How Brands Are Scaling Influencer Marketing to Hit 2026 Goals
Discover how brands are leveraging AI, social commerce, and long-term creator partnerships to drive measurable growth and hit ambitious 2026 marketing goals.
Reading Time: 7 min
The time when influencer marketing is treated as an afterthought, not grounded in strategy, is over. In 2026, brands see creators as key drivers of performance, not just digital billboards. With the global influencer market projected at $32.55 billion this year, the focus is on accountability, efficiency, and long-term brand equity.
For marketing leaders and influencer marketing strategists, 2026 centers on building a creator ecosystem that supports the full marketing funnel, from AI-driven discovery tools to directly attributing sales via social commerce.
The Shift to Performance-Driven Influencer
In 2026, marketers are under pressure to demonstrate tangible ROI through influencer marketing and social media. Metrics such as likes and follower gains are now secondary to conversion rates and customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Recent data shows brands earn an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, with higher-performing campaigns achieving $18 to $20 returns (Aitken, 2025). To capture this value, brands are adopting a full-funnel approach to their creator strategies:
Top-of-Funnel: Garnering awareness through macro-influencers who can help improve reach.
Middle-of-Funnel: Consideration driven by the deep trust of nano- and micro-influencers.
Bottom-of-Funnel: Generate direct sales via social commerce integrations like TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping.
Leveraging AI as the Operational Backbone
In 2026, AI has shiftedfrom an experimental tool to a core part of an agency’s operational infrastructure. And this trend is being reflected in the data, showing that nearly 60% of marketers now use AI to scale influencer operations.
I’ll talk more about this in a future blog post based on my learnings from an AI hackathon my team and I won during a work competition. The key takeaway is that AI does not replace the human ability to tell stories when it comes to creating an engaging campaign. Instead, it streamlines operations. Agencies are now helping brands activate creator marketing campaigns with the use of AI-powered platforms to:
Predict Performance: Using historical data of sponsored content to forecast which creators are likely to deliver the highest levels of performance, even before influencer outreach is signed.
Detect Fraud: Identifying influencers who may have purchased fake followers or unnatural engagement spikes that may be attributed to engagement farms to ensure brand safety and performance.
Optimize Creative: AI can help repurpose creator content into paid ads with varied post copy. Data shows that currently, 77% of marketers use this approach to give AI-driven ad engines the creative diversity needed to lower CPMs.
The Rise of Long-Term Brand Ambassadors
Single sponsored posts are just less effective. As marketers, we know it takes multiple touchpoints to get a consumer to take an action. So why would we expect a single sponsored post to drive an action? If anything, it should be a positive reflection of an influencer’s ability to get their audience to take an action.
In 2026, consumers continue to value authenticity and quickly recognize when a piece of creator marketing feels forced or inauthentic. To get ahead of that trend, agencies are guiding their brands to prioritize long-term partnerships over a single piece of sponsored content.
When a creator consistently uses and discusses a product over several months, it builds a narrative of genuine utility. It helps their audience visually connect the dots as to how a product or service could fit into their daily lives. From a brand standpoint, long-term partnerships also support better creative alignment, predictable content calendars, and often more favorable rates.
B2B Influencer Marketing Comes of Age
Over the past year, I’ve been helping B2B organizations across multiple industry verticals like cybersecurity, healthcare, and technology. And from what I’ve seen, is the rapid growth of B2B influencer marketing. Organizations that provide professional services and SaaS recognize that individuals can outperform brands at reaching the right people to take an action.
Across the major platforms, LinkedIn is the primary channel central to this shift. Brands are moving beyond organic posts content published on their corporate page. In the B2B space, influencers are often niche experts whose endorsements carry the weight of professional referrals and help shorten the sales cycle for complex products or services.
What I find exciting in the B2B influencer marketing space is that brands are looking to activate these creator partnerships on what many consider secondary platforms, such as Substack or through their podcasts. Long-form content, such as a newsletter or podcast, has true staying power for B2B organizations looking to collaborate with creators.
