Thread by @jappleby

Okay, I ran a reallyyy cool study on influencer marketing.

You've seen #ad.
You've seen #partner.

I worked with @Swayable to test which ad disclosures create the highest product consideration and purchase intent within branded content.

A Twitter Analysis 🧵:

@Swayable Let's talk Influencer Marketing 101 for a second.

Whenever an Influencer is paid by a Brand to make content, they legally need to disclose the partnership to their followers. The most common way? #ad.

BUT, it's not the only way! 1/

@Swayable Here are the FTC's guidelines for Social Media Disclosures:
ftc.gov/system/files/d…

You'll notice the FTC doesn't demand influencers use #ad. There are a wholeee lotta ways to do it—you just gotta make it obvious. 2/

@Swayable Okay, back to the test.

I wanted to see whether #ad or #partner or a more natural disclosure worked best to actually get people buying influencer-promoted products.

I partnered up with @Swayable to run some analysis... and they also kinda roasted me... we'll get to that. 3/

@Swayable I decided I wanted to try a few different products for thoroughness.

Swayable's head of marketing knows I'm trying to take care of myself, so she chose a healthy food delivery service, a sunscreen, and a massager... well played. 4/

@Swayable Okay, we've got our 3 products.
Now, disclosure types.

We tested 3 FTC-approved approaches:
- #ad
- #partner
- natural disclosure in copy

Here's what it looked like on the massager example. 5/

@Swayable Now the test itself!

@Swayable uses randomized controlled trial (RCT) surveys to test ads. They work with AirBNB, DoorDash, T-Mobile, even movie studios who wanna test trailers!

We threw our fake ads into the platform and *drumroll* 6/

@Swayable Casually disclosing brand deals within influencer post copy WITHOUT a hashtag, creates higher product consideration + purchase intent than posts with #ad or #partner.

It's a lottt more effective.
Let's look at the data 🧵: 7/

@Swayable Here's the data that @Swayable spit out. Casual disclosures was easilyyy the big winner. 8/

@Swayable I figured that'd be the case, but there was one surprising takeaway from the study.

I assumed #ad would be dead last across the board, but it actually outperformed #partner on some occasions! Take a look above. 9/

@Swayable Geeking out on this stuff with the @Swayable team was wayyyy too fun. I couldn't have ran a study like this on a basic social sentiment tool—you need something to measure brand lift.

Also, I got you a little deal to try the platform. 10/

@Swayable The 1st 20 brands/agencies to sign-up via this link + mention my name get 2 extra test credits (over a $10k value).

Go book a demo right here: try.swayable.com/jack 11/