As a publisher, native advertising is a great way to attract new customers and build your brand, but only if you use it correctly. Unfortunately, many publishing professionals are unsure about how to properly employ native advertising on their websites and companion sites. As a result, many end up turning to advertising agencies for help, and while this strategy can bring about success, it can also be costly.

SEE ALSO: 3 Examples of Successful Native Advertising

In addition, it can also cause you to lose some control in how your advertising campaigns are carried out. Instead of going through the hassle and expense of letting someone else handle things, take a look at the following tips that make native advertising for publishers easy:

Clearly Label Your Ads

When placing ads on your companion sites, make sure they are clearly labeled or that the site’s advertising policy states that the site will clearly label them as ads. Doing this has two purposes: first, it’s the ethical thing to do, and potential customers will respect that. Second, if you don’t clearly label an ad and a potential customer clicks through, only to find out that it was in fact an ad, the potential customer will likely feel cheated and will be less inclined to do business with you.

Put Ads Where People Will See Them

Although it’s common sense to place ads where people will see them, you’d actually be surprised at how many publishers avoid doing this. Really take some time to study engagement metrics across your site or companion site to figure out where people are spending more of their time or where they are interacting the most. These are the places where you’ll want to place your ads.

For example, the comment section at the bottom of a piece of published content will likely attract a lot of attention, and therefore, that would certainly be an area to focus on. This can also help in content marketing as your content could be an introduction to the product or service you’re advertising for, and then your ad will be there when the reader finishes.

Use More Than One Vendor

It’s also a good idea to work with multiple vendors that focus on native advertising for publishers. By relying on just one vendor or just your website, you may be handicapping your business. Instead, take a look at various vendors to figure out which ones are best suited to your business model. From there, work to have your ads appear across a number of sites to increase the potential for revenue.

Concentrate on Metrics

Finally, once you’ve got your native advertising campaign in full swing, you’ll want to concentrate heavily on metrics. While you might think that an uptick in new business means that your ads are working, you might be wrong. While, yes, it’s true that you could make the correlation, what you might be missing by not focusing on metrics is where you’re losing potential customers. Your ads’ metrics will show you where you’re succeeding and where you’re failing, allowing you the chance to make adjusts as needed.