Influencer marketing strategies are popular with businesses and marketing teams, with more than 82% of marketers expected to employ influencer marketing tactics in 2024. And in comparison to ad spending on social media, research indicates spending on influencer marketing is growing faster.
With such high hopes pinned on influencer strategies, you need to be able to identify the elements of a successful influencer marketing campaign. Here’s an overview of popular campaign types and influencer marketing campaign examples to inspire your own brand.
What are influencer marketing campaigns?
An influencer marketing campaign is a digital marketing tactic where a brand partners with an individual creator or influencer, often on social media platforms. Brands pay influencers to execute a set of marketing activities designed to promote the brand and/or its products to a target audience.
Common influencer tactics include recommending or reviewing products, creating and publishing product-focused social posts, and mentioning or tagging brands in social media channels.
Types of influencer marketing campaigns
- Sponsored posts
- Giveaways
- Affiliate campaigns
- Collaborations
- Brand ambassadorships
- Reviews
- Social media takeovers
You can choose between different influencer marketing campaign types based on your goals, audience preferences, and budget. Here are seven examples of influencer marketing campaigns to inspire your next brand partnership:
Sponsored posts
Sponsored content is a popular influencer marketing tactic where you pay a creator to make social media posts featuring your brand or products. The creator publishes sponsored posts to their social media accounts with some indication that the posts are sponsored, such as including the hashtag, “#ad,” or making the sponsorship explicit in the caption copy. (The Federal Trade Commission requires that creators disclose paid partnerships.)
For example, an organic dog food company might pay a pet influencer for a series of posts highlighting the nutritional value of its products.
Giveaways
Use contests and giveaways to create hype, increase engagement, and encourage followers to create user-generated content. Partnering with an influencer can help you promote giveaways to audience segments in which the influencer has authority.
For example, an electrolyte drink company might partner with fashion and travel influencersto boost brand awareness with a diverse audience of people with busy lifestyles. As part of the drink campaign, the influencers could encourage followers to enter a raffle for a lifetime supply of electrolyte drinks. Those who enter the giveaway provide information that the company can use for future campaigns.
Affiliate campaigns
Affiliate influencer campaigns encourage influencers to promote your brand’s products or services in exchange for a commission earned on sales resulting from the influencer’s recommendations. These campaigns typically engage multiple influencers and require minimal upfront investment on your part.
For example, a company might launch an affiliate marketing beauty campaign by inviting 20 beauty industry influencers to share unique affiliate links and offer customers discounts on newly launched cosmetic products.
Collaborations
Collaborations involve a creative or product-related partnership between an influencer and your brand, using the influencer’s creativity to generate buzz and boost sales.
For example, a fashion retailer might hire an Instagram-famous street artist to paint a mural on the side of its downtown store. Similarly, a cookware supplier might partner with a celebrity chef to design a line of specialty tools inspired by the chef’s favorite dishes and culinary philosophy.
Brand ambassadorships
Brand ambassadorships are ongoing partnerships between an influencer and a company. Brand ambassadors could post social media content featuring your brand, wear or use your brand’s products in public, attend industry or consumer-facing events on behalf of your company, or appear in your brand’s advertising and marketing materials.
Reviews
You can also pay influencers to write product reviews—although this typically doesn’t guarantee favorable coverage. Many paid reviews also contain disclaimers, letting the influencer’s audience know that they were compensated for the post. Reviews straddle the line between sponsored content, which are heavily influenced by brands, and collaborations, which contain more creative input.
For example, a dried pasta company could pay an amateur chef with a YouTube following to make a video in which they try all of the brand’s pasta types and rank them.
Social media takeovers
Social media takeovers are exactly what they sound like: You pay an influencer to post in their own voice from your brand’s official profiles over an established period.
An athleisure company, for example, might have a fashion and travel influencer post to its Instagram account to document how its clothes hold up on an 18-hour international flight.
How to run a successful influencer marketing campaign
- Set goals and budget
- Decide what type of influencer to hire
- Find the right influencers
- Approach influencers
- Clarify expectations
- Measure results
Influencer marketing can be a cost-effective way to increase brand awareness and boost sales. Here’s how to plan and execute a great influencer marketing campaign in six steps:
1. Set goals and budget
Influencer marketing is a paid strategy, so start by figuring out how much money to devote to your campaign. Once you’ve identified available funds, set specific campaign goals that ladder up to your larger business and marketing objectives.
