Influencer marketing platform LTK now enables brands to deliver social media advertising from content creators’ accounts.
In pilot programs completed before the general launch of this new LTK Boost offering, brands saw click through results that were 80% greater than social media averages and sales growth of as much as 400%, LTK said in a Friday (March 31) press release.
“Creators are the number one most trusted source to help with purchase decisions for Gen Z and millennials — beating social media ads and celebrities,” Kristi O’Brien, general manager of the LTK Brand Platform, said in the release. “That’s why we continue to introduce solutions like LTK Media Boosting to help brands to fully harness the power of creators and reach their customers efficiently and effectively.”
Amplifying creator collaboration content directly from creators’ social media profiles leads to higher engagement and conversion because it creates a more authentic message, according to the press release.
In addition, leveraging creator content enables brands to reduce the cost of content production compared to traditional social media advertising, the release said.
“Creators are undoubtedly having an impact on consumer shopping behaviors,” O’Brien said in the release. “Ninety-two percent of Gen Z — a group that will make up the largest consumer segment in a few years — rely on creators to inform their purchases across virtually every category.”
Creators and influencers invest enormous effort in knowing their followers and their tastes, and this creates trust that translates to confidence in the business of social selling, LTK General Manager of Consumer Platform and Experience Kit Ulrich told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in July 2022.
“The amazing part is how creators solve purchase confidence in a really unique and valuable way because they’ve already tested and tried all the products, and they’ve done that curation for you,” Ulrich said at the time.
Other platforms are also working to bring together brands and creators.
For example, payments and buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Klarna launched its Creator Platform in October 2022 to connect creators of shoppable videos and social media content with retailers.
This platform handles the initial outreach, partnerships, tracking sales and commissions, and other activities, Klarna said at the time.
During that same month, Walmart launched the Walmart Creator portal, a new content creation platform of digital tools so that influencers and other creative-minded types can make social media posts and earn commissions on the products they sell.
For all PYMNTS retail coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail Newsletter.