Micro-influencers remain the most popular type of influencers for marketers to work with. Some 9 in 10 marketers surveyed for a recent report [download page] from Linqia say they want to work with micro-influencers (those with 5K to 100K followers) this year, up from a leading 77% who said the same last year.
The proportion of marketers interested in working with macro-influencers (100k-500k followers) also increased, with 72% saying they’d work with them compared to 64% last year. In fact, all influencer types saw increased interest from marketers with the exception of celebrities (5 million+ followers). Only 14% say they want to work with celebrities in 2021, compared to 22% last year.
Earlier data shows that the desire to work with micro-influencers may be justified. A separate report from Linqia revealed that micro-influencers showed the highest levels of engagement, making them likely the most effective influencers. A separate report citing data from Upfluencer also indicated that micro-influencers have the highest engagement rates.
When it comes to budgeting for influencer marketing, although marketers are keener to work with micro-influencers, Linqia points out that marketers are also aware that influencers with larger followings tend to take up more budget. Therefore, when asked to rank the types of influencers based on the amount of budget they plan to spend, there is a fairly balanced spread across celebrity, mega-, macro- and micro-influencers.
Influencer Platform Preferences
Instagram and Instagram Stories remain the most popular platforms for influencer marketers, with 93% and 83%, respectively, planning to use these platforms this year. Instagram Reels is new to the game, but appears to be doing well so far, with more than one-third (36%) planning to use the platform this year.
TikTok has grown in popularity over the past year. While only 16% of influencer marketers were planning to utilize the platform last year, nearly 7 in 10 (68%) are planning to invest in the platform this year. This comes as no surprise as TikTok is now a favorite platform for teens and saw an increase in the number of adult users in 2020.
Indeed, TikTok is now neck and neck with Facebook in terms of influencer marketing. The same portion of marketers (68%) investing in TikTok plan to use Facebook for influencer marketing.
Given the most popular influencer marketing platforms this year, it stands to reason that vertical video is also seeing increased popularity. About 7 in 10 respondents say that vertical video will be extremely important (33%) or important (40%) this year. Additionally, 3 in 10 (31%) say that vertical video is extremely important for influencer marketing on TikTok.
Repurposing Content
The majority (85%) of marketers are planning to repurpose their influencer content on other marketing channels this year. Most are opting to use this content on paid social (93%) and organic social (73%), while a little more than half (53%) will use it on their website.
The full report can be found here.
About the Data: Information comes from a survey of 163 enterprise marketers in a variety of industries including CPG, Food & Beverage, Media, and Retail.
