Influencer marketing has the power to grow your social presence and build your business (among other benefits) but it shouldn’t be the only way you’re marketing your business on social. As with any content strategy, you’ll see the best results when you diversify. Which is why paid media can be so beneficial to seeing real results from your influencer marketing campaigns. Not only can it help you get even more exposure, leading to additional traffic and clicks to your site, but it can also help you reach brand new audiences. When delivered alongside influencer marketing, which resonates with users due to being authentic and backed by an actual human, it can provide an additional way to engage customers—both existing and potential.
If you’ve ever bought a cleaning tool after seeing how well it scours a shower on TikTok or tracked down a t-shirt after seeing it tagged on Instagram, you understand how social media’s human-to-human connection can convince consumers to buy a product they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.
It’s that relatability and the way that it allows consumers to see the product fitting into their life—or better yet, improving their life—that makes it such an effective tool. But imagine how much more effective that content can be for your business goals when it’s targeted directly to an audience that it’s created for.
“Ten years ago, organic influencer content satisfied brand-needs to connect with consumers in a new and exciting way, but today, brands expect influencer marketing to efficiently target all stages of the marketing funnel with an emphasis on lower-funnel KPIs,”
explains Caitlin, Director of Marketing at Social Studies.
What Is Paid Media?
Before we get any further, let’s define what paid media actually is, especially the sort we’re referring to for this strategy. It’s any sort of marketing activity that results in a paid placement, whether it’s display ads, branded content or pay-per-click advertising. And it happens to serve as a really nice balance to the posts that your influencers are creating for your brand. It’s the content creator’s storytelling ability that makes them ideal partners for brands, since it offers a targeted way to speak to ad-weary consumers. Most notably, the types that tend to set up ad blockers and are averse to any sort of traditional marketing. Paid media provides that content with a longer shelf life and more targeted delivery, providing success for both your brand and the content creators you work with.
Caitlin notes, “By allocating paid media dollars to each influencer campaign, brands have the power to direct influencer assets to the exact target audience they desire while controlling the messaging. So, if your brand is looking to drive additional awareness, site traffic, sign-ups, or even sales, paid media is the cherry on top of your existing, foundational influencer campaign to meet those needs.”
Influencers Can Help Paid Media Look Organic
We find that the paid media that can best support your influencer marketing strategy includes influencer whitelisting, which uses your content creator’s accounts to promote ads that look similar to their organic content. There’s also influencer content created for social paid ads and shoppable ads, for content that feels more organic than your brand language, plus influencer sponsored events—like Instagram or TikTok lives.
Collecting Data and Increasing Brand Visibility with Paid Media
Even better, by promoting this content on your own channels, you’ll also be able to gather data on performance, ranging from impressions and clicks to shares and conversions. This will help you and your team understand what is working with certain audiences and what is not, all while increasing your brand’s visibility.
Paid media is also a mutually beneficial way to work with influencers. Not only are you boosting your brand’s profile and building your presence online, but it also makes the posts, videos and Reels from your content creators even more visible, leveraging their growth and recognition.
Content produced by influencers has its limits, at least on their own channels, and your brand’s content can only go so far as portraying a sense of approachability—so leveraging both of your strengths through paid media is a great way to go in order to see ROI on your influencer marketing campaign.