New research and data gathered from Rakuten Marketing has revealed that social media influencers are earning less money despite campaigns budgets being doubled.
The study indicates that influencer marketing accounts for 40 per cent of marketing budgets globally. That adds up to around £800,000 annually for UK consumer-facing companies.
49 per cent of global consumers use influencer marketing to learn about new brands and products they might be interested in.
Upping the budget
The study also unveiled they are investing their budgets very differently from two years ago, specifically in consumer-facing brands such as fashion, cosmetics and travel companies.
UK marketers projected allocating just 24 per cent of their marketing to influencer campaigns. UK marketers working on influencer programmes admitted they were happy to pay celebrity influencers up to and in excess of £75,000 for a single post on Facebook mentioning their brand.
That figure has dropped significantly to £25,000 per post, a £50k decrease. Marketers have switched their focus from celebrity endorsements to micro-influencers, who are providing better bang for the buck.
“Knowing that consumers are going to influencers for trusted recommendations on new products may explain the shift from celebrity to micro-influencers," Rakuten Marketing Director EMEA Anthony Capano said.
"Micro-influencers tend to be typically more engaged, as are their audience who feel like their friends. New tools exist that let brands and marketers measure influencer marketing’s impact.
It is now a good opportunity to take advantage of to enable stronger relationships with the most brand-relevant influencers for their businesses rather than simply going for the largest influencers, who may not bring back the same return on investment.”
Continued growth
Capano also spoke about the changes that have shaped influencer marketing over the last few years.
“Influencer marketing has continued to be an incredibly hot topic for marketers who are clearly putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to backing these campaigns," he added.
"However, the issue of measurement still proves murky. Two years on, it is clear that marketers are making strides to ensuring they understand the real impact that influencer programmes have on the purchase journey, before spending huge sums of money. However, there is still a gap between what they are measuring and their spend. If this industry continues to grow at the rapid pace it is now, decreasing that gap will be key.”
