In recent years, we’ve learned that social media marketing is not going away. However, the way we approach it has changed a lot. While brands and celebrities used to be in control, more marketers are now relying on consumers and creators through influencer marketing. This change raises questions about how much of your budget you should spend, and maybe more importantly, how much others are already spending on influencer marketing campaigns.
Out of curiosity, we went directly to the source and asked over 40 brands about their influencer marketing budgets for 2016. These brands include those from beauty, lifestyle, food, and fitness. Some are just starting with influencer marketing, while others have experience, having conducted over 10 campaigns. The costs varied, with small test budgets around $5,000 and larger ones exceeding $25,000.
Here’s what some of these brands told us about their influencer marketing budgets for 2016:
- Over 80 percent of the brands polled plan on increasing their influencer marketing budgets.
- Over 50 percent of brands polled plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets significantly. In some cases, this means allocating six-figure budgets to programs that were virtually non-existent in the previous year.
- None of the brands polled plan on reducing spend as a result of their previous campaigns.
To summarize, budgeting for influencer marketing is on the upswing – and it’s not just the brands surveyed above. A recent Buzzoole report showed 65 percent of brands have plans to increase their influencer marketing budget this year and, when compared to other strategies, such as display advertising and affiliates, influencer marketing gets the biggest slice of investment. An Augure report estimates that influencer marketing will climb to 50 percent of digital marketing budgets for online shopper marketers.
When looking at which social media platforms respond best to influencer marketing campaigns, YouTube still seems to reign supreme. Forbes has reported that YouTube has the best ROI of any influencer platform. However, that doesn’t mean influencer marketing doesn’t translate on other social media platforms – Instagram and Snapchat have seen huge growth in this area, too. In fact, from the brands polled, it was clear that Instagram has started to catch up significantly to YouTube in perceived value, trailing behind by only four percent.
The increasing popularity of influencer marketing makes sense. Younger consumers value the opinion of YouTube creators more than traditional celebrities. In fact, a recent Collective Bias report found that 70 percent of millennials highly preferred peer endorsements – and were more likely to purchase a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger than a celebrity. Skewing even younger, the top five most influential figures among teens 13-18 were all YouTube stars, according to Variety. As this generation grows up, they will have learned to get their brand advice from the same place they get their entertainment: from small, personal screens and self-made content creators.
If you haven’t invested in influencer marketing yet, there’s no better time than the present. The question shouldn’t be, “are we spending on influencer marketing this year?” The question should be, “how much are we spending on influencer marketing this year?”