BUILDING NATIVE ADS
WHY COMPANIES PREFER BUILDING THEIR OWN AD SERVER
OVER INTEGRATING WITH A NETWORK
TL;DR
SOUND FAMILIAR?
LET’S GO!
“I need revenue, but would never
show annoying ads. I like native ads,
but how do I integrate them into my
website and app?”
Read on to learn:
•
When you should and shouldn’t work with a
native ad network
•
Why building your own ad server is always a
better long-term decision
•
Tools for making it easy to build an
integrated native ad platform in-house
WHY NATIVE? BETTER UX
LEGACY ADS
INTEGRATED NATIVE
This is a terrible,
ad-ridden
experience...
Ads are unobtrusive and
relevant to surrounding
content, adding value.
Legacy Ad
Native Ad
WHY NATIVE? REVENUE
Facebook revenue (billions)
$70 B
$35 B
2012
Facebook released
mobile native ad
unit
2013
2014
Native ads account for 60%+ of the ad revenue for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others…
2015
NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
PROMOTED POSTS
SPONSORED LISTING
v
CUSTOM NATIVE ADS
NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
PROMOTED POSTS
SPONSORED LISTING
v
CUSTOM NATIVE ADS
NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
PROMOTED POSTS
SPONSORED LISTING
v
CUSTOM NATIVE ADS
INTEGRATING NATIVE ADS
BUILD IN-HOUSE
OR, PARTNER WITH A NATIVE NETWORK
Like Facebook, Trulia, Linkedin, Quora,
Imgur, Reddit, Expedia, Pinterest, Twitter,
Yahoo, Yelp, Amazon, & Foursquare…
Like Native Ads, TripleLift, Taboola, Outbrain,
AppNexus, Mopub, DoubleClick, Sharethrough, &
Facebook Audience Network…
PARTNERING WITH A
NATIVE AD NETWORK
NETWORK NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
RECOMMENDATIONS
MOBILE IN-FEED
IN-STREAM
NETWORK NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
RECOMMENDATIONS
MOBILE IN-FEED
IN-STREAM
NETWORK NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
RECOMMENDATIONS
MOBILE IN-FEED
IN-STREAM
PROS: DEMAND / SPEED
DEMAND
SPEED
Networks provide paying advertisers
immediately - no need for direct sales teams.
Launch in hours with drag-and-drop
JavaScript Widgets.
CONS: NEVER TRULY NATIVE
Doesn’t blend in
well
Obtrusive
formatting
Irrelevant to
search
Doesn’t look like
organic content
Blurry image; no
quality control
CONS: LOW CPM
$10.00
Average CPM ranges
$8.00
$6.00
$4.00
$2.00
Recommendation Widget
Traditional Display
Native Display
In-House Native Platforms
$0.35 - $1.00
$0.25 - $1.50
$0.50 - $2.00
$5.00 - $10+
CONS: BRAND ISSUES / MALWARE RISK
BRANDING
MALWARE
Publishers don’t have 100% control over
who is advertising.
JavaScript tags can be hacked and exploited.
CONS: SLOW LOAD / AD BLOCKING
SLOW
BLOCKED
JavaScript tags increase load times, leading
to page abandonment.
Susceptible to ad blockers and lost revenue.
50%
$50 B
37.5%
$38 B
25%
$25 B
12.5%
$13 B
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Abandonment rate by load time (seconds) - Kissmetrics
10
2013
2014
2015
2016
Global economic cost of blocking ads - PageFair & Adobe
BUILDING YOUR OWN
INTEGRATED NATIVE AD
SERVER
INTEGRATED NATIVE AD EXAMPLES
PROMOTED POSTS
INSTAGRAM
SPONSORED INGREDIENTS
ALL RECIPES
SPONSORED PROFILES
TINDER
INTEGRATED NATIVE AD EXAMPLES: SPONSORED LISTINGS
HOTELS.COM
EBAY
AMAZON
PROS: 100% NATIVE
Search-based and
highly relevant
Ad image, font, and layout blends
in with organic content
Advertisers love
eye-catching logos
Offers same interaction
features
PROS: BETTER USER EXPERIENCE
User can like,
share, and up/
down vote the ad
Curated post
sponsored by eBay
One of many
comments praising
the ad
Article provides fun
and engaging
content
PROS: FOR MARKETPLACES, GREAT FOR SELLERS & BUYERS
Sponsored listing
programs let
sellers pay to have
their products
promoted
Buyers see ads that
relate to search
terms or page
content
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t
Hu
ua
re
r
vi
so
ur
sq
Fo
Ad
gl
e
Go
o
ok
bo
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itt
Tw
Fa
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Tr
ip
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Ad
PROS: MUCH HIGHER CPM
$80
eCPM ranges of in-house
native ad platforms
$60
$40
$20
PROS: BRAND SAFETY / SECURITY
BRAND SAFETY
MALWARE SECURITY
Complete control over who advertises to
ensure brand-safe ads.
Ad platform operates without hackable 3rd
party JavaScript tags.
PROS: FAST LOAD / AD BLOCKER PROTECTION
FASTER LOAD TIMES
AD BLOCKER PROTECTION
Improves user experience to have faster
page loads.
Integrated native ads are hard for ad
blockers to identify.
CONS: TIME-TO-MARKET / ENGINEERING RESOURCES
1 Full-Time
Engineer
5 Engineers
Months to build inhouse
10 Engineers
6 Months
12 Months
Could take years to build platform (plus the opportunity cost of not focusing on core product)
18 Months
CONS: SALES OVERHEAD
30
Estimated number of new hires
by yearly ad revenue
24
18
12
6
$10M
$20M
$50M
Direct selling earns higher CPMs, but incurs cost of sales and ads op teams
$100M
DIRECT SELLING EARNS MORE LONG-TERM
Estimated yearly revenue after removing extra salaries
$6,000,000
Network
Direct
$4,500,000
$3,000,000
$1,500,000
10M
25M
Monthly Impressions
Inputs - Network CPM: $1.50 / Direct Sold CPM: $5 / Avg Salary: $100,000
100M
ABOUT ADZERK
ABOUT ADZERK
Adzerk provides APIs
for building an
integrated native ad
server in weeks
USE ADZERK’S APIS TO POWER YOUR NATIVE AD INFRASTRUCTURE
REQUEST
Pass decision data via
RESTful API
SERVER-TO-SERVER
(NO PAGE-SLOWING
JAVASCRIPT)
ACCESS TO:
•
Ad Decision Engine
•
Ad Pacing and eCPM
Algorithms
•
Custom Event Tracking:
Likes, Shares, Comments, etc
•
Custom Targeting: Search,
Demographic, Interest, Contextual,
Behavioral, Geo, Platform, Device,
etc
RESPONSE
Adzerk responds in JSON
with decision data
•
1st-Party Data
Management Platform
BUILD AN INTEGRATED NATIVE AD PLATFORM IN
WEEKS, NOT YEARS
1 Full-Time
Engineer
Number of months to
build ad platform
3 Engineers
20
From scratch
40
On top of Adzerk
60
TRUSTED BY USER-FIRST SITES + APPS
“Adzerk's APIs
allowed us to avoid
having to build ad
delivery logic that
wasn't available inhouse.”
— Jena Donlin, Sr Product
Manager, Reddit
LEARN MORE
ADZERK
Adzerk provides a suite of APIs for building
your own native ad server in weeks, not
years. Reach out to adzerk.com/contact for
more info.
DURHAM, NC
501 Washington Street
Durham, NC 27701
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
156 2nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94105