Category: News

When budgets shrink and pressure mounts, marketing leaders face a tough decision: scale back or get smarter.

Economic uncertainty puts pressure on marketers to do more with less. But while it’s tempting to pull back across the board, that strategy can do more harm than good. The brands that emerge stronger are the ones that stay focused on evolving customer needs, remain flexible in their tactics, and continue to invest – just more intentionally. 

Wonder how to stay effective when every dollar counts? 

These five essential strategies will help you maximize your ad investments and maintain impact – even as the market shifts.

1. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity 

When advertising budgets get tighter, many brands default to measuring success by reach and frequency. But more impressions don’t always mean more value. What matters most is where your ads appear – and who sees them. 

In uncertain times, trust is harder to earn. Placing your message in the right context helps you avoid wasting spend on impressions that don’t convert or resonate.

Focus on:

• Premium, trusted environments that enhance credibility
• Contextual placements that match your message
• High-intent audiences already engaged in the topic

At Dianomi our approach is built around premium placements with established publishers in finance, business, tech, and lifestyle. We serve ads contextually within content where attention is already high – helping your brand connect with the right people, in the right moment. 

2. Choose the Right Buying Strategy

A common misstep during volatile periods is sticking with a rigid media plan that no longer reflects your current goals or market realities. Instead, your buying strategy should be fluid and aligned with audience behavior and business priorities.

The right pricing model depends on your objectives:

• CPC (Cost-per-click) is ideal when you’re looking to optimize for engagement or direct response
• CPM (Cost-per-mille) works well for awareness – driven campaigns, especially when paired with quality placements 
• Blended or flexible models allow for greater precision across the funnel

At Dianomi, we tailor our buying strategies to meet your goals – whether you’re focused on performance, visibility, or long-term brand impact.

3. Make Data-Driven Decisions 

In uncertain markets, flexibility is key – and that starts with real-time visibility into performance. 

When you can quickly see what’s working, you can make informed adjustments that reduce waste and boost impact. Relying on static plans just doesn’t cut it anymore. 

At Dianomi, we provide transparent, real-time reporting so you can:

• Identify top-performing content and shift budget accordingly
• Pause underperforming placements quickly
• Align spend with actual user behavior 

Example: One client shifted 40% of their spend to better performing publishers mid-campaign and saw a 22% improvement in topline CPA over a 4 month period.

4. Position your Brand as a Trusted Resource

During times of uncertainty, people look for insight, clarity, and guidance – not just offers. Brands that show up with relevant, thoughtful content are more likely to earn attention and trust. 

This is especially true in verticals like finance and tech, where audiences are actively trying to make sense of the changing market conditions.

Content that performs best: 

• Educates, informs, or explains 
• Offers timely insight or expert commentary 
• Is placed alongside credible editorial content

In Q1 2025, 31% of all banking-related content across our network featured JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. His commentary on tariffs and inflation consistently drove higher readership – showing that trusted voices carry weight during moments of uncertainty. 

By showing up with helpful, timely content – in the right environment –  your brand becomes a trusted source, not just a seller.

5. Re-Evaluate Your Partnerships

When every dollar counts, your media partners matter more than ever. They should be true strategic allies, not just service providers.

Smartest marketers are choosing partners that:

• Reduce inefficiencies and middlemen
• Offer clear, transparent reporting
• Adapt quickly as market needs shift 

At Dianomi, we prioritize direct partnerships with publishers, giving brands:

• More control over where ads appear 
• Fewer fees and better transparency
• Stronger performance with less waste

The right partner doesn’t just place your ads – they help make every dollar go further.

Final Takeaway

Economic uncertainty doesn’t mean you stop investing – it means you invest smarter. The brands that stay agile, prioritize quality, and focus on performance will be the ones that emerge stronger. 
Want to see how Dianomi can help make your ad spend work harder? Let’s talk.

Introduction

In today’s crowded digital space, grabbing attention requires more than just a great product – it’s about understanding exactly what makes people click, engage, and convert. The most effective native ads don’t just look good; they tap into key psychological triggers that drive action.

At Dianomi, we’ve spent years analyzing what makes native ads successful. We’ve fined-tuned strategies that consistently deliver qualified clicks and higher conversions. Here are some of the most effective psychological principles behind top-performing native ads.

Key Elements of High Performing Native Ads

1.Creating a sense of urgency

People are wired to respond to scarcity. When an ad conveys that time is running out or an opportunity is limited, it triggers an emotional response that encourages immediate action. People want what they believe they can’t have for long, making urgency or exclusivity a powerful tool.

In fact our data shows that ads featuring time-sensitive words like “ASAP” saw a 171% high click-through rate than those without urgency-driven language.

2. Asking a question

People are naturally drawn to answering questions – it triggers curiosity and self-reflection. When an ad asks something personally relevant, users are more likely to engage.

Instead of simply stating “Plan for retirement today,” an ad that asks, “Are you saving enough for retirement?” makes people stop and think, increasing click-through rates.

