Instagram influencer opportunities

Marketers have mastered the "word of mouth" effect and turned it into a trend Influencer Marketing - the promotion of products through Influencers in the digital environment - is actively used to advertise products and services. And it makes sense: up to 92% of users trust Influencer advice more than they trust standard advertising from stars. The message blurs the line between commercial and user-generated content and informs about products in the form of a friendly recommendation.

The tool attracts brands through its effectiveness and convenience. Global practice shows that almost half of Influencers make a post about a brand before they start a paid collaboration. At the same time, the diversity of influencers' interests and blog subjects gives great freedom of action for promoting almost any B2B and B2C product in various niches, from beauty to technology.

Who are Influencers and where do I find them?

The popular belief is that Influencers are bloggers. That's true, but a clarification is needed. An opinion leader is any person, brand, or group whose opinion on certain issues is trusted by a broad audience. Even animals that are popular on social media can be included in the Influencers.

Opinion leaders are everywhere where a large number of users gather: in social networks, on forums, and on video hosting sites. The most popular platform for influencers to collaborate with brands is Instagram, which is used by 78% of opinion leaders around the world.

Influencer Marketing

The effectiveness of integrations with Influencers is reflected in statistics: 50% of users believe that bloggers' posts help them decide on the choice of products and services. Nevertheless, the relationship between brands and Influencers is specific for a number of parameters, which often become the reason for reduced effectiveness of cooperation for both parties. We pay attention to the most common mistakes.

The principle of how influencer marketing works on Instagram

Today, influencer marketing on Instagram is becoming a subject of discussion among experts due to its most powerful potential. More than 400 000 000 people are registered in this social network, at the moment the platform has become the most attractive for business development, regardless of its scale and location.

Instagram algorithms are constantly changing, at the moment in the user's feeds the posts are displayed depending not on the time of their placement, as before, but on the degree of the user's interest. Therefore, Influencer Marketing is now especially useful and effective.

Terms of Cooperation

Write the terms of cooperation

• 👉Having found the right person, it is important to clearly spell out the terms on which you will work together.

• 👉The time period. It is necessary to define the terms of work and deadlines at each stage.

• 👉Result. State what you want to get out. For example, an advertising post with certain content and several posts.

• 👉Payment. This may be a specific amount or barter (in full or in part). It is important to stipulate that payment is made for several services at once: content creation, rights of use, and access to the audience.

• 👉Sponsored hashtag. In many countries, it is forbidden to post promotional posts without specifying that they are promotional. You should always use hashtags, for example, neutral #spon or #ad.

How influence marketing works on Instagram

Influencer marketing is implemented, as a rule, through cooperation with popular Influencers who are considered opinion leaders. These people are listened to, their choice often influences subscribers. A bet is made on people's trust in a particular character. The scheme, in this case, is simple: the audience perceives his recommendations not as direct advertising, but as advice from a friend who shares useful information from his heart, unselfishly.

Selection of partners

Sometimes the ways to promote through opinion leaders are not technological. Companies can offer cooperation to a blogger and form a brief based not on data about the characteristics of his audience and the performance of previous campaigns, but on liking and personal preferences. The main criteria become likes and reach. Nevertheless, to launch a successful advertising campaign it is necessary to take into account the target audience, location, and the expected reward for cooperation.

Current Influencer Marketing Trends

If the Influencer's individual creativity is caught up in current trends, the brand tries to develop content in the same direction when promoting it for a fee. In this case, there is a danger that the trend taken as a basis will become outdated and will not attract the audience. In the USA, companies more often turn to local authors, and everything is built on the measurement of content and the conversions it brought.

Collaboration with platforms is needed to create custom content and get media metrics from working with bloggers. For example, through Insense, you can run targeted ads on behalf of an Influencer on Facebook and Instagram and see, in addition to comments and likes, data on their engagement: CPM, CTR, conversions, clicks, and other metrics. In this case, the blogger's account is pulled into the cabinet in Business Manager and appears in the playlist options, to which you can set up targeting. For the most effective performance and greater confidence in the results, you need to set up your ad cabinet properly.

Marketing on Facebook and Instagram

In today's Facebook and Instagram marketing, the creativity that the advertiser uses plays a crucial role. It determines both the price a client pays per thousand impressions (due to relevance score), the effectiveness of the placement, and how the brand will be remembered. Therefore, it becomes a priority for clients to create promotional materials and their constant updating. Automation of work with Influencers, who know the audience and peculiarities of the platforms, allows you to get access to a huge amount of new effective advertising materials every day

Trust and professionalism

According to Incense’s observations, companies do not try to make friends with Influencers and keep them in a hedgehog's glove. Even though the blogger knows his audience and earns likes through content, the focus of ad creation is on brand preferences. There's a reason for this: Influencers in the marketplace can damage a brand's image.

