From Fortune 500 companies to SMBs, innovative customer acquisition strategy is at the heart of each brand’s business model. Over the past fifteen years, the rise of social media as part of our daily lives has revolutionized customer acquisition through paid and organic channels. On social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, the creation of engaging, authentic content represents an opportunity to interact with customers and build the foundation for a large audience and personal relationship with current and potential customers. One such strategy is influencer marketing.
Market Evolution
But long before the creation of social media and influencers, brands utilized notable celebrities, athletes, and artists to authenticate their brand through association and acquire new customers. In the form of newspaper advertisements and television commercials, endorsements represent a longstanding staple in the marketing industry as a means of lowering customer acquisition costs.
But the technological advancements of the 21st century have revolutionized how endorsement campaigns are created and the platforms in which they take place. Today, content creation and brand alignment with social media influencers is the newest form of endorsement marketing.
According to Statista, influencer marketing spending has increased by over 700% from 1.7 billion dollars to 13.8 billion since 2016. Today, it represents an opportunity to tap into underrepresented demographics and engage with your audience in a way unique to social media.
Our Approach
However, the tactics for leveraging the benefits associated with influencer marketing are endless, and determining which strategy is best for your brand is essential. At C/C/G, we have found that whitelisting advertisements directly through a creator’s social media account has increased our client’s return on ad spend and moved KPI’s in the right direction, time and time again. As pictured below in our campaign with La Brea Bakery and a few creators, we leveraged branded partnership campaigns to increase in-store sales through Facebook ads and tracked the effectiveness of our campaign through the cost of lead acquisitions. Throughout the campaign, the metric most emblematic of increasing sales and decreasing costs was “grocery store location finds” leads which we reduced the cost per lead by $2 for La Brea Bakery.
Case Study
Here at C/C/G, we have a proven track record of helping brands utilize influencer marketing to lower customer acquisition costs and create a more engaged social media audience. We recently helped promote a partnership between La Brea Bakery and famous country singer Zac Brown and his company Z. Alexander Brown Wine for an Instagram giveaway. Through several social media campaigns with La Brea Bakery, including this one, we have helped increase social media following by 421.5%, increase engagement by 169.9% month over month, and increase social impressions to 1.5 million per month on their social channels.
Ultimately, influencer marketing and brand associations can be as inseparable as Lebron James and Nike or as independent of each other as Charli D’Amelio and Dunkin’ Brands. But the goal is the same and neglecting to tap into this billion-dollar industry that has grown exponentially year over year is a catastrophic mistake.