3. Managing expectations

Consistency is key. If your ad promises one thing but your landing page delivers another, users will feel mislead – leading to higher bounce rates. Aligning your ad message with your landing page builds trust, credibility, and engagement.

4. Calling out your audience

Ads that directly identify the target audience feel more personal and relevant. When people see themselves reflected in an ad, they’re more likely to pay attention and take action.

For example, our data shows that ads that directly call out CEOs have outperformed others, with 34.6% higher engagement rate.

5. Utilizing numbered lists

List-based headlines set clear expectations and make content feel structured and easy to consume. Readers know exactly what they’ll get, which increases engagement.

The Role of Context: Why Ad Placement Matters

Even the most compelling ad creatives won’t perform well if they’re placed in the wrong environment. While these psychological tactics help capture attention and drive engagement, their success hinges on where the ads appear.

A well-crafted message is only effective if it reaches the right audience in a setting that enhances trust and credibility. Ads placed within premium, contextually relevant environments not only increase visibility but also drive higher-quality interactions.

At Dianomi, we understand that context is just as important as content. By leveraging placements on trusted financial, business, and lifestyle publications, we align your message with content that matters to your audience – maximizing engagement and performance.

Additionally, when working with Dianomi directly, you’ll have a dedicated account manager who actively monitors performance, refines targeting, and optimizes for the best-performing creatives. This ensures your campaign drives not only clicks, but real conversions.

Maximize Your Native Ad Impact Today

At Dianomi, we don’t just drive clicks – we drive conversions. Our data-driven approach ensures your ads reach the right audience, in the right environment, at the right time.

Ready to optimize your native ad strategy? Let’s talk. Contact us today to start maximizing your campaign performance.

We’re back!

Dianomi is to host “Financial Services Marketing 2025” at UTS Business School in Sydney on Thursday, 5 June 2025.

Last year’s event was not only informative but also very entertaining: we kept the sessions short, the coffee flowing and Chatham House rule in effect.

The one day event is for marketers of financial services and business, particularly those of investments, wealth management, private banking, stockbroking and associated services.

Once again we will have some very interesting and entertaining speakers on stage and a room full of experts in the audience so the presentations, questions and networking should be superb.

Current Dianomi APAC clients are invited to attend, please contact your Account Manager if you have not yet heard from us.

If you would like to present or be involved in a panel discussion then please let us know.

Recap video from 2024 event:

Measuring the impact of your content marketing can be challenging, even for the most experienced marketers. This is because branded content can serve multiple purposes simultaneously – raising awareness, improving brand perception, or even shifting consumers’ understanding of a particular issue. In the best cases, it can directly lead to data capture and sales for your campaign.

At Dianomi we’ve helped brands achieve all of these objectives through native content campaigns across our global network of brand-safe, premium news sites. Now we’re introducing a new way to measure performance: multi-step conversion tracking.

What is Multi-Step Conversion?

Traditional conversion tracking often stops at a single metric, such as how many users submitted their information on your landing page – whether it’s an email address or business inquiry. But anyone who’s run a conversion campaign knows that capturing a lead doesn’t always translate to real business results.

Even after submitting their information, users may still fall out of your purchase funnel for various reasons, such as incorrect email addresses or poor credit ratings. To truly understand how effective your content marketing is at driving conversions, it’s essential to track not only the initial submission of data, but also the validation of that data and whether the click ultimately results in a sale.

Multi-step conversion tracking provides a more sophisticated way to measure customer engagement with an ad unit beyond a simple click. Instead of only measuring the initial form submission, it follows the user journey, providing a clearer, more reliable view of campaign performance.

Where Can Multi-Step Conversion Help?

Multi-step conversion tracking is particularly valuable when the buying or online submission process is complex and involves multiple steps or decision points. Examples include campaigns for credit card applications, loan inquiries, or app installations.

In these cases, a meaningful conversion metric would capture how many users reached each stage of the process and what percentage of those users were qualified or took the next step.

With multi-step conversion tracking marketers can not only see how many users enter the funnel and progress through each stage, but can also identify when drop-offs occur. This allows you to identify friction points in the customer journey, whether it’s a confusing form field, hesitation at submitting personal information, or issues with payment processing. By uncovering these gaps, marketers can make data-driven optimizations to reduce abandonment rates and improve conversions.

Furthermore, multi-step tracking offers a clearer view of content effectiveness, helping your content-specific messaging strategies or creative elements drive meaningful outcomes. You can refine campaign elements and channel placements based on what’s genuinely driving engagement and conversions.

At Dianomi, we help clients connect this conversion data back to the individual ad unit, allowing for better optimization of content messaging and placement based on what’s driving real business results.

Ready to Drive Smarter Conversions?

Discover how multi-step conversion tracking can unlock deeper insights and better outcomes for your campaigns. Contact Dianomi today to learn more.

