Enhancing Native Channel Performance

Project Overview

In the fiercely competitive landscape of the US financial industry, our client stands out as one of its largest entities, continuously seeking innovative strategies to generate high-quality leads.

Our task was to leverage Native advertising channels to propel their lead generation forward effectively.

Problem Statement

The primary challenge lay in navigating a dual-front battle: sustaining an ongoing pipeline of leads and venturing into new niches, all while ensuring budget optimization to avoid overspending on underperforming marketing directions. The ultimate aim was to refine spending to yield higher ROI and close rates, a critical endeavor in maintaining efficiency and competitiveness.

Strategy

We managed three Native channels—Outbrain, Taboola, and Yahoo Gemini (noting that Taboola became the exclusive native advertising partner for all of Yahoo’s digital properties in January 2023. Our approach covered every aspect of marketing channel operations, including:

• Campaign ideation and backlog creation
• Creative collaboration and compliance Navigation
• Targeting the right audiences
• Tracking performance through granular-level reporting
• Data-driven optimization of digital assets and budgets
• Incorporating retargeting campaigns
• Exploring new networks

Execution

• Campaign Ideation and Backlog Creation: We laid a solid foundation with a backlog of campaign concepts that were both creative and compliant.
• Creative Collaboration and Compliance Navigation: Our team worked closely with creative and compliance departments to ensure all materials were innovative and met industry standards.
• Targeting the Right Audiences: Utilizing CRM data, marketplace insights, and third-party data, we tailored audience segments for maximum impact.
• Granular-Level Reporting: Our reporting infrastructure monitored performance across multiple dimensions, including ad level, publisher level, day of the week, hourly, and geo levels, enabling precise campaign adjustments.
• Data-Driven Optimization: The insights gained from our granular reporting allowed for optimization at multiple levels, including ad creatives and landing pages (through A/B testing) and campaign timing and targeting.
• Incorporating Retargeting Campaigns: Retargeting was a key strategy for re-engaging prospects and converting interest into leads.
• Exploring New Networks: We tested additional platforms, such as Adblade, Revcontent, Newsbreak, and Criteo to uncover new lead generation opportunities.

Results

Our focused strategy and execution led to significant achievements:

• Managed Budgets: We managed yearly budgets of over $150K for Outbrain, $1.2 million for Taboola, and $3 million for Yahoo Gemini, reflecting the client's trust in our expertise.
• Optimization and Efficiency: Our thorough marketing analytics led to decreased overall spending while simultaneously improving close rates and ROI, demonstrating effective cost savings for our client.
  • Improvement in Metrics: Close rates improved on average from 1.5% to 6% across platforms.
  • ROI increased significantly, with Taboola seeing a change from -5.7% to 105%, Outbrain from -2.8% to 225%, and Yahoo Gemini from 77% to 180% over two years.

Conclusion

Our targeted, data-driven approach to Native advertising allowed us to achieve cost savings while enhancing performance metrics.

By focusing on strategic planning, deep analytics, and precise execution, we demonstrated the value of targeted marketing strategies, significantly improving ROI and close rates and decreasing unneeded spending, thus saving our client’s marketing dollars from going down the drain.

Ready to Amplify Your Native Advertising Efforts?

If you're looking to boost your lead generation and marketing efficiency, consider partnering with us. Let's achieve remarkable results together.