These high-value relationships drive awareness, engagement, deliver customer conversions and are a major force in digital marketing, increasing in importance as the buyer journey becomes more fragmented and consumers grow an immunity to traditional advertising. The right influencer can produce content that is 11 times more effective than banner ads. In fact, according to a 2020 GlobalWebIndex survey, 96% of US and UK consumers who followed influencers were engaging with them more or at least to the same extent as before the coronavirus outbreak.

What are the drivers?

Social media really has been the most significant driver of the ‘influencer’ era and when platforms such as Youtube, Instagram and now TikTok, really started taking off, brands were somewhat at a loss for where to place the responsibility of influencer strategies. Some created entirely new teams, others placed it under PR or branding, what didn’t happen, in this initial instance anyway, was a movement to have this sit within the remit of performance teams. But why is that? 

Well, until recently the diversification of the performance, and more specifically, the partnership channel has been slow to emerge. But in the last decade as SaaS API driven solutions have developed, the scope of affiliate has increased and a more vast array of potential partner categories has grown the partnership ecosystem ten-fold, thus greater onus is being placed on the channel and its appealing pay-for-outcome model.

Once a marketing tactic driven purely by programme based conversions has now awoken its versatility and capabilities of influencing consumer purchase decisions at every stage of the buying cycle, incorporating traditional coupon partners, cashback websites, content publishers, banks, card-linked offers, and the list continues. Thus the question of will influencer and performance marketing converge is somewhat moot, the fact is it already has, what we should ask ourselves is will influencer programmes ever sit entirely under the remit of performance teams?

How to get started

There are some delicate steps to take in making the move to a performance based influencer programme. First and foremost, it’s crucial to maintain the relationships that brand or PR teams have built with their audience of influencers. A lot of time has gone into cultivating these relationships and it would be irresponsible to simply pass over the reigns. 

What’s more, many influencers, especially those with a more significant follower base, have grown accustomed to being paid on a flat fee basis and therefore may show resistance moving to a performance-based approach. The key here is around diversification and education. What’s so fantastic about the partner channel is its propensity to open up new partnerships. With technology vendors like Sideqik and Zine offering an unrivalled opportunity for brands to discover new influencer partners, brands are not simply limited to those with the largest follower base.

These solutions don’t just introduce you to new influencers, they also give breakdowns in terms of audience demographics and whether these partners are working with your competitors, which can help create more focused programmes aligned to the ideal client/customer profile (ICP) of your brand. And what’s more, SaaS platforms are further opening up the influencer supply change to provide access to a limitless ecosystem of partners, empowering marketers to quickly identify right-fit partners and influencers with both filtering and query logic to quickly hone in on attributes that align to a brand’s and allowing automation of serving lookalike recommendations.

For example, micro-influencers tend to have a more niche but engaged audience and because of this they are also far more likely to accept performance-based attribution. A micro influencer can provide a 47% increase in engagement rates compared to the macro variety. And why is this the case? It’s largely based on micro-influencers having a more “dialed-in” audience which therefore finds them better able to make authentic and valuable connections.

How can brands effectively use it?

From a brand perspective, the larger an audience gets, the more diluted their demographics become, which makes targeting consumers with the right message increasingly difficult, potentially impacting revenue. Brands trust the micro-influencer to be a genuine advocate and one that will be influential with their audience on the subject matter that brought that audience to them in the first place. We’ve seen many brands utilise a hybrid approach, keeping their most prominent influencers on a flat fee whilst maintaining a good group of these smaller micro-influencers on a pay-for-outcome basis and it truly is paying dividends in both awareness and revenue. 

And speaking of brand awareness, the reason some advertisers are still hesitant to trial an influencer programme is because of the outdated notion that it is more of a branding exercise than something that will generate reward in the form of return of ad spend (ROAS). But that’s the beauty of a performance-based approach. It takes the risk out of this still somewhat uncertain channel and puts the power in the brands’ hands to dial a programme up and down depending on external factors, budget and campaign goals. And do you know what else is great about influencers?

They are providing a whole host of promotions all in one. Think about it, they give testimonials, demonstrations, and calls-to-action, through photo, video and text. It’s like having an entire advertising campaign developed on your behalf by a consumer-trusted content creator. What this means is that influencers are helping their audiences go through the typical sales funnel, from awareness down to consideration and even purchase. Seems like a pretty cost-effective route now doesn’t it? 

The question of brand affiliation.

The reason many companies struggle with influencer marketing is not that the channel doesn’t work, it’s often because their sponsored content is not thoughtfully planned, executed or authentically aligned with the audience. But when it comes to marketing to specific demographics, in particular the consumer powerhouse of Gen Z, audiences tend to be drawn to quality over quantity in social media, they value individual expression, and above all, they greatly prefer brand authenticity and companies that are transparent. Whilst brands may be nervous about negative affiliation, what they should really be more concerned about is no affiliation at all, and the impact this will ultimately have on their sales, especially when their competitors are investing heavily. 

With SaaS solutions, brands actually have far more exposure and opportunities for direct communication with their audience of influencers and can ensure that they are adhering to guidelines. If you tap the right influencer, you’ll know they’ve fostered an engaged community based on trust and you can reap the benefits of this transferred positive affiliation and their advocacy. 

