How serious is the issue of follower fraud in influencer marketing for companies? It’s worth noting that influencer marketing fraud costs around $1.3 billion, impacting both large and small businesses, as reported by InvespCro. According to CBS, advertisers lose 15% of their ad budget to fraud each year. For example, a major influencer with 1 million followers can make up to $250,000 per social media post, but nearly $38,000 will be lost due to fake follower numbers.
Most popular influencers that small businesses can afford usually have a million or more followers. Big-name influencers like Hollywood stars can easily have tens of millions of followers. Getting the right influencer to promote your product can significantly change its visibility, taking it from being unknown to being sold in stores like Walmart, potentially generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales or profits. Influencer marketing is that impactful. It’s no surprise that brands willing to invest have no issue spending big on influencer marketing. It’s estimated that brands will invest over $10 billion by 2020.
How do you spot influencer follower fraud?
Despite the appetizing success that influencer endorsements promise, the bad guys will always find their way in the market and try to exaggerate their numbers in order to reap where they did not sow. Nearly 20% of medium influencers of between 50,000 and 100,000 have fake followers. These fraudsters wither use artificial methods like bots to grow the number of their followers or engage in engagement fraud where you will see fake comments and likes.
Experts says that it easy to spot follower fraud. If for example you see many recently created accounts with little engagements, then you are staring at influencer follower fraud. If you post on an Instagram with 2 million followers but the post end up with only 80 likes, then that is fraud right there. Conversely, if you notice unusually follower or engagement spikes the moment you post something then something is definitely a miss.
At least 50% of marketers say they have spotted fake followers in their influencer marketing campaigns while a further 69% of marketers say they have had an experience with fake influencer follower marketing fraud.
What does fake influencer followers mean for marketers?
The demand for influencer marketing is growing by the day and the generous earnings influencers make per post can tempt even the average tom, dick and harry to exaggerate their follower numbers in order to get a share of the pie. What does this mean for marketers? It means the possibility of wasting your hard earned money on users that don’t actually exists is there and you need to take active steps to ensure that you don’t get ripped off.