As the leading influencer marketing agency in the Middle East, the survey is very much part of ITP Live’s mission to speak with greater insight and authority on this space – as well as help provide benchmarks and best practices in what is clearly the most dynamic and democratic marketing tool now at our disposal.
For this key piece of research, revealed at our conference on Nov. 28, we harvested the views of more than 780 media and marketing professionals across the region.
The findings offer an essential and unrivalled window into the trends and challenges, opportunities and pain points, of influencer activations.
Out of all the findings, one leaped out more than any other: 84 percent of respondents said that influencer marketing was an established tool in today’s communication strategies.
With budgets increasing, awareness building, sophistication growing and campaigns thriving, the 2018 ITP Live Influencer Marketing Survey reveals an industry that is maturing quickly and expanding rapidly.
Here’s a confirmation of how people perceive influencer marketing: 40% percent see it as an additional tool in their marketing arsenal and 44% see it as an essential long-term component of any strategy.
Only 16% of naysayers see it as a passing fad.
Who amongst the respondents actually has direct experience of influencer marketing? 68% said they had, which means more than two out of every three marketing professionals, PR reps and/or brands had used an influencer on one of their campaigns.
Who amongst the respondents actually has direct experience of influencer marketing? 68% said they had, which means more than two out of every three marketing professionals, PR reps and/or brands had used an influencer on one of their campaigns.
88% of the respondents believe that budgets for influencer marketing will be either the same or increase in 2019.
On the other side, when asked why more budget isn’t being allocated, more than 50% cited lack of measurement of ROI. They simply can’t quantify whether this was money well spent.
So, how do brands measure the success of a campaign?
80% say raising awareness. That’s against less than 60% who want to directly increase sales. Clearly, marketers and brands are more concerned with visibility, as much as impacting behaviours.
42% say is word of mouth and 54% is manual search – literally opening up an app and scrolling through hashtags to find the best influencer for your campaign.
It’s interesting how unstructured brands are going about finding influencers, although half now use agencies (like ITP Live), which perhaps shows that it isn’t as “wild west” as it once was.
So, once you’ve found a likely influencer, what criteria do you use to assess their suitability for your campaign? Engagement rate is the top figure. But then content style is next, which means this isn’t simply a numbers game.
Followers, though, is rather low by comparison. Fake followers are clearly a thing. Therefore, media agencies are clearly clocking on to anyone peddling inflated followings.
What are the challenges, then? Lack of ROI and post campaign reporting took the lead, followed by unreliability on an influencer’s part.
The final slide is certainly a very positive one to end one: 78% of respondents said that influencer marketing had helped raise the awareness of their brand.
For 80% of respondents, the main KPI for using influencers was brand awareness. So, the vast majority of the marketing and communications community sees value in what influencers offer.
Influencer marketing works.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below. Speacial thank you to Eddie Taylor.