Are your Influencer Manager and your Paid Social Expert collaborating closely enough?
The answer is almost certainly, no.
In this article, we take a look at why the two should be working more closely than ever - but first, let us provide some context by exploring the recent rise of user-generated content (UGC).
The Rise of User-Generated Content (UGC)
According to Facebook, “the fastest-growing advertisers create and test 11x more creative”, contributing to “3x revenue growth in 2019”.
Those who innovate and experiment with hundreds, even thousands, of different creatives to hone the winning concept are the ones who come out on top.
Leading Paid Social Expert, Savannah Sanchez champions this dynamic tact, adopting a creative testing approach as a cornerstone of the media buying strategy. In fact, it’s a strategy that’s used obsessively by Paid Social Experts from companies of all shapes and sizes right now.
The message here is clear. If brands want to scale their paid social efforts and grow their businesses, they must now create and test new creatives on a regular (weekly, at least) basis.
Why Brands Need to Innovate with Creatives
More than 50% of brands are still relying on the in-house production of creative. That means that a great deal of the campaigns going out feature ad assets that derive from professional content stamped with brand identity.
However, the past 12 months have seen a sharp spike in the success of user-generated content - or ‘creator-generated content’ - when it comes to creative. In 2020, campaigns centered around UGC blew up as the best-performing ads.
So, it seems brands must now start relying on this particular medium if they’re going to run cost-effective and profitable paid social campaigns.
The key to succeeding at this approach lies in the close collaboration between the Influencer Manager and the Paid Social Expert - a professional allyship far too many companies aren’t capitalizing on yet.
The Role of an Influencer Manager
Key Responsibilities of an Influencer Manager
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer marketing is expected to reach a worth of $13.8 billion in 2021. In other words, it’s a marketing strategy that brands can no longer afford to neglect, hence why investing in an Influencer Manager is a smart move.
What does an Influencer Manager do?
An Influencer Manager oversees campaigns with influencers, managing the production of video and image-based content produced by social media users with a large or impactful following or oppositely micro but more engaged audiences.
The content produced is posted organically by the influencers to their social feeds, the aim being to expand brand awareness and audience reach for the company. Brands can then repurpose this content for their own usage, filing it under UGC or creator-generated content.
The Influencer Manager is therefore responsible for building and nurturing relationships between the brand and a network of influencers to help tap into new demographics. It’s not an easy job as the Influencer Manager is at the mercy of influencers who tend to play by their own rules and work to their own deadlines.
The Role of a Paid Social Expert
Key Responsibilities of a Paid Social Expert
Once the brand has its content, this creative can then be passed onto a Paid Social Expert who will use it to build and run ads on a variety of social platforms.
The social platforms adopted can vary from company to company but typically include networks such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Throughout the process of building and running ads, a Paid Social Expert will also be expected to run creative testing.
This strategy is what we spoke about in the introduction of this article, whereby regular experimentation of creative is carried out to find a winning concept that an account can then be scaled from.
The Synergy Between Influencer Managers and Paid Social Experts
How Collaboration Drives Campaign Success
Now that we’ve provided clear definitions of what an Influencer Manager does and what a Paid Social Expert does, it goes without saying that they should be collaborating closely on a daily basis.
With the trend for UGC and influencer-generated content on an upward trajectory, it’s clear to see that this is the type of creative Paid Social Experts need to be leaning on for ad campaigns.
Therefore, the Paid Social Expert needs to be in close contact with the Influencer Manager as the latter provides a fresh and organic source of new UGC that can be readily accessed and repurposed for paid ads.
This partnership should be established and well-oiled by brands if they’re going to see ROI from their influencer marketing and paid campaigns moving forward.