Key Takeaways
ROI is Essential: Move beyond vanity metrics like engagements or followers gained. Prioritize tracking higher-value KPIs like saves, shares, and direct conversions to justify future budgets.
AI is a Tool, Not the Creator: Use AI to automate influencer discovery and vetting. Reserve the content creation and storytelling for human creators.
Community Over Reach: Micro-influencers drive higher engagement than macro influencers, who often deliver better ROI because of their niche authority.
Diversification: A recent webinar on capturing attention in 2026 highlights that conversation-driven content is essential to building lasting trust and getting a user to take an action.
Further Reading
What’s Top of Mind for Advertisers and Marketers For Social Media in 2026
Unlock breakthrough growth in 2026 by making social the linchpin of a connected digital ecosystem—a dual-track strategy where community-driven engagement meets high-performance advertising.
Traditional social media best practices, such as frequent posting and relying on algorithms (automated systems that determine which posts users see), have been replaced by a more advanced, dual-track approach. I have observed that successful brands on social media are not simply using new tools, such as AI’s ability to create image and video assets (e.g., photos and short videos). They are building comprehensive digital ecosystems (interconnected digital platforms and tools) and ensuring that social media plays a critical role in them.
As we enter 2026, our clients are asking us to help achieve results that require a fine balance between organic social, Search Engine Optimization, and paid social performance. All while looking to cultivate trust and drive intent in a scalable manner.
Organic Social: From Feeds to "Communities of Intent."
In 2026, public feeds on Instagram and TikTok are strictly for discovery. Community spaces now dominate conversions. Brands prioritize small, high-intent groups over follower count. Hootsuite’s 2026 trends data shows the 'micro-drama' trend: short-form, serialized video content similar to telenovelas. It's human storytelling that draws users back to the ongoing story, not just the product.
As for social media best practices, brands have an opportunity to evolve from content that feels like a generic corporate update to content featuring employee advocates. If your brand is launching a new product, get the product team or developer share why its release is a big deal. Gartner research shows that audiences trust individual experts and employees more than brand logos.
The Rise of Search Everywhere Optimization (SEO 2.0)
The most significant change in best practices this year is the fragmentation of search. Search in 2026 is now a constellation, not a single sun: users search for answers across multiple platforms, each with its own algorithms and discovery methods. Between algorithm changes across the most popular social media platforms and brands and publishers adjusting their strategies to ensure their content shows up as LLMs scrape the web, optimization now goes beyond Google to include discovery on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
According to Sprout Social’s 2026 demographics report, 41% of Gen Z now turn to social media first when looking for information, overtaking traditional search engines. What does this bean do for agencies looking to support their clients on social media?
For organic social, treat your post copy and captions as meta-tags. Use keyword-rich, conversational language that addresses specific questions, such as "how to scale B2B social" rather than "our new services." Hashtags still serve a purpose, but you can now "move" some of your hashtags to your post copy. To clarify how this works in practice, here is a quick before-and-after comparison:
Bland caption: "Check out our new features. #B2B #socialmedia"
Transformed caption: "Looking for ways to scale B2B social? Discover proven strategies and the latest tools for effective growth."
This simple shift turns a generic update into a targeted, discoverable post that resonates with users' real questions.
For paid social media, explore using search-intent ads on platforms TikTok and Pinterest. These ads have a 32% higher click-through rate than standard feed ads. In practical terms, brands reported paying an average CPC of $1.05 for search-intent ads, compared to $1.20 for standard feed ads—resulting in both a higher engagement rate and a reduction in cost per click. They work because they reach users looking for specific solutions in that moment.
Advertising: Precision Over Proximity
In 2026, advertising and marketing leaders are being pressured to once again do more with less and focus on efficiency. Social media remains a major part of the overall marketing mix, with global social ad spend projected to reach $219 billion. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are investing resources in a channel that enables greater precision in targeting to maintain a healthy Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC, the average expense to acquire a new customer).
On social media, more shoppable ad formats are being used across industries, with data from NewMedia showing that advertisers are seeing an average ROI of $5.20 per $1 spent when using "shoppable" ad units.
