Combining Two of the Hottest Trends in Advertising
Chico Tirado
Crowded social platforms, a consumer revolt against intrusive ads, and ad blockers are driving down ad impressions and subsequent engagement rates. Media consumption isn’t the same as it was 5 years ago. User-generated content now makes up 30% of the media content consumed by millennials (Crowdtap) This is over any other form of media, including live TV (13%,) radio (7%,) and print (3%). As a result, ad agencies and publishers are scrambling for innovation.
Influencer Marketing
With the rise in consumer discontent, comes the democratization of influence. Branded messages are being disregarded, and UGC is gaining credibility and attention. It makes sense that marketers rated influencer marketing as their fastest-growing channel for acquiring customers online (Tomoson)
The thing is, influencer marketing is not a new phenomenon. Still, the trend toward peer to peer influence has caught advertisers unaware. Few advertisers have figured out how to truly take advantage of it. Many, even those with social marketing teams, are not positioned for the process of recruiting influencers and incorporating peer-to-peer marketing as a component of their campaign strategies.
The typical process for influencer marketing is convoluted, cumbersome, and inefficient, from campaign conception to eventual display. The buying process relies on requesting individual influencer pricing and availability, posts being bought and sold by human ad buyers, and manually transacting orders all before the ad has even begun.
Programmatic
The solution to solving these inefficiencies in campaign development is eliminating the human elements of setting up campaigns. And there’s a name for this type of automatic setup; it’s called programmatic. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (more recently) have programmatic elements for advertisers looking to purchase branded ad space. Now, the programmatic solution is becoming true of influencer marketing. By making campaign setup more programmatic, ad tech companies like Gnack can eliminate manual work for advertisers.
Gnack’s system combines these two advertising trends (influencer marketing + programmatic technology) to scale the most trusted form of media — word of mouth. With a system that automatically targets, vets, negotiates with, and activates influencers, advertisers are left with no other tasks other than creating their campaign and measuring results.
Here’s a quick list of 5 reasons advertisers need programmatic influencer marketing
1. ROI
It makes sense that consumer attention is shifting to user-generated content. But what about the proof of ROI? Now, a study by McKinsey found that “marketing-induced consumer-to-consumer word of mouth” generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising.
2. Scale
Word of mouth is most effective when it’s scaled. There are plenty of ways to get 1000 people to talk about your brand, but at what cost? You still have to work with each person and incentivize them to evangelize. By combining the power of influencer marketing with programmatic technology, advertisers can easily scale their word of mouth initiatives and get their message to hundreds or thousands of people in one simple process.
3. Targeting/Budget
Programmatic platforms are easy on the budget. Not only do they eliminate hands-on work, but they’re also great for targeting your audience efficiently. The key to effective advertising is efficient targeting. Programmatic influencer marketing platforms allow for ease of access to influencers, and they ensure that ad spends are reaching the right audience.
4. Fraud detection
Programmatic platforms are often associated with fraudulent impressions, when engagement should be the metric to focus on. Programmatic systems like Gnack can see if a particular account has inauthentic followers. Influencers are also paid based on engagement, ensuring that advertisers are not paying for fraudulent impressions.
5. Time
In most cases, one influencer campaign can take over 200 man hours to activate. Perhaps this is why the top ad agencies are now dedicating full-time positions to influencer marketing. Programmatic influencer marketing platforms eliminate the menial processes, leaving advertisers more time to focus on their KPI’s and creative.
Gnack combines two of the hottest trends in advertising, influencer marketing and programmatic technology, giving advertisers something to get excited about. 2016 will be the year of influencer marketing, how will you position your brand?
