This episode unveils "customer media," a powerful strategy where brands incentivize everyday customers to post about products they love, turning them into a cost-effective ad channel. Learn how BrandPay's innovative model, proven by a $1-per-like experiment, generates authentic content, significantly lowers CPC compared to paid media, and integrates with platforms like Meta. It's a paradigm shift for ecommerce operators to build advocacy and reduce marketing spend.
Key takeaways
Explore incentivizing loyal customers with store credit for social media posts, leveraging "customer media" to generate authentic content at a fraction of paid ad costs.
Investigate how AI search's increasing reliance on third-party content makes customer-generated media crucial for organic visibility, as Google lowers follower thresholds for content inclusion.
Consider a fixed reward system for customer content creation over per-like incentives, as everyday users are more motivated by clear value for their time and effort.
Analyze the potential for platform integrations like BrandPay’s with Meta to streamline customer content generation and approval processes, ensuring authenticity and scalability.
Benchmark customer media performance against paid acquisition, aiming for significantly lower CPCs and higher engagement through genuine customer advocacy.
What if your customers were your cheapest media channel? Ryan Martin talks with Mike Haywood, Co-founder of BrandPay, about "customer media". BrandPay rewards everyday customers, not influencers, with store credit when they post about brands they already love. Mike explains how a $1-per-like experiment at his AirBnB retreat grew into a world-first build with Meta. He also covers why AI search runs almost entirely on third-party content, and how brands like LSKD now get a new piece of customer content every 33 minutes. On average, the cost per click comes in at about half that of paid media.Mike explains how the idea started. During COVID he ran a hinterland retreat and paid guests $1 per like in wine-cellar credit for posting content. Six months later it was named best holiday home in Australia and featured in Vogue. He also talks about building a world-first integration with Meta, and the psychology that makes customers post (time and effort, not likes). He shares hard numbers on cost per click, spend-back rates and category performance.Why BrandPay separates customer media from UGC and creator contentHow a $1-per-like guest experiment led to a Vogue feature and a new startupBuilding with Meta: a world-first API use case and the challenge of fraud preventionWhy fixed rewards beat per-like rewards: everyday users think in time and effort, not engagementHow the BrandPay wallet works: store credit in Apple Wallet, worth half its value at other brands, with the other half returned to the rewarding brand#ad disclosure, and why customer content doesn't feel like sellingAI search and third-party content: Google lowered its follower threshold for showing third-party content in search from 300k to 35k to 10kThe review flow: 48-hour auto-approval for reels (24 hours for stories), and 98% approval ratesPricing: a 25
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Explore incentivizing loyal customers with store credit for social media posts, leveraging "customer media" to generate authentic content at a fraction of paid ad costs.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Investigate how AI search's increasing reliance on third-party content makes customer-generated media crucial for organic visibility, as Google lowers follower thresholds for content inclusion.
What does this episode say about analytics & attribution?
Consider a fixed reward system for customer content creation over per-like incentives, as everyday users are more motivated by clear value for their time and effort.
What does this episode say about customer retention?
Analyze the potential for platform integrations like BrandPay’s with Meta to streamline customer content generation and approval processes, ensuring authenticity and scalability.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Benchmark customer media performance against paid acquisition, aiming for significantly lower CPCs and higher engagement through genuine customer advocacy.