And with AI overviews and in-app shopping, ads must convert directly on the platform, leaning into the zero-click environment and avoiding the need for users to visit slow-loading landing pages. According to data from Portent, slower-loading landing pages can result in a 40% loss of potential conversions.
The "Human-Made" Differentiator
Even as AI advances, a brand’s top asset is its human touch. While 83% of marketers use AI for scale, the best brands use it for tasks such as data analysis, publishing timing, and copy iteration. Front-end efforts like having real people on screen as talent, real community managers responding to users comments and questions, and genuine voice-overs still depend on human leadership making the right decisions.
For example, one global campaign for a lifestyle brand saw engagement plummet after automated replies failed to address a customer’s emotional concerns. It was only when a community manager stepped in with personalized follow-up and empathy that the situation turned around, resulting in a surge of positive comments and shares. Real connection, not automation, became the brand’s differentiator.
Key Takeaways
Audit for Search: 10-Minute Mini-Audit for Quick Wins,
Treat TikTok and Instagram profiles as mini-websites. Before posting your next piece of content, run through this three-step checklist:
Is your username and display name searchable? Choose simple names that match your brand and common search terms.
Does your bio clearly state what you offer and include relevant keywords? Make it obvious to a new visitor what you do and why they should follow.
Are your highlights, pinned posts, or link-in-bio organized and up-to-date? Make it easy for users to find your most important offers or resources in one click.
If you can answer yes to all three, your profile is optimized for discoverability and ready for 2026 social search habits.
Balance Your Budget: Use organic content to engage your current audience and paid ads to reach new, targeted groups.
Prioritize Video: Short-form video content continues to deliver 35% higher engagement than static posts, but it should appear authentic and unpolished. (Team, 2025)
Measure revenue, not vanity. In 2026, link every social campaign to a business goal like sales, leads, or lifetime value. If not, it isn't a justified investment.
Unlocking B2B Influencer Marketing Partnerships
Strategic Considerations for Creator-Marketing in a Credibility-Driven Economy
The B2B marketing mix is undergoing a fundamental shift. For enterprise brands in high-stakes sectors like healthcare, cybersecurity, and AI, the center of gravity has moved. Trust is no longer manufactured through traditional headlines alone; it is cultivated in the niche ecosystems of LinkedIn feeds, specialized newsletters, and expert-led podcasts.
We are seeing the professionalization of the B2B Creator. According to LinkedIn’s research on the B2B creator economy, these aren’t just "influencers"—they are independent analysts, seasoned operators, and former journalists who have successfully decoupled their personal brand from traditional institutions. They own the one thing brands struggle to buy: unfiltered access to the decision-maker’s attention.
This blog outlines five strategic considerations to transition from transactional "shout-outs" to high-impact creator partnerships that drive measurable business outcomes.
Moving Beyond the Tactic
To win in a saturated market, B2B marketing leaders must stop treating influencer marketing as a campaign-level add-on. Instead, it should be viewed as a credibility engine that helps move people along the marketing funnel. Data from the Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report suggests that 73% of decision-makers consider thought leadership more trustworthy than traditional marketing materials. By strategically embedding expert voices across the funnel, brands can co-create content that doesn't just inform, but validates and de-risks the buying process.
Prioritize Audience Resonance Over Reach
In complex B2B sales, a massive follower count is often a vanity metric. True influence lies in "Topic Depth,” the ability of a creator to speak the specific, often technical language of the buyer.
The Approach:
Audit for Alignment: Build a roster of potential creators that are based on audience overlap and technical authority, not broad clout.
The Diverse Mix: For multi-creator campaigns, deploy a multi-disciplinary roster. This could look like partnering with a high-level industry analyst for the "Vision," with a hands-on consultant for "Execution."
Niche Dominance: Focus on the "Micro-Experts" who are the definitive voices in specific industries.
