7 Influencer Marketing Statistics That Matter Most in 2019 [+INFOGRAPHIC]

It’s 2019 and influencer marketing is taking form as a marketing channel here to stay. Each year we hear about brands allocating more budget to influencer marketing, hopping on the newest nano-influencers bandwagon, or finding new ways to measure ROI. Needless to say, there are a lot of numbers flying around. Let’s cut through the noise and the fluff – here are the seven influencer marketing statistics you need to know this year.

What Do Micro Influencers Cost?

97% of micro-influencers charge less than $500 per post.

84% of those influencers charge less than $250 per post.

It’s not free, but it’s also not going to run you dry. Influencer marketing has an incredibly low barrier to entry. Those numbers aside, there are still a lot of micro-influencers with between 2-10K followers that will happily promote in exchange for free product. Regardless of what you’re paying, the most important thing is to make sure you have the right influencers in your campaign, meaning influencers that actually match your brand.

Influencer marketing strategy tip

If you try to pay attention to every statistic out there, you’ll drown in a sea of data. Carefully select the data that is important and you’ll end up with something truly valuable: information.

Micro Influencers are Still Effective as Hell

82% of consumers are likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer.

People continue turning to online personalities for recommendations on products varying from everyday items such as razors and toothbrushes, all the way to a once-a-decade purchase like bed mattresses. The one constant? Micro-influencers are the perfect introduction. If there is any influencer marketing statistic to pay attention to, it’s this one. The shift in consumer preferences is happening right before our eyes. The recommendations that used to come from our neighbours now come from micro-influencers. It’s the new word-of-mouth.

Instagram is still evolving

Instagram stories are growing 15X faster than feed-based sharing.

Stories offer the influencer the ability to better engage their audience by taking polls, quizzes, and other engaging stickers. This should come as no surprise as engagement has recently passed social reach as the most important metric marketers assess when developing their influencer campaigns. Aside from that, stories offer authenticity that grid posts sometimes lack.

3 Influencer Campaign Objectives Emerging as Most Prominent

An influencer marketing campaign is appealing to many marketing objectives; lately, we’re seeing three major objectives emerging.

First, 37% of marketers are beginning influencer campaigns for awareness purposes. Arguably the most natural fit for an influencer marketing campaign. Influencers provide the perfect introduction to a brand for the first time.
32% of marketers are choosing a sales driven influencer marketing campaign. In my opinion, this number will decrease in the coming years. Influencers work best at the top of the funnel, but because they incidentally provide a pretty solid ROI, many marketers have skipped straight to sales.
Lastly, 31% of marketers use influencer marketing campaigns for content creation. This is the area I expect to grow the fastest, especially among larger brands. The quality and quantity of unique content cannot be matched, and it provides big brands with a genuine grassroots feel that a photo shoot can’t capture.

Engagement is the Most Important Factor when Assessing Influencers

This is important because we’re finally seeing a shift in placing importance on the actual relationship with the audience, rather than the size of the audience. In other words, engagement, not social reach is the most important aspect. When marketers were asked what factor was most important when assessing an influencer, this is how the responses broke down:

43% said engagement or clicks
33% said social reach
24% said content type or category

Difficulty Finding Influencers

There’s something troubling about this one. Marketers are citing that finding influencers is their biggest challenge with their influencer marketing campaigns. The troublesome consequence here is that without influencers that fit the brand, or influencers who make sense with your product, the campaign cannot succeed. Even if every step following the initial influencer sourcing is done to perfection, the campaign cannot succeed. With over 60% of marketers planning to increase their influencer marketing budget this year, finding relevant influencers must become a priority quickly. Here’s how the biggest challenges shook out:

36% Finding influencers to participate
24% managing contracts or deadlines of the campaign
15% time restraints
15% processing payment to influencers
10% said other

Decline in Organic Posting Reach

64% of marketers cite a decline in organic social reach and the need to increase paid budgets.

This tidbit comes with a kicker. Very recently, Instagram released a statement saying how brands will be able to turn organic influencer posts into ads. As the fight for organic reach becomes tougher and tougher, more brands will turn to influencers to help bolster their reach. Using organic influencer content for paid ads is the next best thing to having your own organic reach.

Influencer marketing is still changing rapidly, and with that, so are the influencer marketing statistics that actually matter. These are the trending stats for 2019. The big takeaways are that nano and micro-influencers are the future, stories are picking up steam, and the ability to use organic influencer content for paid ads will prove to be crucial for brands feeling the loss of organic reach.

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