Whitelisting vs. Dark Posting. What’s the difference?

In the current competitive digital scene influencer marketing is one of the powerful tools for reaching target audiences. There are two key strategies of leveraging influencer influence: Whitelisting and dark posting. They both serve to amplify brand messaging, something that can have a huge ROI with the fact that roughly 70% of social media users follow 10 or more influencers. These techniques have vital differences between them that need to be understood for higher campaign impact.

Through whitelisting (or a paid partnership), a brand is basically allowed to become an influencer themselves, with their ads mirroring on the influencer’s feed with the recognition of the credibility of the person. With 90% of influencers finding mutual benefit. It can cause more interest, and brands should also increase trust, most often by seeing the process as transparent. Conversely, dark posting uses sponsored content which is shown to specific audiences but doesn’t appear on the influencer’s organic feed. However, it’s more flexible and offers a wider reach while being able to reach the right targeted groups. But without the influencer endorsement it does not pack.

For businesses, at least 50% actively explore whitelisting and it can bring high ROI, getting in the know of these methods is vital. The way to choose the right approach is based on the campaign goals, target audience and budget. Whether you’re using an influencer marketing consultant or an agency influence marketing or doing it in house. You’ll need to understand whitelists and dark posting as they’re critical for the success.

What is Whitelisting in Influencer Marketing?

To be more specific whitelisting, or paid partnership/branded content. It is when you give a brand permission to put ads on your social media using your account. The influencer, who looks like he’s posted this on his feed, is actually paid to advertise the product on it. Using this approach builds on the credibility and true voice of an influencer and allows the brand message to be heard up close and personal directly to the influencer’s followers. It’s a transparent collaboration, it’s a sponsored piece of content and you maintain the trust of your audience. This is a tactic that is common to b2b influencer marketing and influencer marketing for b2b, where credibility and trust factor is predominantly important.

With whitelisting, the influencer basically ‘whitelists’ the brand to use their account for advertising purposes. Brands create and manage their ad content which complies with brand guidelines and campaign objectives. The influencer mostly provides access and even may participate on the content creation.

What is Dark Posting in Influencer Marketing?

Dark posting (aka unpublished posts or ghost ads) is creating sponsored posts that make it onto an influencer’s social media feed. But are not viewable to their organic followers. These posts, in particular, are directed towards a defined audience segment, usually with similar audience demographics to its influencer’s existing followers, but can be broader. The main use of dark post in advertising campaigns is the reaching of a wider audience without necessarily putting the promotion over in the influencer’s entire following.

While dark posting is less about leveraging the influencer’s credibility with their following. It is more about the ability to target a set audience with appropriate advertising. Their influencer involvement can sometimes run very little, simply giving permission for that dark post to go through. It can be or cannot be created jointly with the influencer.

Pros and Cons of Whitelisting vs. Dark Posting

Whitelisting and dark posting come with their advantages and disadvantages, which make them suited to alternative marketing objectives.

Pros of Whitelisting:

Enhanced Credibility: The reason behind whitelisted influencer marketing is that it harnesses the existing trust between an influencer and their followers to draw in sales. In which you would not get with a standard influencer advertisement. An ad that shows up as an organic piece of content coming from the influencer is an ad that holds more weight and authenticity. This is especially vital, however, for a brand that seeks credibility within a specific community.
Increased Engagement: Because whitelisted ads fit in perfectly with the influencer’s normal content. They generally garner more engagement (likes, comments, shares). Increased interaction can help the reach of the message, and increases the connection with the target audience.
Transparent Partnership: Content is very clearly whitelisted and is indicated as a paid partnership, or something similar like a sponsor post so that the audience is kept in the loop. Influencers are disclosing, which builds trust and establishes the relationship between the influencer and the follower.
Direct Reach to Followers: Whitelisting this ensures that the influencer’s highly engaged audience will see the ad and this is the whole point of the campaign and target audience!
Improved Brand Association: Aligning with a trusted influencer with positive image and reputation can benefit the brands. And this association can help build a stronger connection with the consumer and enhance a brand perception.