The Strategic Takeaway: The right partnership bridges the gap between corporate messaging and the audience’s reality. As Gartner notes in their buyer journey research, buyers spend only 5% of their time with any given sales rep; the rest is spent on independent research. When a trusted voice validates your narrative during that 95%, it transforms "Marketing" into "Industry Insight."
Co-Creation In Sponsored Content as a Trust Accelerator
Enterprise audiences have a high "cringe" threshold for sponsored content that feels like a scripted ad. Ogilvy’s B2B Influence Report highlights that 75% of B2B marketers now report stronger brand credibility when collaborating with industry experts rather than going it alone.
The Approach:
The "Partner" Brief: Brief creators as partners in thought-leadership. Give them the "why" behind the product, then let them determine the "how" of the delivery.
Information Exchange: Grant creators exclusive access to internal data, product roadmaps, or subject matter experts within your organization.
Long-Form Continuity: Move away from one-off posts. Establish partnerships with multiple content deliverables that provide cumulative value.
The Strategic Takeaway: In a world of "me-too" content, authentic advocacy is the ultimate differentiator. When you co-create, you aren’t just buying an impression; you are borrowing hard-won credibility.
Take a Full-Funnel Approach
Influence is not just a top-of-funnel awareness play. Strategic partners can accelerate the journey from education to validation. LinkedIn data shows that 82% of B2B buyers say creator content directly influences their final purchasing decisions.
The Approach:
Top-of-Funnel (Education): Leverage an influencer’s podcast, Substack or newsletter to frame the problem and build brand affinity.
Mid-Funnel (Validation): Engage creators who have the expertise for a deep-dive "how-to" videos or use-case breakdowns.
Bottom Funnel (Decision): Leverage these influencers' expert POV to mitigate the risk of the final purchase.
The Strategic Takeaway: B2B influence is a dynamic marketing channel. By aligning creator content with specific funnel stages, you create a self-reinforcing loop that sustains engagement throughout a non-linear buying journey.
Leverage Earned & Paid for Integrated Amplification
A major announcement only has impact if it creates a ripple effect. Modern media strategy requires treating influencers as an extension of your media team. Sprout Social reports that 67% of B2B companies use influencer marketing specifically to increase product and organizational awareness.
The Approach:
Contextual Distribution: Identify creators who specialize in industry analysis and engage them before the embargo lifts.
Paid Support: Budget specifically for amplifying creator-led content. A creator’s post often yields a higher engagement rate than a standard brand ad.
The Strategic Takeaway: Influencers provide the "So What?" for your brand’s announcement or launch. They can help contextualize milestones for their audience, ensuring your story gains traction where traditional media might fall short.
Optimize for Partnership LTV (Lifetime Value)
The most significant ROI comes from the relationship cultivated, not just the surface-level metrics from an individual sponsored post. TopRank Marketing’s B2B Influencer Report notes that 43% of marketers now report "outstanding" results when moving toward long-term partnership models.
The Approach:
Multi-channel Repurposing: Secure usage rights upfront so you can repurpose your sponsored content for other social media and marketing channels like email.
Strategic Feedback Loop: Use your creator roster as an informal "Advisory Board" for product feedback and market sentiment. Leverage the strong connection they have with their respective audiences.
KPI Evolution: Measure results beyond impressions or followers gained. Track influence on brand perception, pipeline velocity, and high-value lead generation.
The Strategic Takeaway: High-performing B2B brands don't just "do" influencer marketing; they build ecosystems. Every collaboration should strengthen your brand’s long-term equity and ensure your message travels through the right networks with maximum authority.
Influence as an Asset
The future of B2B leadership belongs to those who understand that paid doesn’t mean passive. Strategic partnerships are not about buying a distribution channel; they are about integrating your brand into the conversations that matter. By treating creators as co-architects of your narrative, you unlock a level of sustained credibility that traditional advertising cannot replicate.
Tips for Developing a Winning Social Media Program
Strategy is a choice, not a chore.
Everyone has a "social media strategy" until the first quarterly business review hits, and the numbers are’t going "up and to the right." And while the easy answer is to say that the content published in the previous quarter was not good or engaging, there’s an underlying reason as to why. Typical business leaders often treat social media like a megaphone, but the winners treat it like a laboratory.
