Many brands treat creators and paid ads as rivals. They’re not. They do different jobs, and they work best together.
What each one does best
Creators build trust. A real person using your product, in their own words, tells a shopper more than a polished advert can. Creator content is also the raw material for great ads.
Paid ads give you control and scale. You choose who sees the message, when, and how often, and you can measure the results closely.
The strongest approach is to use creators to make the content, and paid ads to put the best of it in front of more people.
How to choose creators
Follow count isn’t the best measure. Look for:
- Fit. Do their followers look like your customers?
- Engagement. Do people comment and save, or only like?
- Content quality. Is it clear, well lit and believable?
- Honesty. Do they tell their audience when something is paid for? In South Africa, advertising rules expect paid partnerships to be clearly disclosed.
- Past results. Ask for examples of past campaigns and what they achieved.
Smaller creators often deliver more trust for less money, so don’t overlook them.
How to work with them
- Give a clear brief with the key message and what to avoid, but leave room for their own voice.
- Give each creator a tracked link or code, so you can see who actually sells.
- Agree the usage rights up front, including whether you can run their content as ads.
- Send the product early, and make the process easy.
A simple way to split your budget
There’s no perfect ratio, but a sensible starting point looks like this:
- Put most of your budget into content and distribution that you can measure.
- Reserve a share for testing new creators each month.
- Move money toward whatever returns the most per rand, and cut what doesn’t.
Measure what matters
Track cost per sale and return on spend for both. Reach is nice, but sales pay the bills. Review monthly, and let the numbers decide where the next rand goes.
For more on selling through social channels, see our guide to WhatsApp commerce.
