Facebook influencer marketing fundamentals: What you need to know

As brands rush to TikTok and Instagram for influencer marketing, don’t forget: Facebook’s billions of users aren’t going anywhere. In fact, this shift is creating new opportunities on the Meta-owned platform.

With less competition on Facebook, you can score better deals with influencers and gain more visibility for your brand. Also, research shows US adults are more likely to make a purchase directly on Facebook than on any other social media platform.

In this post, you’ll learn all about Facebook influencer marketing and how to create successful influencer campaigns that deliver great results for your business.

What is Facebook influencer marketing?

Facebook influencer marketing is when brands collaborate with influencers who have a strong following and engagement on Facebook.

These influencers create valuable, authentic content that resonates with their audience through posts, videos, live streams and other formats. Brands can partner with influencers in their niche and use their credibility to build trust and drive brand awareness and sales.

In 2024, influencer marketing on Facebook has shifted toward smaller influencers (nano and micro-influencers) who often have higher engagement rates than larger influencers. This makes them an attractive option for targeted campaigns, especially for niche brands.

Is Facebook right for your influencer marketing campaign?

With other social networks stealing the spotlight, you might be wondering if Facebook is still worth your time. The short answer is:

It depends on your target audience, industry and marketing goals.

Facebook is most effective for brands targeting a wide, diverse audience.

The platform has over 3.065 billion monthly active users, with the largest chunk in the US being adults between 25-34 years old. This makes Facebook especially useful for businesses in lifestyle, fitness and family-oriented niches​.

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Also, Facebook Groups are great tools for niche targeting and building community around your brand. They provide a space for influencers to engage with people who are deeply invested in certain topics, products or services, and potentially convert them into customers for your brand.

Another important consideration here is your budget. Facebook offers less organic engagement than other platforms, and paying for ads can quickly get expensive.

Working with micro and nano-influencers is a better alternative as these creators offer higher engagement at a fraction of the cost. In fact, some influencers might even accept freebies or mentions as payment for sponsored posts.

That said, Facebook might not be as effective for companies targeting younger demographics who are more active on platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

To determine if Facebook influencer marketing fits your brand’s strategy, explore more about your industry’s influencer landscape by visiting Sprout Social’s Influencer Directory. Access up-to-date, industry-level data to estimate costs, results, competitiveness and more.

How to execute a Facebook influencer marketing campaign

Launching a successful campaign on any platform (including Facebook) requires careful planning. If you’re new to Facebook influencer marketing, this step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process.

1. Define your goals

Your social media goals dictate the type of influencers you work with, the kind of content you create and how you measure success.

For example, if your goal is brand awareness, your focus should be on reaching a large audience with your content. If driving conversions is your primary objective, you’ll want to track metrics like click-through rates and sales.

Setting clear, specific and realistic goals gives direction to your campaign and ensures both parties are working to achieve the same end results.

A fitness brand might set a goal to increase product visibility by 30% over a three-month campaign. They could partner with influencers who specialize in health and wellness, and ask them to showcase the brand in their daily workout routines via Facebook Live or Reels.

2. Understand your audience

Before you start pitching to influencers, you want to be sure your target audience is actually present on the platform and are interested in influencer content.

You also need to know what type of content they’re interested in, which creators or brands they engage with and what problems they’re looking to solve.

Start by digging up data on your existing customers.

• Use your CRM platform to uncover insights like demographics, purchase history and sales conversations.
• Talk to customer-facing teams like sales reps and customer service agents to identify common questions or pain points.
• Gather first-hand information by interviewing or surveying customers, especially about their online habits and interests.

Then, head to your Facebook audience insights. Look at demographics like age, gender, location and active times. You can also analyze your existing content and understand what type of posts and videos work best.

Also, understand your audiences’ habits on the platform. Do they like to engage in Facebook Groups? Do they share posts on their feeds? Do they actively comment or simply lurk?

