According to a study by Mediakix, 89% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is more effective than other channels and provides a return on investment of 8 times the original cost.
As mentioned on Neil Patel’s site, the data shows that influencer marketing earns $6.50 for every dollar a company invests. Approximately 70% of companies earn $2 or more for every dollar, and 13% of companies earn $20 or more.
There are also between 3.2 million and 37.8 million social media influencers. This range represents millions of unique people who need more than a one-size-fits-all payment structure to compensate them for their work. While influencer payments are often in the form of gifts or post payments.
Why trust in Influencers
According to MuseFind, 92% of consumers trust influencers more than traditional celebrity ads.
The main difference between Influencers and traditional celebrities is that they are emotionally close to their fans. Influencers are often popular only because of their subscribers, and without close contact with them, they can lose their status. They share their lives and views, respond to comments, and hold online or even offline meetings. Therefore, Influencers are listened to more often, and brands seek to build partnerships with them.
Why People Listen to Influencers
According to a survey, 66% of brands plan to increase their budgets for influencer marketing in 2023. Consumers cited a variety of reasons for their preference for influencer content over traditional advertising.
The main benefit for 40% of consumers is the opportunity to see detailed feedback on how the product works. Additionally, 35% of respondents said that influencer content helps them discover new products, and 30% watch influencers’ content for promo codes. Some consumers also perceive influencers as more knowledgeable, with 22% responding that they consider influencers to be a reliable source of information.
Finally, 16% of respondents said that they prefer content from influencers to direct advertising.
Disadvantages of working with Influencers
The majority (85%) of FMCG brands had negative experiences with Influencers.
- 1/4 of all large FMCG companies lost $100-250 thousand in influencer campaigns.
- Almost 70% of brands had doubts about the number of real subscribers to the Influencer.
- 24% of companies faced unpleasant consequences of working with Influencers, including reputational losses.
To protect themselves from reputational losses, brands often order an analytical report on influencers’ data and activity before launching a campaign. Almost 30% of surveyed companies cited brand safety as an important issue when working with Influencers.
Influencer selection strategy
An important caveat: Influencer marketing only works if the opinion leader is chosen correctly. There are several factors to consider:
- Whether the Influencer’s audience matches your brand;
- How the number of subscribers and the cost per post or review relate;
- How many views/likes/retweets, on average, does one post accumulates;
- Whether the Influencer promotes blatantly weak projects (you are unlikely to want to be in such a company);
- Does the Influencer conduct a real analysis of the project – or just read the text from the site;
- And most importantly: do they want to cheat you?
Beware of pseudo-influencers
Mediakix recently conducted a survey, and one of the questions was “What is the biggest problem facing the industry?” As many as 50% felt that the biggest problem was the detection of fake subscribers and fake engagement. Another survey conducted by Econsultancy surveyed a group of marketers from the U.K. and the U.S. and got similar results: 42% cited fake subscribers as their biggest problem.
No matter how determined crooks are, spotting fake influencers is not that difficult. You just need to be on your guard and do your homework when analyzing potential influencers for your company.
You can use the Yoloco platform to check Influencers. Here, you can find any Influencer, check the quality of Influencers and their audience, as well as many other indicators. And you can also send an email to the Influencer directly from the platform, using the Influencer Outreach tool.
Who and when doesn’t need Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has a lot of advantages. It’s the directness, targeting, attracting live traffic, and quick feedback on the product from the audience. Despite this, not everyone needs Influencer Marketing, and not always.
When you don’t need it:
When it is important to quickly recoup the investment, and the budget is minimal. There is such a thing as the rate of return on investment in an advertising channel. If you run targeting ads or radio ads, the result will be immediate. And if you invest in SEO and the blog, then getting normal traffic and converting it into orders will take more than a year.
Influencer marketing gives a quick return only if you buy direct advertising during promotions and contests.
When you have a new product, and you rely only on Influencer Marketing. Yes, and in this case, it won’t work either, because when you bring a new product to market, it’s important to combine different promotional tools, and not put all your eggs in one basket.
Conclusion
In conclusion, influencer marketing has proven to be a highly effective and profitable strategy for companies, with a return on investment of $6.50 for every dollar spent. Many consumers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities and find their content to be helpful in finding new products and making purchasing decisions. As a result, a large majority of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2023.
However, it is important for brands to carefully select their influencers and be aware of the risks associated with this type of marketing, including the possibility of fake subscribers and negative experiences with individual influencers. Brands can use tools like the Yoloco platform to help identify and vet potential influencers, and should also be diligent in protecting their brand’s reputation and safety when working with influencers.
