'Micro influencers' are the hottest category of creator to hire in 2020, according to a survey of 192 marketers
- Marketers are most excited about hiring "micro influencers" (creators with between 5,000 and 100,000 followers) versus other creator categories in 2020, according to a new report from the influencer-marketing agency, Linqia.
- 77% of marketers surveyed by the firm said they wanted to work with micro influencers this year.
- 25% of marketers told Linqia that they want to hire nano influencers (creators with fewer than 5,000 followers) in 2020.
- Micro and nano influencers - who usually don't work full-time as creators - are cheaper to hire and can often appear more authentic than celebrity and mega influencers with millions of followers.
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Marketers have set their sights on "micro influencers" for ad campaigns in 2020, according to a new report from the influencer-marketing agency, Linqia.
77% of 192 marketers surveyed said they wanted to work with creators who had between 5,000 and 100,000 followers this year, following a broader trend toward hiring online creators with smaller audiences who can appear more authentic and cost less to hire than macro, mega, and celebrity influencers.
"If you're thinking about engagement as a measurement tool to optimize around - you're looking at cost per engagement or cost per thousand - a nano influencer or micro influencer can deliver much higher value to brands who are buying on awareness," said Brian Freeman, the CEO of Heartbeat, an influencer-marketing platform that connects brands like Dunkin and Bose with a user base of 275,000 lower-follower-count Instagram users.
"The more authentic the content, the better the engagement, and you just get better results for that with smaller audiences," Freeman said.
Macro influencers - creators with between 100,000 and 500,000 fans on social-media - were the second most desirable category of influencers for advertisers looking to run campaigns this year at 64%.
Only 31% of the marketers surveyed by Linqia said they wanted to work with mega influencers (those who have between 500,000 and five million followers) and 22% wanted to work with celebrities this year for influencer marketing.
22% of the marketers surveyed said they wanted to work with nano influencers (those who have 5,000 or fewer followers), a category that has become increasingly popular for those looking for authenticity in their ad campaigns. These creators, who don't necessarily even consider themselves influencers, can "tell a brand story that is authentic and not mired by the idea that they see their Instagram as a monetization opportunity," Freeman told Business Insider.
For its report, Linqia surveyed 192 marketers and agency employees who run campaigns in industries like retail, media, food and beverages, and consumer product goods. The company conducted its survey in December 2019.
Here's a breakdown of the percentage of respondents who said they wanted to work with each category of influencer this year:
- Celebrity (five million or more followers): 22% want to work with this influencer type in 2020
- Mega (500,000 to five million followers): 31%
- Macro (100,000 to 500,000 followers): 64%
- Micro (5,000 to 100,000 followers): 77%
- Nano (up to 5,000 followers): 25%
For more information on how influencer marketing agencies categorize creators by follower count, check out this story from Business Insider's Amanda Perelli.
And for more on how brands and influencers are interacting on social-media, check out these other Business Insider Prime stories:
- How Instagram 'nano influencers' with only 2,000 followers can make money from sponsored posts: The CEO of an influencer marketing startup focused on "nano influencers" shares how much it pays creators for a sponsored post.
- Inside YouTube star Brent Rivera's content company, which created a superhero for TikTok and wants to become the next Disney Channel: Amp Studios is a talent incubator and content group founded by 22-year-old YouTuber, Brent Rivera, and his manager and business partner, Max Levine.
- A teeth-whitening brand studied TikTok's algorithm to decide which influencers to hire and ended up gaining 100,000 followers in a week: HiSmile hired TikTok stars from the Hype House and Sway LA to create a wave of attention-grabbing videos on the social app.