Companies that run ads with foreign bloggers have more reason to trust Influencers and treat them as independent creators - professionals with whom you don't have to worry about safety. In this situation, you should always look for a solution that integrates brands into the influencer's content, rather than forcing the influencer to integrate into the brand.

The task of the brand in marketing

The brand's job is to properly explain to the Influencer what can and cannot be done, and to outline the framework within which the Influencer should create content. Brands too narrow those boundaries, and that's the problem. Often bloggers complain that they don't get the right number of likes for paid posts because the audience doesn't like them. Influencers should be given free rein, not forced to tailor content to the brand. For example, at Insense, we moderate campaigns and always get involved in controversial situations, but it's up to the brand to decide what content they let in and what they don't. This way the client can control everything, down to the colors in the creative, but not lead the Insense by the hand.

Business vs. creativity

Some Influencers combine entrepreneurship and creativity in their work, while others emphasize creativity by assigning the business side to agents. The latter are responsible for deadlines and understand brands' security concerns, so Insense offers a link to Influencers both directly and through agents.

Measuring Results

When working with opinion leaders, brands count on increased conversions, but Influencers have more of an impact on brand awareness. Conversion counts can't always tell you about the effect on audiences that an ad on an Influencer page has had. Going from all fronts of campaigns to brandlift and product purchases is a must-have component of a successful marketing strategy.

Combinations of Influencer Marketing and media support

The best CTR is achieved with a combination of Influencer Marketing and media support in the form of Facebook, Instagram, and Google ad campaigns. When people see an ad, they recognize products they've previously been told about by an idol and are more willing to click on links."

It all starts with cases

How do you find your Influencer? Experts Insense works with almost all bloggers on Instagram: from sports stars to artists - and advise to study competitors' social networks and cases in their niche and identify suitable Influencers before you start promoting products. After that, it's necessary to estimate the budgets and invite those who fall within the commercial framework to cooperate.

Here are a few examples of campaigns that you can take into account when planning your own advertising.

Nestle Fitness and ELLE magazine

In this project, Nestle Fitness and ELLE magazine held a photo contest where participants posted photos of their stylish breakfast. The goal was to maximize audience reach and increase response. As a result of Insense's unique format and paid promotion on Instagram, the reach increased by 20% to 3.6 million users (the planned reach was 3.1 million) and audience engagement tripled while the CPA decreased.

Cleanly

Cleanly used Stories especially created by bloggers for their paid promotion through Facebook Ads Manager and reduced CPM by 2.3 times. CTR at the same time was doubled, also the price per click was halved.

Zip My Dress

Zip My Dress, an accessory that allows women to dress unassisted, sought to attract new customers. Insense launched an Instagram ad campaign on behalf of the blogger, targeting an audience of divorced and widowed women over the age of 40 (among whom the most intense response was expected). The result was more than $12,000 in sales revenue and a return on investment of 100%.

More than one campaign

The creatives created can also be used in other advertising campaigns, but an additional agreement with the blogger to transfer intellectual property rights is required. This can affect the cost of collaboration.

Audiences don't like to be deceived

A common problem that can reduce the effectiveness of brands integrating with opinion leaders is overly promotional posts. A post in an Influencer's feed should not look like one hundred percent promotional material whose purpose would be clear to any user. Such posts irritate the audience and, as a result, user response drops. In addition, advertising that does not look like a personal opinion is disadvantageous for the Influencers themselves, who lose the trust of their audience.

Micro bloggers

We have analyzed more than 200 thousand publications and found out that more than half (60%) of the ads are for authors with an audience under 50 thousand subscribers. There are two reasons for this:

1. 👉Smaller bloggers communicate more closely with their audience. Subscribers are more likely to follow the content of honest and close-minded micro influencers. The authors themselves are more likely than the "big guys" to keep a close connection with the CA - communicate with it in the comments and direct.

1. 👉Publications in micro bloggers cheaper and more effective. For the budget of one post from a famous celebrity Influencer, the brand can make on average 10 posts from carefully selected micro bloggers. The result of such cooperation is more effective: authors can be segmented by audience and provide relevant content.

At a time when there is a "golden age" for micro bloggers, big authors remain unclaimed. Influencers with an audience of 200,000 subscribers or more say they don't see an increase in orders. In fact, the situation with them remains at the level of the end of February: the number of contracts fell by 50%.

For which sites and content advertisers are willing to pay

Despite the blockages, Instagram remains the main source of income for opinion leaders. The social network continues to be used by both regular readers and the biggest bloggers, who set the agenda for advertisers. According to recent data, more than half of users between the ages of 14 and 22 stayed on familiar platforms. Almost a third of major bloggers continue to advertise brands on social media.