To help my clients cut through the noise, we don't start with questions like "What should we post?" Instead, start by evaluating how your organization stands up to five core elements and dive deeper into some topics that might help you evolve your current social media strategy.
If you or your client can't answer these with data-backed confidence, you don't have a social media strategy; you're just casually creating content and hoping for success. So where do we start?
The Five Core Elements
Audience: What do we know about our target audience? Where are they actually spending time online? If your target audience is Gen Z, you likely need to focus your efforts on Instagram and TikTok. If you're a B2B Enterprise organization whose target audience is senior decision makers, you're likely creating content that will resonate with a more professional audience on LinkedIn.
Content: What is the purpose of the social media content we're creating? What is the "value exchange" your brand or organization is offering? Why should your target audience stop scrolling? Hint: It's usually by educating, entertaining, or informing your audience.
Goals: What is your actual goal for using social media, and how does it tie back to the actual business outcomes of your organization? A good example would be to generate "3,500 monthly web visitors and 75 qualified leads," not just "add more followers."
Measurement: What does success look like for your organization? Or more directly, how do you prove that your efforts are having a noticeable impact? Success should be tied to your overall business goals and can look like referral traffic, lead attribution, and Share of Voice through Social Listening.
Resources: How do you plan to allocate your available resources to creating said content? If resources are strapped, identify ways to extend the life of a piece of creative or content so that it can be repurposed across channels.
Stop Guessing: Conduct an Audience & Competitor Audit
Now that you've spent a little time thinking about those 5 elements, here's a staggering reality: 56% of marketers do not conduct formal research to understand their target audience. Which means they are throwing darts in a dark room, hoping to hit the target.
Understanding your audience and how they are active on social media is the only way to unlock consistent engagement. What does that look like in practice?
Audit the Competition: You don't need to copy them, but you do need to see where they are succeeding and falling short on social media. Identify the gaps. If your top competitors are ignoring video content, that is the "green space" your brand has an opportunity to play in.
The Multi-Platform Reality: The latest data showthat the average social media user now cycles through 6.7 social platforms per month. Your brand doesn't need to be on all of them; you need to be on the right ones with a tailored approach for each. Don't try to cut corners by posting the exact same content across channels.
The Content Powerhouse: Short-Form is King
Speaking of video content, the data is in, and it's a landslide. Sprout Social data shows that short-form video content is 2.5x more engaging than long-form content. In 2026, if video content isn't at the center of your "Content Mix," you're trying to cook with one hand tied behind your back.
There is no "one-size fits all" content mix. Still, a good starting point should be content that is educational (e.g., How-tos, industry and proprietary insights), community-focused (e.g., create two conversations within your content, ask questions), and culturally relevant (e.g., Humanize your brand, lean into trending content themes).
The "Monitor & Pivot" Loop
Last and not least, we have to talk about data and performance. Social media is evolving faster than ever. And what worked in Q1 might be irrelevant by Q3.
So look to establish KPIs and move past vanity metrics like followers gained, and look at more impactful metrics like Click-Through Rate (CTR), Landing Page Views (LPV), and Conversion Rate. And keep your team agile by setting a regular monthly sync, reviewing data to see how your content is performing, and leaning in double on what's working and ruthlessly cutting what isn't. And if you work with a creative team or even have a more design-oriented team member, try to determine why content performed above benchmarks through a qualitative lens.
The Bottom Line
Developing a winning social program isn't about being everywhere; it's about being intentional somewhere. It's a marathon of consistency backed by the sprint of real-time data.
Social Media & Influencer Lessons For 2025
Following a year of exciting, and sometimes challenging, changes across the social media landscape, we’re gearing up for another year of social media twists and turns that can make or break your social media marketing efforts.
Here’s what you need to know for 2025 to ensure social media success. Let’s dive in.
