Scaling Influencer Success with Paid Media Campaigns

As we covered in the last chapter, building an organic influencer program can drive meaningful success for brands. However, this does require significant investment to keep driving performance over time; higher headcount, more outreach, more budget to pay creators. If you’re a smaller brand, this may be tricky to get buy-in for—even if you can demonstrate solid results.

This is where leveraging paid media can help influencer and social teams to get the most out of the highest-performing organic content. You can tap into the sophistication of the ad targeting to drive very specific objectives in ways that are difficult to achieve with organic content alone.

Best of all? Many brands are seeing much stronger performance from their influencer ads vs. non-influencer ads, as Jonathan explains:

“We generally outperform [traditional] paid social campaigns by 20% to 30% in terms of improving CAC, ROAS, CPA. As Meta's costs keep increasing and your CPAs and your CACs keep increasing directly there, using influencer content in ads is a great way to kind of bring down that cost of conversion. Also, when you think about the overall cost to generate content and assets for UGC, the great thing about creators is you get this amazing content generation engine.”

Jonathan Claydon, Chief Development Officer at Acceleration Partners

In sum, your brand is leaving serious money on the table if you’re not testing out creator content in a paid environment. Not only does it make your campaigns cheaper at a time when ad costs are only going in one direction (up!) It’s another way to showcase the value the influencer partnerships to leadership.

‍

How to leverage influencer content in ads

Let’s start with the obvious: What is the ultimate goal you’d like to achieve by using the creator’s content in your ads? This is going to determine the right way to promote that content.

For example, you could use creator content to:

• Build a deeper asset library for testing (oftentimes at lower costs than brand shoots require)
• Maximize the performance of a strong organic post
• Rapidly test messaging against different audiences
• Run ads to your core audience demographic that don’t feel like ads
• Demonstrate credibility to potential first-time customers

Next, you need to decide who you want to author the ad content. In other words: which handle are you using to post or amplify the content? You have two choices here:

• Brand’s owned and operated Channels
• Influencer’s owned and operated channels (whitelisting)

Influencer whitelisting, also known as allowlisting or creator licensing, allows brands to run ads directly from an influencer's handle, rather than the brand's account. Whitelisting influencer content as a huge number of benefits for brands, consumers—and yes, also influencers!

Consumers receive a much more organic experience, while creators gain additional exposure to new audiences beyond their organic reach. Using whitelisted content allows for the brand to put authentic, native content in front of their target audiences, and often experience higher engagement rates and performance.

“If a brand is not using whitelisting, I would highly recommend testing it out because I feel like whitelisting has proven to be a lot more successful in comparison to other traditional paid ad formats. Also getting whitelisting rights is a way to extend kind of the shelf life of the content that you get from those sponsored posts and you're able to repurpose them in other ways.”

- Milan Freeman, Influencer Marketing Consultant, People’s Influence

Make sure that when implementing whitelisting, you clearly outline the terms in your influencer agreement and provide clear guidelines on how their account will be used. Always ensure that  FTC compliance regulations are followed on posts that will be used in advertising!

‍

How to promote creator content as Meta, Tiktok and YouTube ads

Let’s take a deeper look at the ad formats commonly used in paid influencer marketing campaigns across popular paid social platforms Meta, TikTok, and YouTube:

Meta (Formerly Facebook & Instagram) Branded Content and Video Ads

Brands can leverage media dollars on Meta in three different ways:

Run creator content from your brand page

This is often referred to as a dark post or dark ad.

Run content from the creator's page (whitelisting)

To whitelist influencers on Meta, marketers need whitelisting permissions from creators through Meta (Facebook) Business Manager. The influencer must have a Business Manager account that is linked to their Facebook page or their Instagram handle. Marketers can then use their Business Manager and request to add the influencer as a Business Partner.

Influencers will need to provide you with the Business Manager ID, or the links to their Facebook page or Instagram account. Once they accept, the brand will be able to use any content in their social accounts for whitelisted ads (authored by the creator or the brand).

Run content as a partnership ad using the Branded Content tool

This option is generally recommended, as branded content ads where the brand and the creator are tagged in the post allow brands to reach a much wider audience, leveraging Meta's robust targeting capabilities. Branded Content Ads can be created from various content formats, including photos, videos, carousel posts, and Instagram Stories.

These ads can run on both Facebook and Instagram, leveraging the vast user base of both platforms. They also support various campaign objectives, including brand awareness, reach, engagement, and conversions.

