The FT is using reader data to tweak its native ads

Lucinda Southern of Digiday writes about how the Financial Times is examining how its readers interact with its native advertising to improve the content.

Southern writes, “FT Squared’s ‘paid post’ format sits in a prime position on the FT homepage. Across the nine brand campaigns run through FT Squared since launch, it has improved click through rate from the home page by 30 percent, according to the publisher. Then they are taken to separate pages that contain client-voiced articles, videos and images, chosen by the brand.

“‘We’re now creating ambitious content environments that are immersive,’ said Alexis Jarman, content activation director at the FT. Previously paid posts were similar in look and feel to FT articles, although labeled as paid. With the latest update these brand pages will be using the full width of the screen, on all devices, and include more multimedia features, like animated graphs and infinite scrolling. Here it borrowed from the success of its editorial special reports, particularly that of ‘Distinctive Living,‘ a series looking at expats around the world, adding in more multimedia features like the infinite scroll. ‘We saw significant increase in active engaged time,’ said Jarman.

“When FT Squared launched in September 2015 the aim was to offer more tailored advertiser partnerships around branded content, all under one banner. Increasingly, the publisher uses reader insight to inform content and adjust campaigns in real time. And it’s proving successful, in cases engagement paid for posts have matched that of editorial, according to Jarman.”

Read more here.