In the past twenty years, the incorporation of social media into individuals’ life has been fully established, making it a critical factor for companies to connect with new people.
As an increasing number of people started to become members of social networks such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter, many of them started to produce their own content, assembling and creating their own stories, pictures, and videos for others to view.
Thus, social media influencers came into existence and marketers picked up on it in no time.
In the past half of a decade, businesses have partnered up with social media influencers on different platforms in order to advertise, causing influencer marketing to go from being an extra type of promotion to a market that is worth about 5-10 billion dollars.
Despite this, numerous small businesses are still unsure about leveraging influencer marketing and if they should use it as an approach.
So does influencer marketing really work?
Influencer marketing is now more easily accessible and can be assessed more precisely than ever, and many marketers state that it is successful in accomplishing what they set out to achieve.
What is Influencer Marketing?
To grasp the concept behind influencer marketing, you must have knowledge of influencers.
An individual with a dedicated fan base developed via the production of digital content is referred to as a social media influencer.
Influencer marketing is a strategy wherein businesses collaborate with influencers in order to create visibility for their brand and generate leads from their intended audience.
Marketers try to promote their company, product, or service by supporting an influencer’s posts with the objective of praising their brand and, sometimes, boosting sales.
Many businesses struggle with utilizing influencers as part of their publicity because their commercials are not prepared, implemented, and cherished with the correct audience in mind, not due to the lack of effectiveness of the channel.
The performance of an influencer marketing campaign can be detrimentally affected by numerous elements. Here are just a few:
- Selecting influencers who aren’t aligned with your brand, or wouldn’t normally use your product.
- Not evaluating the influencer’s target audience alignment before partnering up.
- Pushing a rigid script on the influencer, rather than collaborating on a creative approach they feel will resonate with their fans.
- Failing to set clear terms and timelines for your agreement.
- Publishing blatantly promotional, hard-selling content that turns off fans.
- Not setting up proper tracking, URLs, or landing pages beforehand.
It has been demonstrated by the data that when influencer marketing is implemented accurately, it is successful for many different types of businesses.
Types of influencers
Look up the category of influencer you would like to join forces with and you will discover hundreds (or maybe even more) of prospects. What criteria do you use to select the individual to partner with for influencer marketing strategies?
Influencers can be divided into five classes, each of which is dependent on the number of their followers on any given social media platform.
- Nano influencers: between 1,000 and 5,000 followers
- Micro-influencers: between 5,000 and 20,000 followers
- Power or mid-tier influencers: between 20,000 and 100,000 followers
- Mega influencers: between 100,000 and 1 million followers
- Celebrities: more than 1 million followers
Let’s take a look at how they compare.
Nano influencers have the highest engagement rate
Accepting that the number of followers is an essential element to think about when employing influencer marketing. Engagement rate, which is the rate of their followers who take action on their posts by liking, commenting, or sharing, is very important.
The greater the response level of your prospective influencer, the more likely it is for them to shape the opinions of their followers (and encourage sales).
The outcome of research done by HypeAuditor showed that nano-influencers who adhere to a smaller-scale following of 5,000 or fewer followers had the highest rate of engagement at 5%. As the number of followers goes up, this tends to decrease until a celebrity status is achieved (1.6%).
Micro-influencers account for almost half of all influencers
The survey additionally indicated that ecommerce firms will have a simpler time locating less popular influencers to coordinate with on influencer strategies, regarding higher engagement levels for less famous influencers.
Approximately 47.3% of influencers have between 5,000 and 20,000 followers on their most prominent societal network. Next in line are influencers with relatively high-profile (26.8%) and those with the smallest reach (18.74%).
It is challenging to identify macro, mega, and specifically celebrity influencers, as the latter only make up 0.5% of social media influencers.
Marketers are more interested in working with micro-influencers than with celebrities
Lesser known influencers generally have more interaction with their followers and there are plenty available. It’s not unexpected that companies and brands opt to collaborate with micro-influencers instead of well-known persons for their influencer marketing endeavors.