For example, if one of your larger marketing goals is to increase brand awareness, you might set a specific campaign goal of acquiring 500 new Instagram followers and increasing social media engagement rates by 20%.
2. Decide what type of influencer to hire
Companies typically categorize influencers by number of followers. Here’s a breakdown:
- Nano-influencers: 1,000 to 9,999
- Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 99,999
- Mid-tier influencers: 100,000 to 499,999
- Macro-influencers: 500,000 to 1 million
- Mega influencers: More than 1 million
Use your budget and goals to help you select an influencer tier. The larger an influencer’s following is, the greater your potential reach—but the more that influencer is likely to charge. If your goal is total reach, you might choose to hire a mid-tier or macro-influencer, depending on what your budget can accommodate.
Nano- and micro-influencers are likely to have authority within niche audience segments. They tend to be more affordable and also tend to have more engaged audiences than their more popular counterparts. You might select a micro- or nano-influencer partner if you’re running a campaign aimed at boosting your average engagement rates or reaching a specific audience.
Opting for influencers with smaller followings for a lower overall cost also leaves room in your budget to run multiple campaigns with different influencers.
3. Find the right influencers
Next, identify the best influencers for your campaign. Use the following strategies to find relevant influencers:
- Conduct in-platform research. Find social media influencers using the social media platforms you wish to market on. For example, a cycling apparel company might search for the hashtag “cycling” on Instagram to identify Instagram influencers in the cycling space. It might also identify posts that use branded cycling gear hashtags or brand mentions to find users already engaged in influencer marketing activities.
- Use a search engine. Using a search engine is an easy way to find key influencers in a particular niche—but remember, it’s likely to return influencers with larger followings. A stationary and paper goods provider, for example, might run search queries like “event planning influencers,” “lifestyle bloggers,” or “etiquette influencers.”
- Use an influencer marketing platform. Influencer marketing platforms like Shopify Collabs are digital talent networks that can help you connect with creators. Many platforms, including Shopify Collabs, let you sort by influencer niche and size, view performance stats, and contact influencers within the platform.
Once you’ve identified a few prospects, review the influencer’s campaigns to gauge post quality, get a sense of their style and voice, and evaluate follower demographics. The best influencer marketing campaigns leverage visually enticing creative content to share your brand values and build authority with your target audiences.
4. Approach influencers
Once you’ve identified the right prospects, invite influencers to partner with your brand. You can contact potential partners within an influencer marketing platform or by email or direct message. Include information about:
- Brand fit. Indicate why you think the influencer is a good fit for your brand.
- Your ask. Specify what you’d like the influencer to do, and include compensation details.
- Your goals. Include your campaign goals and associated metrics to help influencers determine whether a partnership fits. Experienced influencers may also recommend tactics based on their experience.
- Response deadline. Give the influencer a date by which you’d like to hear back.
5. Clarify expectations
Once an influencer has agreed to participate in your campaign, develop a contract that clarifies expectations for both parties. Include the following information:
- Deliverables and influencer activities. Specify the actions the influencer will take and outline campaign deliverables. For example, you might specify that the influencer will create six Instagram posts featuring your products, post them to their account, and tag your company.
- Timeline. Include the contract start and end date and specify the period over which your partner will execute the agreed-upon activities.
- Compensation. Include information about how and when your company will compensate the influencer.
- Content usage. Specify who owns the rights to influencer content. If you plan to repost influencer content to your brand accounts, include that information here.
- Termination clauses. Influencers represent your brand, so include information about any conditions that might nullify the contract. This step is particularly important for brand ambassadorships and other long-term partnerships in which you’ll want to have a clear exit strategy in case the relationship goes south.
6. Measure results
Monitoring performance metrics can help you gauge your campaign’s success and learn what works for your brand. You can use findings from your latest influencer campaign to optimize future campaign strategy.
If you’re planning a longer influencer partnership (like a brand ambassadorship), check in on performance mid-campaign and make adjustments based on what you find.
Influencer marketing campaigns FAQ
What makes for successful influencer marketing campaigns?
Successful campaigns pair brands with influencers who are popular with the brand’s target audiences, create high-quality content, and hold complementary values.
How do I start an influencer marketing campaign?
There are six steps to starting an influencer marketing campaign:
1. Set goals and budget.
2. Decide what type of influencer to hire.
3. Find the right influencers.
4. Approach influencers.
5. Clarify expectations.
6. Measure results.
What is the difference between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a specific type of influencer marketing in which a brand pays affiliates commissions for any sales attributable to affiliate activities.
