5 Ways to Identify Influencers Worth Your Brand's Time and Money

Influencer marketing is one of the most popular advertising methods in today's digital marketing environment. Influencer marketing is a successful tactic for 90% of brands after reaching a global marketplace of $16.4 billion by 2022.

Not all influencers have the same level of expertise. Influencers can charge different prices depending on how many followers they have, or what type of promotion you want to do. Just because an influencer has delivered excellent results for a brand doesn't mean that they are right for you.

You can make the most of your marketing budget by understanding how to identify influencers that are a good match for your brand.

They have an audience that is relevant and quality

In general, influencers will price sponsored posts according to the size of their audiences. While nano-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 Instagram followers might only charge $10 to 100 per post, "mega-influencers" who have over 1,000,000 followers could easily charge more than $10,000 per post.

A large audience can increase brand awareness and reach, but this is not the entire story. It is important to ensure that the audience is made up of people who actually care about their content. Although fake or bot accounts can increase the number of followers on your account, they do not provide any engagement.

Be wary of those influencers that follow more people than people who follow. It's possible that they are using "follow-for-follow" or "follow-unfollow" tactics to artificially increase their audience.

The more niche they can be, the better

It's also important to find influencers whose content best matches your brand. You can easily determine this by reading the bio of an influencer and looking at their past content. You can identify their interest, sponsorships that they have participated in previously and the main topics they cover.

It is often more beneficial to choose an influencer that focuses on a specific niche than someone who has a wider influence. Consider someone who focuses on yoga content rather than an overall focus on fitness. These people may have less followers, but they are more likely to engage with their content and respond to your partnership.

Credibility is high with their audience

Influencers who specialize in a specific niche tend to be more credible with their audiences. They've built a persona that their followers trust through their values, their quality content, and their professional or personal background.

Credibility is the key to achieving desired results with brand partnerships. Consider this case study about Kraft Heinz. The brand chose 12 influencers for two campaigns aimed at millennial families based on the topic, demographics of their audience and engagement with followers.

The campaigns not only achieved over eight million impressions combined with a rate of engagement of 5.7%, but also 103% higher engagement than Kraft Heinz standard campaigns.

Your brand values and image will be reflected in their content

When reviewing the content of an influencer, pay attention not only to their topics. Consider how they present their content and themselves. Does it match your brand and the values you want to convey to your customers?

If you are a brand that prides itself on being family-friendly, an influencer with a lot of adult humor and language is not likely to be the right fit. If the brand and influencer are not in sync, it could cause confusion for followers who find your company via their content. It could even alienate current customers.

Remember that an influencer will be telling a narrative to communicate the appeal of your product. They have creative freedom to do this, so make sure that they share your values and vision.

They value engagement over all else

Total engagement is the most important metric when it comes to generating meaningful outcomes for your brand. Influencers who have followers that like, comment, and share their posts are the ones you want to work. While social media algorithms will never allow anyone to reach 100% engagement, knowing the platform benchmarks allows you to determine a quality influencer.

Remember that engagement rates can vary depending on the platform used and the total number of subscribers. Instagram influencers who have 1,000 to 5,000 fans average 4.84% engagement while those with more than one million followers are average 1.23%. Influencers with 1,000-5,000 followers on TikTok average 12.4% engagement while those with more than one million followers have 13.7% engagement.

Idealistically, the influencers you choose should have a platform with a high number of followers and ideally exceed these averages to make sure your campaign reaches as many people as possible.

Influencer campaigns: Maximize their potential

Numerous brands have proved the effectiveness of influencer campaigns. But these campaigns were successful because companies partnered up with the right influencers. You can start your next campaign with confidence if you do the groundwork necessary to identify relevant, quality influencers within your niche.