At the same time, Instagram remains the most profitable platform for micro bloggers. The number of brands that want to work with them has increased by 30% since the beginning of April compared to February. Most often for advertising integrations in March and April companies chose blogs in the following categories:

• 👉food and cooking (the number of affiliate posts increased 3.7%)

• 👉care and cosmetics (growth of posts by 3%)

• 👉Lifestyle (+1.3%)

• 👉fashion and shopping (+1.3%)

• 👉healthy nutrition and lifestyle (+0.5%).

Brands became less interested in blogs about business (-0.94%) or children and family (-2.01%). This can be explained by the fact that such topics have become bored with the audience, which is trying to find entertaining or useful content. If you want to make money from your blog, pay attention to this trend. Also, don't forget to monitor your audience's reactions and stay in touch with them. In a high-stress environment, close contact with an opinion leader becomes especially important for subscribers, who will repay with good outreach and likes.

What Bloggers are Saying about the Situation

Bloggers note that the interest of readers in social networks does not wane. Particular emphasis should be placed on useful information - for example, reviews of products of various brands or compilations of bargains. In addition, to attract a loyal audience, you should communicate more with your subscribers. For example, support them with messages in direct, follow their reactions to posts and respond in comments.

Top services to check Influencer for add-on

After you find an Influencer and evaluate it according to all the important parameters, check its page for click-fraud. Buying subscribers is not a problem. But you don't need fakes, you need real coverage. Before advertising, any Influencer will give you a snapshot of its statistics.

Pay attention to:

• 👉Coverage. They affect the cost of advertising. Coverage - the number of users who saw the publication. In fact, this is the real audience of the blog, seeing the published content.

• 👉Visits to the profile. This metric will show the approximate number of visitors to the blog per week and month.

• 👉Demographics. The top location of subscribers, their gender and age. These metrics will give a rough idea of the blog's audience.

Instagram stats

Instagram Insights

Detailed audience analysis service.

Here you can analyze:

• 👉The gender of the account's active audience;

• 👉Top publications by likes and comments;

• 👉Percentage of inactive and foreign followers;

• 👉Location of the followers.

Check price: is formed individually for each account, depending on the number of subscribers. There is a free check, but it only checks a part of subscribers. If you pay for the full analysis within 3 hours of the free check, there is a 15% discount.

Hootsuite Analytics

An Instagram blogger matching service. There are now more than 15 million users in the database. Only profiles from 1,000 subscribers are included here. You can search for local blogs by specific countries and cities, niches, study the page engagement rate.

The service will help:

• 👉 Find the right Influencer, using 19 filters for segmentation;

• 👉Read reviews of the advertising placements on his blog;

• 👉 Study the engagement information in their profile;

• 👉 Find out the recommended price for advertising.

Influencer selection price: There is a free rate for 15 requests per day and a selection on the basic check (engagement, subscriber growth). The paid rate with advanced functionality costs depending on the type of service.

Hootsuite Impact

A great assistant to find and verify bloggers for advertising. It gives the most complete information about the account; helps you pick a blog by 90 different metrics.

Here you will find:

• 👉A huge database of 80+ million accounts;

• 👉Help to analyze your CA and study their subscriptions;

• 👉Analysis of your active audience;

• 👉Information about the growth of the blogger's account;

• 👉Report exports in PDF and Excel;

• 👉Comparison of the Influencer's audience with your audience in terms of interests and other parameters.

If you've already found a few Influencers, Hootsuite Impact can check them for follower scam and fake activity.

Creator Studio

A popular social media analytics service. It is used by both small advertisers and large marketing agencies. Here you can analyze Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook.

The functionality is quite large, you can:

• 👉Compare the accounts of two Influencers to determine the most effective one for advertising;

• 👉Evaluate the statistics of engagement, growth of subscribers, posts;

• 👉See the dynamics of the number of likes, to understand whether there was no cheating;

• 👉Check the account for bot scam.

How to choose an Influencer

Choosing bloggers to promote is a large-scale task that requires a separate manual. Look for close in spirit Influencers. Here it is important not to hit the subject exactly, but that the person shares the idea of your product, believes in it. Firstly, this ensures that the marketing information will be delivered honestly. Secondly, the audience of such a blogger is likely to be initially loyal to you.

• 👉Don't chase coverage. In today's market, good advertising can be done without megastars. Statistics show that almost 25% of young people trust their favorite blogger more than an established authority. Besides, micro- and nano influencers are "closer to people": they speak a language understandable to the audience and agree to cooperate on acceptable terms.

