Influencer Whitelisting boosts your brand
According to a survey, around 84% of marketers said they find influencer marketing effective for their brand. One of the reasons for this is because it is perceived as more authentic by consumers as it’s not directly promotional. But what if there was a way to further improve on this strategy? This is where Influencer Whitelisting comes in. Let’s take a closer look at what influencer whitelisting is, and what it can do for you.
What is Influencer Whitelisting?
Influencer whitelisting is when influencers grant advertising permissions to a brand/agency on their social media account. This is usually done on Instagram and Facebook through the use of Facebook Ads Manager. Although no other social media channel offers the same whitelisting process, it can still be manually replicated on TikTok and YouTube.
Usually, influencer whitelisting is a mutually beneficial relationship for both the brand and the influencer. With specific social ad targeting, brands can reach new audiences that they know are responsive to branded content. Likewise, a brand’s social ad targeting opens the door to a wider audience for the influencer.
Instead of a product’s messaging coming straight from the brand, influencer marketing offers a powerful third-party recommendation. It’s a great way for brands to get more out of a partnership than just views, likes, and comments
How to set up Whitelisting
Even though Facebook Ads Manager provides the optimum whitelisting experience, influencer content whitelisting is still a relatively new and intricate approach. It’s a good idea for both brands and influencers to understand some basic whitelisting concepts, terms, and definitions before agreeing to any contracts.
Once you have sourced the right social media influencers for your campaign, it’s imperative to run them through the process of whitelisting on social media. The process for whitelisting branded content on social media platforms like Facebook is fairly straightforward.
Here’s what influencers need to do:
- Go to business.facebook.com and log in to the Facebook account.
- Create a Business Manager account.
- Head to “People and Assets” in the Business Manager.
- Click on Business Manager Settings and go to Instagram -> Instagram Accounts.
- Tap on “Claim New Instagram Account” and sign in using their Instagram credentials.
- Click on “Assign Partner” and add the Business ID number of the brand.
Benefits of Influencer Whitelisting
Whitelisting provides brands with many benefits, such as:
- Controlling who can see the influencer’s whitelisted posts and targeting the post to people who don’t currently follow the influencer
- It gives the brand the ability to make small edits to the copy and creative of the influencer’s post
- It can lengthen the shelf life of an influencer’s post, which is especially beneficial for formats like Instagram Stories that vanish after the 24-hour window
Challenges of Influencer Whitelisting
As with all new concepts, there will be difficulties and challenges for both brands and influencers, such as:
- Without a comprehensive contract with an influencer, brands risk violating copyright laws when running whitelisting campaigns.
- It can be difficult to recruit influencers who are willing to agree to the whitelisting process.
- Influencers can struggle to grant brands this level of control over their social media channel.
- Establishing autonomy as an influencer whilst maintaining a whitelisting relationship. Also, making sure that the agreement does not negatively affect relationships with other brands.
The best practices for Whitelisting
Whitelisting is built to be a mutually beneficial process for both parties, as such, here are a few guidelines to ensure campaign success while mitigating any challenges:
Trust
- It’s vital for both parties to trust one another throughout this process. Now, we’re not saying that each party should trust blindly – it’s worth taking some time to vet the brand/agency or potential influencer before commencing any work. It’s important to establish clear expectations and guidelines to promote effective partnerships.
Communication
- There should be no unexpected surprises! By avoiding vague briefs and insisting on specific and measurable goals both the brands and influencer can understand what’s happening at each stage of the process.
Contracts
- Content rights legalities and influencer contracts are vital for sustainable collaboration. It’s worth setting up a template contract that can be filled in with the campaign information.
Return on Investment
- When investing in any marketing approach, you must establish clear goals and measure the results. In some ways, influencer whitelisting allows companies more revenue tracking, since PPC platforms automatically calculate Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for you.
Why you should be looking into Influencer Whitelisting
Influencer content whitelisting opens up new ROI opportunities for paid advertisers. As the sibling to the already hugely popular influencer marketing practice, brands and agencies can further enhance their content with paid reach to bigger and more targeted audiences. Another thing to keep in mind is that repurposed content decreases the cost of ad creation, so lowering the overall ad campaign spend.
If you’re looking to increase your influencer marketing strategy it may be worth considering if a whitelisting strategy could boost your brand. Contact us today to find out more about our Influencer Marketing services and see how we can help you.