advertising – Not Not Communicating by Michael Rabby

Woman in stylish glasses representing a social media influencer

By Carrissa Bruneau, crbruneau21-geemail com

So just how do marketing teams go about hiring an influencer? They must pick the person with the most followers, right? Wrong, there are many driving factors when regarding influencer sponsorship success. However, the one element advertisers need to seriously start looking for when hiring successful influencers is their ability to connect with varying consumers and their causes for spending. Understanding consumer spending is a key factor when determining which brands will sponsor an influencer.

To better understand consumer spending, an online survey was taken of 938 U.S. residents. Farrell, Cambell, and Sands found that these were the six prominent types of consumers and their annual spending averages.

Silent Follower (20%) Annual $9.98 – People who have social media accounts, but rarely engage with influencers.
Spontaneous Entertainment-Driven (13%) Annual $14.41 – Motivated by entertainment but rarely purchase or seek deals from influencers
Influencer Unengaged (11%) Annual $17.03 – Very rarely engage with influencers at all.
Idea Seeker (32%) Annual $50.47 – Moderately engaged with influencers and are inspired to follow for entertainment and inspiration.
Super Fan (7%) Annual $126.48 – Follow a high number of influencers based on entertainment and attractiveness.
Entertainment-Driven Inspiration Seeker (17%) Annual $207.38 – Highly engaged and view influencer content regularly. Make purchases based on influencer trust.

The low spenders considered lurkers follow influencers that provide quality content for entertainment purposes. They get targeted with more general ads because their lack of engagement makes them hard to track. They spend less because they are not the general target. Moderate to high spenders are looking for high entertainment and high inspirations. This could be content centered around home décor, self-care, fashion, etc. Although reasons for following influencers are more specific, the yield of purchases is higher because the influencers are more in tune with what their fanbase wants.

For advertisers looking to hire influencers to sell their products, look at their fanbase. Find influencers that attract consumers with different motivations instead of ones that target all consumers. Different influencers can address the different motivations of the consumers listed. The marketers that can hire influencers who leverage deal seeking, entertainment, and inspiration as mechanisms for connecting with audiences will be better off. Influencers with smaller followings with high engagement note a higher degree of trust placed on influencer recommendations. Super fans were the lowest percent of individuals in the survey, but they make up one of the highest spending groups.

Accounts with a smaller more loyal fanbase show an increase in parasocial relationships. Parasocial relationships occur when the consumer feels emotionally connected to the creator. These relationships show an increase in purchase intentions and have a positive effect on consumerism. Attempting to target every demographic of consumer is not necessary if multiple influencers are selected to target specific loyal consumers.

FARRELL, J. R., CAMPBELL, C., & SANDS, S. (2022). What Drives Consumers to Engage with Influencers? Segmenting Consumer Response to Influencers: Insights for Managing Social-Media Relationships. Journal of Advertising Research, 62(1), 35–48. https://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2137/10.2501/JAR-2021-017

Image licensed by CC by 2.0 license, courtesy of www.songsimian.com

By Sydney Brower, @sydpaigebro , sydneyd.brower []wsu.edu

Native advertisements, unlike traditional ads, blend in with user-generated content by looking like a regular post from a friend. The difference lies in the subtle product placement, and not your friend posting. Disguising ads reflect businesses’ longing for social post ads.

Researchers define social post advertisements when a consumer feels pleased enough with a product to post about it on their account. When a brand earns a social post, they reap the benefits of effective and free marketing. But do native ads actually sell products and boost brand image more effectively than traditional ads? Johnson, Potocki, and Veldhuis conducted a study on the three different styles of Instagram advertisements.

The researchers polled 482 avid Instagram users. They were shown six fictitious Instagram posts, advertising for Dyson vacuums, McDonalds, and Nivea sun. Below you will see the variables measured for each post, the type of measurement used, and the participants’ total average scores:

Results

Variable	Measurement	Social Post	Native Ad	Traditional Ad
Social Comparison	I compared myself with the person in the posted picture. 1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree	2.75	2.21	1.73
Credibility	The ad is reliable, convincing, and credible. 1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree	3.98	3.51	3.22
Ad Attitude	1 = Negative and 7 = Positive	3.72	2.94	2.99
Brand Attitude	1 = Negative and 7 = Positive	4.51	4.36	4.40
Behavioral Intention	I plan on buying this product. 1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree	3.84	3.68	3.73

The results above show a slight difference in the overall attitudes each participant had towards the different advertisements. Below you will find a breakdown of the results for each type of advertisement:

Social Post Ads: Some participants believed social post ads were sponsored, despite the absence of a “sponsored” disclaimer. With that said, this type of ad received the highest credibility and social comparative scores. This positively influenced the likelihood of participants purchasing the product. Social posts also received the highest ad and brand attitude scores. The researchers were not surprised that social ad posts were overall liked the most by participants, thus being the most effective form of Instagram advertising.

Native Ads: Although native ads did not blend in with user-generated content, they were still perceived as more credible than traditional ads. In addition, they elicited more social comparison from participants than traditional ads, yet lower than social posts. Compared to social posts and traditional ads, native ads scored the lowest for behavioral intention, ad attitude, and brand attitude.

Traditional Ads: Participants did not often socially compare themselves nor believe traditional advertisements. Users felt more likely to make a purchase after seeing traditional ads than the native ads. Traditional ads also beat native ads for positive ad and brand sentiment. Researchers had not predicted traditional advertising to earn better marketing results than native advertising.

The Instagram users responded relatively positively to all of the advertisement styles. Turns out, there is no need to cut out traditional ads from your social media marketing strategy. Instagram users are not more accepting of disguised ads than traditional ads. You could benefit from mixing up your advertising by using all three styles.

Johnson, B. K., Potocki, B., & Veldhuis, J. (2019). Is That My Friend or an Advert? The Effectiveness of Instagram Native Advertisements Posing as Social Posts. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 24(3), 108–125.