An ever-increasing number of companies are shifting greater and more significant budgets to influencer marketing. In 2019, the industry is expected to reach sales of $7-10 billion USD, in comparison to $5 billion in 2018. For the purpose of this article, we’re going to assume you know the answer to “what is data-driven influencer marketing?”
Reasons for data-driven influencer marketing
In pace with the rapid development of the influencer marketing industry, a data-driven approach to the channel is increasingly important – otherwise you risk throwing money away. In this mini blog post series, we give you four reasons why data is the be-all and end-all in a successful influencer marketing strategy – starting off with two of them!
1. Identify influencers with relevant target audience data
To succeed with your influencer activation, you need to ensure that the influencers you choose to partner with actually reach your target audience. A common mistake here is to go by instinct and choose profiles that you personally like, or that you hear many people at work talking about. It is also common to conclude that a profile’s followers always reflect the profile itself, which may not necessarily be the case at all. For example, if your target group is women 25-35 years old in southern Germany, you may make a huge mistake if you choose to collaborate with 30-year-old Alina in Munich just based on your gut feelings, as her follower base could be 80% followers in Brazil (who in the worst case, may not even be real!), and thus you’d get completely ineffective results.
Data is a critical component to succeed with your influencer activation. Firstly, by using detailed target group data you can get help with finding profiles that you know will definitely reach your target group. On the one hand, you have the opportunity to identify accounts with high (and genuine!) commitment to and influence on the target group. With the help of data, you can also avoid accounts with fake followers – something that is becoming increasingly important as this phenomenon increases.
2. Optimise the outcome using ”lookalike audiences”
Influencer marketing collaborations can, in many ways, be similar to other types of advertising, such as Google Ads or Facebook. In the same way you keep an eye on your paid ads to see which ones are performing well and which need to be changed or replaced, you should constantly review your influencer activations to achieve the best possible results. For example, if the goal is to increase sales on your website, you should continuously review which influencers actually manage to drive traffic that leads to sales – and which ones do not. By keeping track of this, y