Entertain, Educate and Inform
Audiences today turn to nearly every mainstream social platform with one primary motivation: to be entertained. It’s crucial for brands to align their online social media presence with this expectation to prevent your target audience from scrolling past your content and being overlooked.
Sprout Social data shows that 66% of users surveyed said they find “edutainment”—a blend of entertainment and education—to be the most engaging type of content from a brand. At The Motion Agency, we push our clients to create content that leans into this notion, developing content that entertains, educates and/or informs.
Social media is not for copying and pasting content across channels unless a strategic approach is taken. Like any marketing channel, recycling messaging or creative from traditional marketing channels on social media will miss the mark, and you’ll see that reflected in your engagement data–or lack thereof. The most popular social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube demand original, engaging and platform-specific content, especially if you expect your brand’s content to be prioritized in-feed.
This is because consumers on social media value authenticity. Trying to hard sell in a place meant for entertainment is a stretch. Organic content leans into one of those three end goals—education, entertainment, information—and resonates more than targeted ads or promotional-heavy posts. Being authentic across your social channels emphasizes your brand’s commitment to building trust and rapport with your audience before making any promotional requests.
The Power of Organic Content
The content prioritized in-feed across the most popular social media platforms doesn’t happen by accident—or without investment. A striking 91% of consumers say the production quality and budget behind a brand’s social content influence their willingness to engage.
This doesn’t mean every social media post needs a blockbuster budget behind it. However, as consumers, we can often tell when a piece of content feels like it could be a TV commercial and what feels like it was captured on someone’s older iPhone (and this is coming from someone who had their last iPhone for years).
Still, the data does signal that audiences on social media increasingly expect the same care and polish on social media that brands historically reserved for broadcast or out-of-home advertising campaigns. So, to ensure that your content isn’t deprioritized over those in your competitive set, consider asking your team or agency partner these key questions:
Are we building a strong case for increased content production budgets to support our organic and paid social media efforts?
Do we anticipate opportunities to capture additional creative assets to elevate our organic creative and maximize campaign performance?
By prioritizing high-quality content that leans into social media best practices, brands can turn their social media feeds into powerful, performance-driven channels that resonate with today’s discerning audiences while still supporting overall business goals.
Platforms with Purpose
Even in a crowded digital landscape, brands have significant potential to establish meaningful connections and foster vibrant communities across the most popular social media platforms. However, achieving this requires a strategic focus, informed by real-time audience insights. Rather than stretching your efforts thin across every social media platform, it’s essential to identify where your brand’s presence will have the most significant impact.
Consumer engagement with branded content remains as strong as ever, and in some cases, is stronger than it was six months ago. When asked which platforms brands should avoid, the top response was “none.”
Brands are under more pressure than ever to develop content that resonates with consumers best. And that is typically dynamic, short-form video content such Reels, TikToks and Stories, which are resource-intensive. In an effort to keep up, many brands end up repurposing the same images and clips, which can lead to consumers unfollowing or, worse, being completely removed from their consideration set.
As you think about your 2025 social media strategy, here are a few questions to guide your discussions with your internal or agency partner:
When it comes to a platform-specific approach to organic social media content, are we allocating adequate resources to the platforms focused on entertaining and engaging our target audience where they spend the majority of their online time?
Do we have clear data on which platforms our target audience prefers for entertainment, discovery and customer support?
What audience behavior insights have we uncovered in 2024 that can shape our 2025 content strategy?
Are we aligning our overall social media content strategy with platform-specific behaviors and expectations?
What critical insights might we be missing that could refine our platform and content prioritization?
Where do we see opportunities to improve on platforms with the most significant impact?
Concentrating on the social media platforms that matter most to your target audience will save your team precious time and resources, empowering you to deliver authentic content that resonates more deeply and drives measurable results.
Empower Your Internal Team and Agency Partner
Marketers, specifically social media professionals, are on the front lines when engaging with their target audience and often have more visibility into industry or brand challenges. Encourage them to take creative risks and experiment with bold, social-first content strategies rooted in data or insights gained through social listening.
