Those unfamiliar with the myriad benefits offered by in-content ads are hesitant to give them a shot. After all, advertisers often assume that online audiences aren’t impressed with ads featured right in the middle of the content they wish to view.

In some cases, they wouldn’t be wrong. In-content advertising is still gaining popularity online. Platforms such as YouTube are featuring ads during their videos. However, such interruptions aren’t generally well-received.

It turns out that it’s not about where you feature the ads in your content. It’s about how you do it. Depending on your ad strategy and execution, you can benefit from everything in-content advertising has to offer.

Let’s explore some of the main benefits of in-content advertising and, in doing so, discover why they’re enjoying success of late.

They Offer Authenticity

Message-driven content has had its day in the sun and hasn’t always proven itself to be a viable solution for advertisers. Thus, it may be a better solution to take a step back and not attempt to control the messaging in your display ads.

Users now prefer watching original content that offers them value of some sort. If your content isn’t entertaining or educational, chances are, viewers won’t stick around to grasp your message.

Fortunately, in-content advertising offers viewers just that ​​– authenticity. Advertisers can use these ads to appeal to consumers in ways they never could before. After all, online audiences today don’t respond to ads like they did 2–3 years ago.

With so many online entertainment and educational options available today, viewers don’t want to be forced into sitting through ads. After all, the golden age of television and radio is over. Long gone were the days when people had to sit through ads to enjoy the content of their choice.

It’s now possible to let users in on what your brand is all about without forcing them to view your ads at specific intervals or within a specific time frame. In other words, it’s no longer necessary to compel viewers to watch full-length promotional material to get them interested in your products or services.

Instead, it’s a better idea to integrate your promotional content into other content to successfully engage viewers. This is why in-content marketing makes sense. It allows content creators free reign over how they can incorporate promotional material into their regular content.

Through this strategy, they can appeal to an established consumer base or audience without their content appearing too promotional. It allows them to create meaningful, original content for viewers and cultivate interest in your products and services.

They Facilitate Analysis

There’s nothing set in stone regarding how ad companies should measure the results of their ad campaigns. Sure, analyzing click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates is helpful, but these aren’t the only means by which advertisers can measure results.

Since no two brands define advertising success in the same way, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for which ad format will work for a brand. So, it follows that no two brands would measure their results in the same way.

Evaluating the impact of your ad campaign is the key to achieving long-term results for your company. Using in-content advertising gives you the chance to improve the measurability of your results.

How? It’s simple. Previously, advertisers relied on traditional promotional methods like floating display ads on various platforms. Nowadays, placing ads for products and services in non-promotional content is more common than ever.

This allows advertisers to take advantage of the viewership a style of content already enjoys. For instance, advertisers can benefit from the established audience belonging to a popular content creator when they choose in-content advertising.

Advertisers can then use the data made available by these content creators to analyze how their ads are influencing viewer behavior. This may facilitate better analysis of results than previously offered by placing display ads in fixed spots over the Internet.

In other words, businesses can use in-content ads to capitalize on the popularity of existing content. After all, this may be easier than starting from scratch and attempting to engage viewers that haven’t heard of your brand before. With in-content advertising, you can use the reach of content creators on large platforms to drive results.

Several content-driven platforms now feature in-content advertising. Among these platforms is Hulu, which has a self-service ad solution. If companies with such a large number of users can implement such a feature, surely others will follow.

In-content marketing also supports the use of AI to achieve and evaluate the results of display ad campaigns. Using AI, you can predict your ads’ performance across different content-sharing platforms.

Better predictions will inevitably lead to better ad targeting, which can help you meet your revenue forecasts in the long run.

Conclusion

In-content marketing looks like it’s here to stay – all things considered. It’s a novel yet practical marketing method that can drive engagement and deliver results. You should keep in mind that placing in-content ads in content that’s capable of engaging audiences is the most important consideration here.

Optimizing results will be easier than ever if you take the time to research which content creators and platforms attract the most traffic. After all, it won’t do to invest heavily in content that’s incapable of generating interest without achieving corresponding returns. 

Also, as beneficial as in-content marketing is, it’s imperative to consider whether it’s the right fit for your brand. Your target audience may not be susceptible to favoring in-content ads over traditional display ads.

So, even though in-content marketing is helpful, it may not be the answer to every advertiser’s needs.