As iOS privacy changes continue to come with every software update, e-commerce brands need to have serious conversations about their marketing budget allocations, specifically when it comes to paid social campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. Gone are the days of $2 CPC campaigns and LTVs of $100. Not only is it harder to reach your target customer, but it’s equally difficult to track conversions and establish true attribution. Thankfully, an emerging channel might be the solution to this serious problem. What is the answer? It’s influencer marketing!
As an industry, influencer marketing and all of its players continue to flourish. In 2021, influencer spending increased from $9.7 billion to $13.8 billion. That’s an increase of over 30%. The security changes implemented by Apple in the last two updates only further strengthen the viability of brands partnering with creators for brand partnership opportunities.
Here are five reasons to divert more of your marketing budgets to influencer marketing:
1. You’re already invested in social channels
Your brand still needs to be present on Facebook, Instagram, Snap and TikTok. You just need to stop running ads and transition those dollars to other social accounts of influencers with significant follower counts.
2. Your target customers are still heavily present on social media platforms
Yes, your Facebook CPC has increased and conversion has become more difficult. There is still no correlation between your ad performance and the general usage by users that continues to increase.
3. People don’t like ads anyways
That fact has always been true. Whether a traditional TV commercial or an ad you see on your instagram feed, that feature has always benefited advertisers more than users. Users accept it as a way to keep the app free to use. It’s a fair trade, but if users had the choice, it is a guarantee that they would choose to remove all ads.
4. Campaigns are easier to manage
When Facebook ads were launched in 2007, the business world saw marketing potential that had never been seen before. No ad network offered the potential to reach such an active audience and also offer tremendous customization at a ridiculously low cost to acquire customers. As the user experience changed, the ad portal evolved and created an entire new work category of performance marketers who spent their entire day trying to optimize campaigns through as many conversion tests as possible.
When you agree on a brand partnership with an influencer or use a management platform like Grin, the heavy lifting is done before the contracts are signed. After that, you work with the influencer to establish what is being promoted and let them create the content and distribute it to their network.
5. Influencer marketing activations respect user privacy more than paid ads
Most people hate ads because they do not agree to the ads being delivered to them. As interest in user privacy continues to increase, so does disdain for paid advertising. When your DTC company works with an influencer, their audiences have already opted into their channel and trust the content they have chosen to see. When they run that campaign promoting your luxury leather goods company, that follower has already chosen to receive their content and then they can choose again to engage with your sponsored content.
As effective as influencer marketing can be as a solution to paid media campaigns, sales conversion and AOV increases can be even more possible when you pair a creator with live selling software. By bringing an influencer’s audience to your website for an online event, you are driving real traffic with high potential to create sales because those site visitors came to see what their influencer is doing. It’s a win for the influencer and a win for the brand.
It can be hard to get started with influencer marketing for your company, but we make it easy. Want to see how Reactive can help your brand partner with influencers to create original online experiences for your customers? Start your free trial now, or contact sales@reactive.live to request a live demo.
