is a highly effective way to engage your customers, boost brand awareness and reach a wider target audience. As explained earlier, making the right one isn’t easy. You will have to consider a lot of variables such as the right audience, and ideal platform and partner with publishers whose content format and style resonates with yours. 

If that’s where you struggle, leave it to GTECH, your trusted digital marketing agency in Dubai. Being known for our quality marketing services, we create the best quality sponsored content marketing that draws in customers and converts them. Book an appointment with us and learn all about sponsored content and its perks.