If this is an area of opportunity for your organization, here are some questions to ask your team or agency partner as you prepare to head into 2025:
Are our social teams driving content strategy, or are they limited to fulfilling requests from internal stakeholders that may conflict with social media best practices?
Are our social media efforts being integrated into campaign planning from the outset, or is it an afterthought?
If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to create the social media content worthy of both your audience and your brand, it may be time to bring an agency partner into the fold. Of course, hiring a partner can be daunting —you need someone you can trust, who knows your business and can jump in quickly. Motion created this free insider’s guide to help you navigate the complexities of a formal RFP process and ensure you hire an agency that is a true partner. Inside, you’ll find strategies and tips for getting organized and keeping your team on task, as well as templates developed by agency-side pros who’ve responded to hundreds of RFPs over the years.
Influencer Marketing
We believe no one understands an audience better than the person who built it. It’s why influencers can persuade their followers to act—and why influencer marketing can be such a powerful tool for brands to reach a wider audience and build trust with potential customers. At Motion, we recommend clients prioritize authenticity by partnering with creators who align with their brand’s voice and target audience.
Unlike traditional advertising, influencer marketing allows brands to tailor their approach to partnerships based on their desired goals, content types, target audience and budget. This could look like structuring partnership agreements to include usage rights so that the brand can repurpose for web or paid ads to boost conversions and overall engagement.
More brands will routinely include paid ad content in their partnership agreements, especially when trying to reach a niche audience with authentic content. For one of our clients at Motion, we recently launched a multi-market influencer campaign where each influencer granted our client permission to run their sponsored content as ads across Meta and TikTok.
Micro vs. Macro Influencers: Understanding the Difference
One of the key things our agency is asked about regarding influencer marketing is, “How do we know who the right partner for our brand is?”
It’s a crucial decision shaped by an influencer campaign’s goals and underpins the recommendations for the ideal partner. Is it better to partner with micro-influencers or macro-influencers? The answer can profoundly shape campaign strategy, brand perception and preferred outcomes.
To level set, micro-influencers are generally considered to have between 1,000 and 20,000 followers on their largest platform, focusing on specific niches and deeply engaged communities. Conversely, macro-influencers are typically considered to have audiences ranging from 250,000 to millions of followers, offering broader appeal and significant reach across various demographics.
But the right influencer partnership goes beyond follower counts. Micro-influencers often build close, personal relationships with their followers, which fosters higher engagement. Macro-influencers provide unparalleled brand visibility and reach due to their larger follower counts but can sometimes have less fully engaged audiences compared to micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers excel in more niche industries or areas of focus, making them perfect for brands targeting specific consumer segments. Their highly engaged audiences often see them as relatable and authentic, driving stronger connections with your brand’s messaging. There are often cost advantages as well, with micro-influencers being more cost-effective, allowing brands to collaborate with influencers across multiple sponsored posts or with multiple influencers in a single campaign. This can increase reach and bring more users into the marketing funnel.
Although micro-influencers bring authenticity, their limited reach can constrain the ability of an influencer marketing campaign to reach its target audience at scale. So, when choosing between micro and macro influencers, align your decision with your campaign goals. If you’re looking to reach a niche audience (e.g., leading small business owners in the HVAC industry), micro-influencers are ideal for targeted engagement and reaching an engaged audience.
If you have a product or service that speaks to a broader audience, partnering with macro-influencers can lead to higher levels of reach and building awareness. But beware that the larger an influencer gets, the more likely their audience will be segmented. For example, the followers on NBA legend Shaquille O’Neill’s accounts may be following him for his basketball accolades, while another group may be following him for his DJ alter-ego, Diesel, and may have no interest in sports-related partnerships.
Quality Over Quantity
The quality of your influencer collaborations often has a more significant impact than the number of partnerships you pursue. So, stretching your budget across multiple small-scale campaigns can dilute the overall effect of your advertising efforts.
Instead, at Motion we recommend focusing on fewer, higher-quality influencer partnerships. At the end of the day, engaging (and authentic) content is what increases your brand’s reach and the opportunity to connect with more users.