Sprout Social’s Listening tool is also excellent for spotting trending conversations and topics among your target audience. You can also study your competitors to see what type of content they’re posting on Facebook and how your audience is reacting to or engaging with it.

Once you have all of this data, create detailed audience personas to share with potential influencers later on. Add information like demographics, interests, habits, frustrations, and favorite content types and best times to post.

Organizing everything in one place will help you pick the right influencers, get them on the same page, tailor visuals and messaging, and choose the right formats for max engagement.

3. Choose the right influencers

Selecting influencers might seem straightforward, but there are lots of moving parts involved. You have to look beyond large followings to partner with influencers that truly align with your brand values and target audience.

Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) can help you discover top influencers in your niche. Use smart filters to sort through vetted influencers with relevant audiences. Analyze their following, content, engagement rates, authenticity and influence across various platforms, including Facebook.

It’s tempting to target big influencers with millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of followers. But small businesses often benefit from working with smaller, engaged, loyal influencers who have smaller but very active and loyal followings.

Smaller influencers typically cost less (some are even willing to accept non-monetary payments) and are likely to dedicate more time and effort toward your partnership. On top of this, the targeted engagement they bring to the table gives your brand a higher ROI overall.

4. Develop a creative strategy

When you’ve decided on the influencers you want to work with, it’s time to brainstorm the creative aspects of your campaign. Here, you can either work with the creators during the planning stage or hand them briefs you’ve already created internally.

Both ways have their perks. Remember to give influencers enough creative freedom so they can do what they do best and craft content their audience loves. Sponsored content shouldn’t feel forced; it should naturally integrate into the influencer’s daily posts.

At the same time, ensure you’ve provided guidelines on campaign goals, brand voice, values, aesthetics and other specifics that are important to your business.

Here are some other details you might want to mention in your creative plan:

• Content types (e.g. Facebook Live, Reels, Stories, image and text posts etc.)
• Topics and themes
• Posting frequency
• KPIs and metrics

Work closely with your influencers to brainstorm creative concepts that’ll engage their audience while promoting your brand in an authentic way. You can also co-create content with your company’s creative team instead of relying solely on the influencers’ resources.

Use a mix of formats, like videos, Group posts and live sessions, to keep your influencer campaign interesting and dynamic.

For example, if you’re collaborating with influencers to create a series of “unboxing” videos, you could pair them with live Q&A sessions so followers can ask questions and get feedback from someone they trust.

5. Negotiate payment and terms

Once you have a creative strategy in place, you can go over the terms and conditions of the partnership with the influencer and finalize a contract.

To establish transparent, mutually beneficial and long-term relationships with influencers, you have to be clear about things like:

• Compensation
• Content deliverables
• Creative control
• Exclusivity
• Performance expectations
• Duration of the agreement
• Ownership and usage rights
• Termination clauses

Payment, for example, is an important consideration. According to Sprout Social’s 2024 Influencer Marketing Report, 59% of influencers say they want to work with companies that have clear budgets and payment structures.

Your payment structure will vary depending on your budget as well as the influencer’s size and engagement rate. Here are some payment structures for Facebook influencer marketing:

• Flat fees for the entire campaign
• Commission-based model
• Pay per post (or per Reel, Story etc.)
• Product gifting or discounts

You could also go for a hybrid model and mix multiple compensation models for an ideal fit that works for both your brand and the influencer.

For example, combine discounted products with a flat fee per post. Or, combine flat fees for the entire campaign with commissions based on engagement or leads generated.

As for influencer pricing, our report shows that most influencers charge between $250 and $1,000 per post.

6. Launch the campaign

Finally, it’s time to execute your campaign.

Provide detailed briefs to influencers that outline campaign objectives, creative guidelines and any other information you finalized during the planning stage.

Then, let your campaign unfold. Your part here will mostly be focused on management and monitoring. You can also set up an approval process to review influencer content before it goes live on Facebook. Sprout Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) can help you do that easily.

