5 Ways to Maximize Your Influencer Marketing With Paid Media

The past year has been a game-changer for digital advertising spend, with more brands shifting their budgets toward online platforms. The trend isn’t showing signs of slowing, with Insider Intelligence forecasting that digital advertising will reach $438 billion in 2027—an 87% increase above 2022.

Here's the real kicker: influencer marketing is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of digital advertising. With 6 out of 10 social media users following an influencer, it's no wonder that the market has grown by a staggering 42% from 2020-2021, reaching $13.8 billion globally. It's grown by another 18% in 2022, making it a $16 billion market. Cha-ching!

As consumers turn to influencers to help them decide what's worth their time and money, it's only natural for brands to follow suit. With so many options for leveraging paid media, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to focus your efforts — that's where we come in. Here are some tips to help you use paid media to amplify your influencer content and connect with your target audience.

1. Focus your goals.

One of the most integral aspects of an effective campaign is understanding your target audience and what motivates them to act. No matter if you’re using native interest-and-behavior targeting, first-party data, or third-party—you need to have a firm understanding of the personas of your target audience.

Are they a 35 year old suburban mom who loves spendy brunches with her girlfriends?

A 24 year old big city kid straight out of college who spends their Friday nights going to live music concerts?

Once you have that person in mind, you’ll be more likely to craft storytelling that caters to the uniqueness of your audience, as opposed to retrofitting a non-distinct brand story to a bunch of discrete audiences that all have different wants and needs.

2. Know your audience.

Writing for a B2B brands isn’t all about the homework. Just like any client, writing for the B2B world has its own benefits—like the ability to get technical.

In B2C, you’re often asked to make sure everyone can understand you. That can be frustrating, especially for writers with more verbose tendencies. With B2B, you’ll be able to flex your vocabulary skills in a new way.

Sure, getting too in the weeds is still something you should try to avoid (especially on social platforms where brevity is key). But in the world of B2B, using the right key phrases and terms can stop thumbs—and if done correctly, even win hearts and impress minds.

Beyond that, if you really did your research right, some of the hearts and minds you’ll win over will be your clients. And there is nothing better than a client who trusts your ability to execute their messages with absolute precision. (Maybe a winning lottery ticket, but not much else.)

“Let creators do what they do best—and let go of the micromanaging briefs!”

3. Champion  influencer creativity.

Influencer marketing is digital word of mouth. While visual creative is critical to campaign effectiveness, authentic storytelling is what really compels your audience to act.

Letting creators do what they do best (keeping brand guidelines in mind, of course) is vital for long-term brand trust. So, let go of the micromanaging briefs and trust in the power of influencer creativity!

4. Find the right fit per channel.

So you have your goals and your audience. Now what?

Before you contract creators, look at where the opportunity lies across channels. To yield the most impactful results, you should consider your audience’s social platform preferences. Then, choose creators that are most endemic to that platform.

• According to Collabstr, in 2021, 48% of influencer marketing budgets went to Instagram, 46% to TikTok, and 6% to YouTube. The high share of these three channels are a result of the movement toward short-form video content, noted by the impressive 50.8% revenue growth in digital video from 2020- 2021, according to IAB.

• While Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube certainly are popular, don’t discount other platforms like Snapchat, LinkedIn, or Twitter from your strategy. While smaller in market share, these platforms may be the best place for your brand to reach your audience.

5. Always be data-driven.

Once the campaign is live, do your due diligence in monitoring its performance.

The key to successful paid media is being data-driven, which means monitoring metrics and insights to measure and optimize your campaign's performance.

Take advantage of the tools and data provided by the advertising platforms you're using. Google Analytics, Meta Ads Manager, or TikTok Video Insights can help you see how your ads are performing, who is engaging with them, and which channels are driving results.

It's essential to continually test and refine your campaigns, trying out different creative, targeting, and messaging to see what works best. That way, you’ll maximize the impact of your paid media campaigns and drive impressive results for your brand.

“The more you invest in your influencer marketing efforts, the more momentum you'll build.”

In the constantly evolving landscape of influencer marketing, remember that influencer marketing isn't a one-and-done tactic. It's a continuous process that requires ongoing optimization and refinement.

Our parting advice is to keep in mind that it's not a funnel - it's a flywheel. In other words, success begets success. The more you invest in your influencer marketing efforts, the more momentum you'll build over time, leading to even greater returns. So keep growing the consumer pipeline by experimenting, learning, and keep iterating, and implementing optimizations. Then you'll be well on your way to driving measurable impact for your brand!

Ready to uplevel your influencer marketing with paid? Reach out to us at hello@praytellagency.com.