Shelley Luo is an MBA student at Stanford University and an influencer with 120,000 followers on TikTok.
A new report from influencer marketing agency Linqia predicts that by 2023, more than three-quarters of brands will rely on TikTok creator Cherie Luo. The company is reportedly considering partnering with macro influencers who have 100,000 to 500,000 followers.
In 2021, the last time Linkia released its report, brands found “micro” influencers (those with fewer than 100,000 followers) to be the most sought-after partners. But what brands want to get out of partnerships with creators now appears to be changing, said Keith Bendes, vice president of strategy at Linkia.
“Brands are looking for a small number of high-quality influencers with large followings. Brands are actually investing in deeper relationships with influencers. Brands are looking for meaningful partnerships with influencers.”
To prepare this report, Linkia surveyed marketers from more than 250 corporate brands and agencies in July.
As a result of the survey, the following five important points were revealed.
1. Influencer marketing budgets continue to grow despite economic headwinds
Approximately 76% of respondents said their influencer marketing budget had increased or remained the same compared to the previous year.
Looking at a more detailed breakdown, 18% of respondents said their influencer marketing budget for 2023 will be in the seven figures (millions of dollars). Meanwhile, 15% of marketers in this survey said their budget was less than $100,000 (approximately 14.5 million yen, equivalent to 1 dollar = 145 yen).
“Spending is getting bigger and becoming a bigger part of the overall strategy,” Bendes said.
2. Brands are considering partnering with more popular macro-influencers than micro-creators
According to Linkia, 90% of marketers said they plan to use micro-influencers for campaigns in 2021. The situation has changed in 2023, with the percentage of respondents responding this way dropping to 74%.
However, more brands said they plan to use macro-influencers in their campaigns this year, up from 72% in 2021 to 81% in 2023.
Fees for micro-influencers have increased over the past two years, Bendes said, and in some cases they charge almost the same amount as macro-influencers.
However, Bendes added that micro-influencers have not completely lost their appeal, and demand from brands for micro-influencers remains high.
According to Linkia data, the percentage of marketers who use celebrities for influencer marketing deals has more than doubled from 14% to 29.5% from 2021 to 2023.
3. Most brands believe AI can help them identify the best creators to partner with
When asked about the potential impact of AI on the influencer marketing industry, approximately 72% of brands said they would like AI to help them identify the best influencers for their campaigns.
“Despite all the innovation and activity in the industry, we find that brands are still having a really hard time finding the right creator partners,” Bendes said.
Approximately 65% of marketers said they expect AI to improve efficiency in performance analysis.
4. More than half of brands include “creator-generated content” on their social media channels
Creator-generated content (also known as user-generated content or UGC) is content that is attractive to brands because creators create it for a brand and publish it exclusively on the brand’s channels. 58% of survey respondents also said they partner with creators in this way.
“This creates a debate between influencers and creators,” Bendes says.
“At the end of the day, for a lot of brands, it’s about can they really influence consumers, can they create really cool content. Even if they’re trying to create really cool content, it’s not their channel. If it’s about marketing and not necessarily influence, then there’s no point in using influencers.” (Bendes)
5. Engagement rate remains the most common metric to measure campaign success
When Linkia asked marketers to choose three metrics to measure the success of their influencer marketing campaigns, it found that engagement rate remained at the top. Engagement rates help brands understand how much of an influencer’s audience is interacting with their content.
Research shows that 69% of marketers say engagement rate is their most important KPI.
The second most important metric was “reach” (the number of accounts that saw an influencer’s content), which 53% of respondents said was the most important success metric.
Below is a breakdown of the most important metrics for brands.
- Engagement rate: 68.85%
- Reach (CPM): 53.28%
- Brand lift or SoV (share of voice): 43.44%
- Conversion (registration rate): 34.43%
- Traffic (CTR): 32.79%
- Sales: 30.33%
- Influencer quality: 21.31%
- Increase in number of followers: 14.75%
- Add item to cart: 11.48%
- Others: 3.28%
[Original text]
(Edited by Toshihiko Inoue)
Source: BusinessInsider
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