Make sure influencers are posting on schedule, sticking to brand guidelines and responding to comments. This is also a good time for your brand to jump in and engage with the influencer’s audience by liking and replying to comments.

7. Monitor and optimize performance

As the campaign is rolling out, one of your responsibilities as a brand is to continuously keep an eye on its performance.

Monitoring your campaign helps you ensure it’s meeting your KPIs. If certain posts or content formats perform better than others, for example, you can easily adjust your strategy in real time.

Here are some Facebook metrics to track during (and after) your campaign:

• Engagement rate
• Follower growth
• Conversions

Sprout lets you monitor the progress of your influencer campaigns in real-time. You can even see the results alongside your organic metrics to assess how your sponsored campaigns fit into your bigger Facebook marketing strategy.

8. Analyze campaign results

At the end of the campaign, your job is far from done. This is where you measure the overall performance against the initial goals. Did you achieve your desired outcomes?

Create detailed reports that break down this data. Look at metrics like:

• Reach
• Page visits
• Follows
• Engagement

Use Sprout’s influencer management platform to generate custom reports and access detailed Facebook analytics that give you an accurate picture of your campaign’s performance.

You can also dive deeper and understand how your target audience reacted to your campaign. Use sentiment analysis to uncover the emotions behind comments.

Also, analyze your campaign’s impact on your company’s bottom line. Check out metrics like website traffic (traffic source), conversions, downloads, sales, popular product categories or pages and other specific data to understand the ROI.

Take note of your wins as well as any learnings for future campaigns. What could you have done better? Discuss these findings with the influencer if you plan to work together again in the future.

9. Maintain relationships

It’s okay to do one-off collabs with influencers. But those are rarely high-impact. Building long-term relationships with influencers can bring you better results over time because it creates consistency in messaging and builds trust with the audience.

It can also turn influencers into true brand advocates, which automatically boosts the authenticity and impact of their endorsements.

After the campaign, thank your influencers and express interest in future collaborations. You could also send them personalized thank-you gifts, or offer perks like discounts and early access to new products to keep them engaged with your brand.

Also, keep in touch with your partners on social media, even when you don’t have an active campaign. This helps build loyalty and makes them feel more inclined to work with you again.

Tips for successful Facebook influencer marketing campaigns

Want to take your Facebook influencer campaigns from average to amazing? Follow the tips below to boost your chances of success on the platform.

• Run Facebook ads to boost your campaigns: Combine organic influencer posts with paid advertising to squeeze more out of your campaigns. Pairing sponsored content with Facebook’s powerful ad targeting tools can help you reach a wider audience and amplify campaign results.
• Use Facebook Live to interact directly with followers: Co-host or ask influencers to host Facebook Live sessions where they review or use your product, answer questions and get feedback from followers in real time.
• Optimize your content for mobile: Use mobile-friendly formats like Stories and short-form video (i.e. Facebook Reels) to reach audiences scrolling through Facebook on their phones.
• Encourage user-generated content (UGC): Have influencers inspire their followers to create their own content using your product. People tend to value authentic feedback from real users more than traditional promotional posts from brands.
• Cross-promote on other platforms: Expand your reach by encouraging influencers to share campaign content on multiple platforms like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Make sure to optimize and tailor the content to perform well on each network.
• Use an influencer marketing platform: Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) lets you automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks like finding the right influencers, managing contracts and payments, and measuring campaign success so you can focus on strategy.

Kickstart your Facebook influencer marketing campaigns

Facebook might not be the first platform you think of for influencer marketing, but it offers some great opportunities for brands in specific niches or those targeting a large, diverse audience.

Execute successful influencer campaigns that drive results by carefully selecting influencers, aligning creative strategies and combining organic efforts with Facebook ads.

Ready to launch your Facebook influencer marketing campaign? Learn more about how Sprout Social’s influencer marketing platform can help you find the perfect partners and manage your influencer campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and more from start to finish.