At a time of economic uncertainty when all marketing spend is coming under scrutiny, organisations across the world are looking to influencer marketing as a powerful way of driving ROI.
With traditional ad spending increasingly held to tighter budgets, the genuine, relationship-based way that influencer collaborations are done is becoming a remedy for them, generating real value all along the customer journey.
In the age of lean ad spend with huge digital playlist competition, the attraction to influencer marketing is that it has a natural capacity to cut through. Today’s consumers are more sophisticated than ever before and are increasingly ignoring beautifully-built brand ads in favor of a trusted creator’s genuine recommendation.
This transparent encouraging high engagement, and most importantly a higher chance of converting. Based on recent research, businesses are getting an average of $5.78 in earned media value for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing, while top performers are racking up even more impressive ROIs.
This is very different to the relatively poor returns that are obtained through more standard digital advertising routes.
One of the factors playing into that superb ROI is the move to micro and nano-influencers. Their following may be smaller but it is often more specialized, it’s more engaged, and it has a much greater impact and is of better value for money.
These influencers frequently maintain a higher engagement rate and stronger community ties, making for more authentic endorsement.
In addition, influencer marketing offers brands fantastic user-generated content (UGC) that can later be deployed across a number of different marketing avenues such as social media, websites, and digital ads.
It’s what keeps the campaign alive, longer, in addition to helping to greatly decrease the amount of expensive content creation made by the company itself, saving money on the budget line.
Brands are getting better at measuring influencer marketing ROI by monitoring KPIs such as cost per customer acquisition, click-through rates, and direct sales generated via unique promo codes or affiliate links.
This number-driven philosophy supports continuous improvement – to make sure that your marketing is not just efficient, but truly impactful to help you reach your business goals. While budgets continue to be scrutinized, the strategic adoption of influencer marketing is undoubtedly a driver of longterm success and sustainability.