One of the biggest challenges marketers face is getting the right piece of content in front of the right audience at the right time. The solution might seem obvious: implement an advertising strategy that pushes buyers through a marketing funnel and ultimately converts them into paying customers. Yet quite often, marketers struggle to achieve their goals through advertising, not because their product or service lacks merit, but because customers lost interest at some point along the way as they journeyed through your marketing funnel.

If you’re hoping to achieve your marketing goals, the key is to pair your content with specific stages of the marketing funnel in a way that captures your audience’s focus. The better you align your goals with your content and differentiate that content at each stage of the marketing funnel, the greater your chances of pushing people farther along in the buyer’s journey. 

With native advertising content that’s tailored to help you meet your goals, you’ll be much more successful in moving people from one stage to the next. In the following guide, we walk you through the different types of native advertising content you need for every stage of the marketing funnel — from case studies to webinars — to help you meet your goals. As you discover the benefits of these native advertising ideas, you can fine-tune your approach and make sure you’re engaging buyers at every stage.

What Is the Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a term used to describe the journey that customers take as they make their way to your company. The funnel begins in the early stages, at the moment when a person learns of a company's existence, and continues all the way to the purchase stage when a lead converts into a buyer. 

At any point along that journey, it’s critical to keep your audience’s focus on taking the next step in the journey. The marketing funnel serves as a unique tool that allows your company to identify different stages in the buyer journey and consequently influence customers’ decisions at each of those stages. With native advertising content that’s tailored for each stage, you can achieve your goals — whether that’s increasing customer loyalty, brand awareness, or sales.

How Does Native Advertising Come Into Play? 

The first thing to point out is that native ads are a great way to distribute content. Whatever type of content you want to use in your ads, rest assured that native advertising will help you find a captive audience for that content.

Not just any content will do, however. To increase engagement through native ads, your content must provide value to the consumer. Therefore, the key is to create native advertising content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience and that helps move them closer to making a purchase. Let's take a closer look at the different stages of the marketing funnel and what types of content you’ll want to associate with each stage as part of your native advertising strategy. 

1. Awareness 

At the top of the funnel, you want to grab the attention of potential customers and make them aware of your brand and what you offer. Brand awareness is built from consumers' search for something specific, with the ultimate goal of attracting customers to a brand, causing them to recognise and remember it. 

The goal is to keep the brand at the forefront of the customer's mind throughout the purchase journey. It represents one of the key stages since it is the very first opportunity to get into the minds of target customers and leave a lasting impression on them. 

Native advertising content ideas for the awareness stage include: 

• Sponsored landing pages on a popular online media or a new site that is related to your product or service
• Sponsored blog posts or sponsored press articles that provide valuable information and highlight the benefits of your product or service and include a call to action to learn more
• Useful tips about very popular topics in your industry that indirectly promote your product or service and encourage users to take a specific action, such as visiting a website
• Building an influencer marketing campaign and integrating it in your native advertising strategy. This could involve working with popular influencers to promote your product or service. Check out this story of how Netrauta achieved astonishing results by powering its influencer marketing strategy with Readpeak.

2. Brand Consideration

As potential customers move down the funnel, they may be considering different options and weighing the pros and cons of each. The goal of the brand consideration stage is to increase the likelihood that consumers will consider the brand in question and include it in their set of options when making a purchase. 

Once potential customers are familiar with the idea of the brand's existence, it is critical to connect and interact with them by addressing a problem, highlighting an interest, or responding to a customer question; only in this way can you get them to consider you more than other players in your own market. It is therefore critical to create authentic and engaging touch points, through which you must specify the factors that distinguish your brand from the competition and make you recognizable at a glance. 

Native advertising content ideas for the consideration stage include:

• Landing page with infographics that highlight the benefits of your product or service. These could be visually appealing graphics that explain the features and benefits of your product or service in an easy-to-understand format. 
• Sponsored landing pages with interactive quizzes or polls that are related to your product or service. These could be fun and engaging tools that help users learn more about your product or service and how it can benefit them.
• Testimonials or case studies on a landing page or your website. These could be real-life examples of how your product or service has helped others, which can help build trust and credibility.

3. Conversion

The goal of the conversion phase is to entice customers to take a specific action, most commonly the purchase of your product or service. This happens only because you were successful during the previous stages in convincing your potential buyers that your brand is better than the rest and solves their problems better than others. 

Native advertising content ideas for the conversion stage include:

• Testimonials or case studies on a landing page or a website also work for this stage.
• Advertisements for your lead magnet. As we explain in detail here, your webinar could be about thought leadership, brand awareness, or product demos. Whatever your topic, the native ads you use to promote should clearly convey the benefits of attending your event.
• Personalised recommendations for products or services that are based on a user's previous purchases or activities on your website. These could be designed to encourage users to trust your product or service and make a purchase.
• Retargeting ads that are shown to users who have previously visited your website but have not yet converted. These could be ads that are shown to users as they browse the web and are designed to remind them of your product or service and encourage them to make a purchase. 

4. Brand Loyalty

The basis of the brand loyalty stage is delivering on the promise you’ve made. You haven't disappointed your customers’ expectations, you've convinced them to choose you, and they've been more than happy with their choice; they will undoubtedly purchase again. Therefore, it is critical to track and monitor consumers' post-purchase behaviours, as well as nurture their relationships, in order to remain top-of-mind.

The importance of this continuous interaction is also why, very often, the engagement stage is added to the funnel, which fosters loyalty and continues to convince customers that it is right to invest in your products or services. Whenever the customer interacts in the post-purchase with the brand, this point of contact helps to maintain a lasting relationship over time. 

Native advertising content ideas for the loyalty stage include: 

• Sponsored ads to landing pages to sign up for your newsletter. These could be emails that you send to users on a regular basis and include updates about new products or services, special offers, and other relevant content.
• Ads that are targeted to users based on their past purchases. These could be posts or ads that are designed to keep them engaged with your brand and encourage them to make additional purchases.

Final Thoughts 

As we have seen in the course of this article, to align your native content with your marketing funnel, you should first identify the stage of the funnel that you are targeting. Then, consider the specific needs and interests of your target audience at that stage and create native content that addresses those needs and interests, with all the content ideas that we provided above. Using our native advertising tips, you’ll be well on your way to converting interested buyers into loyal brand advocates. 

Bonus: Pro Tips

Here are some steps you can take to align your native content with your marketing funnel: 

1. Define your target audience: Start by identifying the demographics, interests, and needs of your target audience. This will help you create content that resonates with them and is relevant to their stage in the funnel. 
2. Determine your marketing goals: Next, identify the specific SMART goals you want to achieve with your native content. Do you want to raise awareness of your brand, generate leads, or drive sales? Your goals will help guide the content you create and the calls to action you include. 
3. Choose the right platforms: Select the platforms and websites where your target audience is most likely to see your native content. This could include online media and news websites, depending on your audience and goals. 
4. Create relevant and valuable content: Once you know your target audience and marketing goals, you can start creating native content that speaks to their needs and interests at each stage of the funnel. Use compelling headlines, engaging visuals, and strong calls to action to make your content stand out and drive the desired response. Read this article to learn our tips for choosing the right content. 
5. Track and optimise: Finally, track the performance of your native content using analytics tools, and make adjustments as needed to improve its effectiveness. This could include testing different headlines, images, or calls to action to see which ones resonate most with your audience. Check here the four most important metrics to be tracked in native advertising.

For more help with native advertising ideas and content for each stage of the funnel, reach out to us at Readpeak and learn more about our native advertising platform.