How amplifying creator content strengthens trust and lowers media costs

Brands often invest in influencer and affiliate promotions but stop short of giving the content additional reach, assuming the creator’s audience is enough.

Using paid marketing, adding it to your site, and sharing it across your channels isn’t doing their job for them. 

It’s a way to grow your company by using their brand recognition and strengthening the relationship.

Yes, you pay an influencer an upfront fee, a commission, or send them a product in exchange for a promotion, but that doesn’t mean the relationship stops there. 

And that’s where amplification becomes a real advantage. It unlocks more value from the creator relationships you already have.

Why amplifying creator content pays off

Before getting into the tactics, here are the reasons amplifying creator content pays off.

Trusted validation

When a trusted third party verifies that your product, store, or company is legitimate, you gain credibility with anyone who recognizes or relates to them. 

This is especially important in competitive industries where trust is uncertain and consumers have many options, such as jewelry or insurance. 

A clear example is choosing a hotel at Disney or on a Caribbean island. 

With so many choices and mixed pros and cons, something needs to break the tie. 

If a trusted individual chooses your brand, that alone can influence the decision.

You can use this content in ads to reach a new audience, and you can test it with people on your newsletter or SMS lists who haven’t converted yet. 

The same applies to remarketing. 

If someone visited a page or category on your site but didn’t convert from your usual remarketing, show them a video that reviews the same product or offers a fair comparison between options. 

You can say how great you are all day, but a third party validating that message may help convert that traffic.

Lower media costs

Some influencers are out of budget, but guaranteeing that their ads will reach a new, like-minded audience may help bring their price down. 

You can also allow them to use their affiliate links in the amplified content so they can earn commissions. 

The commissions put risk on both sides – they lower their fees, and you spend money instead of relying on commission only. 

It’s a fairer approach, especially when their fees are higher than usual.

As the influencer starts making money, they may waive their fees if their commissions exceed them and choose to become an affiliate instead. This frees up your media budget to test new partners. 

You can also opt for a hybrid deal, where you pay part of their media fee and they earn commissions to cover the rest, which opens up more budget for testing new partners and outlets.

Dig deeper: The best affiliate networks by need and use case

More discoverable content

When there’s a natural reason for people to share the content – like food that can go viral or something funny – consumers may start taking the amplified content from the ad or your website and sharing it to their personal accounts or groups.

If their accounts are set to public view, search engines and LLMs like ChatGPT can find these links.

This creates more paths back to your site and gives them more content to discover, reference, and send traffic to.

Affiliate recruitment

When the big or known accounts start promoting a vendor, it means there is money to be made. 

By amplifying the content to an audience that likely knows them, other creators, traditional affiliates, and marketers will notice the affiliate links if you allow the creator to use affiliate links for the network. 

Some will reach out asking for a “collab,” which means money up front, and others will apply to become an affiliate.

Having the big names builds trust for new partners. 

It means they are risking their personal brands on your company, products, and services, and that goes far with other partners. 

This exposure may help the new partners feel confident that your program is legit.

This is one of the things we encourage with our clients who are dedicated to the affiliate marketing channel. 

It helps everyone win, as affiliate recruitment and affiliate activation are the two most challenging parts of the channel. 

When ambassadors and influencers approach the client and ask for money up front, we start them as an affiliate first to keep things fair for all creators, and if it makes sense, we move them to hybrid models. 

It’s less risky for you as a brand and gives the creator a foot in the door. 

Not all of our clients are open to this, but those who are do see the benefits. 

It’s easier to build a network of partners, and both parties are taking risks instead of it always being one-sided.

Dig deeper: Affiliate managers: It’s time to shift your focus beyond media

Putting creator amplification into practice

Here are the approaches we use most often to extend the reach and impact of creator content.

• PPC ads that drive to a landing page featuring the content.
• Running the content in advertisements as an ad for our brand on social media and YouTube.
• Embedding the content into product pages, long-form pages, and collection or category pages.
• Sending email blasts that either link to it, feature their name, face, and sales pitch, or land on pages that include it.

There’s no shortage of options. It all depends on where the audience that resonates with them is, and whether your customers are also there.

Amplifying influencer and ambassador content isn’t doing their job for them. It’s smart business. 

You gain the trust they bring, you can reach their audience, and you can utilize the content to help convert undecided customers.

Dig deeper: Why creator-led content marketing is the new standard in search