A huge audience and unlimited advertising opportunities are the two main reasons why entrepreneurs spend money, time, and effort to promote their business on Instagram. The influencers can be of help to run a campaign on this social network. The question is how to find the right influencer?
At BuzzGuru, we’ve identified 9 important metrics worth paying attention to while selecting an influencer for the Instagram ad campaign. Stay tuned!
Why Select Instagram For an Ad Campaign?
The number of Instagram followers is growing every second. Over 500 million users visit Instagram every day. According to Statista, the total number of monthly active Instagram users reached 2 billion.
Instagram provides various opportunities for both B2C brands (aimed at the end consumer) and for companies oriented towards a business audience (with a well-built business strategy).
By the way, unlike the methods, the goals that you can achieve using Instagram are largely identical to those set in a standard social media marketing campaign, namely:
- Loyalty
Building a community around a brand is what giant companies use Instagram for. However, it is also important for small companies to gather an interested audience around the brand: communicate with subscribers, discuss their lives, answer questions, and help with advice. All actions affect sales in one way or another, but at the heart of such promotion is the desire to gather as many people with the same interests as possible around the brand.
- Reputation management and feedback
Any impact on someone else's opinion gives rise to an instant reaction, as in Newton's mechanics. You can make the most wonderful product (which we have no doubt), but there will still be critics. It is necessary to respond to angry reviews (whether or not fair). Answering questions about the company, products and services is your sacred duty and the ability to win over a potential client.
- Lead generation
Lead generation, that is, calls, applications, and orders, is a natural and understandable desire of small business owners who start promoting on Instagram.
It is believed that the Instagram page is a “gold mine” for the beauty industry and small online stores of clothing and accessories. Of course, customers will not come to you without a well-thought-out strategy and well-tuned targeted advertising.
And what about Instagram influencers?
On Instagram, people watch other people's videos and photos every day, comment and argue with influencers. Creators talk about their lives, creating a feeling of familiarity. Subscribers worry and rejoice for their favorite creators and follow their lives like a TV series.
The influencer's stories are much more credible than specially created advertisements. And that's why 92% of marketers surveyed consider influencer marketing to be an effective tool for brand promotion.
However, this does not mean that any influencer can promote any brand and such ad campaigns will be effective. Advertising with a celebrity or a millionaire influencer can cost a fortune but mentioning a brand in a popular account does not guarantee anything.
To meet high expectations, the influencer's audience must be interested in a particular topic and be as involved as possible.
What other mistakes should marketers avoid when selecting an influencer?
- Mistake 1. All goals at once or no goals at all
When you try to get subscribers and increase the number of orders you risk losing focus and, as a result, do not achieve the expected result. To get maximum reach, you will need virality and discussion, and for maximum sales, it is necessary to provide a good incentive to buy right now.
- Mistake 2: Giveaways
On the other hand, optimizing for a specific goal can also be detrimental. For example, you are organizing a giveaway with a creator. The condition is to follow the creator's and your accounts. So you will get subscribers with this integration, but what kind of audience will it be? Will they expect content from you or only discounts and free products distribution?
In addition, from 10 to 50% of such subscribers will unfollow you in the first few days after the giveaway is over. This way, Instagram will understand that your content is not interesting and will show less of it in the feed.
- Mistake 3. Choose only one influencer
To err is human, and selecting just one influencer for the ad campaign you can simply choose the wrong one. We recommend choosing 5-10 influencers for an advertising campaign. This way you will learn more about the nuances of the work, as well as understand how to work with different influencers. If you need really good coverage, then it is better to pick up influencers with a non-overlapping audience - this way more people will know about your brand.
- Mistake 4. Do not check for cheating
An influencer can cheat with subscribers and you will not simply get the coverage you need. Cheat can range from the most primitive (bots) to almost imperceptible (activity chats or mutual likes services). An activity chat is when small influencers get together and like each other.
While selecting an influencer, pay attention to the following statistics:
- Likes are about ten times less than subscribers;
- Comments are about 5-10 times less than likes;
- Video views are 2-5 times more than likes;
- Some posts get more likes, some less.
