If you haven't ventured into partnership ads yet, you're undeniably missing out. Showcasing lower CPAs (Cost Per Acquisition), noticeable reductions in CPA, and elevated RoAS (Return on Ad Spend), partnership ads have decidedly demonstrated their effectiveness.By working together with creators, brands can make the most of their advertising budget with partnership ads. These ads help reach and impact the right audience better, proving to be a valuable tool in today's digital marketing world.

At The Cirqle, we often encounter a burning question when working on partnership ads: How do we choose the right creator to run partnership ads with? A superficial glance might steer towards the follower count as the most important metric. However, the scenario is far from being that straightforward.

The effectiveness of partnership ads, as outlined earlier, hinges not on reaching a creator's organic audience, but in engaging the right audience. Here's where the nuances come into play. It's not merely about the numbers, but about the quality of interaction and alignment with the brand's values and target demographic. Audience demographics, and content relevance are some of the factors that can significantly impact the success of a partnership ad, making them crucial considerations in selecting the right creator for paid collaboration. In this article, we'll delve into the metrics that truly matter when considering a paid partnership with a creator. 

What is your main goal for partnership ads?

‍When creating partnership ads from ad creator’s handle, creator audience sharing allows you to use the audience of people who have engaged with the creator’s account. This allows you to share your partnership ads with the creator’s engaged audience, and can help you improve the ad’s performance. However, while one of the benefits of partnership ads is the potential to tap into creator’s audiences, you don’t have to use creator audiences when using partnership ads. 

When running partnership ads on Meta without intending to tap into the creator's audience, the focus shifts entirely to content quality. In this scenario, the content itself becomes the primary vehicle for conveying the brand's message and engaging the target audience. Unlike leveraging a creator's audience where there's a pre-existing level of engagement and interest, here the content has to stand on its own merit to capture attention and provoke engagement.

Content quality is crucial as it reflects the brand's values, professionalism, and the value proposition being offered to the audience. High-quality content can capture the audience's attention, provide value, and encourage them to interact with the brand. This includes the aesthetics, the clarity of the message, creativity, and the overall presentation of the ad. Quality content can effectively communicate the brand’s message and evoke the desired response from the audience, be it engagement, brand recall, or conversions.

Furthermore, on platforms like Meta, the algorithm also favors high-quality content. Well-produced content is more likely to be favorably ranked by Meta's algorithm, increasing its visibility and engagement potential. This, in turn, can lead to better performance of the ad, even without tapping into the creator's audience.In essence, when the strategy involves running partnership ads without leveraging the creator's audience, the emphasis should wholly be on ensuring the content is of high quality to effectively engage the target audience, communicate the brand's message, and achieve the advertising objectives.

Use creator based audiences

When you decide to run partnership ads on Meta and intend to use creator audiences, the interaction between the content and the audience becomes an important factor for the success of the campaign. Here, demographics, engagement rate, and content creation quality are three vital aspects that come into play.

Demographics

‍Using creator audiences allows you to tap into a demographic that is already inclined towards the creator's niche. This alignment can be beneficial as it increases the likelihood of the audience being interested in your brand, if your brand aligns well with the creator's niche. The demographic alignment also enhances the relevance of your ads, making them more appealing to the targeted audience. This targeted approach can significantly improve the engagement and conversion rates of your ads.

Engagement Rate

‍A creator with a high engagement rate usually has a loyal and active audience. When you tap into a creator's audience, you're essentially accessing an engaged community that values the creator's opinions and recommendations. This existing engagement can extend to your partnership ads, potentially leading to higher interaction rates and better overall performance of your ads if your brand aligns well with the creator's niche. It also reflects a level of authenticity and trust between the creator and their audience, which can be transferred to your brand, provided the partnership feels authentic and natural.

Content Creation Quality

‍The quality of content created for partnership ads is crucial as it reflects on your brand and affects the audience's perception. High-quality content, which is both visually appealing and well articulated, can capture the audience's attention and encourage engagement. Moreover, when the content quality is high, it complements the creator’s existing content, ensuring a seamless and natural integration of your ads into the creator's platform. This, in turn, can enhance the overall user experience, making the ads more effective in conveying the brand message and encouraging the desired actions.

In essence, when running partnership ads on Meta with the intention of leveraging creator audiences, a holistic approach that considers the demographics of the creator's audience, the engagement rate, and the quality of content creation can significantly optimize the effectiveness of your advertising campaign. This approach ensures that the partnership ads are well-received, resonate with the targeted audience, and ultimately, achieve the desired advertising objectives.

Examining Follower Count as a Metric for Paid Collaboration

‍On The Cirqle, we host a diverse range of creators with followings ranging from 1k to a staggering 200 million. While follower count isn't a metric to be entirely disregarded, we aim to illustrate why, in the realm of partnership ads, it shouldn't be the determining factor when working with creators.

As you can see in the image below, the first creator, with a following of 4.6k (placing them in the Nano creator category), initially garnered 1800 impressions reaching about 25% of their followers. However, once the client amplified the content through partnership ads, the creator's impressions skyrocketed to nearly 3.7 million, leading to a 8.

The second screenshot presents statistics for an even smaller creator, boasting a follower count of 1.4k. Initially, this creator organically reached 309 individuals. Yet, when this creators’ content was leveraged for partnership ads, the impressions soared to nearly 40k, achieving a RoAS (Return on Ad Spend) of 27.67. These scenarios demonstrate the efficacy of partnership ads in enhancing engagement and profitability, transcending the limitations of a small follower count.

While it's true that follower count is not paramount to success with partnership ads,  completely disregarding follower count may not always be wise, especially when intending to leverage the creator's audience. A higher follower count can suggest that the creator has a good understanding of their audience's interests and preferences, and can create content that resonates well with them. This understanding can be valuable in crafting partnership ads that are engaging and relevant to the audience, enhancing the overall effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

Conclusion

There clearly is not one specific statistic or specification of a creator to look at. While we suggest taking into account a creator's demographics, engagement rate, content creation skills and follower count, there will always be specific cases in which some creators will perform unexpectedly better than others. The best way to chose your creators in partnership ads, is to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Instead, focus on a group of minimum 10 creators. In summary, adopting a multi-creator approach for your partnership ads can offer a plethora of benefits including enhanced reach, diversified content, better insights, and a stronger online brand presence.

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