Influencer marketing is one of the most efficient ways to raise brand awareness. Recognizing the differences between paid and unpaid media, and how to leverage both for a campaign, is another vital element for success. 🌟
Unpaid media is exactly what it sounds like—media without an official partnership, including organic content from PR/seeding efforts and from fans of your brand/products. While unpaid media is more authentic and can bring tons of credibility to your brand, the real power resides in a combination of both unpaid media and paid. With paid media you have the opportunity to create more precise content, target specific audience and include product links for sales conversions. 🎯
Type of Paid Media Campaigns
The most recognizable form of paid media in influencer marketing terms is a general paid partnership between your brand and the influencer that you’ve chosen to partner with. These can include:
- Influencer Whitelisting 💎
- Brand’s social channel takeovers 🚀
- Shoppable ads 🛒
- Sponsoring influencer events 🎊
When in an influencer partnership, brands can consider engaging in paid content like whitelisting…
But what is Whitelisting??
Whitelisting is when an influencer grants a brand access to advertise on their social media accounts. These posts are created and operated by the partnering brand and will not live on an influencer’s feed permanently. 💎
When using this method, be sure that there is a clear agreement between your brand and influencer on account permissions and what content will be advertised and for how long. These conversations are vital in nearly all aspects of the influencer marketing sphere.
Other Campaign Types
Other types of paid media purchased by a brand can be either created by the influencer or collaboratively between the two parties. 🤝
-> This content typically feels more real and authentic to a trusting audience, and brands will benefit from the influencer’s ability to sway their audience into trying a product.
Shoppable ads are advertisements with built-in shopping features, granting a social media user the ability to remain in-app while simultaneously discovering and engaging with new brands. Ads like these most often appear on Google, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Social media users are more likely to engage with this content simply because of the simplicity of the process. 🤩
-> Consumers can see an influencer wearing clothing or using a product that they are interested in and are able to instantly shop and purchase that same product.
Brands can also consider sponsoring influencer events, whether virtually or in-person. Consumers are less likely to see this form of paid media as a direct marketing tactic but rather to consider the brand apart of the event, which can spike their interest and lead the consumer to discover more about the brand on their own.
You can also have an influencer do a Live takeover of your Instagram channel, to directly engage with your audience. 🎙
A more traditional route in paid media includes tactics like website display ads and email marketing, which are both tried and true methods of raising brand awareness.
Evaluate your Methods
After creating and launching your chosen forms of paid media content, go back and measure the success.
Check out statistics like PPC and CPC, which can both inform on whether or not the money that you are putting into your content is generating proper returns. 👁
If not, consider retargeting methods in order to keep your brand in front of the audience that you want to see it.
Another important monetary factor to pay attention to are usage rights costs, which increase by medium and duration. 💰
Different social platforms can have higher costs than others, along with price variations in websites and events. If you are not seeing the desired return within your influencer partnership, you’ll want to reconsider your methods and find new ways to leverage paid media to boost your brand awareness.
When done right, paid media can be a gamechanger in your influencer marketing campaign strategies.
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