I have been “offered” amounts ranging from $75.00 to $1200 for a blog post.
What IS the difference between the two?
How much SHOULD we really be charging for this product we are delivering?
And most importantly, does what we are doing actually WORK?
First things First:
What is the purpose of blogging in advertising?
Advertising has one job: to sell something. Sometimes it is about selling a product or service. Other times it is about selling a perception of a company or a brand.
Nowadays we’ve mostly become jaded to advertising. We skip over commercials and ignore banners. But the one thing we still rely on is recommendations from people we trust.
Our job as bloggers is to serve up sponsored content from the position of a trusted advisor. And to do this well, we have to seamlessly incorporate sponsored post content into our regular programming, without pissing off our readers.
And without “tricking” anyone.
Personally, I feel that the advertising bloggers do should be focused on brand awareness. It isn’t saying “XXX IS THE VERY BEST” it is saying “this is something I find cool about XXX”
It is about creating a scene that shows the integration of a product or brand in a fun and exciting way and bringing it to life in the eyes of your readers.
It has to be exciting and innovative enough that your readers might just want to experience it for themselves. Or at least, plant a bug of the idea so that when they have an opportunity in front of the product, they have a desire to find out more.
Second, and Even MORE Important
Does it work?
This is a tricky question. Does Blogger Advertising work?
Personally, I think that completely depends on the REASON the brand is doing it in the first place.
If a brand is looking for high sales conversion, we know that that moment of purchase is out of the influencers control. We aren’t ON the brand website, holding the customers hand, or ensuring that their site is delivering the products, and the trust a consumer needs to click “Buy Now”
What we SHOULD be able to deliver is brand awareness, and enough interest that our readers click over to the website to find out more.
And that can ONLY be done if people are actually READING the native advertising.
And you want to know a secret? I don’t think they are reading it. I think that much like the commercial break, readers are fast forwarding over the ads and moving onto the recipe/story/slideshow they want to see.
And that, my friend, is the Bloggers problem.
It is also the industries problem for LETTING it happen.
Wait, There is a Problem?
How do we fix it?
Lets look at how the problem started first of all, and why it has become such an issue.
Online advertising began with Digital ads. They were sold on a CPM rate ( a cost per 1000 views). So, when sponsored content started to be sold, bloggers were selling, or being offered sales based on their “pageviews” , or the total number of views their blog gets in a month. Sometimes brands would ask for “unique” visits, so the total number of unique individuals accessing the site in a certain period (usually a month)
This seems all well a good, doesn’t it? A website gets 100,000 impressions (or pageviews) a month and so the brand offers a sponsored post at XXX rate.
Except how many eyes does that actual POST get?
And of these views, what IS our actual conversion rate?
What Makes A Blogger Great?
and specifically at Native Advertising?
This is something I think we are ALL still trying to figure out, and it is going to take some transparency in the industry and perhaps some honestly (from both bloggers and brands) as to what ACTUALLY delivers results).
First, I think a GREAT native advertising blogger is one who gets similar pageviews on their sponsored content as well as on their true content. To do this, a blogger needs to respect their sponsored content AS MUCH as their other content. There can be no “I am sorry this is sponsored” or “I wrote this, because I need to buy wine”
Write the post NO DIFFERENTLY to how you would write any other post on your site, and you will retain your voice and personality and “authenticity” (even though we all despise that word by now)
OR
Write an advertorial. Make it an ad break, and don’t sell it based on the pageviews you know it ISN’T going to get. Sell it as a back link, and redirect, not as a narrative and brand messaging and be sure you have one hell of a clear call to action in your ad otherwise your conversion will fall flat.
(want to see the difference between the two, check here)
As a great narrative blogger focusing on brand awareness, your goal is to tell an interesting enough story that your readers remember it later. You should get people interested enough to download, explore or ask questions. You are here to CREATE a CONVERSATION around the brand and product, and as a result, build brand awareness.
So, check – are you getting clicks? (easiest way to do that is to install jetpack on your blog- it will measure which links were clicked, and how many times)
Second, and this one is for you advertisers, lets start comparing APPLES TO APPLES. When you are asking about an influencers statistics, ask them about their statistics on similar content.
A blogger getting 100,000 impressions a month may be getting those views on a couple AMAZING SEO posts and you could be paying them 3 or 4 times what a blogger with smaller numbers, but higher potential views on a sponsored post, would get.
So, What are We Left With?
Influencers, I encourage you to price yourself out based on what you can deliver. Start looking at your stats, and assessing your strengths.
Learn how to speak to your readers in a way that supports your brand partners and never, ever treat your branded content as an embarrassment or a “dirty little secret” This will NEVER work and will only create distrust between your reader and your brand partner.
Publish your branded content with the same pride and passion as you would your unbranded content, or don’t do it at all. Walk away and don’t participate in this form of advertising and chalk it up to experience.
And brands, it is time to start asking the HARD questions of your influencers. Check their stats and compare your apples, to theirs. See how well their previous sponsored content faired, and then let them know how well they converted. A quick email letting your $500 blogger know that they only sent 3 links can certainly wake a person up to improving.
As well, if you have a “smaller” blogger that converts well, stop compensating them based on their monthly views! Pay them for what they are converting and if they are sending 10x more people to your business than someone you paid $500 for, it is time to make a change!
I don’t live in a world of “potential” and I sure don’t believe it smoke and mirrors. As an industry, perhaps it is time for transparency. Time to deliver products that WORK. Time to change the way we recognize success and value and take it away from vanity numbers and place it on TRUE engagement.
What do YOU think?
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