Paid vs. Gifted Influencer Collaborations: What’s Best for Your Brand?

You know that influencer collaborations are a crucial element in your brand's marketing strategy. But you don’t know which direction to go with it? Paid or gifted? Honest content from a gifted product, or co-created content in exchange for payment? 

This blog is going to act as your guide when navigating which collaboration type to integrate into your strategy.

Let’s kick things off with paid influencer collaborations. This is all about investing in co-created content where you can have your say in the output. Simply put, you pay influencers to promote your brand. It’s a clear-cut exchange: cash for exposure. You set the campaign goals, provide the brief, and the influencer creates and posts content, tailored to your specifications. This is the “classic” approach most people envision when they think of influencer marketing.

What are the Positives of Paid Collaborations?

Guaranteed Content & Control 

One of the biggest advantages of paid collaborations is the assurance of content delivery. When you’re funding the effort, you can expect the influencer to meet the agreed terms. This means you can define the campaign’s objectives. Whether it’s driving sales, boosting social media followers, or collecting email addresses. Plus, you gain access to detailed campaign insights to track your success.

Creative & Executional Effort

Paid influencers are motivated to produce high-quality content. They’re more likely to invest time and creativity, knowing that their success impacts their reputation. 

Speed & Predictability 

Money talks! Paid collaborations usually mean faster execution and more reliable posting schedules. Since influencers prioritise paid work, you can expect timely content delivery, minimising uncertainty.

Trackable & Transparent Results 

With paid collaborations, it is normal for an influencer to share full insights to the posts performance or for them to grant you permissions to access insights via 3rd party software. This ‘true’ data is crucial for understanding your return on investment (ROI) and refining future strategies.

What are the Negatives of Paid Collaborations?

Higher Costs 

Of course paying influencers comes with a price tag, and it can be hefty, especially with top-tier in demand names. It’s essential to weigh this cost against the potential ROI to ensure it’s a smart investment for your brand.

Limited Organic Reach 

Approximately only 7 - 25% of an influencer's audience is likely to see their posts, depending on channel and format. And not every follower will be interested in your brand. This will more often than not lead to less effective reach to more targeted advertising methods.

Audience Relevance 

Even if an influencer’s followers are loyal, they might not always match your target audience. This can result in lower engagement and conversions, highlighting the need for careful influencer selection.

Influencer Gifting

The second route for influencer collaborations is influencer gifting. This is a cost-effective way to get your brand noticed and to generate content. Influencer gifting involves sending free products to influencers, in hope they’ll share them with their followers. There’s no cash involved, and in most cases influencers aren’t obligated to post.

Why Consider Influencer Gifting?

Scalability 

Gifting is easy to scale. You can distribute samples to a large number of influencers, increasing your chances of getting posts about your product 

Cost-Effectiveness 

The main expenses are the product itself and shipping. This makes gifting a budget-friendly option, especially for smaller brands.

Authenticity 

Content resulting from gifted influencers is usually only delivered when the recipient is a fan and likely to be delivered in the influencers own tone and voice meaning that endorsements and social proof are more likely to influence their audiences than when posting and brand fed messaging are obligatory. 

Testing & Feedback 

Gifting allows you to test both your product and potential influencer partners. If influencers post and receive good engagement, you’ll have a better idea of who’s worth investing in for future paid campaigns.

The Challenges of Influencer Gifting:

No Guaranteed Posts 

Since there’s no financial incentive, there’s no guarantee influencers will post. You might end up with some wasted product and postage.

Tracking Can Be Tricky 

Without set deliverables, tracking the impact of gifting can be challenging. You’ll likely need to rely on top-of-funnel metrics like likes, comments, and collective follower count.

Time-Consuming 

Finding influencers willing to accept gifts can be time-consuming. Gifted recipients are more than likely to be micro or nano influencers, meaning scale is required to achieve significant results. Even then, many now expect payment, so you might need to sift through many candidates to find those who are open to gifting.

To Summarise

When it comes to influencer collaborations, both paid and gifted approaches offer distinct advantages and challenges - with each serving different needs and goals.

Paid influencer collaborations provide a high level of control and predictability, allowing you to ensure that content meets your brand’s objectives and is delivered on time. With a clear financial commitment, you can secure quality content and track performance metrics to gauge your ROI. However, this method can be costly, and the effectiveness of your campaign may be limited by organic reach and audience relevance.

On the other hand, influencer gifting is a more budget-friendly strategy that allows you to scale your efforts and reach a broader audience with more authentic content. By sending free products, you potentially gain organic genuine endorsements that can boost brand awareness and provide valuable feedback on product appeal. Yet, this approach comes with its own set of challenges, including no guaranteed posts and difficulties in tracking the effectiveness of the campaign.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your brand’s specific goals, budget, and desired level of control. Paid collaborations offer precision and reliability, while gifting provides cost-effective opportunities for organic growth and engagement. Consider your marketing objectives and resources to determine which strategy aligns best with your needs.

For advice and support to maximise your influencer efforts get in touch with us at info@helloernie.com.au.