Influencer marketing is currently producing a higher return on investment (ROI) than most other kinds of marketing, according to research in the US.
A study from the University of Washington, and published in the Journal of Marketing, examines how factors related to influencers, posts and followers impact results.
The research found that 1% more spent on influencer marketing creates a nearly 0.5% increase in engagement.
Reallocating spending based on the study’s insights could result in a 16.6% increase in engagement.
The researchers used data -- 5,835 posts written by 2,412 influencers related to 1,256 campaigns for 861 brands in October 2018 -- from Weibo, a microblogging and one of the largest social media platforms in China.
The brand sponsors were across 29 categories, including beauty products, e-commerce platforms and food and beverages.
Robert Palmatier, professor of marketing in the UW Foster School of Business: “I predict that in the future, a lot of marketing is going to be crowdsourced.
“As a marketing manager, you’re going to manage a portfolio of influencers, just like Nike manages a portfolio celebrities.”
Researchers found that influencer originality, follower size and sponsor salience – the prominence of the brand in a post – enhance the effectiveness of a message, while posts that announce new products diminish it.
Followers are less likely to repost product launches due to the heightened risk of vouching for something unknown to their networks.
The influencer’s activity rate, level of post positivity and follower brand-fit, or the degree to which the interests of an influencer’s followers match the sponsor, all produce inverted U-shaped effects.
It hurts engagement if influencers post too much but engagement also suffers if they post too little. This, say the researchers, suggests that a balanced approach is most effective.
“If you don’t post, I’m going to forget who you even are,” Palmatier said.
“But if you’re doing too much, it kind of cheapens you. It’s what we call an inverted-U shaped effect, which means there is an optimal point of activity where something performs the best.”
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