Instagram Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce Brands: All You Need to Know
If you’re still sitting on the fence contemplating whether you should invest in Instagram influencer marketing or not, you are in the right place. In this post, we’ll tell you why you should take advantage of influencer marketing on Instagram and how to approach Instagram influencer marketing for your ecommerce brands.
Instagram influencer marketing is now a $2 billion industry, with 93% of all influencer marketing campaigns happening on Instagram. There are several reasons why Instagram is a popular choice for most ecommerce brands:
- Instagram influencers have higher engagement rates than other social networks
- There is a much closer relationship between brands and Instagram users than you’d get on other social networks.
- Instagram has a huge and very active audience. There are over 1 billion active users every month.
- Instagram users have disposable incomes
- Instagram has huge potential reach for influencer posts
How can your Business Benefit from Instagram Influencer Marketing?
Some of the benefits you can expect from Instagram influencer marketing include:
- Relevant Partnership: The right-fit influencer shares the same audience as yours. This serves as a foundation of a highly relevant partnership.
- Scale: With the help of various influencer marketing strategies like product seeding, ecommerce brands can simultaneously reach and work with multiple influencers and scale up their marketing efforts rapidly. Based on the usage rights, they can even reshare the content created by their influencers and save the strain of creating new content always.
- Cost-effectiveness: Unless you are keen on working with celebrities, Instagram influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Even using micro-influencers can give you a better bang on your buck.
- Higher return on investment (ROI). 48% of marketers admit that the ROI of influencer marketing is better than the ROI through other channels.
How much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?
This question doesn’t have a definite answer. The cost of influencer marketing depends on your niche and the number of influencers you want to work with. Some factors that influence the cost of an influencer marketing campaign are:
- Number of content pieces (videos, images, and stories) you want
- Audience size of the influencers (Nano, micro, mid-tier, macro-influencer, or mega influencer)
- Duration of the campaign
- Average engagement of the influencer?
- Production costs
- Usage rights
- Exclusivity
- Industry and specialization
- Timeline
The average ballpark rate based on influencer’s follower count include:
- Mega-influencers (1 million or more followers): $10,000+ per post
- Macro-influencers (500,000–1 million followers): $5,000–$10,000 per post
- Mid-tier influencers (50,000–500,000 followers): $500–$5,000 per post
- Micro-influencers (10,000–100,000 followers): $100–$500 per post
- Nano-influencers (1,000–10,000 followers): $10–$100 per post
How to Find the Right Instagram Influencers to Partner with
Follow these steps to find the right Instagram influencer:
1. Define your Marketing Goals and Budget
Before approaching influencers, you need to do two things: define your goals and the budget. This will give your clarity on the type of Instagram influencer you need to work with to achieve your goals.
2. Find the Right Influencers
This is the most challenging part. While searching for the right kind of influencers, consider these factors:
- How relevant are they to your brand?
- What’s their engagement rate?
- Research information on their past sponsorships. What kind of brands did they partner with? Were they consistent?
Make sure you don’t get entangled with the wrong kind of influencers – those that are not aligned to your brand values and those that use unethical practices to increase their fan following. To avoid these traps, rely on influencer marketing platforms that will help you get connected to the right and the best Instagram influencer for you.
3. Run Instagram Fake Followers Check
Don’t forget to do an Instagram fake follower check before you approach an influencer. Some aspiring influencers may buy followers to increase their earning potential or impact.
Metrics to Gauge Your Campaign ROI
Depending on the goal of your marketing campaign, here are some metrics you can track:
- Click-through rate: This metric allows you to see how often and how many followers click on a link shared on an influencer post.
- Conversions and sales: Depending on your campaign goals, conversion can be several things, including sales, subscriptions, sign-ups, etc.
- Engagement: This metric allows you to gauge how effectively the campaign content has resonated with the influencer’s audience.
Current State of Instagram Influencer Marketing
Here are some statistics that demonstrate the current state of Instagram influencer marketing:
- 93.9% of all brand partnerships in 2020 were made with micro-influencers.
- 79% of marketers think that Instagram is essential for their influencer marketing campaigns.
- 72% of Gen Z and Millenials say that they follow at least a few influencers on Instagram.
- 67% of brands prefer to use Instagram for influencer marketing.
- 65% of consumers follow influencers on Instagram, making it the most popular social channel.
- 50% of the influencers that brands partner with are micro and mid-category influencers. This means that smaller-scale influencers run the most successful campaigns.
- Instagram influencer marketing is rapidly evolving. If you want your ecommerce business to succeed in this age of social media, choose an Instagram influencer marketing strategy to scale up your marketing efforts.