Influencers vs. Earned Media: Which PR Strategy Delivers More Impact?
Over the past few years, influencer partnerships and campaigns have become a common request from clients. Whether they’re looking to launch an initiative, promote an event, announce a residency, or celebrate a grand opening, companies are always looking for ways to get the word out. But the problem with influencers is their abundance. According to Business Insider, a single city can have anywhere from a hundred to a few thousand influencers to choose from, many covering the same beat.
With so many options, companies have a hard time telling which influencer partnerships would be worth the investment, and a harder time deciding whether the money should go to influencers, or stay with traditional PR. To figure out which option delivers the most impact, you have to consider a few factors.
How You Want To Reach Your Audience
While both can put your message in front of the right audience, it’s the delivery that differs.
- Influencer campaigns can extend your reach to audiences who may not follow or read traditional news media, but instead, follow a specific influencer based on their content, honest reviews, or feedback.
- Traditional PR reaches your audience but only when you secure an earned media opportunity, whether that’s a radio, TV, or podcast interview or mention, or a print or online story.
For either one, you’ll always want to review their existing content to see if they’re the right fit for your brand and messaging. For influencers and outlets that are on social media, you’ll also want to look at their followers to see if they’re real people because purchased followers and bots skew engagement numbers, making their reach look bigger than it really is.
Consider Your Messaging
Think about what matters more to your company: having a say in how your message is delivered or trusting someone else to vouch for you.
- Influencer partnerships give you control, letting you shape the message, timing, and format. You can provide key talking points, approve content before it goes live, and require them to schedule posts at a certain time. The one thing to look out for is tone. Content that feels too scripted can come across as an ad, so allow the influencer to create content in their natural voice.
- Earned media puts your trust to the test. Reporters and producers decide what to cover and when, so an interview shows that they found your story and brand worth talking about. While you can pitch a story angle and have talking points ready, you can’t control what ultimately gets written, asked, or when it runs. That lack of control is exactly why a story or interview carries weight: audiences know the outlet chose to cover you, rather than being paid to.
Is It Worth The Price?
Working with influencers and PR agencies require a significant budgetary investment. We’ve seen even the smallest of influencers charge up to $3,000 for a single post, or higher for a full-blown campaign. The upside is that you know exactly what you’re paying for, and you can track metrics like engagement, clicks, and conversions.
Earned media is the opposite. You pay a monthly retainer to your PR agency, and they work to secure as many placements as possible, which often brings the cost per placement below the cost of an influencer post.
Both can be hard to attach to sales, unless you develop specific KPI’s to measure reach and ROI. An influencer campaign with no call to action is just a vanity awareness play: plenty of impressions and likes but no way to connect them to revenue. Same with an earned media placement. Yes, website traffic tends to spike when media coverage publishes or airs, but how do you know if it actually generated sales?
To close the measurement gap, build tracking that is tailored for each campaign – a dedicated landing page, unique link or promo code can be helpful in seeing where traffic comes from. A “how did you hear about us?” question at checkout works as a catch-all and tracks awareness even when you’re not running a campaign. Not every media outlet will run your link or code in a story, so layering these methods gives you a more complete picture than any single one.
Think Of The Future
To determine which strategy has more of an impact, think about how long you need the results to last. Are you looking for something that generates a short burst of buzz or something that has momentum to outlast the announcement?
- Influencer content tends to spike and fade, especially if you have multiple influencers promoting the same thing. Most posts see the bulk of their engagement within the first day or two, so you’ll want to spread out the influencer promotion across a few weeks rather than having them publish all at once. Staggering posts keeps your message in front of audiences longer and gives you time to see what’s resonating.
- Earned media on the other hand, is impactful in a different way. Not only does the online news story stay live and continue showing up in search results, but the backlinks it creates strengthen your website’s authority, increasing your SEO, GEO, brand reputation, and search visibility for years. Plus, you can reuse each placement on social media, in newsletters, and in future pitches, so one piece of coverage keeps working long after it publishes.
So, which one delivers more impact? Influencer campaigns and earned media aren’t competing PR strategies, so neither wins on its own. Influencers give you control over the message and reach audiences that traditional media doesn’t. Earned media gives you credibility and long-term search value. Used together, the two covers what each one lacks: coverage that gets seen, and buzz that has something behind it.
At GYC Vegas, we build PR strategies that use earned media to establish trust and influencers to carry it to the audiences who matter most. If you’re ready to elevate your PR strategy, fill out this questionnaire.