Types of Social Media Ads for Successful Influencer Collaborations

Social media ads have revolutionized the way brands collaborate with influencers to promote their products or services. They offer a unique opportunity to reach and engage with a larger and more diverse range of audiences, maximizing the impact of your campaigns and driving meaningful business results.

This article will explore the benefits of using social media ads in your influencer marketing campaigns and delve into a few different types of social media ads that you can leverage to achieve your marketing goals.

Key Benefits of Using Social Media Ads in Influencer Collaborations

Before we dive into the different types of social media ads that work well with influencer collaborations, let’s pause for a moment and ask: why use paid ads at all if you're already working with influencers?

It’s a fair question — after all, influencer content often feels more authentic and organic than traditional ads. But what if you could combine both worlds? Imagine taking that relatable, trusted influencer post and boosting it to reach thousands more — including people who don’t yet follow your brand or the influencer.

That’s exactly what social media ads can do.

Let’s say you’ve partnered with a beauty creator who shares a tutorial using your latest product. With a well-targeted ad, you can amplify that post beyond their existing audience and reach other beauty lovers in the same demographic — people who might never have found you otherwise.

Here’s what social media ads bring to the table:

• Reach a wider audience: Go beyond the influencer’s followers and get your content in front of more potential customers.
  
  
• Boost your message: Reinforce the core message of your campaign and increase engagement with additional impressions.
  
  
• Target the right people: Use ad targeting tools to ensure your message reaches specific groups based on interests, age, location, or behavior.
  
  
• Track real results: From clicks to conversions, you get measurable data to evaluate performance and ROI.
  
  
• Stay on-brand: You can control the messaging, visuals, and tone, ensuring the content is aligned with your broader marketing goals.
  
  

In short, social media ads don’t replace influencer marketing — they supercharge it.

The Most Effective Types of Social Media Ads for Influencer Campaigns

Although social media ads can be a powerful standalone marketing tool, when you combine them with influencer marketing, the benefits can grow exponentially. Most notably, as we saw above, you can reach even more people with your influencer campaigns, target more precise audience segments, and gain increased control over your campaigns. 

But which types of ads are best for this?

With this question in mind, we are now going to explore 3 popular types of social media ads. We will explain what they are, why they work so well, and how you can leverage them effectively.

Sponsored Posts

Today, instead of just seeing hashtags like #ad or #sponsored, platforms like Instagram and TikTok also display a “Paid Partnership” label at the top of the post or video. This helps ensure transparency and trust between the influencer and their audience.

Chipotle is a great example of a brand that regularly partners with influencers to create sponsored posts. Whether it's through viral TikTok challenges or casual Instagram videos showing off custom burrito orders, Chipotle's collaborations often feel fun, native to the platform, and tailored to the creator’s style — all while maintaining clear disclosure of the paid partnership.

According to Forbes, influencer content tends to outperform brand-created content in terms of engagement and authenticity. In fact, many consumers view influencer posts as more trustworthy than traditional ads, which makes sponsored content a highly effective strategy to connect with today’s audiences. 

Here are a few tips to help you with this type of social media ad:

• Select an influencer that aligns with your brand's values and has an engaged audience that matches your target demographic.
• Work closely with the influencer when you create a sponsored post to ensure that their content aligns with your brand's messaging and aesthetic.
• Clearly communicate your campaign goals and what you expect from the influencer, including content format, messaging, and timeline.
• Track the performance of your sponsored posts and adjust your strategy as needed to maximize ROI.

Product Reviews

Product reviews are a type of social media ad where an influencer receives a product in exchange for creating and sharing a review or demo through their social media channels. Product reviews can be an effective way to generate buzz around a new product launch and drive sales.

A good example of an effective influencer product review is the collaboration between tech influencer Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and major smartphone brands like Apple and Google. In his reviews of the latest iPhone and Google Pixel devices, Marques offers in-depth, unbiased insights into design, performance, and usability often as part of a sponsored partnership. These videos regularly receive millions of views and generate significant buzz among early adopters and tech enthusiasts, helping brands like Apple and Google showcase key features and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

Why do product reviews work so well? Because they tap into something essential: trust. When an influencer shares their honest opinion — even if it includes constructive criticism — their audience listens. They're not just selling; they're storytelling. This is especially true in industries like beauty, tech, and food, where audiences want to see products tested in real life before they commit to buying.

Pro tip: Don’t just think of product reviews as one-off posts. Repurpose the content! You can share snippets of the influencer’s review in your newsletter, product pages, or even turn highlights into paid ads.

Here are a few tips to help you with this type of social media ad:

• Select influencers that have a natural affinity for your product and are considered experts in their field so that the review is authentic and relevant to their audience.
• Provide the influencer with a product sample so they can experience it for themselves and create an authentic review.
• Provide a clear product brief. Clearly communicate what you want the influencer to focus on in their review, including key features and benefits of the product.
• Track the performance of your product reviews and adjust your strategy as needed to maximize ROI.

Giveaways

Giveaways are a type of social media ad where an influencer hosts a contest or promotion on their social media channels, offering a prize in exchange for engagement from their followers. Giveaways can be an effective way to increase brand awareness, grow your social media following, and drive engagement.

A good example of an effective influencer giveaway is the partnership between fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni and Lancôme, in which Ferragni hosted an Instagram giveaway for her followers to win a set of Lancôme beauty products. To enter the giveaway, followers had to follow both Ferragni and Lancôme on Instagram, like the giveaway post, and tag a friend in the comments. The giveaway generated a lot of engagement and excitement among Ferragni's followers, with thousands of entries and comments. It helped to increase the visibility and reach of both Ferragni and Lancôme and provided an opportunity for the brand to showcase its products to a new audience.

What makes giveaways so effective? They tap into two powerful motivators: the excitement of winning something and the simplicity of participating. With the right prize and entry mechanics, you can generate viral buzz in just a few days.

This tactic is especially useful for product launches or seasonal campaigns — think beauty boxes, tech gadgets, fashion accessories, or even exclusive early access.

Here are a few tips to help you with this type of social media ad:

• Offer a prize that is valuable and relevant to your target audience.
• Set clear guidelines and rules for the giveaway, including what actions followers need to take to enter.
• Use paid social media ads to promote the giveaway and reach a wider audience.
• As with all other types of social media ads, monitor the performance of your giveaway and adjust your ad where necessary to boost your ROI.

Final Thoughts on Influencer Ads

As influencer marketing continues to evolve, combining organic content with paid social media ads has become an essential strategy for brands looking to maximize impact. Sponsored posts, product reviews, giveaways, and other ad formats offer powerful ways to amplify your message, reach new audiences, and generate measurable results.

The most successful campaigns are those that align the right content format with the right creator. When influencers genuinely connect with their audience, and the content feels authentic, the impact goes far beyond visibility — it builds trust, sparks engagement, and drives real business growth.

If you're ready to take your influencer marketing to the next level, now is the time to start integrating social media ads into your strategy. With the right approach, you can turn every collaboration into a high-performing, data-driven campaign.