Influencer marketing, also referred to as branded content or collaboration with creators, is an effective strategy for broadening the recognition of your business on social media.
No single method is capable of guaranteeing success for every business, but with proper preparation and exploration, almost any company can take advantage of this strategy. Let’s examine how we can use a social media influence program to our advantage.
What Does It Mean to Have Paid Ads Integrated With Influencer Campaigns?
Let’s start off by going over the individual workings of an influencer campaign and paid advertising before discussing how and why they should be combined.
An influencer campaign is a form of word-of-mouth marketing based on utilizing the influence of an online celeb with a significant base of followers. The concept relies on the fact that individuals rely on the suggestions of others.
During your influencer campaign, the influencer will be making posts about your business, offering their assessment or advice through a blog, their social media, or any other platform. In exchange for this, one may receive either free goods or services, or a payment.
Promotional strategies that involve payment include digital advertisements such as PPC or ads on social media platforms. Ads that you have to pay for will be displayed to people who have inputted specific words related to your campaign or to those who fit the criteria of the demographic you have chosen. This also includes individuals who are keen on other brands or companies that are similar to yours or are generally related to your desired clientele.
To combine sponsored ads with influencer strategies, create a sequence of advertisements featuring the same items or services the influencer promotes in their campaigns. By doing this, you are demonstrating your merchandise from two different places, resulting in more exposure.
Think about it from the buyer’s perspective.
First, they see your brand from the influencer. It could be the initial introduction to your brand for some people, but the fact that it is being endorsed by a trusted influencer might prompt them to do some further research.
Someone may search your business on Google and view a blog post. Perhaps they may observe acknowledgements from the same influencer or from other reputable influencers concerning your brand, which would enhance your trustworthiness in their opinion.
Why You Should Integrate Your Influencer and Paid Ad Strategies
One of the primary goals of merging a paid advertisement strategy with an influencer campaign is to expand the reach of your message. It facilitates frequent exposure to your brand over a shorter timeframe. The higher the level of exposure, the greater the likelihood of purchase.
Different numbers are reported regarding the amount of times individuals must be exposed to an advertisement or details about a product prior to taking action. It is commonly believed that it takes seven attempts to make something stick, also referred to as the “Rule of 7″. However, some people claim it takes 11 attempts to create a lasting impact.
Regardless of which figure you accept, the truth is that it always happens multiple times.
It is improbable that viewers will take any action when perusing their favored social media platform, reading a blog, or streaming a video if they are encountering a brand they have never seen before or encountered only once. Even when the influencer’s promotion is captivating and convincing, statistically, it is likely that the onlooker will need to see your brand multiple times.
Even if the influencer mentions your product multiple times, it is still accurate. Most influencer campaigns aren’t prolific.
Using paid ads and influencer posts allows you to stay in front of consumers repeatedly. This lets you accomplish the needed number of sales and possibly gain some profits.
A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Integrate Paid Ads with Influencer Campaigns
Who should best represent your brand? People who have an influence in your company’s ideals, and who take an interest in utilizing and promoting products just like yours.
You can employ Upfluence as a resource, or you can look through social media to find contacts manually and contact them directly. Once you are aware of the time and place that others will be distributing your goods, you can conform your plans to theirs.
Choose Where Paid Ads Should Go
Putting your ads on similar websites as the social media influencer raises the likelihood of people observing your brand multiple times. You should consider using keyword-oriented advertisements like Google’s to boost the amount of views from your target audience. You can aim at people looking for your influencer too.
Set the Time Frame
You may wish to set time restrictions in order to make the most out of your multi-channel approach to influencer marketing. Your advert should be shown to the same people, thus it is important to keep track of the time frame in order to guarantee this.
Design and Press Go
In your paid ad campaign, you should use replicas and photographs of what viewers have already seen to remind them of your company. It is possible to roll out another section of your business while still staying familiar to people who are already familiar with your company by using the same messaging, product types, and colors.
When Should You Use Paid Ads With Influencer Marketing?
In determining when to integrate influencer campaigns with paid promotions, the most effective solution is to do so when there is a need for rapid dissemination of information.
Here are some ideas about when to run these timely campaigns.
Seasonal Products
If you rely on holidays, events, or end-of-year deadlines for sales, then you can expand your viewer base quickly through an all-inclusive advertising strategy. This is ideal for products created specifically to be used at certain times of the year.
By appearing in social media influencers’ posts and advertisements, you can create a perception of wide-reaching popularity and being the must-have item of the year. Influencers may even demonstrate the product’s appearance by featuring them in their own homes – so, as an example, if you are selling Christmas decorations, they may post images of them on their Christmas trees.
New Launches
Considering the application of multiple campaigns at the same time is sensible when introducing a fresh product or service. Spreading the word using different pathways can increase people’s knowledge of your brand and give consistent communication, which stimulates people to experience your business.
Jumping on Trends
Trendy products have time limits as well, even though they’re not as concrete as those of seasonal items. Eventually, the trend will dissipate or evolve. If you wish to take advantage of the current popular trend or any large-scale developments in society, developing promotional tactics while the movement is in its prime may draw attention to your product and grant you the benefit of riding the wave of its fad.
Leveraging a Spokesperson Opportunity
Despite not being under pressure from a time constraint, it may be beneficial to include paid advertising when running an influencer campaign. If you come across a prospect to collaborate with an influencer, it could be beneficial to invest in it to get more people aware of it and make the most of the attention.
Types of social media influencers
Do the Kardashian-Jenners come to your mind right away when you think of a famous influencer?
