The words data and creativity rarely used to be used in the same sentence. However, more recently they’ve become the perfect match when it comes to influencer marketing.

We’re looking at why data-backed creative is the best way for brands to create killer creator-led content.

Why is data-backed creative the way forward?

In its early years, social media and creator content was highly creative and the data associated with it was less sophisticated. This combination meant that content creation tended to be quite experimental, with content creators slowly developing a knowledge of what their followers engaged well with and the kind of content they wanted to see. Influencers ruled and brands followed, using an approach that was slightly trial and error.

Luckily for the influencer marketing industry, the availability of deep data insights has boomed and now we have incredible insights available into how social media campaigns perform. This understanding has meant that we are now able to pair data and creativity to create campaigns that are more accurate and relevant to the target audience, as well as more creatively enticing.

This combination of data and creativity allows us to create campaigns that are based on the relevant statistics and are subsequently more likely to have a high ROI. Not only does this make the relationship more beneficial for advertisers, but they are more likely to reach and engage the target audience too.

Why should creative content use data?

Content creators and brands don’t need to analyse every bit of content they create against data, however, when running large campaigns with significant funding, data should always be a consideration. For brands, this should mean looking at both the previous data on similar creative posts, as well as data around the creator and how their content performs.

Creative content should lean on data to inform what the audience is looking for. By using data, content can be more strategic. This data could include things such as:

• CTR’s (Click Through Rate) of similar creative pieces: by looking at how many people clicked through to a landing page or website off the back of a piece of creative work, a brand can get an idea of how their target audience respond to a certain kind of creative.
• Engagement on similar posts: How have similar posts been received in the past? How have similar posts from competitors been received? Looking at engagement on similar posts allows a brand to predict how creative might be perceived. Brands should ensure that, when looking at these engagement metrics, they are looking at deep metrics such as saves and shares, and not simply at surface metrics such as likes and comments.
• User spending behaviour/ basket activity: This kind of data allows brands to understand the target audience and how they behave prior to purchasing. Using this data allows brands to create content that converts.
• Audience demographics: when you start working with a creator, it is important to understand their audience and data is an integral part of this. Understanding who their audience is, helps brands create content that matters to that specific audience.

Data-driven influencer marketing

At Influencer, we have paired human creativity with intelligent global data to produce award-winning influencer marketing campaigns for our clients.

Data backed creative is a big part of what we do at Influencer because when it comes to creative decision-making, data is invaluable. By analysing historical data from hundreds of campaigns, we are able to produce a bespoke creative strategy for each client and campaign, to ensure they maximise their investment and create content that reaches the right people and hits their campaign objectives.

For more insights into how we can measure the impact of influencer marketing, take a look at our recent article from strategy and partnerships director, Nik Speller, over on our Insights page.