Cons of Whitelisting:

Limited Reach Beyond Followers: Organic targeting whitelists primarily the influencer’s existing audience, which creates a barrier to the campaign’s overall reach. It might not be the best way to get to new or more people.
Less Control Over Targeting: You have less control over who is seeing the ad with dark posting. But you can tweak your targeting towards the influencer’s followers.
Potential for Higher Costs: Lastly, influencers would charge whitelisting since they know the people. They are influencing trust their brand and can get better engagement for that reason.

Pros of Dark Posting:

Broader Reach: With dark posting you can target a large audience outside of the influencer’s followers. So your campaign has the chance to reach lots more people.
Precise Targeting: With dark posts you can target your audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and other criteria. You target a truly niche audience. In other words, this precision means that your ads will be displayed by most relevant audiences.
Increased Control Over Messaging: Dark posting enables greater control from brand side in the messaging and ad content. Lastly, it allows for consistent branding and makes sure that message is spot on with the campaign’s objectives.
A/B Testing: A/B testing of ad creatives and targeting parameters are all enabled by dark posting. The optimization of your campaigns is based on this process. It is allowing you to refine such till they are at their best.
Privacy: One benefit to dark posting is that you aren’t relying on the full endorsement and public association with the ad from an influencer. It gives both the brand and influencer a bit of privacy.

Cons of Dark Posting:

Lower Engagement: Due to the fact that dark posts are not organic. They can be more similar to typical ads and hence have lower engagement rates than if they were whitelisted content.
Less Credibility: Moreover, dark posting does not directly utilize the influencer’s reliability and its credibility to the follower, which may reduce the amount of impact to the message.
Potential for Misinterpretation: A misinterpretation or even a deceptive use could occur. If the connection between the dark post and the influencer is not clear. There is still an issue of transparency and disclosure.

Which Strategy Should You Choose?

Ultimately the best strategy for your Facebook campaign and audience is going to look different than the best strategy for someone else. Trust and credibility are of the utmost value in the B2B space. The more common route to take is whitelisting as it relies on the influencer’s expertise, and it helps strengthen relationships with that influencer’s professional network. Still, dark posting may still have its uses for targeted advertising campaigns aimed at, say, different industry segments. Consider these factors:

Campaign Objectives: If your aim is to get brand awareness or credibility in a niche community whitelisting can be a great decision. Dark posting is the way to go if achieving sales and scraping a wider audience is what you’re after.
Target Audience: The direct approach to getting to the influencer’s existing followers is whitelisting. Dark posting provides more flexibility; if you have to target a different or wider demographic.
Budget: Because influencers get directly involved and endorse your product, whitelisting can be more expensive. Sometimes, dark posting is a better, more cost-effective way to reach a large audience.
Content Strategy: If you’re looking to leverage the influencer’s creative resources and generate authentic content, whitelisting is better. Dark posting gives you more control if you have specific messaging and creative assets you want to use.
Brand Image: Think about which strategy fits your brand’s image, and which resonates with your values. Whitelisting means a closer partnership with the influencer, while dark posting means distance.

FAQs

Is whitelisting the same as boosting?

No, whitelisting gives a brand permission to post ads from their feed as the influencer. The video explains boosting where only pays to amplify a already posted video of the influencer on their page and reaches to a larger audience but still sourced from the influencer.

What is whitelisting now called?

This is also called “paid partnership,” “branded content” or sometimes, “influencer marketing ads,” but most people still use the original term. The terminology varies slightly between social media channels.

Is dark posting the same as whitelisting?

No, dark posting means to use an influencer’s account to run unpublished ads to specific audience, hidden from the influencer’s organic followers. Whitelisting serves ads that do show up on the influencer’s feed, in his follower’s fee, and clearly marked as sponsored content.