Advertising with bloggers is a great way to establish a trusting relationship with your audience and increase your visibility. However, this format of cooperation is effective only if you have chosen a reliable opinion leader whose philosophy does not diverge from the brand concept. How to find micro-influencers and not make a mistake? This is what we have to find out.
Effective advertising
Here are some tips to make your advertising campaign as effective as possible:
- π create clear instructions. Outline what results you want to achieve, what format of cooperation you prefer, how much time you give to the beauty micro blogger to do what you want, etc. Before agreeing, make sure he understands your campaign: both the big picture (goals, what photos you want, etc.) And the details (necessary hashtags, description, keywords, links).
- π scale it up. Don't get hung up on millionaire influencers and spend your entire budget on just one beauty microblogger with a huge audience. Sometimes it is the number of opinion leaders that plays an important role. To achieve meaningful results, dozens of influencers should be involved in your influencer marketing campaign at the same time.
- π pay micro-influencers on Instagram fairly. Some brands expect their product to be advertised solely on barter and enthusiastic basis, but in the long run, this option doesn't work. If you want real quality advertising, pay micro-influencers on Instagram in a timely and fair manner.
- π Influencer marketing is not the future, but the present. Using this method of promotion, you are more likely to gain the trust of your audience and rise to the top positions in your niche.
The influencer marketing industry
Influence marketing is the promotion of a product or service through opinion leaders. In this case, the influencer may not even be a celebrity, glimpsed on the screens, but an expert in a particular field (a coach, motivational speaker, fitness blogger, nutritionist, and so on).
In this case, the effectiveness of influencer marketing is not measured by the number of followers. What matters is how much the users are involved in the content of the blogger's Instagram micro. Now small opinion leaders, whose audience fluctuates in the range of 3,000 people, are trusted much more than media personalities with a million readers. Business insider estimates that influencer marketing will reach $15 billion a year by 2022.
Create strong brand associations
Influencer marketing fulfills one of its key missions - to create strong brand associations through the natural presence of opinion leaders and Instagram micro-bloggers in the feed. Edelman's research says 63% of respondents trust Instagram micro-bloggers and influencer marketing much more than they trust brand advertising. And 58% of them bought products that appeared in posts from micro-influencers on Instagram.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important channels for building brand awareness is influencer marketing. But if micro-influencers on Instagram turn out to be unable to connect you with your target audience, then it can all work in vain. So you need to be able to know exactly how to measure the effectiveness of an influencer campaign. Here are a few metrics that, when measured, will help you understand whether your approach and choice of channel is the right one:
1) reach reflects the number of people who viewed content from micro-influencers on Instagram. The more users who have seen it, the higher the brand awareness and consequently the more people trust you.
2) engagement shows whether people react to micro-influencers on Instagram content. The number of actions about the content shows how many people are engaging with it.
3) impressions reflect how many times your content has been reflected in the feed.
4) sales, database growth, social media platform growth, etc. Should be measured constantly. If you notice constant growth in these metrics with micro-influencers on Instagram, then the campaign is successful.
5) sentiment is also an important metric. Especially if you're launching a new product or trying to enter a new market. It will help determine how audiences are responding to the brand and the tone of those reactions.
Influencer campaign
That's what you need to pay attention to when measuring the effectiveness of your influencer campaign. If you do everything thoughtfully, trust the agencies you work with, keep the information transparent, and track and interpret the results promptly, you can make timely course corrections to your marketing strategy while scaling your success.
Where to find Instagram micro-influencers
You can find micro-influencers on a variety of topics. Topics such as personal life, skincare enthusiast, beauty product development, men's fashion, new gadgets, and inclusive nutrition are very popular. It is better to choose micro-influencers with higher engagement.
Top tier influencer:
- π Tom Bliss.
- π Lauren Carey.
- π Chelsea Martin.
- π Ilia Beauty.
- π Allen Swan.
Big-name influencers
These are big-name influencers with big follower counts. Many of these micro-influencers have YouTube channels. If you want to find micro-influencers right away, you have to look at beauty micro-influencers. These are the best marketing campaigns. There are several options where to find Instagram micro-influencers:
- π telegram chats. The most popular chat rooms. Here you can read reviews from users who have already had a chance to collaborate with the content creator, as well as find Instagram micro-influencers by keywords related to your topic.
