Naver Marketing Strategy – Understanding Marketing in South Korea

Naver marketing strategy is to reach the South Korean market. If you are looking to penetrate this market, it is important to understand how marketing works in South Korea. In terms of technology, South Korea is one of the most advanced digital societies in the world with almost all the population active online.

Naver, one of the most widely used search engines in South Korea, is often overlooked when it comes to marketing strategies by foreign companies operating there. However, Naver should not be underestimated – it has a massive reach and many unique features that make it different from other search engines. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key marketing aspects of Naver and how businesses can use them to their advantage. So, if you’re interested in doing business in South Korea or want to learn more about Naver, keep reading!

Digital Marketing in South Korea

South Korea is one of the best places where digital marketing is concerned. The country has the world’s highest internet penetration rate and a very developed mobile infrastructure. Moreover, the South Korean government is investing a lot in developing the digital economy. According to statistical studies, in 2021, out of the 51.29 million population in South Korea, 49.75 million, amounting to 97%, were active online. In that same year, Koreans had an 87% social media penetration rate on social media usage. This means that there are a lot of opportunities for businesses to reach out to customers through digital channels.

To survive in this highly competitive market, you must first create a strong digital marketing strategy. If you’re new to the Korean market and unfamiliar with the most important online trends there, you should hire a specialist like Inquivix to help you out.

How to Reach Out to the Korean Audience through Naver?

Despite Google gaining market share in the Korean search engine industry, Naver still holds out as a popular web portal especially due to its unique structure and use of the Korean language.  Naver is a search engine, content portal, and social media platform rolled into one. If you’re looking to do business in South Korea, you need to have a strong Naver marketing strategy.

Beyond a Search Engine

Naver has numerous features and special functions that appeal to South Korean consumers, making it their first choice. When a search query is entered into Naver, the results page generates not just a list of websites that match your criteria, but also additional pages with blogs, online shops, news, and other content. With Naver’s latest artificial intelligence search tool, “AiRsearch,” this is even more personalized according to the user’s preferences.

This offers businesses a large number of marketing opportunities.  Not only can businesses place ads and sponsor content through Naver’s web portal and search engine, but they can also reach out to consumers through Naver’s blog platform, online shop function, and various other services. Naver’s marketing potential doesn’t stop there though.  The company also offers several big data services that businesses can use to better understand consumer trends and target their marketing efforts.

Generate Brand Awareness

Due to its extremely large quantity of website traffic, Naver is a popular choice among businesses that have yet to set foot in South Korea.  Naver provides these businesses with an immediate way to establish brand awareness and reach a large number of consumers. Businesses can use Naver’s web portal and search engine to place ads and sponsored content. These ad placements are effective in driving traffic to websites and generating leads. With 97% of its population dependent on the internet for their daily lives, it’s no surprise that search engines like Naver are the most popular sources of brand exposure.

Naver Marketing

Naver’s work is quite different from Google’s. Therefore, your marketing strategy should be designed accordingly.  Here are some key factors to consider when planning your Naver marketing strategy.

Naver SERP

The Naver search engine results page (SERP) is quite different from that of Google. Naver, like Yahoo, is a portal that resembles a search engine. This is because Naver Blog, Naver Cafe, and Naver Q&A all provide a lot of user-generated content in the SERP. Platform (desktop or mobile) and keywords have a significant impact on the SERP layout. And search engine optimization for Naver is quite different from traditional methods.

Keyword Research

It’s critical to conduct long-tail and semantically-oriented keyword research while executing a Naver paid search. You can use Google Keyword Planner to find keywords for English or other languages. Naver also offers a keyword analysis tool for Korean. Because Naver is a principal Korean language-focused portal, its keyword tool generally produces more relevant and related keywords.

3 Essential Features of Naver Marketing

We have discussed why Naver is key to digital marketing in South Korea.  In this section, we will outline three essential features of Naver marketing that businesses should be aware of when executing a campaign.

Naver’s Webmaster Tool/Analytics

First, you need to register your website with the Naver Webmaster tool to access its search engine. Then you need to go through the verification process. After the website is verified, you will be able to use Naver Analytics.

Naver Analytics gives you insights about your website’s visibility on Naver, as well as detailed information about user behavior on your website. You can see which pages are being viewed the most, how long users are staying on each page, and which keywords are performing.

Naver Blog

The second feature Naver provides is a unique platform for content marketing; “Naver Blog”“. This is a blog service that allows companies to create their blogs on the Naver portal and reach out to potential customers. The Naver Blog is a popular destination in Korea for consumers to learn about new products, read product reviews of many kinds, plan their vacations, listen to music, and more. So, make sure to utilize Naver Blog for your marketing.

Naver PPC Marketing

Because Naver has a large amount of daily user traffic, it’s an excellent advertising opportunity. Naver PPC (pay per click) advertising is a type of marketing that targets advertisements for relevant audiences. With a large amount of traffic comes a large amount of potential customers that can be reached through PPC ads on Naver.

Understanding Naver Ads

With Naver getting a large number of visitors daily, it is a great place for a business to advertise.  Naver offers many types of advertisements, which we have discussed below. 

Click to choose ads

These ads are like PPC ads on Google. They appear on the top of the SERP for any search query and are the first to reach the user.

Brand Search Ads

This ad is suitable for businesses looking to advertise under their brand name on this platform. It takes up the majority of the SERP with pictures and links to other parts of the website, which is quite useful. Because more space on the page is used, a higher CTR and more relevant visitors can be expected.

Display Ads

Naver Display Ads operate separately from PPC ads. There are 2 versions of them; Time Board and Rolling Board.

Time Board

This version lets the ad be displayed on the Naver Home page for one hour on a given day.  Advertisers can decide the best time for their niche and get the highest coverage.

Rolling Board

This version shows display ads on the Naver network depending on various targeting criteria.

Shopping Box

These ads appear on the top right of the Naver SERP, and they include a product image with text that links to a specific page.

Conclusion

Naver is a powerful search engine and marketing platform in South Korea. If you want to do business there, it’s important to understand how to use Naver for your marketing efforts. At Inquivix, we have years of experience helping businesses reach their target audiences through customized digital marketing solutions that include Naver Marketing. Contact us today for a free consultation so we can discuss how we can help you establish your operations in South Korea and take advantage of all the opportunities Naver has to offer!