Any digital marketer knows that social media ad campaigns require lots of attention. Between constantly creating optimized content, testing performance and monitoring effectiveness, social media ads call for a lot of work. 

Whether on Facebook or Instagram, influencer ads should be an integral part of any influencer marketing strategy. And the best way to make those ads as valuable as possible is to use an evergreen approach to your influencer ad campaigns. 

What is an “evergreen” marketing approach? 

Like evergreen trees, evergreen marketing uses content that will always be fresh and viable. It’s about a topic that will remain relevant and useful indefinitely--not a topic that’s tied to a current event, season or temporary promotion. A few examples of content topics that are NOT evergreen would be: 

• The 10 Top Tech Gifts this Holiday Season
• Be the first to catch our latest summer launch!
• Spring cleaning sale

And in the alternative, evergreen content titles would be things like: 

• Audio tech: Learn the Basics
• 10 Weight Loss Tips from Experts
• Where to Buy the Best Office Printer

As you can see, the second list of topics would remain relevant indefinitely--people will always want to learn about audio tech or lose weight. On the other hand, holiday gifts or a summer launch are only relevant for a few weeks a year. It’s easy to see why evergreen content yields better dividends than “flash in the pan” content. 

What are evergreen influencer social media ads? 

Just like any marketing plan, great influencer ads can be created to be evergreen. For influencer content to be evergreen it must:

• Not be tied to any limited-time or seasonal promotion
• Include imagery or copy that will always boost brand awareness
• Focus on the brand’s value proposition
• Resonate with your ideal customer in the long-term

Just like evergreen content marketing, evergreen ads hold massive value for any brand. 

Why should marketers go evergreen with influencer campaigns? 

Social media platforms are like a living, breathing animal--the content is continuously updating. So, it would be easy to assume that there’s no way that influencer ads could be evergreen. However, marketers can and should use an evergreen approach with their paid advertising content. The main goal is to work with the right Instagram influencers, YouTube influencers or bloggers to create timeless content that will continue to be useful to the audience for years to come. 

There are many reasons that marketers should embrace the evergreen ad content philosophy--here are a few of the essential benefits:

• Evergreen content gets more engagement
• Evergreen content is highly-useful to a brand’s target audience
• Evergreen ads have a longer shelf-life
• Evergreen ad content can be revamped or reused anytime
  

 Now, let’s dive deeper into the benefits of creating an evergreen influencer advertising plan.

Evergreen social media campaigns nurture relationships with your influencers

Creating evergreen influencer content also means building evergreen influencer relationships. To optimize your advertising plan, it’s best to forge long-term partnerships with social media influencers rather than just engaging in one-off deals or projects. There are a ton of benefits to building these long-term relationships with your influencers. 

Long-term relationships make your influencers feel like a part of the brand- In dating, experts say that you should spend all four seasons with someone before you know someone well enough to tie the knot. The same goes for influencers and brands; the longer you work together on influencer campaigns, the more successful your partnership will be for both of you. Once they’ve seen their branded ad content successfully used over and over again, they will feel as if they are a real part of your brand. 

Their followers get to know you- Another benefit of evergreen influencer relationships is that the influencer’s audience--and your target audience-- will become familiar with your brand. And if they continue to follow that person and view their posts, they will likely think of your brand positively. This is especially true for micro-influencers who often have small but loyal and engaged followings.  

You’ll get more authentic advertising content - As your influencer gets to know your product or service better, they will be able to show it off in its very best light. That content will also likely sound genuine since it’s about a product they use often. Influencers may even begin to contribute ideas for content or promotions. 

Evergreen influencer marketing continues to build brand awareness 

Different influencer ad campaigns have different goals. The objective isn’t always to drive direct conversions the way it would be during something like a special promotion or launch. Sometimes, the focus of your paid ads might be building brand awareness. Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with a brand, its offerings, image, and reputation. Keeping yourself in front of an audience helps build trust and confidence in your brand. And using evergreen influencer ads makes it much easier to keep effective campaigns running without much extra attention. 

Evergreen influencer ad campaigns also give the target audience more opportunities to engage with your brand. By engaging with influencer ads or Instagram posts, the audience is also interacting with your brand and product, which boosts brand awareness. 

You get continuously useful social media ad content

Any business that uses paid ads and content knows that continually coming up with enough high-quality content can be a daunting task. That’s why taking advantage of influencer-generated content is a must for any content team. Embracing an evergreen ad approach means that your marketing team has ads that may continually be used, tweaked and repurposed. This content can also be shared, promoted with strategic hashtags, repurposed into owned media, or used in influencer ads for years to come.

Influencer ad content is also cost-effective. Hiring professional ad content creators like writers, designers, or video producers can become expensive quickly. It can also be a headache to find reliable freelancers to produce quality ad content. By leveraging influencer-created ad content, the cost of ad creation may only be the cost of gifting free products. But, beyond product gifting, your brand can still profit from influencer posts through direct conversions from affiliate or referral links. 

You can easily test your influencer ad content

In marketing, you can never do enough testing. Ads based on previous influencer-produced content has the distinct advantage of providing accurate and specific information about how the content performed. Once an influencer posts content, you can view a post’s engagement rate, who it is engaging, and what the target audience is saying about the content. 

Once it’s been established that the content in question has performed well, it should be the same content used in your evergreen advertisements. You can take this proven content and reuse it in new ads, instagram posts, reposts, other media. 

Evergreen influencer ads mean better ROI

In general, influencer marketing campaigns have a tremendous ROI. But developing evergreen influencer ad content gives brands an even better return. How do evergreen influencer ads perform so well?

• Today’s buyers can sniff out an ad from a mile away. But by incorporating influencers into your paid ads, your ads get an instant shot of trustworthiness and social proof.

• Because the content is high-value for the reader, it should resonate. Evergreen content is well-thought-out and in-depth. By being valuable to the audience, it will likely be instrumental in driving conversions. 

• Today’s consumers want authenticity. Consumers have made it clear that they are no longer interested in bloggers and social media influencers “Instagram Perfection”. They want to consume genuine content that appears to be trustworthy. For that reason, spending money on creating this type of authentic influencer ad content will lead to lots of conversions in today’s online landscape. 

One of the most important keys to maximizing influencer ad ROI is to use influencer whitelisting. Whitelisting lets marketers use influencer-created content as sponsored posts by giving them access to the influencer’s online identity (including their handle, audience and metrics). Not only do you get full control over influencer posts through whitelisting, but the life-span of those posts is extended significantly.  Recommended reading: A Quick Guide to Influencer Whitelisting

Evergreen content pays

Hopefully, this article has sold you on the benefits of using an evergreen approach with your paid influencer ad campaigns. By concentrating on creating lasting influencer relationships and content with staying power, your influencer partnerships should boost your business in a big way. 

If you’d like to learn more about how Lumanu can help you leverage the power of influencer whitelisting to improve your influencer ads, get in touch today to learn more.