“Once we passed along an influencer’s high organic ROAS video to our paid team [to run as an ad] and it got a 12x ROAS, I'm not even joking. It was wild. I still remember the paid team told us they’d never seen something like this.”

- Kendall Dickieson, Head of Social and Influencer, Graza

You can track the performance of these ads through Meta's Ads Manager, gaining insights into reach, engagement, and conversion metrics. Similarly, creators can see insights about how their content performs when promoted as an ad, which can inform their strategy for future ad collaborations.

It’s a good idea to test all three ways and determining which is best for you. Note that creators have become more saavy over the last few years, and will charge additional fees for advertiser access to their influencer content. This fee can vary widely, but you should budget for an additional 20-30% of the total fee added on top to get paid licensing rights.
‍

TikTok

TikTok’s advertising platform is growing in popularity among media buyers looking to reach social first or video-based audiences outside of Meta. There are two ways that brands are using TikTok advertising to promote their influencer partnerships.
‍

[Popular] Spark Ads

Spark Ads enable brands to amplify existing organic TikTok content as ads. This can include both the brand's own organic posts and posts from creators or influencers. They appear in users' feeds, often alongside organic content, and are marked with a "Sponsored" tag.

Since Spark Ads use existing organic content, they maintain a more native, authentic feel compared to traditional ads. Spark Ads maintains the original caption, sounds, and hashtags of the organic post, preserving its context and authenticity. Viewers can engage with Spark Ads just like organic content - they can like, comment, and share the video. The engagement metrics are attributed to the original post, boosting its overall performance.

Spark Ads can be used for various campaign objectives, including reach, video views, or conversions; and brands can choose to direct users to the creator's TikTok profile, the brand's own profile, or an external landing page when users click on the ad.

To use an influencer's content as a Spark Ad, brands need to obtain authorization from the creator. This is typically done through TikTok's Creator Marketplace, or by the creator sharing an authorization (or 'Spark') code.
‍

Dark posts

These are ads that don't appear on your public profile. Instead, they are targeted at specific audiences, and only those users see them in their feeds. Dark posts can target different demographics, interests, or behaviors. Brands typically use dark posts to A/B test, offer discounts, or offer a specific message to a particular audience and can drive performance across the funnel (awareness, engagement, conversion).
‍

YouTube

Maximizing creator content through YouTube ads is often overlooked, but can be a game changer for brands that understand how to use the platform at scale. Here are several ways YouTube video ad placements can be used to promote influencer partnerships:

YouTube BrandConnect (formerly FameBit): This is YouTube's official influencer marketing platform. Influencers must be in YouTube's Partner Program. It allows brands to connect with creators for paid collaborations. Once content is created, it can be amplified through YouTube's ad network.

TrueView Ads: Use TrueView In-Stream ads to promote longer influencer videos. TrueView Discovery ads can be used to promote influencer content in search results and as recommended videos.

Bumper Ads: Create 6-second non-skippable ads from influencer content to increase brand awareness. These ads are great to run once you’ve determined which video hooks (first 2-5 seconds) perform best.

YouTube Shorts: Leverage YouTube Shorts to create and promote bite-sized influencer content.
‍

Paid media best practices for influencer marketing

By combining the authenticity of influencer content with the reach and targeting capabilities of paid advertising platforms, brands can significantly extend the impact and livelihood of their influencer partnerships.

So, what are the best practices for effectively integrating paid media into your influencer marketing strategy?

“Utilizing creator content is an amazing opportunity for paid advertisers to scale business growth in a way that is cost-efficient and performs better than solely focusing on studio shot ads or static brand assets. Meta has seen that when you run partnership ads, so ads with your brand, whitelisting, or including a creator in your content, it can lead to a 19% lower cost per acquisition and a 53% higher click-through rate compared to just running business as usual assets. With our brand partner campaigns, we've found that running creator-shot ads can have a 22% lower CPA and a 30% higher return on ad spend on average compared to running studio-shot brand ads.”
‍
- Maurice Rahmey, CEO at Disruptive Digital Agency

‍

Align your organic and paid strategies

Organic and paid can be a very harmonious marriage—or an utter disaster. For maximum impact, your paid media efforts need to be in lockstep with your organic influencer strategy. Time your paid boosts to coincide with peaks in organic influencer postings, and use insights from paid campaigns to inform future organic influencer content creation. Remember: not everything that works on one channel will benefit the other. You have to test and learn!