Most marketers (77%) put micro-influencers at the top of their list of desired influencers, with macro influencers (64%) being the second choice. Fewer than five percent of brands are choosing to include no-payment and affiliate influencers in their desired partnerships.
Demographics most impacted by influencers
Different generations have varying levels of participation in social media platforms. It is sensible that certain population groups pay more attention to influencer endorsements than others.
Gen Z is most influenced by social media influencers
Your achievement in your influencer marketing initiatives is reliant upon the demographic you are trying to reach.
If you are looking for individuals of Generation Z, those between the ages of 16 and 23, then you are in luck. The demographic that would react the most to influencer marketing strategies would be this one.
It can be difficult to engage older customers with influencer marketing. The proportion of people that keep track of social media influencers lessens as age increases. Only about a quarter of Millennials, one-sixteenth of Generation X, and a tiny percentage of Boomers are fans of influencers on social media.
In other words, influencer marketing can still be effective in targeting Boomers. Moon Lin, a 93-year-old fashion blogger who has almost 100,000 devotees, is the ideal illustration of how senior citizens are increasingly taking to social media.
For discovering which influencers your more mature target demographic likes, you could start off your influence advertising campaign by soliciting feedback from customers. Including an inquiry in your purchase confirmation emails, such as “who are the influencers that you follow on social media?”, can give you a better idea of who your customers are keeping track of.
The ROI of influencer marketing
Different-sized companies can have successful influencer marketing initiatives. If you have limited funds, engaging nano influencers is the way to go, however, if your budget is larger and can accommodate celebrity endorsements, you can reach substantial new customers.
It’s important to remember the numbers when it comes to the return on investment of influencer marketing. You should be sure to pay attention to the returns of investment for each channel when you are creating your marketing plan.
Influencer marketing ROI is 11x greater than banner ads
It is evident why companies acquire a greater return from associating with influencers, as opposed to other conventional marketing tactics, when you consider the large number of people who are admirers of influencers on social media. Mediakix has discovered that influencer marketing yields a return on investment that is over 11 times superior compared to digital advertising such as banner ads.
Internet marketing remains the most cost-efficient choice, with Instagram and YouTube close behind at a reported 18% effectiveness rate among marketers. A majority of people agree that influencer marketing yields a higher return on investment than traditional advertising.
For new and emerging businesses that don’t have a large budget, social media and influencer marketing are more reasonable options than online advertising. If you are just beginning to explore influencer marketing, think of these platform metrics.
For new and emerging businesses, social media and influencer marketing offer an affordable option in comparison to traditional, high-cost online advertising. If you are just starting to use influencer marketing, take into account these platform measurements.
This is a collection of 11 influential figures based on a study of marketers conducted by Mediakix, an influencer marketing business, which can be utilized to update your marketing plan for this year.
11 Most Important Influencer Marketing Statistics for 2020
The usage and investment in influencer marketing are increasing exponentially.
The majority of marketers are set to expand their marketing spending in the current year, and Instagram is developing into one of the most predominant communication paths in the business.
Below is a list of the key 11 facts that all marketers should be aware of in 2021.
65% of influencer marketing budgets will increase in 2020.
It is expected that approximately two-thirds of marketers will raise their budget for influencer marketing in the current year.
In 2018, only 39% of marketers were thinking about increasing their influencer marketing budget, which leads to the conclusion that brand spending on influencer marketing will experience a major jump this year.
The most common influencer budget is $1,000 – $10,000/year, followed by $100,000 – $500,000/year.
Approximately a fifth of advertisers has budgeted between one and ten thousand dollars for influencer marketing this year, while 18% of them allocate between one hundred thousand dollars and half a million dollars.
Seven percent of businesses intend to spend in excess of a million dollars on influencer marketing campaigns in 2020.
