Marketers Have Big Plans For Influencers In 2020

Influencer marketing continues to grow as more companies add the practice to their advertising portfolios. “The State of Influencer Marketing 2020: Influencer Marketing Grows Up,” a study from influencer marketing company Linqia, surveyed 192 marketers and agency professionals on how they’re currently using influencers and how they plan to leverage the channel in 2020.

Linqia’s survey found that 87 percent of marketers are running multiple campaigns—40 percent ran six or more campaigns last year—and that 57 percent plan on increasing their influencer relations budgets in 2020. Engagement is driving this investment, with 71 percent measuring their success of the campaigns by this metric. Brand awareness and impressions came in second and third, at 62 percent and 60 percent, respectively. Determining ROI, however, ranks as marketers’ biggest concern regarding the channel at 41 percent.

Micro-influencers, those with between 5,000 and 100,000 followers, are marketers’ preferred influencer niche in the survey, with 77 percent saying they want to work with them in 2020. This is ahead of macro-influencers (100,000-500,000 followers) and mega influencers (500,000-five million followers). The survey also found that marketers preferred to work with nano-influencers, those with up to 5,000 followers, more than celebrities (five million followers or more).

Instagram remains the top platform for influencer marketing, with 97 percent planning to use it. This is followed by Instagram Stories (83 percent), Facebook (79 percent), YouTube (44 percent), Twitter (35 percent) and Pinterest (29 percent). TikTok and Snapchat tie at 16 percent, followed by LinkedIn at five percent.

For more in Linqia’s findings, click here to download the full report.