Notes on native advertising
Lessons, breakdowns, and ideas from the native ads I come across — including my own.
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· native-advertising · headlines
Native ad headlines: the patterns that win the click — and why they work
Why native ad headlines are a different craft from search or Meta, the 10 classic headline types that keep winning on native — and the line between curiosity and clickbait.
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· direct-response · copywriting
What is direct-response copywriting? The craft behind every ad that actually sells
What direct-response copywriting is, how it differs from brand copy, the masters who built it — Hopkins, Caples, Ogilvy, Schwartz, Halbert, Kennedy — and the principles that still run paid traffic.
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· vsl · video-sales-letter
What is a VSL? Why video sales letters convert cold traffic — and the people who proved it
What a VSL is, the ugly-on-purpose origin story, the classic structure, what Benson, Brunson, and Hormozi each added — and when a VSL beats an advertorial or a quiz on cold traffic.
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· quiz-funnel · native-advertising
Quiz funnels: why they out-convert landing pages on cold traffic — and how to build one
What a quiz funnel is, why it out-converts landing pages on cold traffic, the six-part anatomy that makes one work — and the mistakes that make one leak. From ten years of building them on native.
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· advertorial · native-advertising
Why your native campaign bleeds after the click
Your native CTR is fine but conversions are dead — and the leak is usually the page, not the traffic. What an advertorial does, and when a cold campaign needs one.
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· native-advertising · direct-response
Why Most Native Ads Fail — Lessons From $35M in Paid Spend
Why most native ad campaigns fail — and 10 lessons from $35M of paid media spend that change the outcome. Real cases with Plarium, NeuroNation, and 50+ direct-response brands.