As the climate crisis accelerates, the spotlight has shifted from traditional industries known for their heavy carbon emissions to unexpected culprits – one of which is digital advertising. Marketers are now realizing the carbon footprint of programmatic advertising is larger than they thought and are looking to decrease the carbon impact of their programmatic buys. In the advertising industry, a common response to this challenge often involves adding more vendors to the buying process. Vendors offer a variety of solutions to help mitigate carbon footprints, each claiming to address sustainability in different ways. Some vendors promise to hand-select programmatic partners based on their sustainability credentials. Others aim to optimize ad placements to reduce wasted impressions, and some even offer environmental incentives like tree planting or wildlife conservation for every ad dollar spent. However, this approach can complicate rather than simplify efforts to achieve sustainability.

Optimizing Your Supply Path

A more straightforward and effective way to reduce carbon emissions lies in streamlining your supply path. By focusing on fewer, higher-quality ads from reputable publishers, you can significantly decrease your environmental impact. As highlighted in GroupM’s sustainability best practices note, this approach not only minimizes complexity, but also enhances the effectiveness of your advertising efforts.

The rationale behind this is simple: The fewer technology partners involved in the ad buy, the fewer servers are involved, and therefore the smaller the carbon impact. Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) often account for a significant portion of the emissions tied to programmatic advertising, so cutting down on these intermediaries is an easy starting point towards reducing your carbon footprint.

The second key step is to focus on quality, reputable sites. According to Scope3, low-quality sites with excessive ad loads such as Made For Advertising (MFAs) sites – produce 26% more emissions than their premium counterparts. By being more selective about choosing your publisher partners, you can quickly decrease their environmental impact.

So how can you put these approaches into practice? First, you should begin by looking over your supply path and evaluating where you can eliminate waste. The shortest supply path will always be to buy direct from the publisher whenever possible. Particularly for highly involved, content-rich partnerships, direct relationships with publishers are both the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly route for clients.

However, there can be an issue here around scale. Few publishers are able to truly offer global reach at a significant scale. So where do you go from there?

In those situations, working with a partner like Dianomi enables advertisers to reach quality publishers at scale, without significantly extending the supply path. Revenue goes direct to the publisher, ensuring they are fairly compensated and more of your money goes directly towards buying ads. And, thanks to a CPC trading basis, Dianomi ensures 100% visibility for the ads that you pay for, significantly reducing wastage. Both financial and environmental.

In the world of digital marketing, a successful content campaign hinges on two key factors: the number of readers your content attracts and the level of engagement those readers demonstrate. While attracting readers to your content is important, the true measure of a content campaign’s success lies in how engaged those readers are.

1.Measuring Engagement: Time on Site

When it comes to measuring engagement, time on site is one of the best indicators of success. When high enough, it suggests that readers are genuinely interested in consuming your content. Which, if you are aiming to increase market perception of your brand through thought leadership, is crucial. Thought leadership can only be achieved if your content is read thoroughly and appreciated.

To increase time spent on your site, your content has to be engaging and relevant. High-quality content that resonates with your target audience will retain user attention for longer.

2. Crafting High-Quality, Engaging Content

To maximize the effectiveness of your content campaigns, it’s essential to create content that resonates with your audience. Here are some tips to increase engagement.

• Know Your Audience: Conduct thorough research to understand your target audience’s interests, pain points, and preferences. Use these insights to craft content that addresses their needs.
• Create Compelling Headlines: Your headline is the first thing your reader sees, so it needs to grab attention and encourage that crucial initial click. Ask a question, create a sense of urgency or exclusivity, call out the audience that you are trying to reach in your headline copy.
• Enhance Visual Appeal: Visual elements like images, infographics, and videos can make your content more digestible and engaging. However, you have to be sure that your visuals correlate to the content being discussed and enhance the story being told.
• Tell a Story: Make your content relatable and engaging through storytelling. When your brand shares an authentic story, it builds trust and credibility. It humanizes your brand or messaging, making it easier for people to connect with you.
• Include a Clear Call to Action: Encourage further engagement by prompting readers to subscribe, download resources, or share your content. People love sharing content that resonates with them or helps them see things from a new perspective.

Once you have created compelling content to optimize engagement, the next step is to ensure that your distribution strategy is both cost-effective and impactful.

3. Choosing the Right Pricing Model

Not all pricing models are created equal, and the one you choose should align with your campaign goals. One of the most efficient ways to ensure your content campaign is cost-effective is by leveraging a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) model. CPC ensures you only pay when someone actively engages with your content by clicking on it, minimizing wasted ad spend and ensures your budget is directly tied to reader acquisition. This model is a great option for campaigns looking to drive traffic. In other cases, a Viewable Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions (vCPM) may be more suitable, where you pay for every 1,000 viewable impressions. This model works well if your goal is to increase brand awareness or reach, ensuring your content is seen by a broad audience, even if they don’t immediately click through.

Conclusion

Running an effective content campaign requires more than just attracting readers; it’s about engaging them in a meaningful way that builds your brand and establishes through leadership. By focusing on key strategies like optimizing for engagement, crafting high-quality content, and utilizing the right pricing model, you can significantly enhance the success of your content campaigns and achieve your marketing goals.