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All About Naver Search Ads

Updated: Jul 21


Naver is a South Korean portal site owned by Naver Corporation. It started as the first South Korean portal site in 1999. The portal site developed and introduced its search engine. Naver is frequently referred to as 'the Google of South Korea.'

Search engine market share in South Korea
Caption 1. Search engine market share in South Korea (source: internettrend)

Naver also pioneered developing and introducing user-generated content called the 'Knowledge iN' service in 2002. Naver expanded its market share after launching a webcomic service 'Naver Webtoon' in 2004 and the 'Naver blog' service in 2005. The company further expanded its market share by introducing its multimedia search services such as video and music search along with mobile search.


Consider this!

-Naver accounts for 58.2% of the search engine market share in South Korea;

-The number of Naver members is over 42 million;

-Naver app is the second most used mobile app in South Korea;

-Over 25 million Koreans have Naver as the start page on their default browser;


That is why Naver is considered a Korean Google. Naver's presence is essential for businesses operating in South Korea. The portal site provides advertising and marketing platforms to run full-funnel digital marketing campaigns. According to Maeil Business News Korea, Naver ads account for 66% of the overall Korean digital advertising market.


What are Naver ads?

As mentioned above, Naver possesses a massive audience and market share in the Korean digital market. Naver ads are a very important tool to grow your business in highly competitive South Korea. It provides two types of ads: Search ads and Display ads. These ad types are categorized under +10 ad products.


Naver Search Ads.

Naver search ads are the most popular ad type. Naver search ads help you reach the target audience at the right moment with relevant calls to action messages. Select the keywords related to your business and the bidding amount strategically. Make sure to have high-quality and relevant ad sources to be exposed to the top of the search engine result page (SERP). Search ad campaigns are run to drive the following actions:


  1. Drive quality traffic to your website;

  2. Drive action (sales or leads) on your website;

  3. Influence consideration;


Naver search ads are CPC (cost per click) based and the search ad rank is decided considering the bidding price and ad quality index. The search ads are composed of the ad title, description, and URL. The search ads' extension part may include a phone number, location, sub URL, and other business-related information. Now, let's learn about each type of search ad!


Site Search Ads (Powerlink): This is Naver's main ad product. Site search ads are displayed on Naver's search engine result page (SERP) and mobile SERP, Naver cafe, Blog, Web document, Knowledge iN, Shopping, Shopping mobile, Naver's search engine partners such as Auction, G Market, Interpark, and other sites and more than 10 content partners' site.

Naver Site Search Ads (powerlink)
Caption 2. Naver Site Search Ads (powerlink).

Naver Shopping Search Ads: This ad product is designed to promote Naver shopping products.

*Please note. You should be registered to Naver Shopping to use Naver Shopping search ads.

Naver Shopping search ads are displayed on the PC and mobile Naver Shopping search engine result page (SERP). This type of ad is displayed with a product image. The difference between Site Search Ads and Naver Shopping Search Ads is that you should select your keyword strategically to run site search ads. In the case of Naver Shopping search ads, you just need to register your product from Naver Shopping to run the ad.

Naver Shopping Search Ads
Caption 3. Naver Shopping Search Ads.

Naver Content Search Ads: This ad is designed to promote businesses' Naver blog, and Naver cafe content.

*Please note. You should be registered to Naver Blog or Naver Cafe and you should have content (blog post or cafe content) to use Naver Content search ads.

This type of ad is effective in targeting consumers who are in a product or service research process to provide detailed product or service information. Naver Content search ads are run with strategically designated keywords. These ads are displayed on the Naver search engine result page (SERP) on PC and mobile devices, Naver content SERP, Naver's search partner- Zum SERP, Naver mobile news, and other Naver content.


Naver Content Search Ads
Caption 4. Naver Content Search Ads.

Naver Brand Search Ads: Brand search ads are a great tool to promote your brand. This type of ad is recommended if your brand already built brand awareness in South Korea and when people are already searching for your product using your brand name on Naver. Naver Brand search ads are keyword-based but you can only use keywords directly related to your brand name. Brand search ads are not CPC-based. The ad fee is calculated based on a brand ad campaign period (minimum 7 days, maximum 90 days) and your brand's search query volume on Naver within the last 30 days. The minimum ad fee is KRW 500,000 (USD 420).

Naver Brand search ads are displayed on the top of the Naver search engine result page (SERP) on PC and mobile devices.


Naver Brand Search Ads
Caption 5. Naver Brand Search Ads.

In addition, Naver Brand search ads are very effective in promoting your new products, events, sale, and any other special events related to your brand.


Location-based search ads: This ad is very similar to 'Google My Business' and is effective in promoting your restaurant, cafe, bar, or other business places to people who are searching your business category on Naver or Naver Map on PC or mobile.


Naver Location based search ads
Caption 6. Naver Location based search ads.

*Please note. Your business should be registered to 'Naver Smart Place' to use location-based search ads.


Click Choice search ads: This ad product is mobile-based and is designed to promote a pension, photo studio, party, and event-related businesses and products for infants. This ad is displayed on the top of Naver SERP on mobile.


Naver Click Choice Search Ads
Caption 7. Naver Click Choice Search Ads.

Business phone number, homepage URL and sub URLs should be provided to run this ad. Click Choice search ads are CPC-based and are effective if you run any business types among the above-mentioned businesses in South Korea.


Wrap up.

Naver is a great place to start growing your business in South Korea considering Korea's No.1 portal site's massive audience base and daily traffic. Online presence on Naver is the first step to attracting new customers and Naver search ad products help you reach the most reverent customers at the right moment with the right message. Moreover, search ads are performance-driven, fully measurable, and fully under your control. Naver search ads should definitely be a part of your digital marketing campaigns in the highly competitive and highly connected South Korean market.






Digital Marketing in Korea
Zohid-Certified Digital Marketing Professional-Korea




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