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Can you remember the last advertisement you saw at the top of a search page? While many people are aware of the sponsored ads at the top of these pages, very few actually process them. This “search blindness” phenomenon is making search marketing decreasingly effective for marketers across the board.
Similar to banner blindness that has been an issue for marketers since the late 1990s, consumers are ignoring the information in search ads; Gartner reports that, because of this, approximately 26% of marketers plan to decrease their spend in search advertising. In an increasingly competitive and crowded market for consumer attention, it makes sense why many are looking to find new placements that people aren’t trained to ignore.
In looking to fill this gap, marketers must consider the current landscape. Suffice it to say, people hate ads, and new strategies that blend advertising efforts with organic content have seen promising results. Chief among these solutions are influencers, whom many consumers feel can provide more authentic recommendations of products and services. While some signs indicate traditional influencer content is losing effectiveness, the authenticity factor compounds for micro- and nano-influencers, with hyper-specific focuses and an increasingly loyal, if smaller, scope of followers. Shoppers are even more likely to follow the prompting of an affiliate link, if recommended by an influencer they’ve built a rapport with.
However, influencer marketing may seem a bit daunting from the outset—particularly in finding and connecting with relevant influencers. For marketers looking to explore the influencer market, it’s important to look into the accounts that align best with their brand and then consider an outreach strategy. Whether a brand’s next campaign is influencer-led, or influencers simply make up a component of outreach efforts, content creators are here to stay and will only continue making an impact within the ever-evolving digital commerce industry.
Under the influence
The expansion of the Amazon Affiliate program is commonly cited as the dawning of the increase in online influencers, allowing for easy generation of affiliate links. While this new wave of influencers may not have the all-encompassing reach of major stars, they have the ability to reach curated subsets of potential consumers who you may be unaware of and who are glazing over your search ads.
