The perfect paid social matrimony.

​The competition for paid social ads has grown exponentially in the past 3 years, while organic reach has lost some space, brands are now working towards a hybrid approach to maximize results in their social media campaigns.

Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing overlap in many ways. Both marketing strategies involve using brand advocates to promote your products and services. The difference is in how influencers and affiliates promote. Affiliates come in all shapes and sizes – this could be anything from a review site to a cashback site. Influencers tend to stick to social media sites.

Both have disadvantages too. Paid social ads offer powerful targets but they lack human trust and validation, while influencers can miss the mark to reach an audience beyond their following.

Combining the two is a great way to make the most of both efforts since influencers offer the trust consumers need to be sure of a product and paid ads amplify influencers' content with their high targeting power allowing brands to reach the right audience.

In 2020-2021 the average business won $5 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing leading more and more advertisers to increase their budgets dedicated to influencers.

Working with influencers to create original content for paid spaces or allocating a budget to amplify organic influencer content is where marketers take things to the next level.

According to Tapafiliate.com 3.96 billion people use social media worldwide with 223 million users in the US and 53 million in the UK. 40% of people say they have purchased a product online after seeing used by an influencer on social media.

Content from influencers earns more than 8x the engagement rate compared to the content shared by brands because audiences follow what influencers do. So much so that eight out of every ten consumers purchased something after seeing a recommendation from an influencer.

Alex Haas, an Aspire Consultant in New York says... “I have dabbled in influencer marketing. I used to partner with a men’s fashion subscription service where I would review their clothes. I would then get a 30% commission based on the sales I generated through my exclusive link. I have also bought many products marketed to me via Instagram. I am far more likely to try a product that is marketed to me via Instagram than something I see on tv.”

It’s clear that influencer marketing can drive ROI with the creativity and loyalty of their followers, but they are limited to those, that’s when paid social ads will come in and make a difference by massively expanding that audience and hyper-targeting consumers more inclined to buy a specific product.

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Do you work in marketing and create paid social media strategies? Let’s have a chat about it and we can tell you how the industry is doing this year. Your next role is just around the corner.

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