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Real People, Real Results: Why authenticity trumps AI on TikTok, Instagram, and beyond
According to Hootsuite, one in two shoppers use Instagram to discover new brands and products, while two in three people claim the platform helps them foster meaningful interactions with brands. Data from StartUp Bonsai also shows that 80% of consumers purchased products because of an influencer recommendation, and 41% of shoppers find new products through influencers weekly.
These numbers indicate that influencer marketing on Instagram is excellent for boosting brand awareness and acceptance to grow your customer base and sales. However, Instagram influencer marketing won’t help your business grow if you do not execute it correctly. Fortunately, everything you need to understand Instagram influencer marketing and how to use it to your advantage is on this page.
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social media platform with over a billion monthly active users globally. Its large number of users makes the social media platform one of the best places for finding and engaging with new customers in different parts of the world.
Also, Instagram users find the platform more engaging than other social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube. The high engagement makes marketing on Instagram a better choice if you want people to engage with your brand content and convert.
Instagram marketing involves posting content that introduces Instagrammers to your brand and convinces them to try your product. A successful Instagram marketing campaign can boost your brand visibility, likability, and traffic, leading to more sales and a bigger customer base.
Several Instagram marketing tactics are available, but influencer marketing is among the most effective. Instagram influencer marketing involves partnering with an Instagram user with a large following. The influencer will use their influence to convince their established audience to trust your brand and try your product.
Instagram influencers or creators have people who follow and support them on social media for their personality and content. Many of these followers trust their influencers and want to replicate the influencer’s lifestyle. The relationship makes influencers uniquely positioned to convince followers to try new brands and products.
An influencer can engage in creator marketing by creating and posting Instagram content that:
The content can be an image, Instagram story, or video post (unboxing video, review, or other content). The tactic is so effective that 58% of Instagrammers say they become more interested in a brand after seeing it in an Instagram Story.
By partnering with the right influencer, you can reach a massive audience within a relatively short period and enjoy better brand visibility and sales. The audience will consist of the people already following your influencer on Instagram.
The larger the influencer’s following, the more people you can reach. These followers automatically become potential customers after seeing your post and are likely to convert because they believe what the influencer said about your product.
The cost of influencer marketing Instagram campaigns typically varies between influencers. For example, the biggest influencers and celebrities, like Dwayne Johnson and Kylie Jenner, can charge $1 million per Instagram post.
Top influencers that are not as famous, such as Charli D’Amelio, typically charge about $150,000 to $200,000 per post. You also have micro-influencers who charge $100 to $500 per post.
The disparity between the costs of hiring different Instagrammers is due to the number of followers behind each influencer. Kylie Jenner and Dwayne Johnson can charge a million dollars for a post because they have over a hundred million followers – that’s a hundred million people they can influence to buy your product.
An influencer with just a few thousand followers will charge less because the number of people they can help you reach via their platform is far lower. Besides paying influencers cash for each post, you can compensate them with free products or commissions from the use of affiliates.
59% of influencers say they prefer to use Instagram because it is the most effective way to engage their target audience. The average engagement rate on the platform is 3.21%, while the engagement rate across other social networks is 1.5%.
The high engagement rate implies that compared to other social media users, Instagrammers comment, like, and share content more. A user that interacts with an influencer's content is more likely to convert and take the actions asked of them, be it to buy a product or follow a brand.
Instagrammers are more eager to interact with Instagram content because of its visual nature. 91% of consumers prefer interactive and visual content over traditional, static content. Since Instagram prioritizes visual content, marketers can leverage the platform to engage and convert users.
However, 74% of consumers are sick of seeing social media ads. Unlike traditional ads, influencer marketing is more subtle because it relies on word-of-mouth marketing. Since it’s similar to hearing a recommendation from a friend or loved one, it is less likely to trigger the reflexive resistance ads cause in most consumers.
While Instagram influencer marketing can be expensive, the returns on investment are impressive. According to a HypeAuditor report, you can earn an average of $4.87 for each $1 you spend on Instagram influencer marketing – 4x what you paid an influencer if you partner with the right one.
According to Shopify, micro-influencers are Instagram users with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Macro-influencers, on the other hand, are individuals with over a million followers. Micro-influencers make up 47% of all Instagram creators, and most businesses prefer hiring them because they cost less than macro influencers.
Also, while macro-influencers can introduce your brand to more people because of their large followership, micro-influencers have almost triple the engagement rate of macro influencers (3.86% against 1.21%). The higher engagement rate puts micro-influencers in a better position to convert their audience.
Micro-influencers have a better engagement rate because they can build personal relationships with more followers, leading to a tighter community. Also, their hands-on approach to communicating with followers enables micro-influencers to better engage with and influence their followers.
Should you hire a micro or macro influencer? If you can afford it, hire a macro influencer if you want to reach as many people as possible to generate maximum brand visibility and traffic for your brand. Brands on a budget can still get impressive returns on investment by working with micro-influencers, especially since micro-influencers have a better engagement rate than macro influencers.
While partnering with an Instagram influencer can boost your brand visibility and sales, you will only get satisfactory returns on investment if you partner with the right influencer. You can find capable influencers by hiring an Instagram influencer marketing agency. However, this approach can be expensive.
A more cost-effective approach would be to log into Instagram and scroll through the platform to find influencers you think would be a good fit for your campaign.
Below are proven tips for finding the most suitable person for your influencer marketing on Instagram:
Sorting through the hundreds of thousands of influencers on Instagram can be time-consuming. An easier way to find the best influencers for your campaign is with a creator management tool like Cohley. With Cohley, you will get access to only pre-vetted creators with impressive track records delivering top-notch content for high ROI social media marketing.
The user-friendly tool provides everything you need to communicate with creators directly and manage content production. The personalized content that Cohley creators provide for Instagram influencer marketing includes videos, photos, and product reviews. Since the provided content will be 100% yours, you can repurpose and use it for other social media marketing campaigns.
Influencer marketing is not something you launch and forget. You have to measure the performance of each content posted by your influencer to determine if you are getting your money’s worth. Tracking influencer marketing will also help you identify what does not work, so you can avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Fortunately, Cohley can integrate with your marketing stack and provide you with the data needed to monitor your success on Instagram.
Partnering with relevant and engaging influencers can put your brand at the forefront of the minds of people who are already interested in your niche. These people are more likely to convert, join your customer base, and pay for your product.
With Cohley, finding Instagram creators that can provide you with custom-made content optimized to help you stand out and hook your target audience has never been easier. Book a consultation today to discover more about using Cohley to get the most out of influencer marketing on Instagram.