Paid Influencer Campaigns

Advertising your products in collaboration with a famous face is not a new concept. In fact, this stems from brands relying on celebrity endorsements from the late 1980s to market their products to the public. Fast forward a few decades, swap the famous person out for a widely-known internet personality and you have yourself an influencer marketing campaign. 

Influencer marketing is well past its experimental phase and has now cemented its place as a vital aspect within the social media marketing process. Paid social media advertising is also commonly used to establish digital presence and is just as essential. So what happens if you combine the two? 

A recipe for success is made. 

If you are reading this blog, you are probably a marketer with an existing digital presence, but you now want to kick things up a notch and incorporate influencer marketing into the mix. If we are correct in this assumption, then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we will give you the low-down on all there is to know about integrating paid media ads and influencer marketing to create the most effective and successful marketing strategy. 

What are paid influencer campaigns?

Paid influencer campaigns are an amalgamation of influencer marketing and paid media ads. They take the best bits of both methods and combine them to create a sort of double whammy when it comes to consumers interacting with a brand. 

How does this work?

As the brand, you should set up a series of ads promoting the same products that the influencer has promoted in their content for you. This way, you will be showcasing your products from two sources; doubling the ground you are covering. If we think about this from the buyer’s perspective, they will be exposed to your brand via the influencer. If it is their first time hearing about you, they may want to take things further and do more research about you, taking to your website or google for their answers; where your paid ads will be waiting for them to click on. 

Combination strategies 

Let’s put paid influencer campaigns into hypothetical practice. There are several ways this can be done, and, here, we will outline some of the most popular.

Influencer content whitelisting 

What is it?

Influencer whitelisting occurs when an influencer gives a brand permission to access their social media content for the purpose of resharing. This is done with the aim of getting a brand in front of new, look-alike audiences and because the content being shared comes from an influencer, and isn’t a brand’s own paid ads, it is more authentic and so likely to be received well.

When to use this.

This strategy is often reserved for the strongest influencer-brand partnerships, as the influencer has to trust that the brand whitelisting their account will not abuse their privileges in favour of their marketing objectives. 

They can be long-term – typically around christmas time – or short term as a one-off whitelisting campaign to help promote the launch of something new. 

Why does this work? 

This benefits both the brand and the influencer by boosting visibility and gaining more followers for both accounts.

Using influencer-generated content for social paid ads

What is it?

Influencer-generated content is a small subsection that falls under the umbrella of user-generated content. Through it, influencers create organic content of them wearing certain clothes or doing a certain activity, but don’t overtly advertise the brand in question. These posts tend to do better than others due to their authenticity and inspire consumers to ask questions regarding the products in the images/videos. Because of their success, brands will repurpose posts from their highest-achieving influencers. 

When to use this.

The influencer-generated content itself can be the paid ad. In fact, some brands only use influencer-generated content for their paid ads. 

Why does this work?

This paid influencer campaign strategy lowers ad design costs and increases impressions and conversions. 

Sponsor influencer events 

What is this?

There are two ways this can happen. Either brands can host their own events and invite influencers to take part as VIPs or brand ambassadors, or an influencer can host their own event in the hope of getting sponsorship from their favourite brands. Either option has equal benefits for both parties. 

When to use this.

It is more beneficial to adopt this paid influencer campaign if you are approaching a product launch and most marketing events are more impactful when you are involving influencers, rather than the other way around. 

Why does this work?

Through their exposure of your event on their socials, the influencers will be able to raise brand awareness considerably. Additionally, they are skilled in driving thoughtful participation which can increase excitement surrounding a product launch; and, therefore, conversions.

Paid influencer campaigns: Final thoughts 

To summarise, get the most out of your paid media and influencer marketing efforts. 

Each paid influencer campaign can produce results essential to refining your social media marketing strategy going forward; even more so that stand alone methods, as you have two lots of results for the price of one with paid campaigns for influencers. Before setting out to run your paid influencer campaigns, make sure you know how and where to launch it and ask yourself why you are running it at this time in particular, as each of these aspects are vital to its success.

FAQ’s

What is a paid influencer campaign?

A paid influencer campaign integrates the best aspects of influencer marketing and the best aspects of paid social media advertising to create a successful experience for consumers interacting with a brand. 

Is influencer marketing paid or earned? 

Influencer marketing can be both earned and paid. Influencers can either mention a brand on social media off of their own backs after being impressed with a certain product or service, or they can be paid to post content sponsored by the brand in question.

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

If you want to receive our industry insights, visit our Influencer Marketing & Social Media blog.

@ Socially Powerful

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