Q&A: How to Use Data When Working with Native Advertising

Most marketers in the native advertising industry have figured out that data is an important part of native advertising campaigns. But what are the dos and don'ts when using data?

We asked Meena Thiruvengadam, Success Manager at Parse.ly, who was one of the official speakers at Native Advertising DAYS 2018.

The best way to show ROI on investments into native advertising is by using reliable data.

READ MORE: Native Advertising vs Display Ads: Which Leads to Better ROI?

Why are data and native advertising such a good match?

Data is one of the best ways to show ROI. Brands often look to native advertising to broaden their reach, improve brand recognition and open up the top of their consumer acquisition funnels.

RELATED: How to create a native advertising strategy

The best way to show ROI on investments into native advertising is by using reliable data to tell the story of how a piece of content is meeting a customer’s specific goal.

Data should never be used out of context.

How should native advertisers NOT use data?

Data should represent your audience and their interests, and so it should never be used out of context, which would skew that view of the audience.

The data points you choose to disclose, leave out, focus on and ignore may skew reality and allow personal opinions to influence outcomes more than you’d like.

Native advertisers should consult any historical data when making projections for new campaigns.

READ MORE: The 5 Best Native Advertising Platforms Right Now

In which parts of the process should native advertisers make use of data?

I suggest a “before, during, and after” framework for using data. Native advertisers should consult any historical data when making projections for new campaigns or for use when pitching new clients.

As campaigns get underway, they should use early data to make changes to amplify reach and CTR if necessary.

After a campaign ends, native advertisers should use data to tell the story of how a campaign performed and how that performance aligns with a client’s goals.

Learn as much as you can about how the systems you’re using measure audiences.

If you are a content studio and you have never really used data actively before, how do you get started - where should you start?

Learn as much as you can about how the systems you’re using measure audiences and define key terms or metrics.

There are great communities in audience engagement and metrics that you can join and have discussions with, or talk to other people in your organization that work with data and see how they would approach native advertising from a data perspective.

Should you collect your data in-house or work with third-parties?

Building and maintaining in-house data solutions is no small feat, so for many organizations working with third-party vendors allow them to focus on the things they do well.

RELATED: 4 Tips for Using Data Creatively to Produce Original Branded Content

I’ve heard stories of entire systems built in-house, only to have the original people leave and no one to maintain it!

What have been your most important learnings working with data over the years?

Definitions differ across measurement systems, so reading the fine print is crucial to understanding exactly what you’re looking at.

We’ll be talking about how these teams are using data to win more business, deliver better campaigns and show ROI to their clients.

Parse.ly is an official sponsor at this year’s Native Advertising DAYS and you’re an official speaker at the conference. Why should attendees absolutely not miss your presentation on content studios loving data?

Parse.ly works with some of the biggest in-house content studios in the world.

We’ll be talking about how these teams are using data to win more business, deliver better campaigns and show ROI to their clients. These are big teams, but the changes they’ve made with data can be done by anyone.

And why shouldn’t they miss your roundtable discussion on how to get started with data in a native ad studio?

Sometimes, figuring out where to start is the hardest part. This session is meant to get you up and going with tagging strategies, metrics to consider and approaches to sharing data.

What do you look forward to the most at this year’s Native Advertising DAYS?

It’s my first time here, so I’m looking forward to learning the ropes and hearing what cool new things are happening in the native ad space.