• 👉Search on different platforms. The biggest number of bloggers is on Instagram - almost 80% of opinion leaders from all over the world live there. According to the American magazine Business Insider, about 80% of all advertising deals are made there. But do not forget about Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, and even TikTok.

• 👉Analyze your audience. The number of subscribers does not always reflect the popularity of the blogger, because many use "digital steroids" to quickly gain a follower mass. Pay attention to audience activity - the number of likes and comments. Consider it a good indicator if the number of hearts under the post is about 10-15% of the total number of subscribers. If more - fine.

• 👉Examine the content. Ordinary bloggers need good content to make good contact with the audience. If the Influencer has bad visuals and isn't very good at articulating his thoughts, it's better to look for someone else.

Don't stop at 2-3 candidates, even if they seem perfect to you. It's not a given that they're the ones you'll be able to negotiate with, so you should have a decent list. We recommend choosing a minimum of 50 people - of these, 7-12% will show a willingness to cooperate. And then it all depends on how the parties negotiate.

How to negotiate

When the list is ready, you need to contact each candidate. At the very least, divide them into "interest groups" and make several letter templates.

Write briefly and clearly. Here's what to include in the letter:

• 👉A little bit about the brand/product;

• 👉Why you chose this blogger;

• 👉Your expectations for the campaign.

Do you want to state the financial terms of the collaboration right away? If you have already prepared a budget for your collaboration, and you know in advance how much you are ready to pay for Influencer-promotion, you can offer this sum to a blogger who will be interested in a joint campaign. Immediately indicate your capabilities. For example, if you are ready to cooperate only through barter or affiliation, you should mention this in the first contact. At the same time, it is worth showing that you are ready to negotiate.

How to set a goal

Be guided by your goals: keep them in mind and clearly spell them out in your TOR for the blogger.

What you need to include in your ToR:

• 👉The number of publications, preferably on a content plan, with topics and release dates;

• 👉Type of content (photo, video, text);

• 👉The format of publications (posts, mentions in the live broadcasts, stories);

• 👉Requirements for the content (tone of voice, list of stop words).

How to track results

Tracking effectiveness is not easy, but there are a few indicators to help guide you.

• 👉Reach. Reach is the most obvious metric, but it's worth extra work. Look not only at the number of users who saw the publication, but also the depth of engagement. To do this, ask the blogger for statistics on views, and average viewing time. YouTube and Instagram give you this opportunity.

• 👉The emotional reaction of the audience. ER is subjective but quite informative to analyze. For example, the ratio of views/ likes/dislikes can be used to judge whether the audience liked the information or not. Too many likes - cause for alarm: it may be the work of bots. Also, look at the comments. If they praise and recommend - great. If they berate the product or brand - not too nice, but in principle not bad. But if they berate the blogger and his style of presentation - here you need to think about whether to continue further cooperation.

• 👉The growth of organic traffic. If it is growing after the publication of the blogger, then the promotion is working. Keep in mind that this effect is not instantaneous - analyze the "organics" not only during the campaign but also for several weeks after its completion.

That's if your goal is to attract an audience. But some people want a direct increase in sales from bloggers. Don't get too hung up on this goal, even though it's attractive to many. For example, most large manufacturers of consumer goods are focused on coverage, because they sell their products through stores and it is difficult for them to assess the results of a particular advertising campaign at the moment. But small and medium-sized businesses are more sensitive to the financial effectiveness of promotion, so often focused on sales.

Promotional codes and UTM-tags can help you evaluate the impact - you can use them to track site conversions, leads, and purchases. For example, a foreign language school combines - opinion leaders add links to the posts with tags and share promo codes. So the offer can get even those who have not followed the link directly. Next, they look at the number of conversions and user actions: how many hits and which of them ended with registration or purchase.

Conclusion

So, the key to successful Influencer Marketing is built on the following foundations:

• 👉Technological and accurate measurement of metrics of previous and current campaigns.

• 👉Consideration of the characteristics of the blogger's target audience, location, and cost of collaboration.

• 👉Selecting a creative solution that integrates the brand into the Influencer's content, while safeguarding against image losses.

• 👉Calculating not only conversions but also the impact of the campaign on brand recognition.

• 👉Researching cases in your niche and competitors' experiences.

Try the agency Instajet.io. One of the few agencies that help with the selection of influencers. It's not easy to rank opinion leaders, but it's nevertheless a pretty effective platform for advertising. Use an open directory of verified Instagram Influencers with detailed analytics

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

How much do you make as an Instagram influencer?

After reaching the 100,000-subscriber threshold, influencers can expect to be paid $10.00 for every 1,000 subscribers.

Do IG influencers get paid?

There are a number of factors that determine how much an Instagram influencer earns. They can earn anywhere from a few dollars to a million dollars per post.