- π subscriptions. See who's subscribed to your account. You may find a user with interesting content who shares your values among your followers. Also, analyze who your active followers are (those who at least glimpsed in the comments a few times or responded to stories). And another option - is the subscriptions of your competitor's active audience (the search principle is identical: calculate your competitor's active commenters and see who they are subscribed to. And also choose the most interesting sites for advertising).
- π recommendations. When subscribing to any account, Instagram shows you profiles similar to it by subject. For example, if you subscribe to an Instagram blog about motherhood, just below you'll see recommendations. They, too, should be looked at.
- π tags. Choose themed hashtags and see who uses them and whether these people can benefit the development of your brands. Choose hashtags with a frequency between 10,000 and 300,000.
- π affiliate programs/ambassadorship. In this case, Instagram bloggers find you on their own. Being a legendary ambassador with the high engagement of some brands, Instagram micro-influencers get free products or exclusive offers in exchange for promotional posts for some time. Affiliate programs are more formalized and allow influencers to get a percentage of sales of products they promote for your brand by telling their subscribers about them.
- π databases. You can use filters to find micro-influencers and the necessary profiles. For example, InstaJet, an Instagram influencer platform, provides an open database of bloggers and helps automate posting to Instagram Stories. All you have to do is specify the basic criteria (gender, age, location, hobbies, and so on) and the rest of the work will be done by the service.
Search through Instagram
Several options are provided here:
π by geolocation. Analyze which locations your target audience visits most often (malls, fitness centers, showrooms, and so on). Find the official profiles of these locations and see who's tagging them in photos. The most popular of these photos most likely belong to Instagram micro bloggers.
π by hashtags. To do this, enter a keyword into the search and the platform itself will offer you a list of accounts. It is necessary to enter exactly the word that you should see in the header of the profile.
π search by subscriptions. It works only if you promote a narrow niche. Look at who the opinion leaders follow. They often subscribe to their colleagues. The main disadvantage of this method - you have to spend a lot of time on this because the search is done manually.
Search by competitors
The mechanics are extremely simple: go to your competitor's page, find the advertising post and take the blogger's Instagram as a reference. Only you should wait for a pause so that your commercial proposal does not seem strange to Instagram micro-influencer strange. In addition, if the integration with a competitor is still quite "fresh," it is unlikely that an identical post will cause the audience to trust. Most likely, it will just get lost in the background of other publications.
And to simplify the task and save time, resort to the help of a special service. On such resources you can go to the "ad posts" tab, enter your competitor's nickname and see who has previously mentioned him in their posts. This method helps find Instagram micro-influencers and effective Instagram bloggers for your brands.
Take a closer look at your customers
Analyze the pages of followers who have used your product (and most likely have featured the brand in their posts). If the user has at least a small army of fans and is quite active in blogging, as well as shares the values and philosophy of brands, offer him cooperation (often such opinion leaders agree to work on a barter basis, or for an adequate fee).
What to pay attention to when searching
Cooperation with Instagram influencers is an effective tool for internet marketing. And there are several reasons for this:
π the opinion of a fashion blogger is authoritative for his audience;
π cooperation with Instagram influencers has a long-term effect;
π if the choice falls on the right opinion leader, then the growth of subscribers and high coverage are guaranteed.
If you have decided on the purpose of advertising integration and the main messages, it's time to start selecting bloggers. First of all, it is recommended to pay attention to the personality of the beauty influencer, the style of the page, as well as the following characteristics:
- β Whether the subject matter of the posts corresponds to the philosophy of your company (for example, it would be foolish for an animal rights activist and zealous activist to agree to advertise fur coats from natural fur);
- β How the blogger communicates with his audience (if the opinion leader can sass his subscribers or ignore comments, then such a blogger should be as far away as possible);
- β The number of "live" followers (the number of ≠ quality, so we advise to make sure that the beauty micro-influencer does not commit fraud);
- β Whether the blogger's subscribers are your target audience, interested in the advertised product;
- β The degree of audience involvement (how actively users comment, like, and follow publications);
- β The appropriate ratio of followers, likes, and posts.
How to choose the right candidate
Checklist for selecting bloggers:
π Gather a pool of Instagram influencers. There are several ways to do this: ask friends, go to a competitor's account and see which Instagram bloggers have tagged him, through a hashtag search find influencers related to your topic, subscribe to the right opinion leader and analyze the recommendations that popped up. If you want to get more sales, pick Instagram bloggers with overlapping audiences. The influencers can be friends or writers with a common theme. If you're working for recognition, you need fewer overlapping audiences. As many people as possible should hear about you in one campaign.
