As a playground for more than four billion people, social networks have become our best allies on a daily basis. Brands have of course understood this and have completely integrated it into their communication strategy. Even more so with the recent explosion of social commerce, which places influencers at the heart of this strategy. Influencer marketing has become the new Eldorado for engaging and converting customers. Explanations in our article on these exploding budgets!
For a few years now, influencer marketing has been gaining momentum in the virtual commerce landscape. It is a fact that Internet users are attached to the recommendations of other users, especially those of influencers. Remember that 52% of online shoppers rely on reviews before making a decision. In other words, social proof triggers the purchase!
So today, the advantages of influencer marketing are undeniable:
Investing in Influencer Marketing is choosing a wise, powerful and profitable marketing tool.
Influencer marketing has been posting record figures since 2020 and continues to seduce brands. This trend can be explained by a buoyant health context and the development of social platforms such as Instagram or TikTok.
An overview of the figures for the sector worldwide:
Brands are turning more and more to influencers, but why such a craze? Beyond all the arguments we mentioned above, there is one major one: the ROI or Return on Investment.
For those who take the time to measure their performance – 67% of companies – the results speak for themselves:
If ROI allows you, in a very significant way, to know the impact of your campaigns, you can also observe your EMV – Earned Media Value. This indicator reflects the visibility of your brand among consumers and influencers. Thus, the sum of the mentions granted will give you valuable information on the success of your influence strategy.
Budgets are exploding because the majority of marketers are using influencer marketing. The Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2021 benchmark reveals that 83% of companies dedicate a specific budget to influencer marketing. The correlation is therefore obvious!
When reading all the reports on the overwhelming phenomenon of influencer marketing, it is clear that marketers are investing more in this strategy today. For example, 71% said this year that they want to increase their influencer marketing budget compared to 2020. In 2019, only 57% planned to increase their influencer marketing budget.
So with over 13 billion spent in 2021, how are companies allocating their budgets? More than half are spending 20% of their budget on influencer marketing and they are willing to invest €40,000.
The trend observed this year is first and foremost the use of micro (between 10k and 100k subscribers) and nano-influencers (less than 10k subscribers). Indeed, brands are prioritising quality over quantity. Their objective is to have an engaged community (even if smaller) rather than to gather a large number of inactive subscribers. Closer to their community, this typology of influencers can more easily multiply exchanges and shares.
Let’s remember here the importance of collaborating with influencers who already like your brand and your products, who correspond to you and share your company’s values. The engagement will be better and will guarantee the success of your influence campaigns.
Secondly, what are the biggest acquisition channels for influencer marketing?
The choice of social network remains paramount in your strategy. Just because a particular platform is popular does not mean you have to be there at all costs. What is good for one company may not be good for another. Use common sense and analyse both your target and the choice of influencer.
Our advice for 2022: don’t neglect Tiktok… the fastest growing network today with the arrival of TikTok shopping. With its one billion users, TikTok is undoubtedly an interesting lever for your next campaigns. The number of influencers has risen from 35,528 to 106,104 in 2021 (source AFFDE).
The Influencer Marketing budget depends of course on a major parameter, that of the influencers’ rates. It is essential to note that they evolve according to the size of their community, their commitment, the scope of the device and the expected content.
Rates are essentially a function of the nature of the publication (post, live, reels, stories…), the social network used and the size of the influencer’s community. Overall, rates have skyrocketed over the last five years.
Here are some figures (taken from our Kolsquare study):
While influencer fees can be scary, there is another way to pay them. Indeed, studies have revealed that a third of brands pay their influencers by giving them product samples. This practice highlights the fact that some companies prefer to work with micro or nano influencers. Influencers are happy to receive payment in kind rather than cash. Given the rates charged by influencers, it is therefore mainly the big brands that have the opportunity to pay influencers with money.
Influencer marketing still has great prospects ahead of it, but for brands, the budget issue remains delicate. Especially with the multiplication of social platforms, influencers and formats that can sometimes make analysis difficult.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