These are approximate figures, but they are the “red flags” showing that something is wrong.
So what shall a marketer pay special attention to while choosing an influencer? Below, we’ve outlined the key points.
Metrics That Matter When Selecting an Influencer
More often than not, the only thing an advertiser pays attention to before launching an influencer campaign is the number of followers. This is understandable: the cost of advertising often depends on the number of subscribers; the larger the audience - the higher the price for an ad post or mention in stories. But large reach does not guarantee skyrocketed sales. Perhaps the number of followers is not the key to success?
When searching for an appropriate influencer, it is a wise decision to use a dedicated database platform, like the one BuzzGuru offers. One of the main advantages this platform provides is the opportunity to analyze millions of influencers in a very handy way.
Below, using an example from the BuzzGuru analytics platform, we will overview the metrics a marketer should consider before deciding on cooperation.
1. General statistics
First of all, we recommend taking a look at some general stat data about an influencer, including the number of subscribers, average number of likes and comments, the number of views a marketer can expect to get from collaboration with this influencer, and the engagement rate.
2. Channel quality
Next, it is necessary to study the channel quality. This metric is a benchmark that measures the total quality of the channel, and it consists of 4 indicators:
- Engagement rate, %
Median audience engagement for the last 10 posts;
- Number of likes, %
Median likes to subscribers ratio for the last 10 posts;
- Number of comments
Median comments per 1000 likes for the last 10 posts;
- Distribution of likes
The difference in the number of likes from post to post. If this score is low, it may be a sign that an influencer has paid for the likes.
3. Account activity
The next metric worth paying attention to is the account activity. The BuzzGuru analytics platform provides a marketer with an opportunity to track the account growth in a special chart. It shows the growth dynamics for the last 7 months. It includes the changes in the subscribers’ count, average likes, and average subscriptions.
Moreover, we suggest tracking the account activity for the recent 10 posts in an influencer’s account. This information is also presented in a form of a chart and it demonstrates the changes in the average number of likes and comments on posts:
4. Costs
One of the most meaningful metrics for an advertiser is the approximate cost of the collaboration with an influencer. It is calculated taking into account the cost per thousand likes (CPM) by region, audience engagement, account quality, and audience age.
5. Audience Statistics
This metric is important for the future collaboration as it includes:
- Audience credibility, %
This indicator shows if an influencer has a real audience. If this parameter is less than 75% then it can probably be a sign of fraud.
- Likers credibility, %
Low likes credibility means that an influencer could have purchased likes to fake a high engagement rate.
- Likes from non-followers, %
This is to indicate the percentage of likes coming from the audience that doesn’t follow an influencer. The higher this percentage is, the more effective this influencer may be at reaching the audience outside of the followers. This can be a sign that a post by this influencer can have “viral” potential.
Moreover, this metric includes data on audience geography and languages. You can see how the audience of an influencer is segmented by countries and languages.
Furthermore, you can get the analytics on the audience's gender and age.
Finally, you will observe such parameters as brand affinity, reflecting the brands the audience of this influencer interacts with, and interests - the topics that the influencer’s audience posts about and interacts with.
6. Account rating
The account rating metric includes short notes on how the account is ranked worldwide or in a particular region.
7. Hashtags
The “Hashtags” metric demonstrates the hashtags that are frequently added to the posts of this influencer.
8. Mentions
This metric shows the accounts that are mentioned in the posts of this influencer.
9. Channels
Finally, there is an opportunity to observe other accounts with similar topics. They are all collected in the “Channels” metric. The topics in these channels are measured with keywords determining the overall grouping of topics associated with the influencer’s account.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is a tool that can boost your business if used correctly. The right influencer can be found through recommendations or affiliate programs, among subscribers or by thematic hashtags.
But there is an ideal option - the BuzzGuru Instagram Influencer Marketing Platform. With our help, you’ll easily find the right candidate by applying filters, specifying the main criteria (gender, age, location, hobbies, and so on) - and the service will do the rest of the work! Our platform automates most of the processes and allows you to quickly find and verify influencers, analyze their profiles and select the right Instagram creator for your ad campaign.