π Check for recruitment. Bots and gifs are a "wonderful" way to get a large influx of audience in a short period. The truth is, there is zero use for such subscribers. "dead" accounts won't be interested in advertising, which means they won't buy anything from you. You can check the opinion leader for additives with a special service.
π Study the advertising integrations. Practice shows that the effectiveness of the campaign directly depends on how Instagram influencers approach the creation of advertising. Analyze his experience, see what brands the blogger has already advertised and how successfully, as well as assess past promotional posts (whether Instagram influencer got creative or did everything in a hurry). You can also look at stories: maybe the potential micro-influencer is advertising something right now.
π Analyze the reach of potential micro influencers' advertising publications. By this stage, you will have eliminated most of the bloggers from the pool. Next, contact the potential micro-influencers directly and ask for screenshots of their publication coverage. The numbers you see on them need to be analyzed. Pay attention to the period for which the blogger shows statistics (ask for statistics of the last 12 publications).
Advantages and disadvantages of advertising at Instagram influencers
It's worth starting with the advantages:
- β High credibility of information coming from bloggers. Often advertising from bloggers is perceived as a recommendation or friendly advice. Also, some users tend to imitate their favorite Instagram star - use the same cosmetics, go to the same restaurant or buy the same blender.
- β Substantial coverage of the target audience. There are small blogs with about 5 thousand subscribers, and there are opinion leaders whose accounts are followed by over a million users. Brands that are at the beginning of their journey should not immediately chase large Instagram influencer and give their last money for advertising. You can collaborate with a group of bloggers, achieving the necessary reach.
- β Variety of appearances. The format of the collaboration largely depends on the goals of the campaign. For example, it can be a mark in the stories, unboxing, product review, tagging, testing, and so on.
- β Fast results. If the "stars align", advertising with a blogger can produce stunning results.
- β Nativeness. A blogger can present paid advertising under the guise of a personal recommendation, and this automatically adds +100 to the loyalty of the right audiences.
Integration success
The success of integration directly depends on the blogger's Instagram and common interests. It is the influencer who rules the ball, so it is very important to choose the right opinion leader whose subject matter does not outweigh the interests of your target audience. For example, if the basis of your brand's target audience is women in the age range of 25-40 who like sweets and prefer to bake pies in the autumn evenings, it is very silly to order ads from a make-up blogger who promotes healthy lifestyles.
Alas, you will not get a stunning effect. The second question is to match the price. The more promoted the influencer, the higher his fee. Therefore, if you're not ready to spend a lot of money on cooperation, it's better to opt for nano- and micro-influencers (sometimes they agree to work on barter).
In influencer marketing, you can only measure the number of times you are approached to make a purchase. There are no other statistics or reporting options. For this reason, you are left to guess whether the advertising was effective or not.
π Unpredictability. Advertising with Instagram bloggers - it's roulette. You can more than recoup the costs, or you can waste the budget.
π Slow start. For example, if the targeting advertising can be run in one day, then the advertising from the leaders of opinions all much harder. You need to find, analyze, negotiate and wait until the blogger has a free window to advertise your product.
π The human factor. Bloggers can be different. And some of them are not distinguished by a conscientious attitude. Unfortunately, even a clear tor and advance payment are no guarantee that the advertisement will be produced in time.
When a business does not need advertising
When a business does not need advertising from influencers
1) You can't find an Instagram blogger with the target audience for your business - there is no compromise here. If you can't find an Instagram blogger who talks about construction equipment, you shouldn't buy ads from new moms or travel adventures. This is a hyperbolized example, but it's very common to buy ads from lifestyle bloggers - they write about their life or business.
2) You want more subscribers because your competitors have more. Use targeting. It will be easier and faster.
3) When a blogger offers to mention your business in a post. A classic example is with photographers: "you give me a photo shoot, and i'll mark in the post. A similar example - when in a restaurant company Instagram blogger-friends offer to mention stopovers for a free dinner. This format will get you next to nothing - it brings no subscribers, and recognition is almost impossible to count on this scale. That's why we recommended the formats above.
4) You're not ready to work with clients on Instagram. Whatever business advertising you do - customers will want to interact with you directly and comments. If you're not ready for that, you should hold off on advertising on this social network for now.
