Instagram Influencer Marketing in 2021: A Simple Guide

Here's everything you need to know about Instagram influencer marketing, how much campaigns cost, and how to run one...

Instagram influencer marketing has become an almost $2 billion industry. Instagram's users worldwide have begun making a living from paid posts and collaborative marketing campaigns in recent years.

Brand ambassadors can use the app to authentically recommend products and services to their loyal audiences. Influencer marketing is estimated to grow to a $5-10 billion industry by 2021, so clearly, it isn't going anywhere...

Instagram Influencer research 

1. Instagram Influencer Marketing: A Quick Overview.

The fact that their followers idolize them and respect their opinions makes them known as 'influencers' on Instagram. Their lifestyle, their job, or hobby, the clothes they wear or the stories they tell may have earned them a loyal following.

Since the Instagram influencer pool is so vast and diverse, almost any company and its target demographic can benefit from Instagram influencer marketing. 

With the advent of Instagram influencers, companies may market their products authentically to their target audiences. This spawned the 'paid post' phenomenon.

Influencers were once expected to post positive reviews on their profiles in exchange for receiving one of a brand's products as a gift. But with the rapid growth of the industry, influencers realized they would not only be able to receive free products, but they could actually charge brands for the grid space they provided on their profiles.

Find Best Instagram Influencer Researcher.

2. Influencer marketing on Instagram: Why it works?

Using influencer marketing, brands can build a more authentic connection with their target audience than traditional advertising.

Companies are leveraging influencers to sell for them rather than direct to consumers. Influencers on Instagram have strong and loyal relationships with their followers because they share many aspects of their lives with them. Our sense of intimacy with them leads us to listen to them like we would a friend when they recommend something we like.

If you follow a travel blogger because of their beautiful photos or funny captions, and they talk about an airplane pillow that gave them the best night's sleep on a long haul flight, you're more likely to remember the brand and buy it for your next vacation because you trust and like them. That makes sense, doesn't it?

As the most popular influencer marketing platform, Instagram has 800 million active users. Almost 72% of users said they made a fashion, beauty, or style-related purchase after seeing something on the app in 2021, proving the power of digital marketing.

3. How Much Do Instagram Influencers Cost?

An Instagram influencer marketing report from Hopper HQ's annual Instagram Rich List revealed how much money top influencers and celebrities can earn from a single Instagram post.

The Instagram post by Kylie Jenner, which costs over $1 million, took top honors. Her influence, as well as that of her whole family, is far from underrated, given that she erased $1.3 billion from Snapchat's market value with a single tweet earlier last year.

Influencers can charge different amounts per post depending on a variety of factors, such as their follower count, engagement rate, and industry.

The State of Instagram Influencer Marketing was discussed by Elle Cuthbert-Edkins in a BBC interview this week. In her opinion, engagement trumps follower count and brands typically choose influencers whose engagement rate is between 10-20%. This ensures that their followers are interested in what the influencer posts.

The engagement rate is calculated by multiplying the number of likes and comments by the number of followers

'We’re typically seeing brands work exclusively with influencers who have a 10-20% engagement rate' @Elle_HopperHQ on influencer marketing.



In our Rich List methodology and data, we found that many collaboration deals are worked out by 100,000 followers. On average, the beauty industry charges £162 per 100,000 followers for a single post. This level of sponsorship allows influencers with millions of followers to make a living from Instagram.

4. What Makes An Instagram Influencer?

There are no strict criteria for being classified as an Instagram influencer. Users who have a relatively high following - of people who care about what they do - have influence over their audience and are an important marketing asset for brands.

You should do research before launching Instagram influencer marketing if you are a social media manager:

·        You can target your audience with their demographic

·        Genuine engagement and following

As a result of bots that like and comment on behalf of users as well as the ability to buy followers on Instagram, some accounts appear as influencers, but don't actually have loyal followers or any influence - these accounts are called 'ghost followers'.

Generic comments such as ‘🙌🙌🙌’ or ‘Awesome shot!’ are likely to be from accounts using an engagement bot, so if these are the only kinds of interactions on an influencer’s posts, it’s likely that they don’t actually have the influence they’re making out.

Find Best Instagram Influencer Researcher.

5. How To Work With Influencers On Instagram

The first step you need to take if you decide that Instagram influencer marketing is the right move for your business is to set your budget. Influencers charge per post and for Stories, so a whole campaign can set you back a lot.

In order to promote your brand with a smaller budget, you will need micro influencers. Influencers with a relatively smaller following (1,000 - 10,000) have a high engagement rate on their posts.

Micro influencers can have considerable influence over a specific audience, and it is a far more cost-effective option for smaller businesses. If you have a larger budget, then you can think about bigger influencers, but try not to be fooled by vanity metrics such as follower count, and focus more on engagement rate.

Once you have found people who you think could be perfect, do your research, as we discussed above. Create a genuine fan base and a loyal, trusting community. Look into their previous influencer campaigns and the types of products or brands they promote. This can give you a good idea if they are right for you.

Take a look at their comments as well to determine if your target demographic is engaging with their content. Finally, as your campaign progresses, check out what types of posts are most successful (i.e Stories, videos, galleries). 

Get in touch with them! Contact micro influencers through their email addresses or direct messages on Instagram if they manage themselves. If you’re looking at a larger influencer, they will probably have an agency who manage their campaign requests – this is typically listed in their bio.

Describe your brand and the campaign brief you have in mind when approaching agencies and ask to see the influencer's rate card. In order to best manage expectations on both sides of the collaboration, provide as much detail as possible (i.e. budget, number of posts, type of content, etc).

6. The Future Of Instagram Influencer Marketing!

Recent years have seen its fair share of criticism directed at influencer marketing. Some consumers feel misled because they don't realize somebody they follow receives a commission if they recommend a specific product.

The result has been a huge push for transparency among influencers. In paid post captions, hashtags like #ad and #spon serve to distinguish the sponsored posts from 'authentic' endorsements. In addition to the official 'Paid partnership' tag, Instagram created the 'Collaboration' tag above posts to identify which brands have partnered with which influencers.

Although this takes away from the authenticity that made Instagram influencer marketing so successful, influencers feel a loyalty to let their followers know they've earned money. 

In our event last year, ‘The Power Of Influencer Marketing in 2018’, Harry Hugo, Co-Founder of The Goat Agency, commented on the problematic nature of this CMA regulation, in that it is not universal across other advertising channels or promotional sponsorship deals.

Neymar walked onto the pitch wearing Nike boots because of his multimillion dollar sponsorship deal. Our television screens don't display a notice informing us that the boots are being marketed to us, and the idea seems absurd.

Therefore, it’s one rule for traditional methods of advertising, and another for Instagram influencer marketing, and it will be interesting to see how the regulations change as the space develops.

 More Resources:

    1. Influencer Marketing Guide: How to Work With Social Media Influencers
    2. Experts Way To Find Best Instagram Influencers
    3. Find Best Instagram Influencer Researcher.

 

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Well amount of information. is there any free method to find influencers?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment