The Death of the Digital Ad: Adwords and other PPCs versus Influencer Marketing

Sunday Jun 7th, 2015

Adwords for Apex

How do you decide to buy a product or try out a new service? Do you ask your friends, do some research online, or see an ad and just pounce? While the latter definitely happens, many of us hear about a product or service by word of mouth and/or decide to do a little online research before making a purchase. Though there is a time and place for digital ads, here are a handful of comparisons between the PPCs and social media influencing.

People Inherently Trust People Over Brands

When a consumer is able to see into the life of a person behind the scenes, it builds sense of trust, which is a major benefit of influencer marketing. Smart shoppers want to know that a product and/or service is something trendy, ahead of the curve, and/or that one of their role models, idols, or favorite vlogger trusts the brand too. In fact, research by A-List Daily suggests that 86% of women turn to social media outlets for opinions, advice, and recommendations to help with purchasing decisions. Furthermore, 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference. While digital ads are almost always based on cash-driven transactions, many influencer campaigns are actually started with free gifts. This allows for a more honest, authentic brand-to-consumer relationship.

Adblockers Can Stop Your Ads in Their Tracks

While Adblocker has made some recent strides in their “Acceptable Ads” program, many digital ads are still being blocked from internet users. What’s worse is that some brands are still paying for these ads even though they aren’t visible to the person viewing the page! According to research by KissMetics, when Adblock Plus was applied to one’s browser, Google Adwords Ads (the ones in the right margin) were completely removed. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), 26% of desktop users and 15% of mobile consumers use adblockers. The implications of this report are important as they lend insights into three areas of marketing:

  1. People don’t like ads (but you already knew this)
  2. Your PPC campaign could be missing a major portion of your target market, especially if it's 18-34 year old men (they tend to be the most staunch adblock users)
  3. You may be wasting a lot of money

Influencer Marketing Allows For Refined Customer Targeting

When you're targeting isn’t refined in an Adwords and/or other PPC campaign, you’re essentially flushing money down the proverbial toilet. Yes, you may be garnering thousands or even millions of impressions, but those who see your ads may not care at all. With influencer marketing, content creators have a built-in audience. When you work with an influencer marketing agency like ApexDrop, your brand will be matched contextually and at scale with all of your influencers. This means thematically, your brand will make sense in the campaign, and that you’ll also be targeting the proper markets. For instance, if you’re selling workout gear, we’ll match you with micro-influencers who have an avid following, truly believe in your product, and have your target market as their following.

Find Your Niche

When entering a niche market and getting your brand known as the product or service in that field, it can be both time consuming and expensive to accomplish customer loyalty through traditional means of advertising and/or PPC campaigns. When it comes to influencer marketing, think about this famous phrase by Jim Rohn: “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” Influencer marketing facilitates conversations, gains major exposure for your brand, and grows your network (with the right people). If you align with contextually appropriate bloggers, vloggers, thought leaders, and the like, your brand will become trusted by those who follow that content creator. In essence, your brand's message becomes that of the influencer and vice versa. This is why context and scale are so important.

Utilize a Variety of Social Media Channels

Without a doubt, Google Adwords—especially if the Display Network is used—will have your ads on way more sites than your average influencer marketing campaign. After all, Google has millions of search partners! However, the quality of these ads, at least in terms of their conversion rate, is relatively low. According to research by Word Stream, the average conversion rate for Adwords is around 2.35%. As long as the ROI is strong, we recommend investing as much as possible in PPC, however track it closely as results tend to plateau after just a couple hundred dollar investment. With influencers, you get the benefit of authentic content that keeps working for you long term. In 2017, smart marketers are investing even more into influencer marketing as PPC has lost much of its effect as people get annoyed with ads.

Learn More

If you’re interested in replacing or supplementing your Adwords campaigns with influencer marketing, contact us today for a free demo. We’re confident we can boost your brand with our vetted micro-influencer network.

ApexDrop has helped thousands of authentic micro-influencers connect with quality brands through contextual product gifting (also known as trade collaborations). Imagine having an affordable and easy way to get your products featured by hundreds of influencers immediately on Instagram, but without all the extra work. ApexDrop offers an unparalleled service in campaign management from start to finish and can assure that their clients receive quality posts and authenticity. For more information, schedule a call with an ApexDrop Influencer Specialist today  www.apexdrop.com/contact