So, here’s how to elevate the quality of your campaigns by investing in fewer, more meaningful collaborations. Identify and partner with influencers who genuinely align with your brand’s values and target audience, and work closely with them as partners to ensure that their sponsored content meets both your creative standards and their audience’s expectations. Remember, high-quality visuals and storytelling will help your sponsored content stand out.
Just remember to give influencers the creative freedom to produce content in their own style. This approach leads to more authentic and relatable posts, fostering a deeper connection with their audience.
And from a metrics standpoint, a smaller, more-engaged audience is more valuable than a large, less-engaged one. So, look beyond reach and impressions and prioritize influencers who have a proven track record of higher engagement rates in their sponsored content. These types of collaborations often result in higher engagement and better ROI.
Lastly, we want to define success, which starts before influencer recommendations are even provided. What defines a successful influencer marketing campaign? Here are a few outcomes that an influencer partnership can help you achieve:
Increased brand awareness: Influencers can help get a brand in front of a new audience.
Improved brand reputation: Influencers can help build trust and credibility within a given industry or trade.
Increased conversions and sales: Influencers can persuade their followers to purchase products or services.
We’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes social media and influencer marketing, and as such, it’s critical to focus on what will have the largest impact in achieving your businesses’ goals, rather than hopping on a trend or a new platform just because it’s mentioned in the news.
Social Media News You Can Use: How AI is Skewing Consumer Trust, Instagram Teen Accounts & More
More Adults Trust Big Tech and Media Companies Than the U.S. Government
Consumer data shows that more adults trust Big Tech and media companies than the U.S. government. 70% of U.S. adults trust Amazon, followed by Google (65%) and Netflix (64%)—much higher than trust in the U.S. government (28%).
However, concerns about AI usage underscore the importance of responsible and transparent data usage practices. 70% of U.S. adults have little or no trust in companies to use AI responsibly, according to an October 2023 report by the Pew Research Center. Yet, despite the widespread use of AI at major tech and media companies, consumers still remain trustful of them overall.
This presents opportunities and challenges for marketers as AI continues to shape the advertising landscape. Given where consumers put their trust, marketers and brands alike should look to leverage these trusted platforms for effective campaigns—think retail media ads on Amazon, search ads on Google and CTV ads on Netflix.
Instagram Introduces Teen Accounts for Safer Social Media Use
Instagram is stepping up to protect teens online with its latest update, addressing growing concerns about social media’s impact on young users. The platform is introducing a new, more advanced protection mode for all teen accounts, designed to limit who can contact them, what content they can see and how much time they spend on the app.
The new teen mode comes with six key restrictions:
Accounts are automatically private.
Messages are limited to only people they follow.
Sensitive content controls are turned on.
Filters for offensive words and phrases.
Time limit notifications after 60 minutes per day.
Sleep mode activated between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Teens under 16 will need parental permission to turn these restrictions off. These updates aim to create a safer space for teens, but will it keep them hooked or drive them to explore other platforms? Time will tell!
New Report Highlights Key 2024 Video Content Trends
Tubular Labs published its latest report on the state of social media video and the drivers behind video engagement across all major social apps. Tubular Labs provides insights to help power content strategies, with a database that now includes over 11 billion videos, from 28 million content creators.
Here is what they found:
Longer Short-Form Videos: On YouTube, videos over 30 seconds increased engagement by 39%, while TikTok sees more clips between one and two minutes, suggesting users may prefer slightly longer content than the traditional short-form.
TikTok Trends: Business and finance content is rising, with popular topics including young home ownership and viral finance tips.
Instagram and Meta AI: Instagram engagement is up, partly due to Meta’s AI recommendations, which now curate 50% of content on Instagram feeds. Facebook video uploads have also increased, possibly due to the success of Reels and a shift in user behavior.
Thanks again for spending time reading this latest update! If you enjoyed this week’s “news can use,” you won’t want to miss the latest on TikTok in my blog update surrounding the latest legislation that is forcing TikTok to be sold or be banned in the United States. Or check out more of my writing here.
