Floor & Decor wanted to raise awareness of its growing business, but research showed the real decision maker is often not the homeowner, but rather flooring professionals like contractors and installers, as well as those wanting to do it themselves. The company calls this group “hands-on Buy-it-Yourselfers (BIYers).”

Zorah Bell, director of media at Floor & Décor, said pros and those willing to build their own come to the stores looking for products they trust to bring into their projects.

“To have an authentic voice, the creators need to know what they’re talking about and what they need to communicate to their audiences in a way that is trusted,” Bell said. “Our pros and BIYers are the backbone of our business, and it’s key that we amplify their voices to reach repeat, new, and prospective customers.”

While most home improvement brands source influencers willing to highlight beautiful homes, Floor & Decor wanted to identify and recruit professionals who don’t often show up in influencer databases.

The company partnered with influencer marketing agency People First to design and execute a micro-influencer campaign that identifies flooring professionals as well as homeowners willing to do the job themselves. Through them the retailer would share real stories and experiences with their social networks.

“For any influencer program to be successful, it takes more than identifying creators with the largest followings,” Bell said. “It’s about who makes up their followers and how they interact with them. It’s about trust and authenticity when it comes to any great influencer campaign. Trust between the audience and influencer as well as trust between the brand and influencer.

She said authenticity in what Floor & Decor asks of influencers and how they present themselves to their audience. The campaign asks influencers to make the company part of a conversation that may have begun long before Floor & Decor was involved.

People First is a different type of agency. It can source content from any specialized community like irritable bowel syndrome patients or racing fans to talk about NASCAR. “In the case of Floor & Décor, they had compelling research that the contractor and installer drive purchase decisions,” said Curtis Hougland, CEO at People First.

People First and Floor & Decor created a network of influencers from professional contractors. Hougland said the company sourced 58 individual posts and videos from Instagram and TikTok, some from professionals and BIYers to create the ads to run on Facebook.

Ads were tested for ad recall, performance, purchase intent, and brand lift.

The paid media campaign ran from January 12 to February 16 2023, with a total budget of $30,000. Peer-to-peer content created into ads accumulated more than 8.6 million impressions; 23,522 clicks; and $3.48 for cost per thousand impressions (CPM). The engagement rate was 17.32%.

Although advertising to the pro audience was more expensive, the click through rates (CTRs) was 68% higher than the BIY audience showing a promising audience to specifically drive traffic and sales.

The campaign received a 98% positivity rate for conversations and comments driven by micro-influencer content, and top performing creator posts were boosted through paid advertising, resulting in a 6.5-point increase in brand lift and ad recall. YouTube, and Pinterest were also used.

Although ads generally performed better with men, women were more likely to remember seeing Floor & Decor ads. Typically, ads perform better with older audiences, but in this case younger audiences were overall more likely to remember the ads.

People First created a campaign with help from contractors and installers after research shows the real decision maker is often not the homeowner, but rather flooring professionals.