In 2025, the benefits of influencer marketing should need little explanation. The significant value influencers provide for brands is clear, from increased awareness with specific audiences; to nativeness on a platform yielding authentic, rather than overly manufactured, content; to an enhanced level of trust among those audiences to click, share, and buy. What’s not as frequently discussed, however, are the benefits a strong influencer strategy can provide for your media team. Too often, the opportunity to unlock “influencer for media” goes unseen or unused because media teams operate in a silo.
At GALE, on the other hand, our influencer team works closely with our media planning and buying teams. This combination of strategic thinking and skillsets has unearthed a multitude of new ways for us to unlock value in how we think about and deploy influencer marketing programs.
Below are three key benefits of breaking down the silos between influencer and media teams.
Direct access to audiences for precise targeting and better data
Through the lens of media, building an influencer strategy is no different than building an audience growth strategy and channel planning. Influencer whitelisting, or “creator licensing,” enables a media buyer to connect a brand advertising account to an influencer’s account (with permissions), so that ads can be run through the influencer’s handle. The ads are created by the influencer and are delivered in collaboration with the brand. This allows the buyer to target specific audiences within the influencer’s following, and track the influencer’s performance.
Moreover, while you’ll still need to pay the influencer for advertising and content usage rights, you’ll have a partner who also develops authentic content for ad delivery and will work with you to optimize efforts. This approach might also limit the need to pay premiums to third-party audience providers who, unlike working directly with an influencer, will provide only the audience. Creator licensing is a huge unlock for integrated influencer and media teams, as it enables you to target robust, leaned-in communities that can then be retargeted. You will also be able to create “lookalikes” from established audience pools to reach incremental customers of higher value that might not have been exposed to a brand otherwise.
Explore new avenues for creative to drive media optimizations
Any good media buyer knows that good content is at the core of any campaign’s success. If you don’t provide your media team with the right content, they are left defenseless when it comes to achieving the intended objectives. When able to collaborate with influencer marketers early on, media planners and buyers can map out a content roadmap that includes a variety of influencers that will each bring a unique style and tailored approach to the content they develop. Content diversification ensures that brands can more authentically explore avenues they might not have previously considered, while also providing media buyers with the ability to gain insights on how different styles of content perform and which attributes of that content are valuable to drive forward creative direction. Creators who lean heavily into day-in-the-life styles of content, for example, might resonate well on TikTok. But that same content style might not drive the same impact on Instagram or YouTube--and vice versa. When done right, these efforts will lead to more precise content and messaging that will make your media investment go a lot further.
A clean form of measurement to show your returns
As influencer marketing is paired with your media mix, the ability to garner attribution insights on the role influencer touchpoints play in the customer journey unlocks massive potential for activation teams. Having one unified source of truth to use for decision-making empowers our teams to move in lockstep when assessing the value of influencer partnerships. Integrating all buying also allows for revenue snapshots by creator, channel, and format, so that clients have a clear understanding of what partnerships and packages are driving positive growth for their businesses. Plus, media planning, buying, and influencer teams have more data to optimize investment and negotiate deals with creators—ultimately driving the greatest returns.
Influencer teams that operate in a silo and do not consider the other touchpoints where a customer might have been exposed to a brand will either over- or under- value a creator’s impact on their bottom line, which in turn can impact future decision-making negatively. At GALE, we maximize returns for our clients by ensuring our influencer approach complements or drives the overarching activation through an integrated buying approach that considers each touchpoint of the user journey.