How not to choose Instagram bloggers for advertising?
Mistake. All targets at once
When we're trying to get both subscribers and coverage, and orders - we lose focus and end up not getting the results we expect for our business. For maximum reach, we need virality and discussion, and for maximum sales - a good incentive to buy now.
Mistake. Events
On the other hand, optimizing for a specific purpose can also be detrimental. For example, we hold a raffle with a blogger. The condition is to subscribe to your and his/her account. So, you'll get subscribers from that integration, but what kind of audience will it be? Will they be expecting content from you or just discounts and free giveaways?
Other than that, 10 to 50% of those subscribers will unsubscribe from you in the first few months. Thus Instagram will realize that your content is not interesting and will show less of it in the feed. Mistake 2. Choose only one blogger first, you can make a mistake. Secondly, it is not clear what to compare it to.
Choosing bloggers
We recommend choosing 5-10 bloggers for an advertising campaign. Especially for beginners, it is better to take 5 bloggers for 20 thousand than one for 100 thousand. That way you'll learn more nuances of the job, and you'll understand how to work with different influencers. If we need really good coverage, we can pick bloggers with a non-overlapping audience - that way more people will know about us.
Mistake. Don't check for click-throughs
The blogger can scam subscribers, and we simply won't get the coverage we need. Scamming ranges from the most primitive (bots) to almost invisible (activity chats or reciprocal-like services). Activity chat is when small influencers get together and like each other. For example, an Instagram chat of 1,000 people across the country. One of the participants posts a post and asks to like it on the condition that she will also like others. As a result, the potential advertiser sees that she has high engagement, although in fact - 80% of likes are cheated. Bots can be found manually - just to see who likes it. With experience, you begin to navigate the numbers of statistics:
π There are about ten times fewer likes than followers.
π Comments are about 5-10 times less than likes.
π Video views are 2-5 times more than likes.
π Some posts get more likes, some less.
These are approximate numbers, but they let you know something is wrong. For example, if there are 1,000 likes and 1,000 comments each, that's suspicious. If all posts have about 500 likes - suspicious. If there are more likes than views of a video - suspicious.
To avoid this problem, you can use dedicated influencer platforms like InstaJet. They review all influencers accounts before adding them to their catalog. You will definitely choose among real and high-quality accounts.
Conclusion
Classifying opinion leaders by audience size. Influencers are usually divided into several types, depending on the volume of subscribers.
In 2021, we compiled a cross-section of the audience of opinion leaders based on open data sources:
- β Percentage of influencer types on social media
- β Percentage of influencer types on social networks
- β Celebrities - 7 million followers or more. Occupy 2% of the total.
- β Mega influencers - 1 to 7 million followers. Take up 5% of the total.
- β Large influencers - 250 thousand to 1 million subscribers. Accounts for 8% of the total.
- β Medium influencers - 100 to 250 thousand subscribers. Accounts for 6% of the total.
- β Small influencers - 25 to 100 thousand subscribers. Account for 11% of the total.
- β Micro influencers-from 5 to 25 thousand subscribers. Accounts for 15% of the total.
- β The rest are less than 5 thousand subscribers. Take up 53% of the total.
This is a detailed segmentation, but there is a brief one that divides influencers into millionaires, macro-, micro-and nano-influencers:
1) Millionaire: more than a million subscribers.
2) Macro influencer: 50,000 to a million subscribers.
3) Micro-influencer: 10 to 50 thousand subscribers.
4) Nano-influencers: 1 to 10 thousand subscribers.
The majority of influencers are accounts with an audience of up to 100 thousand subscribers, which occupy almost 80% of all media space. Accounts with up to 5,000 subscribers (nano influencers) are one in two or 53% of the total.
Questions to answer
What is a micro-influencer on Instagram?
A micro-influencer is a person with more social media followers than the average person, but less than a celebrity.
How many followers is a micro-influencer?
A micro-influencer is someone who has a special relationship with their audience and is listened to.
How much do micro-influencers make on Instagram?
For micro-influencers, you have to pay about $10 per 1,000 subscribers. That means shelling out $100 for a micro-influencer or $1,000 for a macro influencer.
How to advertise on Instagram bloggers?
Try InstaJet, an Instagram influencer platform, provides an open database of bloggers and helps automate posting to Instagram Stories.
