Connecting Influencer Marketing and Paid Media

THE SITUATION

Many brands partner with influencers to help increase brand awareness and credibility. Influencers provide a unique offering in that they often share content on social media that is more relatable than a brand’s typical product packshot. Additionally, influencers share content directly to their followers, many of whom would be ideal consumers for your brand’s product or service.

This seems like an ideal collaboration for your brand; you’re gaining additional content and reach from your influencer partner while being depicted as a  product or service that everyday people utilize. However, partnering with influencers does come with a few limitations as the lifetime of the content is often short lived. Is there a way for influencer marketing content to extend  beyond just the influencer's organic post?

THE PROBLEM

While many brands pick influencers based on their potential reach (read: followers) and average engagement, there is no guarantee that the influencer’s sponsored post will resonate with their followers. You might spend a significant amount of money on a sponsored post and receive nothing in return. 

When an influencer posts in feed, most of the time they will tag your brand and ask their followers to either take a certain action, visit the brand's profile, or click a link in their bio.  One of these steps will eventually lead them to your brand’s website. However, this can be a poor user experience that provides multiple opportunities for users to drop off and never complete the desired action. This also results in brands not being able to track or measure the effectiveness of their influencer partnership.

THE SOLUTION

Brands can "whitelist" influencers' posts to be used in paid advertisements across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Whitelisting  allows brands to extend  who the influencer's content is served to (read: defining your own target audience), and CTA buttons can be appended to the post, making the end goal even easier. Note: When a sponsored post is promoted by a brand, there is a “sponsored” label on the post, and the brand’s name is also added to the ad.

When a brand promotes an influencer's content as an advertisement, they are also able to track their usual media metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions, engagements). Basically, you’re taking influencer marketing to the next level: the content has an extended lifetime, is relatable to your target audience, and is measurable.

To really take it to the next level, consider testing multiple pieces of content from one influencer, or single pieces of content from multiple influencers. This will give you the opportunity to test the effectiveness of different concepts and influencer voices against your target audience.