Once an influencer marketing campaign has run its course, marketers are left with two options - move on to the next, or use those high quality branded assets you already have to maximize the results of your campaign.
Influencer-created content can bring you further engagement and ROI when placed into ads - in fact, marketing research has shown that influencer content is more impactful and engaging than branded content.
If you want to get the most bang for your influencer marketing buck, you need to utilize those assets wherever you can - here are five tips for amplifying influencer content in paid media.
1. Optimize for ad formats
Influencer-generated content is, generally by nature, mobile-first. It's been made by creatives that understand how to create content that performs on social. That makes it the ideal material for your mobile ad efforts, and a few simple tweaks can expand that further, boosting your promotional potential.
For example, using a few simple, tried and tested editing tricks, you can create a whole new range of content from those assets. Adding in simple animation, new colors, new sounds - little tweaks, like these can make a big difference.
Something as simple as animating parts of a once static image, or adding music or a voiceover can give your influencer generated content expanded life, and boost your ad potential.
2. Retain influencer credibility
One of the reasons why influencer marketing is so successful is because consumers identify with, and trust the creator. There’s no need to lose this once the piece of content becomes an ad.
Keep your influencers' presence in related ads by including an image of the influencer, a quote from them, or by crediting their handle.
Boosted Instagram posts make this super easy. When boosting, you can recreate the influencer post so it looks almost identical. The image, caption and influencer handle all remain the same, but a "Paid Partnership" tag is added. The key difference is, it behaves like an ad. You can choose who sees this post by placing it in Instagram users home feeds, even if they don't follow that influencer.
3. Segment and target
For marketers, one of the most attractive aspects of amplifying influencer assets in ads is extending the reach of the content. Influencer marketing reach is generally limited to the people that already follow that influencer, but paid media gives you the luxury of expanded targeting, boosting your efforts.
Through this, you can utilize Instagram usage data, and target customer segments with precision, testing and refining along the way. This can extend the reach of your content, but crucially, it also enables you to ensure that the right people that are seeing your promotion.
4. Call to action
Consider what action you want a customer to take when they see your ad.
Is it signing up to a free trial? Downloading an app? Purchasing a product?
Where possible, you should look to make it easy for them to take that action by utilizing Instagram features like Shopping Tags, or links embedded in ‘Swipe Up’ Stories. These options are not available to all brands, but for those that have them available, they can be key in maximizing your influencer campaign performance.
But even if you don't have these advanced options available, you should still look to make your call to action clear, concise and actionable, in order to maximize the traffic to your intended destination.
There are also alternative ways to drive direct traffic from your Instagram Stories.
5. Measure your results
Tracking the impact of your campaign is important at each step of the journey in order to measure and learn from its performance.
Split-testing different elements and creative can also give you a great opportunity to compare the relative impact. You can try out different captions, visuals and Stories tools, and see what works best. Test early and often, because once you know what works, you can double-down on that winning formula for the rest of the campaign.
If you're going to invest in influencer marketing, you need to ensure you get the most from that investment. These tips will help you get the most out of your efforts.