It appears that influencer marketing is used by businesses of all sizes, from more modest firms to more noteworthy corporations.
17% of companies spend over half their marketing budget on influencers.
This year, 17% of marketers are devoting over half of their marketing budget to influencer marketing, a number that may not be huge, but is still significant.
Although the number is not significant, it emphasizes how essential influencer marketing is for some businesses, particularly for those involved in ecommerce, fashion, beauty, gaming, travel, and lifestyle.
89% say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels
Gaining a beneficial outcome from influencer marketing is a key concern for many marketers in the year of 2019.
Small business owners are cautious when it comes to putting money into a new means of communication if there is no way to measure the output.
However, the vast majority of marketers perceive the ROI of influencer marketing to be equivalent to or even more beneficial than other types of marketing techniques.
Instagram ranks #1 as the most important and impactful channel.
As we enter the new year, Instagram has established itself as a major presence in the world of social media.
With over one billion customers and a rapidly escalating circle of influencers manufacturing millions of ads per annum, Instagram has become the leading influencer marketing platform.
Despite the prevalence of Facebook and YouTube, the convenience of photo-sharing on Instagram has caused a major surge in influencers having a direct link to unique groups of people.
The ability to make content more readily opened the door to the development of micro-influencers, people with a following of between 10,000-50,000 users, who could be hired by brand managers at an economically viable cost.
Snapchat is the least preferred channel for influencer marketing.
Snapchat was able to decelerate the decline in the number of users at the end of 2018, however, it has been overlooked by advertisers with regard to supported influencer material.
Initially, Snapchat was not user-friendly which caused it hard to locate specific social media stars, and the platform didn’t give influencers sufficient viewership information to persuade businesses to fund them.
The platform has addressed a lot of the restrictions on features, but Instagram Stories has already overcome Snapchat Stories with more than double the amount of daily active participants.
Snapchat holds the least priority for marketers when it comes to conducting influencer marketing in the year 2020.
Over ? marketers will spend the most on Instagram.
The evidence shows that 2020 will be a year of increased investment in marketing on Instagram.
Approximately two-thirds of marketers intend to dedicate the majority of their budget towards Instagram for influencer advertising during 2021.
Netflix accounted for 67% of the top spend for benchmarked brands, which is significantly more than the 11% that YouTube had.
Instagram posts are the most used format of influencer marketing.
When surveyed about the type of content that makes the most successful influencer marketing, the most popular answer (78%) from marketers was Instagram posts.
Instagram posts that are paid for have become commonplace because it is simple to create, agree to, and put out, thus making it convenient to increase in number.
A lower cost and simpler effort make it an ideal and cost-effective choice for companies on a tight budget who wish to experiment with Instagram influencer advertising. This is in comparison to videos or content that is longer in length.
The influencer marketing industry is worth $13.8 billion
Influencer marketing is big business. Statista reported that the industry as a whole is currently valued at around $14 billion, which is a jump from $9.7 billion in the year prior. It is further estimated that the overall worth will exceed $16 billion in the next year.
50.7% of brands working with influencers run ecommerce stores
What companies are contributing the most to the rising value of the influencer marketing field? Research reveals that a majority of firms utilizing influencers also own online retail outlets. This shows that ecommerce companies are on the increase, and also that these types of companies are especially fitting for influencer marketing strategies. Their shop is available to anyone globally allowing them to distribute items to partners located anywhere in the world. Influencers can quickly direct people to their retail location with no boundaries imposed by geography.
Women aged 16 to 24 are 31% more likely to follow social media influencers than men
Statista wrote that there is a larger number of females than males in the influencer marketing field. Women dominate the social media influencer sector, with approximately four-fifths of them while men account for only around one-sixth of the total.
We observe a similar trend among female social media users who engage in influencer promotions. Out of Generation Z, 33% of females aged 16 to 24 follow someone who is seen as an influencer on social media, while only 25% of young men do the same.
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