As communicators, telling stories is an integral part of our role, but with a shrinking media landscape we have had to look at other ways to get our client’s stories out there. 

Outbrain is one tool that IMPACT uses. It allows content from a third party to appear on a range of sites and publications. Native and infeed advertising is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the Australian advertising landscape, with the last set of IAB Australia figures showing 19% growth for the September quarter. 

How does it work? 

Native advertising is the use of paid ads that match the look, feel and function of the media format in which they appear. 

They are often found in social media feeds, or as recommended content on a web page. Unlike display ads or banner ads, native ads don’t really look like ads. They look like part of the editorial flow of the page.  

So, open up the Sydney Morning Herald’s home page. Click on a story (I clicked on “A double bass dipped in toffee is the slow art you didn’t know you needed”). Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see a section called ‘Promoted’. It is here where you will find recommended stories based on how you, the reader, interacts with content online. 

In my promoted, suggested content I can see a story about the 10 top restaurants near where I live (I’ve recently googled best restaurants in Sydney) and content for a wine deals site (I’m in that demographic). The key to native advertising is that it is non-disruptive – it exposes the reader to advertising content without sticking out like a sore thumb.  

According to Outbrain consumers look at native ads 53% more than display ads and native ads create an 18% increase in purchase intent. 

How do we use the platform for our clients? 

IMPACT uses Outbrain to amplify owned, earned and advertorial content. It makes our stories work harder and reach new audiences in an environment they trust.  

When setting up a campaign you can choose how much you want to spend, where you want the content to appear and the demographics and interests of your target audience. 

In a recent campaign, IMPACT used Outbrain to amplify a number of influencer blogs we had achieved for a client. Target audience insights identified that peer to peer advice ranks as a highly trusted advice channel. To leverage this, the campaign involved boosting long form blog content to increase traffic to these third party organic posts. The content seeded via Outbrain saw over 90.2 million impressions and 25,900 clicks across all states. 

Outbrain is going from strength to strength. In January it signed a multi-year partnership deal with Nine, Australia’s largest locally owned media company.  The agreement sees Outbrain’s technology running across a suite of Nine’s premium digital properties, whose websites achieve 625 million page views per month.  Outbrain also signed a three-year deal with Australian Community Media (ACM) which has more than 170 rural and regional newspapers and community-based websites services. 

We’re excited for the future of Outbrain and using the best strategic elements to expand on clients share of voice within the market.