Influencer Tactic: Extend the Value of Campaigns with Influencer-Executed Promoted Social Posts

The influencer marketing landscape has grown more competitive in past years, and it has become increasingly important to work with experienced influencer marketers to develop well-thought-out and expertly executed campaigns that employ more than one influencer tactic.

As a full-service influencer marketing agency, The Motherhood is often tasked with coming up with fresh ideas for tactics that can integrate seamlessly into an overall campaign strategy. When it fits into campaign parameters and goals, a beneficial yet often-overlooked, tactical add-on to influencer campaigns is paid social ads and boosted posts executed by the influencers themselves. 

Simply put, influencers receive a social media ad budget to promote their own branded posts on priority social media outlets. This helps reach a highly targeted group of individuals, as well as expanding organic reach and increasing engagements and actions on posts. Not only does this approach provide value to the brand by reaching more eyeballs through an authentic source, it also provides value to influencers, as their channels get higher visibility.

Why is this more successful than a brand simply boosting their own social media posts with ad dollars? Because the influencers’ ad content is written and posted by relatable individuals who align with the message, it resonates with the target demographic more effectively, and it looks less like an ad and adds more value to the consumer buying journey than a simple ad. The combination of authentic content and effective distribution strengthens the campaign for both parties.

Of course, it is important to execute the tactic strategically, using findings from your own brands’ advertising successes as well as letting the influencers use their knowledge of content and community to optimize the ad and boosted post parameters. Getting to know influencers prior to the campaign, determining their level of experience with social ads and clearly conveying the goals, will help increase the probability of success.

In getting to know our network of influencers, we’ve found that over 75 percent have executed a boosted Facebook post while only 36 percent have experience with Instagram ads. Most often Facebook boosted posts are mentioned as the most successful social ad tactic for their content and emphasize that quality authentic images and call to action are key. Our influencers cite increase in reach, heightened engagement and link click throughs as the primary reasons they’ve executed paid social on their channels.

Below are examples of successful paid social post campaigns that The Motherhood has implemented as an influencer tactic in tandem with broader influencer marketing programs.

Boosted Facebook posts led to increased click-through rates.

In our headquarters city of Pittsburgh, we worked with a quick-service restaurant to feature a lightly branded, shareable infographic of crowd-sourced tips for local summertime family activities. A group of local influencers targeted their boosted Facebook posts to reach key individuals, which resulted in a click-through rate 78% higher than industry average. 

Boosted Facebook posts integral in influencer campaign ROI of 16X.

The Motherhood worked on a consumer product campaign featuring an on-the-ground experiential marketing program and hyper-local influencer team. Influencers in each of the target locations geo-targeted their boosted Facebook posts to promote on-the-ground branded events, driving high engagement rates and successful event attendance. Moreover, the return on investment for this campaign, calculated based on earned media value, was more than 16 times the initial investment. 

Boosted pin team targets easy desserts, generating 13% higher than industry average engagement rate.

As part of a new product launch for a quick dessert product from a well-known brand, a team of influencers created content showcasing unique product preparations. A select set of those influencers were given an ad budget to promote their pins on Pinterest to targeted individuals interested in the category of easy desserts. Within 30 days of posting, the pins had received an average of 1.5X higher number of re-pins than a standard pin in its lifetime. Furthermore, the higher engagement rate of those pins was 13% higher than average for promoted pins in the food and beverage product category.

Another quick tip about promotion: With proper attribution and links, sharing an influencer’s branded content on your brand’s own social channels, or re-engaging influencers to promote their content again during key timeframes, is a cost-efficient and easy way to extend the value of an influencer marketing campaign.

Interested in executing a creative strategic influencer marketing campaign? Let’s talk!