Influencer marketing has gone beyond mainstream – it’s now exerting a major impact on the entire marketing landscape.
The growing popularity of this type of relationship between a brand and a social media celebrity has mirrored the development of the marketing strategy itself. When influencer marketing first became a “thing,†all that mattered to sponsors was whether an influencer had a large following on social media, particularly Instagram.
Then came the explosion of sites and services offering businesses a way to buy fake followers.
But as consumers increasingly demand authenticityOpens a new window from the brands they follow and associate with online, the influencer marketing space is now forced to clean up its act.
Unilever CMO Keith Weed recently called for “urgent action†to fight against fraud in influencer marketingOpens a new window . Similarly, major brands including L’Oréal, eBay and liquor giant DiageoOpens a new window also have been taking steps to mitigate the problem.
Weed’s statement has acted as a rallying cry for brands and companies that view the need for social media platforms to regulate issues such as fake followers, fraud, bots and “dishonest†business practices in the sector.
In reality, it’s easier said than done. Although the sector has been responding to market demands, 12% of instagrammers still buy fake followers.
Despite rampant concerns regarding transparency and fraud in the space, brands and companies have hardly been dissuaded. The value that influencers offer – engaged, loyal consumer audiences – is just too significant.
Research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) found that 65% of multinational brands intend to boost their investment in influencer marketing over the next 12 months.
Influencers are expected to be transparent now more than before
Admittedly, while marketers are looking to increase spending they won’t do so at the cost of credibility or reputation, with the majority now expecting influencers to meet certain benchmarks of transparency.
In fact, 93% of respondents to a WFA survey cited an influencer’s credibility and reputation as “absolutely essential†or “very important.†Moreover, nearly all respondents said the same of the quality of an influencer’s followers.
Indeed, the call to get “real†with influencer marketing goes beyond transparency of the influencers themselves. As the space continues to develop – estimated worth $2 billion in 2017 and up to $10 billion by 2020 – so do sponsors’ expectations.
Marketers’ concerns over transparency aren’t simply over real followers. It’s also about true engagement and crucially, real ROI.
Influencer marketing has proved its ability to help brands’ bottom line as well as increase audience engagement on social mediaOpens a new window . However, the extent to which this is the case is hard to measure – not that this has stopped marketers from trying.
Not just about reach, it’s all about engagement
With 67% of marketers agreeing that influencer campaigns have enabled them to reach a more targeted audience, over the past year marketers have been focused on an influencer’s audience engagement rather than his or her reach. Brands have realized that the true metric contributing to ROI is not the number of followers but, rather, the level of followers’ engagement.
And social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have responded by altering their algorithms, looking to reward “quality†content instead.
This shift has even given rise to a new breed: micro influencers – social media influencers with a considerably smaller following of between 5,000 to 25,000, compared to major influencers with more than 100,000. These micro influencers offer a far more engaged and often exceptionally loyal following.
Social media marketing services are constantly looking for ways to provide new data to clients that will help them define the success of, and return on, their investment.
Influencer tech firm Klear, for instance, has found a way to track and measure data from Instagram ‘stories’ campaigns, which was not possible before.
Similarly, in the interest of providing data on ROI, Instagram can provide information on its trackable links, tracking pixels, discount codes, as well as comment-to-buy and tap-to-buy features.
As brands increasingly demand real returns and search for ways to measure success in their influencer marketing campaigns, marketers need to make sure they understand the direction the space is going.
It’s one thing to point to the fact that for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, there is a return of $6.50Opens a new window . These days, sponsors will need more.
The new name of the game for marketers is transparency – regarding both the influencers themselves as well as the data provided by the influencer marketing campaign.