‍

Choose the right content for amplification

Not all influencer content is equally suited for paid media. When selecting content to boost, consider:

• Performance: Unless you’re paying the creator for content creation without posting organically on their social platforms, choose content that has already shown strong organic engagement.
• Audience: Opt for content that can resonate with a broader audience beyond the influencer's immediate followers.
• Brand Alignment: Ensure the content aligns with your brand message and campaign objectives.
• Format: Select content formats that perform well as ads on your chosen platform
  ‍

Secure paid licensing rights

To be able to use creator content in advertising, brands need to ensure they’ve negotiated and paid for the appropriate licensing rights to that creative to avoid potential legal or PR challenges. Paid usage will define how you plan to use the influencer’s content on your brand-owned channels, how to manage raw files, how long you’ll want licensing rights, and how permission to use content will be granted.

“Less is more with paid media. If you've got a specific product launch or a specific brand moment happening, you don't need to have the right to use that content forever. Start between 30 days and 12 months. You might be at an advantage to negotiate longer paid usage rights with a smaller creator because they are getting the advantage of being pushed out to people that would never normally see them.”

- Amber Kai, Head of Creator & Brand Partnerships, SEQUENTIAL

‍

Maintain authenticity

While leveraging paid media, it's important not to lose the authentic feel that makes influencer content effective. Avoid over-editing or polishing the content to maintain its original, genuine appeal, and use ad copy that matches the influencer's voice and style. Make sure you clearly disclose the paid nature of the content to maintain transparency and trust.

‍

Implement strategic targeting

One of the key advantages of paid media is the ability to reach beyond an influencer's existing audience. To maximize this benefit, use lookalike audiences based on the influencer's followers or engaged users. Experiment with demographic and behavioral targeting to reach new potential customers. Consider retargeting users who have engaged with the influencer's organic content. These custom audiences can be created by the brand when account access is granted or if a creator has a Business Manager account and is able to create the audience and share it back with the brand.

‍

Optimize for mobile

With the majority of social media consumption happening on mobile devices, use vertical video formats when possible:

“We recommend that creators shoot vertically in 9x16, because then you're able to take that and crop it into 1x1 or 4x5 or use it in 9x16 to make sure that it's eligible and available for all of the placements on Meta and TikTok, which is where most of these ads run. You also want to make sure that when they frame the content for vertical, the most important components of that content is built for the save zones of those placements.”

Maurice Rahmey, CEO at Disruptive Digital Agency.

Ensure any text in the content is easily readable on small screens. Design for sound-on and sound-off viewing, using captions or text overlays where appropriate.

‍

Test and optimize continuously

Paid media offers excellent opportunities for testing and optimization. Consider A/B testing different ad formats, copy, or calls-to-action. Test various audience segments to identify the most responsive groups. Experiment with different bidding strategies and budget allocations. Regularly review performance metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly.

‍

Measure and report accurately

Set up proper data and tracking on each platform, whether you’re preparing to promote ads on YouTube, Meta, or TikTok. The continuous feedback loop is critical to understanding what’s working and what’s not and ultimately attribute results to specific influencers and campaigns. Make sure you look beyond vanity metrics to focus on meaningful KPIs aligned with your business objectives.

‍

Comply with advertising regulations

Ensure all paid influencer content complies with relevant advertising regulations and platform policies. Clearly disclose the paid nature of the content (e.g., using #ad or #sponsored). Ensure influencers are aware of and adhere to these guidelines in both their original content and any paid amplifications.

Influencer-led content is only set to play a stronger role in advertising as we move into the future—which also means that paid media needs to be a bigger consideration when influencer marketers are setting up programs and running campaigns. Stronger ad performance and high video engagement metrics are compelling reasons to invest in testing creator videos as ads, but also the ability the maximize the value of your programs. By having influencer content power more than just your organic marketing efforts, this creates a much more powerful pitch to marketing leadership as to why your brand should double down on influencer marketing.

As we’ve mentioned throughout this section of the Field Guide, paid media and using creator content as ad creative can open up a real can of worms when it comes to negotiating with creators and drawing up the appropriate contract. So, what does a contract need to include in order to get the appropriate usage rights?

We’re going to cover the ins and outs of influencer contracts—and much more—in this next section of the Field Guide!

‍