Instagram Influencer Marketing: What You Need To Know

Former Groupon and Accenture executive

WWS contributor

Instagram Influencer Marketing: What You Need To Know

^{Instagram influencer Kiara King. Image Credit: lioninthewild.}

Most brands are painfully aware that Instagram influencer marketing is necessary today and the foreseeable years ahead. If you are not yet on board the Instagram influencer marketing bandwagon, you might be wondering why it's necessary and how to leverage it for your brand.

Well, you could do extensive, time sucking research, or you can go through this guide for a snapshot of everything you need to know about Instagram influencer marketing and how to get started.

#1: Instagram Tops the List

Influencer marketing works on many platforms, so you might be wondering why this guide focuses specifically on Instagram.

Several reasons support this, although they might not apply to all companies. It is up to you to decide if Instagram is the platform for you:

I. Reach

With more than 1 billion active users, Instagram already has an edge over other platforms. Almost a third of US internet users are on it daily, and 65% of consumers follow their favorite influencers on it.

Sheer reach makes it a serious contender for any influencer marketing campaign.

II. Engagement

Studies show that the engagement rate on Instagram is the highest among social media platforms, including Facebook.

Each influencer post on Instagram averages 1000 followers interacting with it, coming out to a ratio of 29.67. By comparison, Facebook comes in at a ratio of 16.54.

III. Preference

They say that if you build it there, they will come. The fact is more than half of all influencers prefer Instagram as a platform, mostly because engagement is much higher there. They build their profiles on it, and naturally enough, other users follow them.

#2: Cost Issues

Any marketing campaign comes with a cost. Instagram influencer marketing is no exception. The good news is you have quite a lot of control over how much you will spend. And you can get the most out of what you spend if you plan well.

The great thing about influencer marketing is that your choice of influencers will have a direct effect on your overall cost. As a rule of thumb, the more followers an influencer has, the more expensive they are to work with. Additionally, the market niche also influences the cost per post.

For example, an influencer with 2,000 followers might ask for around $100 per post on Instagram. An influencer in the same niche with 75,000 followers may ask for about $250 for the same post. An influencer in the travel industry will generally charge more than one in the lifestyle niche.

#3: Influencer Search

Obviously, you should consider collaborating with influencers in your own niche. However, choosing the right influencers is not as simple as it looks.

You need to make sure the influencers you choose can reach your target audience. In most cases, you will work with three or more micro-influencers, so you need to get the process down.

Look for influencers already creating positive and original (not reposted) content for your brand through hashtags and assess their profiles
Look for hashtags relevant to your market niche to identify influencers that create relevant content for your brand and assess their profiles
Use the right influencer marketing tools to get a list of relevant Instagram influencers or have an agency do it for you.

#4: Campaign Choices

Once you have identified the influencers that satisfy your requirements, it is time to choose the type of campaigns you should launch. The most popular ones are:

Sponsored posts - branded content created by influencers
Contests - product giveaways
Branded content - feature influencers in your content in some capacity
Product reviews - image or video posts or Stories
Endorsements - provide influencers with discount codes or links to share with their followers

#5: Tracking Your Progress

Marketing campaigns are only as successful as far as you can measure the results. Since most Instagram influencer campaigns have the goal of driving brand awareness and audience engagement, they do not result in direct conversions.

Make sure you track the progress of your Instagram influencer marketing campaign. It will help you identify if you have problems with your campaign, a specific influencer, or both and help you achieve maximum ROI.