Famous siblings may be some of the leading clout-holders on social networks, yet not all influencers are renowned personalities.
For a number of brands, influencers that have a narrower group of supporters but a devoted or particular one could be more helpful. People who have 15,000 individuals following them on social media tend to have one of the highest levels of engagement on all platforms. The cost, of course, can also be much lower.
Let’s investigate the various classes of Instagram influencers classified according to the size of their audience. There’s no strict cut-off for audience size, but generally the types of influencers are broken down as:
Nano-influencers
Nano-influencers have a relatively small following of 10,000 people or less, such as Lindsay Gallimore who is a mommy blogger and has 8,300 followers.
Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers typically have in the range of 10,000 to 100,000 followers, such as lifestyle blogger Sharon Mendelaoui with 13,500 followers.
Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers generally have anywhere from 100,000 to 1 million followers, with travel and food blogger Jean Lee boasting 115,000 devotees.
Mega-influencers
People with a vast following of 1 million or more, like popular TikTok figure Savannah LaBrant with an immense 28.3 million followers, are known as mega-influencers.
How much does social influencer marketing cost?
Influencers with a large audience should rightfully receive compensation for their efforts. An influencer campaign with wider reach would need some financial support, however it might be possible to get a successful outcome from nano-influencers operating on a no-cost basis.
For major corporations collaborating with renowned social media personalities, their expenditures could be quite expensive. It is projected that the United States will spend more than four billion dollars on influencer marketing in 2022.
Consider which type of payment plan would be most suitable for your objectives. But be willing to consider the influencer’s needs, too. An alternative to a flat fee, or to decrease it, could be an affiliate or commission plan.
Almost 10 percent of influencers in the United States reported that income sourced from affiliate marketing (in the form of affiliate links and promotional codes) was the most lucrative for them.
That said, the most common baseline pricing formula for influencers’ Instagram posts is:
$100 x 10,000 followers + extras = total rate
What are the extras? Take a look at our post on influencer pricing to find out all the details.
Take into account that micro and nano influencers could possibly have more versatile payment conditions.
How to create an influencer marketing strategy
1. Determine your goals
The top priority for businesses utilizing influencer marketing is to find new customers in their target audience. It is understandable why something like an influencer campaign would be effective since it increases the visibility of your message to the people they already have connections with.
The primary objective is to acquire new patrons, rather than to precisely generate sales immediately. Making sales is the third most frequent objective of influencer marketing tactics, subordinated to improving recognition of the brand and getting people to contemplate the product.
Contemplate how your influencer marketing blueprint will harmonize with your more comprehensive social media marketing approach and conceive quantifiable objectives which you can analyze and monitor.
2. Know who you’re trying to influence
For a successful influencer marketing approach, it is essential that the right individuals are targeted with the proper instruments and the perfect influencers.
Determining the demographic of people you want to target with this initiative is the initial step.
Creating customer avatars is an effective method to ensure you know who you are aiming to target. Perhaps you are attempting to connect with more of your present followers or a completely different group of people.
Once you have made up your mind, develop a related set of influencer profiles. This will assist you in recognizing the attributes you want in your influencers.
3. Consider the three Rs of influence
Influence is made up of three components:
- Relevance
- Reach
- Resonance
Relevance
An influential person who has pertinent information to offer about your business and sector produces material related to those topics. They need to have a crowd that matches up with the demographic you are trying to reach.
Reach
The potential audience size that could be exposed to your message when utilizing an influencer is the amount of their followers. Take heed: Even if your following is on the small side, it can be productive as long as it is sizeable enough for you to attain your objectives.
Resonance
The influencer has the capacity to foster interaction with an audience that is pertinent to your company.
It is worth mentioning that size does not always equate to quality. As previously stated, a high amount of followers is pointless if they are not invested in what you have to offer. Niche influencers, conversely, may have very passionate and involved followers.
4. Do your research
Examine the content that your prospective influencers are sharing. How often are they sharing sponsored content?
If they bombard their followers with many advertisements, their levels of engagement might not stay the same. Search for a lot of organic, unpaid material to maintain followers captivated, enthusiastic, and involved.
Bear this in mind when deciding what to ask the influencer to promote. Requesting too many posts within a brief period of time can make it challenging for the influencer to say yes to your proposal, even with a high payment.
In-demand influencers get lots of offers. When you first approach an influencer, it is important to demonstrate that you have invested effort into familiarizing yourself with their work.
Ensure you have a clear understanding of the content of their platforms and who the intended audience is.
5. Measure your results
When beginning an influencer marketing effort, concentrating on surface-level measurements like ‘likes’ and remarks may be attractive. If your chosen influencer has a bigger audience than you, you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of likes they can accumulate.
To comprehend the success of a campaign, it is necessary to assess its return on investment. It is fortunate that there are numerous methods to evaluate the success of your campaign.
UTM parameters are a means of monitoring the people an influencer directs to your website. They can also assess the level of interest the campaign generates.
Giving each influencer their own individual links containing UTM codes will enable you to easily monitor the outcomes. This permits you to figure out the effect on your profits.
Conclusion
Combining advertisement and influencer strategies can maximize the impact of your investment in working with an influencer.
Using multiple advertising outlets, you can make contact with a greater number of individuals at a more frequent rate and spread information about your business, increasing the likelihood and quantity of desired outcomes. You don’t need to utilize this approach alone to obtain desired results, however it has the potential to be effective, by leveraging the good materials already created about your business.
