This month, Anvil CEO Kent Lewis is publishing a three-part series with SmartBrief about influencer marketing. If you’re interested in learning more about social media marketing for your business, reach out to Anvil! This week, we will be recapping part 1, which highlights the challenges of influencer marketing, and influencer marketing’s continued growth in the industry. If you’re interested in the full article, check it out here!

Influencer Marketing is Here to Stay

Despite rapid growth and adoption of influencer marketing by brands, the channel has no shortage of shortcomings and controversy, ranging from transparency and fraud, to declining engagement and measurement challenges. Influencer fraud is a big concern, with only 11% of influencers compliant with CMA and FTC regulatory guidelines.

Influencer marketing  and fraud

One of the greatest challenges facing brands investing in influencer marketing is fraud. According to Arkose Labs, 53% of social media account logins are fraudulent. In Q2 of 2019, nearly 19% of a $314 million Instagram influencer marketing spend reached fake followers. Along with these concerns of fraud, there is also the concern of the time commitment and management that comes along with these campaigns. The good news is that tools and platforms are improving rapidly, allowing brands to more easily identify, connect with and manage influencers.

While the industry evaluates solutions to these challenges, there is an alternative to paying third-party experts to endorse your brand: become an influencer yourself. Kent Lewis has written on this topic in the past. In brief, start by educating yourself and others, then build a network and give back to your industry and local community.

Aligning brands and influencers’ core values

Since many brands do not have the interest or ability to create influencers from within, they must look outside their walls. This means marketers must be aware of the challenges facing influencer marketing and address them head-on as they build or refine programs. Brands must ensure they select influencers that align with company values, are transparent with sponsored content, have legitimate followers, and are able to set up and track KPI’s that accurately value the impact of their investment in these influencers.

Instagram is responding to the scrutiny surrounding KPI’s by threatening to remove the number of likes on posts. While many influencers are up-in-arms about the suggested change, sophisticated marketers appreciate the need to evolve to more meaningful metrics. ‘Likes’ are arbitrary and can be easily manipulated by influencers. More powerful metrics include purchase intent, brand affinity or sentiment. Easier metrics to track include reach and conversions, but brands and influencers must agree on how to best track success. A recent study by InfluencerDB indicated the average engagement rate for sponsored influencer posts fell to 2.4% from 4% in just three years. With declining engagement on Instagram, the platform, influencers and brands need to get creative with content and measurement.

The Explosive Growth of Influencer Marketing

Despite the challenges facing brands, influencers, and platforms looking to profit from influencer marketing, the future looks bright. Over the past 3 years, searches for “influencer marketing” on Google have increased 1,500%. The influencer marketing industry is now estimated to be between $6.5 and $10 billion, with plenty of room for growth.

There are a variety of reasons consumers follow and engage with influencers. First and foremost, consumers like to learn new things in general, but also like to learn more about the influencers themselves. Many consumers like to get inspiration for their own lives and want to stay updated on pop culture as well. From a brand perspective, a major growth driver for influencer marketing is the return on investment companies are experiencing. According to NeoReach, the average earned media value per $1 spent on influencer marketing in 2018 was $5.20, while branding-focused influencer campaigns averaged an 8x ROI. There are even studies with ROI as high as 10x.

Here are a few more compelling statistics for skeptics:

• 87% of shoppers are inspired by an influencer to make a purchase
• 80% of Instagram users follow a business
• 70% of consumers say they trust the opinions of influencers as much or more than their real-world friends, while 78% said they trust influencer opinions more than traditional ads, and more than half said they consider the influencers they follow to be an extension of their circle of friends (Sideqik)
• 61% of people interact with an influencer daily
• According to the Digital Marketing Institute, teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities
• Whalar recently found influencer ads to be 277% more “emotionally intense” than TV ads

Investing in Influencer Marketing

As a result, brands are responding by making bigger investments in influencer marketing. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Instascreener and Vamp Brands, 86% of marketers plan to invest in influencer marketing in 2019. Some 39% of marketers increased influencer marketing budgets this year, with an average 83% year-over-year increase.

What is your influencer marketing strategy?