Outbrain boss: Content marketers must think like publishers
Technology platform Outbrain’s Australian GM Ayal Steiner says that successful content marketing begins with thinking like a publisher.
Speaking at the Mumbrella360 conference today, Steiner said that audiences had “learned to ignore” display advertising and that targeted content marketing is a great way is way for brands to shift perception.
“Tell amazing stories. When you do I’m going to like the brand that created those amazing things and when push comes to shove between you and the competitor, I’m going to choose you. That’s affinity and no banner ad in the world has ever done that to me,” said Steiner.
The Outbrain boss said that traditional forms of online measurement such as click-through rates were less relevant to successful content marketing and could distract from targeting the right audience.
Call me crazy but given that Outbrain charge clients on a per click basis, I would think traditional forms of online measurement such as click through rates were of some relevance to successful content marketing.
I saw an Outbrain driven ad for The Guardian on SMH the other day, How does that work? Seems like a great product but I wouldn’t want my ads turning up on competitors sites. Or, more importantly, theirs on mine.
Konrad: Good point, Let me explain. CTR can be a trap to focus on great clicky titles with little true value to the audience. Focusing on engagement post click will ensure user delight which leads to brand lift.
Louise: It IS a great product because we puts readers first. Every publisher we work with has full control over the competitive landscape and where they don’t want to refer their audience to due to a competitive conflict. However, we do see a trend of publishers opening referrals to competitors since the web is flat an no one publisher really controls their audience online.