3 Key Metrics to Measure ROI in Native Advertising
Native advertising has become a powerful tool in the digital marketing landscape. This article delves into the key metrics for measuring ROI in native advertising, offering valuable insights from industry experts. Discover how to tie native ads to business outcomes, define objectives, and prioritize quality engagement for maximum impact.
- Tie Native Ads to Business Outcomes
- Define Objectives and Prioritize Key Metrics
- Value Quality Engagement Over Quantity
Tie Native Ads to Business Outcomes
Measuring ROI on native advertising starts by tying it directly to business outcomes like revenue and pipeline. If native advertising isn't influencing the sales funnel or improving Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) within a reasonable time frame, it's not worth continuing.
Native advertising often gets judged by surface-level metrics like impressions or time on page. However, these are easy to inflate and don't say much about actual impact.
The real story starts after the click. So we look at metrics like scroll depth, session duration, return visits, and lead quality. These give a better read on intent.
If native traffic bounces after the landing page or doesn't convert later in the funnel, it doesn't help.
Cost per qualified lead and time to conversion are more telling. Because when native advertising brings in leads at a lower Cost Per Lead (CPL) than paid social and moves them through the funnel faster, it's doing what it's supposed to.
We use UTM tracking to connect the dots. That data feeds into lead scoring and CRM attribution so we can see how native advertising stacks up against other channels.
Native advertising usually performs best mid-funnel. That's when people are still researching but open to learning more. So content can nudge them into retargeting flows.
If retargeting costs drop and conversion rates improve, that's a good sign the traffic is solid.
Performance also depends a lot on the publisher and placement. A piece might do really well on one site and flop on another.
So we track at the creative and placement level. That helps us cut what's not working.
If a partner can't hit Cost Per Click (CPC) and conversion goals after some tweaks, it's probably not the right fit.
Because if native advertising isn't driving pipeline or making the funnel more efficient, it's not a channel to keep investing in.
Define Objectives and Prioritize Key Metrics
We follow a structured approach to measure the ROI of our native advertising efforts. Let's take a look at the key steps of that approach.
First, define clear objectives before launching an advertising campaign. The objectives can be brand awareness, engagement, lead generation, and sales.
Next, decide on key metrics to be prioritized. Here are some of the essential key metrics you should prefer:
1. Engagement metrics, such as click-through rates, time spent on the page, and social shares and comments, can give you a precise idea of the effectiveness of engagement.
2. Conversion metrics are another way to measure the percentage of users who complete a desired action. This also involves Cost Per Acquisition, which is the amount spent on acquiring a new customer through ads.
3. Brand awareness metrics also play an essential role in getting the number of impressions your ad was displayed.
To check how native advertising works, multi-touch and last-touch attribution models are implemented.
Finally, changes are monitored.
Value Quality Engagement Over Quantity
You know how we instinctively know when someone's truly listening to us versus just waiting for their turn to speak? That's how we approach measuring native advertising at Estorytellers. We look for those same signs of genuine connection in the data.
When a reader stays with our story past the 3-minute mark, when they highlight passages or leave a comment that starts with "This made me think...", that's when we know we've created something meaningful. I remember working with a boutique hotel chain - their beautiful travel guides got fewer clicks than expected, but the people who did engage ended up booking longer stays. That taught us to value quality attention over quantity.
ROI for me isn't just numbers; it's how well the ad aligns with brand goals and long-term client value. A high click-through rate means nothing if it doesn't lead to loyal, relevant clients.
