Are your clients getting the best results from their ad spending? If they’re concerned, help them focus on influencer marketing KPI. Because influencer spending has zoomed up 74% over the last year, the effectiveness of these campaigns deserves a look.

Influencer Marketing Spending

To understand what’s happening in the universe of influencer marketing, Linqia surveyed over 200 marketers. The first detail to understand is the high level of spending being funneled into this format.

Around 27% of marketers spend up to 10% of their total marketing budget on influencers. And another 38% spend between 10% and 25% of their marketing dollars on this format.

About 62% of spending on influencers is incremental. In those cases, understanding influencer marketing KPI is crucial, because additional spending should generate more revenue. Over 40% of marketers also noted they shifted spending from social or TV and radio to cover the cost of influencers.

Measuring Success

To measure the results of this spending, 50% of marketers watch reach – as in CPM (cost per thousand impressions). But other influencer marketing KPI metrics are close behind:

• Engagement rates 49%
• Conversions 46%
• Sales 44%

For CPM, an AdAge article points out that this strategy is marketers' attempt to “tie creator compensation directly to performance metrics.” Influencers are agreeing to this payment method instead of a flat fee.

Despite focusing on these data points, around 53% of marketers still struggle to accurately measure ROI from their influencer investment. 

Which Influencers to Use

This year, marketers have shifted more budget to influencers who are celebrities. For example, 40% use celebrities with more than 5 million followers, versus 30% last year. And 60% are using influencers with up to 5 million followers, versus 40% doing so last year.

Simultaneously, they have cut back on micro-​influencers, those with between 5,000 and 100,000 followers. Nano-​influencers, those with fewer than 5,000 followers, have fallen a bit out of favor. In 2023, 37% of surveyed businesses were using them. This year, that number stands at 28%.

Businesses are also scrutinizing how many influencers they work with. They seem to be shifting to a “more is better” approach. For example, 22% of marketers use between 11 and 20 influencers on a single program. Last year, only 15% did so.

Sites and Content

Marketers are keen to remain visible on Instagram, and therefore nearly 50% work with influencers who are active on that site. TikTok is the second most popular site with over 40% of marketers wanting to use influencers who are there.

A new trend in 2024 has been the use of influencers for content creation. 81% of marketers ask their influencers for content and use it themselves. That’s right. Influencers don’t post this content to their feeds.

Instead, marketers are using this content for:

• Branding in social channels 70%
• Paid social posts 68%
• Website pages 64%

 Some marketers are also using this content for CTV (9%) and OOH placements (9%).

Analysts report that this trend is all about expanding reach and influence.

Agencies and Influencers

As outreach and investment continues, the topic of influencer marketing KPI is always top of mind. Marketers don’t feel confident in their ability to hire influencers themselves. 43% worry about using the right influencers, and 36% say content quality is a concern.

These issues explain why marketers reach out to agencies and other outsiders for assistance. This outreach could be an opportunity for you.

To manage the process, 28% of businesses use a specialist agency. Another 9% turn to their PR, media or creative agency.

For now, marketers are eager to work with influencers on a number of levels. At least 23% of U.S. adults are social media influencer responders, according to AudienceSCAN from AdMall.  For now, agencies stand to benefit from these relationships but they should keep influencer marketing KPI top of mind.

Image on Pexels by Liza Summer.