Influencers could become more valuable to brands by building purchase intent, but regardless, these collaborations tend to work more often than not, according to a report [download page] from Warc and Impact.com. Almost two-thirds (65%) of marketers surveyed for the report said that influencer collaborations work more often than they fail.
Another eighth of respondents (12% share) said that using influencers almost always works. That leaves fewer than one-quarter saying the collaborations fail more often than work (21%) or never quite work out (2%).
Both marketers and influencers surveyed as part of the research indicated that the best type of partnership is for the influencer to develop content that showcases the brand. However, there are gaps in perspectives concerning some other partnership types. For example, 72% of influencers feel that it’s effective for the influencer to announce their usage of the brand on social media, but only 42% of marketers feel that this is an effective and well-received strategy. Further, while 31% of influencers believe that being announced as the official brand ambassador works well, only 18% of marketer respondents agree.
Separate research has found that marketers working with creators typically have them post brand partnership content on their creator account on behalf of the brand (45% share), while 27% share have them post on brand pages/accounts and 29% share on both. For what it’s worth, this latest research reveals that 54% of influencers prefer to identify themselves as a “content creator,” with “lifestyle influencer” the next-most popular identification (32% share).
Understanding what works requires proof of value, and while marketers and influencers measure impact in broadly similar ways, they also differ in some others. The most common area of measurement for both marketers and influencers is increased engagement, as cited by 72% and 70%, respectively. The second-most frequent area of value measurement for each group is social media traffic increase, as cited by 55% and 67%, respectively.
There are more variances in other respondents. Conversions lift is ranked third by marketers (50%) but fifth by influencers (33%), and brand lift is cited by twice the proportion of marketers (45%) as influencers (23%), ranking 4th on the list for the former and 7th for the latter.
The top area in which influencer marketing performs overall, though, is in increased engagement. Of the various options listed, close to one-third (32%) of marketers cite this as the top metric where influencer marketing has delivered. It’s followed by social media traffic increase (19%), brand metrics lift (11%), conversions lift (10%) and increased web traffic (9%).
For more, download the report here.
About the Data: The results are based on a global survey of more than 400 marketers and 400 influencers.