Navigating native advertising to drive seasonal success in 2024

With almost a third (30%) of all annual retail sales happening between Black Friday and Christmas, it’s a make-or-break moment for brand advertisers looking to maximise their impact and capture consumer attention. Shoppers spent over £13.3bn over the Black Friday period last year in the UK - and in the US, they are expected to spend $40.6bn during the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

Meanwhile, native advertising continues to grow as an effective way of engaging with consumers as they browse their favourite sites for gift inspiration, with the UK set to become Europe’s largest market for native advertising by 2025. Likewise in the US, native is set to account for over 60% of ad spend this year. 

So what role will native advertising play in media plans this holiday period? How can marketers use native ads to capitalise on this ever-growing commercial opportunity?

The three pillars of native advertising 
Context: As Black Friday and Christmas approach, the key for brands is to find websites, social media platforms and apps that offer direct contextual relevance and therefore lend themselves to native advertising campaigns - for example, holiday gift guides, blogs about stocking fillers, or festive food deliveries. 

Ads that mirror what the consumer is actively researching or seeking to purchase, and are placed where they expect to find that information, are most likely to build meaningful product and brand awareness. 

Content: Far from the realms of constantly flashing banners and intrusive display ads, what the native ad seeks to do is blend seamlessly, and organically, into the content where it is served. This, in turn, helps brands build a larger, more engaged and more loyal customer base over time. 

During key promotional periods of the year, such as the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Christmas, the number one priority for brands is to drive early awareness and boost engagement. Native advertising is the key to building audiences - not bombarding them - and driving higher conversion rates in the long term, with a much higher likelihood of repeat custom. 

Optimisation: With more and more consumers turning to the sheer convenience of their smartphone, mobile eclipsed desktop as the preferred channel for Black Friday and festive shopping in 2023. Therefore, optimising ads for mobile in 2024 is key - and that goes for native campaigns, too. We’re also seeing brands increasingly rolling out app-exclusive offers to make the most of this trend - an environment well suited to native ad formats - and so these experiences also need to be optimised accordingly. 

Bringing it all together with adtech
So how can marketers bring these three pillars together? The first step is to implement a DSP that can manage native campaigns by:

Using machine learning to create personalised creatives (e.g. text and imagery) and automatically embed them within web pages to combat banner blindness and drive meaningful engagement at scale. 

Deploying bid-smart technology to optimise the bidding and buying process in real time, ensuring only the most relevant ad placements are secured (which also minimises ad wastage and associated carbon emissions).

Should native campaigns be adapted between Black Friday and Christmas?

The Black Friday and Christmas shopping periods do not fundamentally require a different marketing strategy. However, the products being promoted (and therefore the ad creatives) will likely differ. 

For instance, when it comes to Black Friday, a brand will tend to choose which products it wants to offer as part of the promotion, targeting relevant audiences as they scan the internet looking for instant gratification in the form of flash deals. 

Conversely, in the lead-up to Christmas, with the focus on large-scale gifting and entertaining, brands will need to take a more strategic, audience-focused perspective. They will need to deploy more emotional, themed campaigns drawing shoppers in over a longer period by appealing to their need to make a number of more considered purchases for the season.

To win with native advertising as shoppers’ festive anticipation builds, brands will need to blend seamlessly into their favourite sites, platforms and apps with engaging, relevant, mobile-friendly content that solves both their short- and long-term needs. With the right balance of adtech and expertise, there’s all to play for this holiday season. 

Also published in: Marketing Donut