It’s no secret that people trust influencers more than brands. Influencer posts have more credibility, trust, and often get higher engagement. That’s why branded content ads are a game changer for companies who invest in influencer marketing.

In the past, influencer partnerships looked something like this:

Brands reach out to influencer
They agree on a collaboration
Brand sends influencer products
Influencer posts about those products to their pages
Brand reposts that image to their page and to their shoppable Instagram feed (Example here)

The brand would then measure that influencer’s post performance off the engagement from the influencer’s original post (or if they are lucky, the influencer would send them a screenshot of their analytics).

Through Branded Content Ads, businesses now have the ability to promote content created by their influencer partners through Ads Manager. This means that those paid partnership posts can be advertised to the brand’s customers and reach far more people than the influencer’s organic following.

And, with the increasingly limited reach of organic posts on Instagram, this is also a great way ensure that the content from those partnerships reaches as many people as possible. Essentially, you get ‘more bang for your buck’.

Ready to get started? Let’s take a deeper dive into setting up Branded Content Ads.

What Is a Branded Content Ad?

When a creator (influencer) posts a photo to Instagram, they have the option to tag a Brand Partner. That’s where you’ll see “Paid Partnership with [BRAND NAME]” on the post. This not only tells their audience that this is a sponsored collaboration, but it also gives the brand permission to advertise that post. Brands can quickly see all of their Branded Content Posts on Instagram and within Ads Manager.

How Do I Create a Branded Content Ad?

Step 1: Give the creator permission to tag your business in their branded content feed post or Story. See instructions from Instagram below:

In the Instagram app, go to settings and select Business
Go to Branded Content. Then turn Require Approvals on if you want to grant specific creators permission to tag your business. Keep it off, if you want to allow anyone to tag your brand in a branded content post. If you turn Approvals on, complete the following steps below.
To enable a creator to tag your business, select Approved Accounts.
Search for and select the creator’s Instagram handle that you will be partnering with.
The selected creator will now be able to tag your business in their posts.

When a creator makes a branded content post on Instagram and tags your business, they can also opt to Allow Business Partner to Promote. This will give you permission to promote the creator’s organic branded content feed or stories post as an ad. Don’t forget to ask the creator to turn this on!

Step 2: Once the creator has tagged your business in a branded content post and given permission to promote it, follow these steps to set-up a campaign in Ads Manager:

Go to Ads Manager and begin to create an ad.
Select from one of the available objectives (these include Brand Awareness, Video Views, Reach, Conversions, Traffic and Engagement).
Choose your budget, audience, and placement at the ad set level.
When creating your ad, select Use Existing Post.
Go to Branded Content where you’ll see all available branded content posts.
Finish creating your ad and “publish”.

What Are the Benefits of Branded Content Ads?

One of the biggest benefits of branded content ads is that you can reach more people – and specifically, your customers. Branded Content Ads work great when targeting people who may have already visited your website or engaged with your business on social media. By showing those warm audiences an influencer’s branded content post, it’s like showing them a testimonial for your business, but from the influencer’s point of view. Ultimately, this increases reach, engagement, and return on investment for your influencer collaborations.

Why Should Businesses Run Branded Content Ads?

If you want to maximize the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns, branded content ads are the way to go. You can reach more people, measure the performance of those collaborations, and gather more content to promote to your different audiences. Most importantly, you can convert more customers through already established influencer trust. Another bonus is that influencers WANT you to collaborate with them on branded content ads because you’re advertising THEIR post which will give them also more reach and engagement. It’s a win win!

Need help setting up your first branded content ad or want to learn more? Schedule a strategy call.

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