When it comes to influencer and partnership marketing, it is safe to say that there are a growing number of overlapping similarities, and the differences that once separated these marketing mediums are becoming few and far between. If you already have standalone influencer and affiliate strategies in place, you might notice many dissimilarities in the way you recruit and interact with these two groups, as highlighted previously. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

Marrying your affiliate and influencer strategy solves several problems: it simplifies your business, promotes and strengthens your brand, creates clear incentives for affiliates and influencers, and allows you to experience the best that both marketing channels have to offer.  So if not now when? It’s high time that marketers still siloing these two channels realise the potential of converging both to sit under the blissfully harmonious remit of partnership.

The post The Increasingly Blurred Lines Between Influencer and Performance Marketing appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Many of these events have created enormous challenges. And opportunities. It is important that we strive to look for ways to diversify our affiliate programs, especially as consumer behavior changes so quickly.

Luckily, the channel continues to evolve and expand as more brands increase their investments in partnership and affiliate. We have seen a variety of new partner types enter the market and the channel is being recognized as a contributor to multiple stages of the customer journey, not just the moments before a purchase. Here, with contributions from our friends at Silverbean, we look at ways to drive affiliate program growth through diversification.

Expand influencer engagements 

More and more, influencer programs are becoming the responsibility of performance marketing teams. Brands are realising that influencers need to deliver on performance-based metrics such as CPO and CPA as well as the traditional influencer targets such as clicks. Advanced tracking and attribution available today enable better ways to prove influencer program ROI, which is critical for today’s marketers. 

On this topic, Dan Hull Senior Affiliate & Influencer Manager at Silverbean says “Over the past year we have seen the contribution of social commerce, and in particular influencer’s activity within this, play a greater part in the affiliate programs we manage. With all social platforms taking the steps to ensure content can be fully monetised for the creators utilising them, this is something we only see becoming more prevalent.”

“An affiliate program can be an incredibly effective way of cultivating relationships with your brand’s key advocates, inspiring loyalty and – in our experience – greatly increasing the level of organic content brands can receive as a result. Even through the uncertain climate of this year, our client base continues to expand their influencer campaigns; both within their general affiliate strategy and with standalone campaigns.”

Winning SEO with help from affiliate

The partnership channel is in a unique position to leverage other areas of your marketing efforts. A great example is utilising affiliate programs to aid SEO. Through the alignment of keyword search terms, your affiliate traffic can run alongside PPC and SEO initiatives and drive greater results.

“We have seen some real success in driving content partnerships to strategically increase online sales through search,” said Nicholas Yates, Performance Account Director at Silverbean. “By collaborating closely with affiliates, we have seen tremendous results for brands who focus on ranking for key search queries that have high conversion rates or that use content to support search queries further up the user journey.”

Working with affiliate partners alongside in collaboration with other digital channels helps you expand your partner mix and drive sales volume. Together with Silverbean, we saw one brand adopt this strategy and drive upwards of 70% of their affiliate sales through content partners.

App promotion campaigns

Within app marketing, there are two types of campaigns the affiliate channel can look to support – in-app sales and app installs. It’s well known that consumers who purchase through a brand’s app have higher customer LTV and loyalty, so creating programs that commission partners specifically for these actions is a great diversification play.

Brands should work with affiliate solutions that can track in-app conversions accurately and that also integrate with mobile measurement providers that use fingerprinting as a means of tracking app installs. 

Explore brand-to-brand partnerships

Brand-to-brand partnerships are not necessarily new, however automation makes it easier to quantify their impact.. One of the major benefits of brand partnerships is that they allow you to be more creative in your marketing approach. You get to leverage the innovation of two teams to inspire and persuade prospects. You aren’t limited to a short list of traditional affiliate promotional options – instead, the sky’s the limit.

There are multiple ways you can use brand partnerships to meet specific business goals. Whether you are trying to drive increased revenue or attract more or specific kinds of customers and purchases, brand partnerships can be shaped to achieve your objectives. Partnering with a brand that has an aligned audience and fielding a co-promoted consumer experience, can help you both gain brand awareness with each other’s customers AND garner a nice increase in your database of prospects. 

Emerging partner types  

Finding new, perhaps non-traditional, partner types is probably the most obvious and simple route to diversify your affiliate offering. 2020 has been a big year for bringing these new partner classes to the forefront. Earlier this year, for example, we saw a travel brand partner with a digital fintech app as a great way to broaden their existing performance program.

One increasingly popular partnership type is card-linking. Whilst these partners come in different forms, their general premise is that they have agreements with a specific payment card or service provider in order to track consumer purchases. This, in turn, enables brands to offer consumers a discount or loyalty benefit that is automatically applied when they purchase. This is an easy way to target mobile consumers and acquire new customers. 

New partner types are emerging all the time, and platforms and agencies continue to recruit these new types of publishers to programs. Keep an eye out for ones you can team up with to generate results.

Despite recent events, the affiliate channel is set to grow. As we enter a new era of e-commerce, it is crucial for brands to ensure their programs are effective, varied, and innovative. Organisations must work in partnership with agencies and tech providers, who offer unrivalled access to a wealth of knowledge on how best to optimise and diversify programs to exceed KPIs and ensure continued success. 

The post How to Effectively Diversify Your Affiliate Program appeared first on PerformanceIN.