Influencer marketing has quickly become one of the most popular forms of advertising on the globe. Influencer marketing ad spending on Instagram alone reached $2 billion in 2019.
As a result of such market development, a growing number of businesses have sprung up to provide a diverse variety of services aimed at meeting the demands of the ever-changing marketing sector.
It is very difficult for many businesses and marketers when looking for influencer marketing solutions. Hiring an influencer marketing agency or learning how to use an influencer platform are typically the two options.
It may be difficult for businesses and marketers to choose which solution is best for achieving their objectives in this growing industry. In this article, we cover the key differences between an influencer marketing agency or an influencer marketing platform when choosing them.
You can save money but not always time.
With the vast amount of data accessible today, marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to go through it all and choose what is most relevant to their organization. That is unless you have some help.
This is where data and tools come into play. Consumers may obtain both via influencer marketing platforms, making it simple to gather all the vital information about your brand, market, and even your competitors.
While most influencer marketing solutions are less expensive than hiring an agency to handle your campaigns, they still need a substantial amount of time and work if you want to manage marketing in-house. This is the time to focus on other duties and obligations inside your company.
Gaining access to influencers
When organizing marketing campaigns using influencer platforms, brands are limited to the influencers who’ve already registered on such platforms. While many micro-influencers use these networks to get advertising deals, approaching particularly larger influencers is more challenging.
Influencer marketing companies may work with any influencer, regardless of size, reach, or affiliation. The best influencer marketing firms have relationships with the world’s top social media influencers, whether they are self-employed, part of a multi-channel network, or represented by a larger talent manager.
Higher Involvement
Many individuals are startled to hear that influencer platforms need a far higher level of brand involvement than working with an agency. True, influencer platforms provide marketers with the tools and technologies they need to create, deploy, and track their campaigns.
However, the company’s in-house marketing team carrying out the obligations. This puts the responsibility on you to carry out a strong campaign while dedicating a long break from other operational resources inside your company.
This is not an excuse to avoid using these tools, but it is something to think about when planning how to activate your influencer campaign.
Collaboration that is strategic and imaginative.
Brands may wish to use a platform to manage and organize their objectives in the same manner that they would with traditional pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
This compartmentalized method, however, may usually detract from the desire for authenticity that influencer marketing activities are intended to deliver.
Many influencer marketing companies provide valuable services that are critical to the success of a campaign, combining planning and creativity. Aside from matching, agencies recognize that marketing components such as target market, timing, and demographic subtlety need the same level of creative consideration as messaging and content.
Effort and execution
Depending on the brand’s goals, influencer marketing platforms may be useful for managing one-time campaigns with particular postings and constraints. Platforms, on the other hand, cannot always expand to satisfy ever-increasingly sophisticated requirements as the brand’s requirements get more complex.
Influencer marketing organizations can handle small-scale initiatives while also offering a greater choice of options for larger-scale enterprises.
Agencies excel in customizing campaigns because they can establish long-term relationships with influencers and brand champions, as well as create, organize, and carry out cross-platform marketing activities.
Connections and relationships
Influencer marketing firms oversee all interactions with influencers to ensure that campaigns operate smoothly and effectively while achieving the intended results.
A professional agency manages the whole campaign on behalf of the organization, from the original plan to the content standards to the timeliness of deliverables.
When using an influencer platform, brands must connect directly with influencers. In addition to designing and organizing the campaign, marketers must manage the connection, changes in the campaign, and any problems (or unforeseen risks) along the way.
Reporting and results
Before during, and after the campaign, agencies engage with influencers to ensure that best practices are followed, and performance indicators (KPI) are reached. Influencer marketing organizations give clients a clear and full knowledge of their campaign’s impact by providing detailed data and reports.
Campaign optimization services and advice are not provided by platforms. Furthermore, using application programming interfaces, measurements are automated and incorporated (API).
Engagement and fake influencers
agencies do not accept influencers who buy false followers or participate in the inauthentic engagement. This is because agencies build their reputation on connections and outcomes. They know how to recognize false followers and misleading stats. They ensure poor campaigns and results are not harm brands.
Brands are more likely to work with influencers that engage in unethical actions while using influencer marketing platforms. Brands may not be able to tell whether an influencer is buying false followers and/or interactions to raise their profile. Since human interactions remove from automated procedures.
Connections and relationships
Influencer marketing firms handle all communications with influencers to ensure that campaigns operate smoothly and effectively while achieving the intended results. From the original concept to the content specifications, to the timeliness of deliverables, a professional agency manages the whole operation on behalf of the organization.
When using an influencer marketing platform, businesses are responsible for communicating directly with influencers. In addition to designing and organizing the campaign, marketers must manage the connections, updates to the campaign, and any problems (or unforeseen dangers) along the way.
If you don’t locate the appropriate fit, you’ll most likely waste your time, effort, and expertise on the campaign. Furthermore, other influencers may be unwilling to work with you as a result. Influencer marketing services may also help you to avoid taking advantage of fake influencer accounts.
Influencer marketing services discover the most effective and acceptable influencers for your business, and they often have a large pool of candidates where you can choose from.
