Influencer Marketing vs. Paid Media | Which Is Better for ROI?

For many years, brands have used sponsored media to raise sales and brand awareness. However, influencer marketing must be a part of a brand's marketing mix if it is to succeed in the cutthroat and dynamic market of today. 

According to research by Rakuten, over 80% of brands use affiliate marketing, including influencer marketing. Furthermore, 67% of firms intend to raise their influencer marketing expenses, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

The foundations of influencer marketing and sponsored media will be discussed in this essay. After that, we'll contrast the two and discuss why influencer marketing is giving brands greater returns. 

Paid Media vs. Influencer Marketing

Nowadays, most consumers give customer reviews greater weight than brand marketing found in sponsored media. Customers frequently report—and sometimes even boast—about purchasing products that were suggested by influencers. 

Paid media refers to the practice of brands using advertising channels to buy advertising space in order to raise their profile. The most common channels for this are radio, television, online display ads, and even sponsored postings on social media. With paid media, brands have total control over the language and visuals that are used to represent their brand in the media. 

As a result, it gives brands flexibility in how and where they wish to promote their products and services while allowing them to optimize their marketing campaigns to improve outcomes. This precise control and flexibility are the reasons why brands have been using paid media for decades. 

On the other hand, influencer marketing may not offer this level of control and flexibility, but it makes up for it in its overall effectiveness. Influencer marketing involves brands paying influencers, who have a dedicated and carefully curated social media following, to endorse or promote their products in the form of branded content or sponsored posts they create and share on social media. Influencers are often deemed as “industry experts” in a given niche in the eyes of their audience. 

Therefore, today’s consumers trust influencers with their product recommendations more than faceless brands that utilize paid media to promote themselves. Influencers have built trust and loyalty with their audience over time, so their product recommendations hold higher value to today’s consumers than product recommendations from brands through paid media. As influencer marketing only continues to develop along with the consumers’ needs, paid media stays stagnant and doesn’t contribute to credibility. 

Influencer marketing doesn’t require brands to be experts in how to best market themselves and engage with their audience compared to paid media. Paid media typically involves extensive expertise to effectively create and optimize content that best resonates with the target audience and delivers results. 

On the other hand, the influencer is usually the expert in developing and providing the most effective content to their niche audience. Brands also benefit from the content influencers produce because they can later repurpose it across various marketing channels, such as social media profiles, newsletters, and paid media. These added benefits allow brands to run effective influencer campaigns that deliver proven results, all at a more moderate cost than paid media typically. 

Today, brands have access to countless macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and even nano influencers. All three types of influencers are uniquely effective at engaging with their audiences and driving sales, with the only difference being their audience size. 

Compared to their larger counterparts, the major macro influencers, the tiny micro and nano influencers frequently have higher rates of engagement and conversion. Because of the closer bond they have with their followers, the smaller micro and nano influencers gain even more clout from their suggestions. 

Brands can more effectively grow sales and reach new and relevant audiences by collaborating with the appropriate influencers than by using paid media. Influencer marketing is also a potent technique that helps businesses establish quick credibility and trust, which raises sales and brand awareness. 

Compared to sponsored media, influencer marketing presents countless opportunities and advantages for brands. It enables marketers to connect with more consumers and boost conversions. You can advance your affiliate marketing program by using referrals. Check out our 3 Tips for Understanding, Measuring, and Growing Your Affiliate Marketing business and ROI to gain more insight into your affiliate marketing business.