Since the dawn of advertising, companies have always sought influencers to deliver a message with more relatability and vitality. While the message itself is always important, finding the right people to deliver that message is equally, if not more, important.
The advent of the digital age has not just changed the entire scape of marketing, but also the relevant influences to deliver the message itself. Social media sites like Instagram and YouTube have created a unique blend of influencers mainly highlighted by trending mass accumulation.
As the number of social influencers and their followers begin to grow, companies are having greater difficulty identifying where to allocate their resources. However, this trend has not stopped companies from continuing to invest in influencer marketing. With the channel presents many risks, many companies believe it is a key way to reach an active, loyal audience.
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) recently conducted a survey of multinational brands to see their priorities when it comes to influencer marketing. They found that 65 percent of multinational brands plan to increase their influencer marketing spend over the next 12 months, with 86 percent reporting the goal is to improve brand awareness.
They also found that 96 percent of marketers put 'quality of followers' at the top of influencer checklists.
Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA, detailed the findings of the survey, “Influencer marketing is becoming a key channel for many marketers but it will only be effective if consumers can trust the influencers by declaring paid relationships and marketers can trust that they are reaching real people not bots,” he said. “This area has evolved rapidly and this research provides a benchmark revealing how marketing teams and their external partners are managing the new channel.”
The survey found that Instagram is the most popular platform for collaboration used by 100 percent of respondents, with Facebook in second at 85 percent and YouTube used by 67 percent. Snapchat is used by 44 percent of respondents, with Twitter next at 33 percent followed by blogs on platforms such as Tumblr and WordPress.
Marketers are expanding their influencer strategies to better reach younger, digitally-native consumers like millennials and Gen-Zs, who are the largest user groups of social platforms and often find influencer marketing more engaging than traditional brand advertising.
The survey found that mid-level influencers, or those with between 250,000 and 19 million followers, were the most trustworthy and credible, ahead of celebrities and micro-influencers.
Measuring influencer effectiveness, however, has broadly been an ongoing struggle for marketers. According to the WFA, the key performance indicators used to measure campaign performance were reach and views, engagement, traffic, earned media and audience sentiment.
As the modern landscape of marketing changes, businesses must make the necessary adjustments rapidly or risk becoming obsolete. However, as shown by the results of this survey, it is important for businesses to remember the risk involved with unreliable influencers. Only time will tell of the effects a rise of influencer marketing will have on the modern marketing landscape.