Marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets even while most struggle to measure their influencer marketing ROI. However, measurement of influencer marketing is gradually becoming more sophisticated, a new survey reveals.
According to a survey by influencer marketing platform Linqia, 39 percent of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2018; only 5 percent plan decreases.
More than three-quarters of marketers continue to struggle to determine ROI of influencer marketing and cite it as the top challenge of 2018.
Examine Measurement Methodologies
“As the industry matures, marketers need to take a serious look at their measurement methodologies and hold their influencer marketing programs to the same measurement standards as their other media investments,” the report states.
Advanced marketers are starting to examine the full consumer journey, and are making influencer marketing accountable for driving lower funnel metrics in addition to awareness and engagement. When measuring influencer marketing programs, marketers cite engagement (87 percent), clicks (59 percent), and conversions (54 percent) as top performance indicators.
In 2017, 46 percent of marketers also used product sales to gauge their influencer marketing effectiveness, a notable jump from just 34 percent in 2016. Conversely, half of marketers measure success based on reach, a 1 percent drop from last year. This signals a shift away from surface level metrics that are impossible to measure organically as marketers become more sophisticated, Linqia says.
Benefits of Social Media Measurement
Many experts recommend social media measurement tools to determine the value of influencer marketing and demonstrate its value to management. Social media measurement tools can identify ideal influencers for brands, what content they share, how widely their content spreads across the digital landscape, and how they improve public sentiment toward the brand.
Although influencer marketing remains a popular PR and marketing strategy, PR and marketing departments need to demonstrate how influencer marketing supports business objectives in order to maintain their budgets.
Other Key Influencer Marketing Findings
Other key findings from this report include:
- 86 percent of marketers used influencer marketing in 2017, 92 percent found it to be effective.
- 92 percent of marketers cite Instagram as the most important social network for influencer marketing in 2018, followed by Facebook (77 percent). At 71 percent, blogs are a close third, up from 48 percent last year.
- 50 percent of marketers report that Snapchat will be the least important social network for influencer marketing in 2018.
- 52 percent plan programs that leverage multiple types of influencers (celebrities, top-tier, bloggers, micro-influencers) as part of an integrated strategy.
- 44 percent of marketers plan to use influencer content to improve the performance of other digital channels and 36 percent will integrate influencer content with e-commerce to drive product sales in 2018.
Bottom Line: Influencer marketing budgets will increase in 2018 as influencer marketing continues to advance as a PR and marketing strategy. Determining the ROI of influencer marketing remains a major hurdle. However, measurement practices are becoming more sophisticated as marketers gradually move from top-funnel metrics like engagement to conversions and sales. Increasingly advanced social media measurement tools will help marketers gauge the effectiveness of influencer marketing programs.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
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