Maximize advertising ROI with sponsored content
April 17, 2025
Sponsored content is educational, relatable or entertaining and seamlessly incorporated into content on other websites and platforms. This strategy appeals to today’s consumers, who prefer relevant and valuable advertising. At Forum Communications (FCC), sponsored content is a leading driver of growth in our advertising strategies.
What is sponsored content?
From blog posts and videos to podcasts and infographics, sponsored content is a blend of storytelling and advertising that targets your audience in an authentic way and often mimics the look and feel of editorial content. It is designed to provide value to your audience while marketing your product, service or brand. You’ll build trust and credibility because sponsored content is part of the person’s experience, driving both brand awareness and conversions.
Why sponsored content works
Sponsored content is engaging, informative and, most importantly, non-intrusive. Nearly half of all consumers (49%) make purchases at least once a month after watching or reading sponsored content.
Here’s why it’s so effective:
Authenticity: Sponsored content blends into platforms as it’s designed to feel like a natural part of the experience. This builds a genuine connection with customers choosing to visit that site or platform.
Value-driven: Whether it’s educating, entertaining or solving a problem, the focus of sponsored content is on delivering something your customer cares about or has expressed interest in.
Trust-building: Customers trust authentic content that aligns with their interests and needs. Because sponsored content is seamless, it feels more relatable and credible. A reputable brand like our local FCC news sites, which has already established trust, will be connected to your sponsored content, brand and business.
The benefits of sponsored content
There are many benefits of sponsored content, making it a smart choice for businesses looking to achieve specific advertising and growth goals. Sponsored content helps you connect with your audience, build brand awareness and achieve results.
Here’s why you should consider it as part of your advertising strategy:
Attract customer interest: Content that is relevant and appealing to your customers will draw their attention.
Create emotional responses: Stories spark emotions, which helps your business connect with your customers and make your business memorable.
Drive engagement: The point of sponsored content is to encourage conversations, comments, likes and shares that extend your message and reach.
Increase longevity: Sponsored content lives longer depending on where it is placed, giving your business more time to make an impact on your customers.
Reach wider audiences: Partnering with FCC allows your sponsored content to reach new audiences who might not have known about your business.
Increase referral traffic: Providing additional links to your website or landing page improves your SEO and drives more traffic and potential new customers.
Best practices of sponsored content
Sponsored content establishes trust and engages your customers on a deeper level to ultimately drive business growth. With strategic storytelling and articles, you’ll capture attention and connect with your audience.
Follow these best practices to maximize your sponsored content:
Keep content natural: Don’t let your content be overly promotional. It’s more important to be real and natural so it aligns with your business and delivers value to your customer.
Break up the text: Long blocks of content may overwhelm readers. Use videos, photos or infographics to break up your written copy and add variety to help communicate your message more effectively.
Focus on quality and relevance: Content will be most effective if it meets your customers’ needs. It must be high quality, well-researched and applicable to your customer.
Engage with a story: You can humanize your content by sharing customer narratives, educational information or even the story of your business to connect with your audience.
Measuring success
It’s important to measure the success of your advertising, including sponsored content. To fully understand your ad performance, start by analyzing reach, impressions and click-through rates. To get a complete picture, also focus on engagement, shares and the time users spend on your content. Together, these metrics offer a comprehensive view of your success.
These metrics offer a comprehensive view of the success of your advertising:
Reach: The number of people exposed to a sponsored message within a specific timeframe. Reach helps your business measure the potential size of your audience, determine the effectiveness of its advertising and improve marketing strategies.
Impressions: The number of times sponsored content is displayed or shown to people, regardless of whether they interact with it. Impressions are an indicator of reach and visibility, helping you understand how many people are potentially seeing your message.
Click-through rates: Calculates the percentage of people who click on sponsored content or a link after viewing it, indicating the effectiveness of the ad in capturing attention and driving engagement.
Engagement: Measures like time spent on a page and comments to see how much engagement your sponsored content is getting.
Shares: The number of times sponsored content is shared by people on social media or other platforms. It is used to gauge the content’s reach and engagement.
A/B testing: Two versions of an ad are compared to determine which performs better. With the results, you can make data-driven decisions, improve engagement and maximize your return-on-investment (ROI).
Our sponsored content services
FCC has helped thousands of businesses reach their customers and grow their business with sponsored content as a key part of our advertising solutions. With over 20 news sites, 200+ publications and more than 5 million unique visitors each month, your sponsored content can reach a wide audience. Also, when you leverage our first-party data, you get advanced targeting on our local news network and other websites to reach your desired customers with meaningful interactions for lasting relationships.
FCC offers your business:
Customized content creation: Our team of expert writers and designers crafts compelling content tailored to your business’s brand and goals.
Strategic placement: We place your content on high-traffic pages including homepage and article webpages to maximize visibility and engagement.
Audience targeting: Get an advantage with our advanced targeting and our exclusive first-party data so you reach the right audience at the right time, based on demographics, interests and behaviors of your customers.
Performance tracking: Receive comprehensive reports on engagement metrics to measure the success of your sponsored content.
The future of sponsored content
The future of sponsored content is strong. The popularity of personalized communication continues to rise as customers increasingly expect businesses to understand and connect with them on an emotional level. With advancements in audience segmentation, you can target your sponsored content directly to the people looking for your information.
Watch for these upcoming shifts in sponsored content:
Creating micro-moments: Your business can quickly connect with your customer during a specific time in their decision-making process with micro-moments – short videos like point-of-view clips, facing challenges or very short product demonstrations
Imperfect content: To be more authentic and relatable, content should be more like real life and imperfect. Raw, unedited clips or articles featuring everyday people will resonate more with customers.
Great written content: Demand for great written content will increase as it’s the backbone of effective advertising. And the content is everywhere, social media posts, blogs, articles, video scripts and more. text that appears on your blog.
Sponsored content engages your audience on a more personal level, developing trust and loyalty while delivering valuable content. By prioritizing authenticity, relevance and storytelling, your business makes connections that resonate long after the first engagement. The success of your sponsored content lies in the ability to blend seamlessly into the consumer experience, allowing customers to explore, engage and convert. The key to sponsored content success is not just to reach your audience but to genuinely relate to them.
Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter or download our advertising whitepapers for more insights like these delivered straight to your inbox. And follow us on LinkedIn for more valuable advertising trends and tips.
