Ads are defined as a way of public communication of a product, brand, or service. The goal is to promote awareness and interest.
With digitalization, ads have found their way onto the internet sphere. As a strategy, they are a cost-effective option that provides relatively high flexibility and dynamism that traditional ads lack. Digital Ads commonly come in the form of Paid Advertising and Influencer Marketing.
Both forms of advertisements’ deep structure remain similar in that they are there for specific marketing reasons:
- Brand Awareness
- Target Audience expansion (Market Expansion)
- Limited Promotions / Product, Service launches
and the list goes on.
What is radical, is their means of assisting you in achieving your campaign goals. Paid Ad involves social media, search engine marketing and display advertising. Its benefits include high-accuracy retargeting, ads automation, result transparency, just to name a few.
Influencer Ads tap on content creators (typically humans, but with Web 3.0, you could be enlisting a beloved AI.). They have a certain appeal to a relatively specific audience group that would further your objective’s intention. They typically have a broader reach with a higher impact, More importantly, the ads are likely to stay online forever.
Synonymous with Influencers is Instagram. This platform is a popular option due to its intuitiveness, but fast catching up is TikTok. Depending on where your audience group thrives, it would determine what sort of platform you would harness as an advertising channel.
Influencer Ads typically remain the prime choice cut simply before it cuts through the advertising clutter. When a Brand reaches out to a content creator, there is, at least, a very clear intention of what your audience group you would like to have. Beyond that, it creates an image association because Influencers have a certain form of appeal that people can relate to. This is extremely important because it enforces credibility.
There is also a high level of flexibility that follows because currently, there are no rigid regulations to restrict influencers - as long as the advertisement is not discriminatory and does not go against common moral values. Paid ads, however, rely on platforms such as Google’s policies, rules, and regulations in order for them to be approved.
Part of the valuable attributes of adopting the Influencer strategy is a more compelling content narrative. This is why engaging a content creator that resonates with your Brand is so so important. They offer an emotive opportunity for your advertisement to latch on and resonate with your audience. They assist in converting them into your Brand’s loyal, especially if you embark on an enduring collaboration with them.
Furthering its impact is the competitive advantage they have over paid ads. Due to its high agility, your Brand could be working with a radically new content creator that would otherwise not be associated with you. This is fresh. It is exciting and it puts you ahead of the curve.
However, Instagram influencer ads do also have their limitations. Influencers come in different tiers, and this equates to their engagement cost. They can start from as low as, perhaps a couple of hundred per simple and straightforward Instagram Story, to a few thousand for some celebrity-grade influencers. Paid Ads, on the other hand, edge out in their rigidity, with a costing structure that is stable regardless of what content is.
Influencers Ads too, require more manual effort such as sourcing the right ambassador in the sea of millions of influencers, curating the content, depending on how involved you would like to be. (And we have a quick fix for you to jump the process line)
So … Which is better? No surprise here, but it depends on what your brand truly needs. Brands are often referred to as the owner’s baby and there are good reasons why. They require a specific formula at each stage of their growth to fully optimize their potential. Think about it logically. Would you purchase a Stage 3 milk formula for a newborn? No, and it is because the nutritional values are different. Similarly, at different stages of the Brand’s growth, it requires new strategies of approach.