Study: 39% of marketers will increase influencer marketing budgets in 2018

Dive Brief:

In “The State of Influencer Marketing 2018,” a survey of 181 marketers released today by content marketing platform Linqia and made available to Marketing Dive, 86% of marketers reported using influencer marketing in 2017 — and, of those, 92% said it is an effective strategy.
The survey also found that 39% of marketers will increase influencer marketing budgets in 2018, with the majority planning to spend between $25,000 and $50,000, and most reported plans to leverage a multi-faceted influencer strategy, a press release noted.
Measuring influencer marketing success is one of marketers’ biggest challenges, the survey found. Seventy-six percent cited determining ROI as the No. 1 challenge, and 42% listed changing social network algorithms as second.

Dive Insight:

Influencer marketing continues to evolve in terms of which channels are most effective and how influencer content is used to drive business.

The big trends for 2018 include creating an integrated strategy where brands partner with influencers to create content along with their in-house creatives, influencers creating their own brands, localizing content, and brands using influencers as a boost for specific campaigns.

The new Linqia report highlights some of these trends: 52% of marketers reported plans to leverage several different types of influencers in 2018, 44% plan to use influencer content to enhance other digital channels’ performance, and 35% report plans to integrate influencer content with e-commerce.

Instagram remains the platform of choice for influencer marketing. Research firm L2 found that 70% of brands across sectors use Instagram partnerships to work with influencers. In the Linqia survey, 92% of marketers listed Instagram as the most important network for influencer marketing in 2018, with Facebook and blogs next in line.

Snapchat, once popular with influencers, has struggled recently as an influencer marketing tool. Many influencers are leaving the platform in favor of Instagram stories, which has a much stronger user base.

Influencer marketing continues to make a cross-channel impact, and marketers are seeing influencer content consistently outperform brand-generated content. To perfect their strategies and ensure the utmost ROI, most marketers are engaging turn-key solutions, agencies or other providers on some level — and, they plan to continue this trend into 2018.