92% of Marketers Found Influencer Marketing Effective in 2017; Influencer Content Is Making a Cross-Channel Impact as Industry Matures

Linqia, a leader in performance content marketing technology, released the results of The State of Influencer Marketing 2018, a survey of 181 marketers on how brands and agencies are using influencer marketing and how they plan to leverage the channel in 2018.

The survey found that 86% of marketers used influencer marketing in 2017, 92% of whom found it to be effective. The continued widespread adoption of influencer marketing indicates that the channel is becoming an integral part of the marketing mix and is not a passing fad. 39% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2018, with only 5% planning to decrease their influencer marketing budgets. 30% of marketers report that they will spend between $25K – $50K per program and 25% report that they will spend between $50K – $100K per program in 2018. 46% of marketers run between 2 – 5 programs per year per brand and 31% run more than five programs per year per brand, with enterprises typically holding portfolios of dozens of brands.

When asked which influencer marketing trends they plan to adopt in 2018, 52% of marketers cited running influencer marketing programs that leverage multiple types of influencers (celebrities, top-tier, micro-influencers) as part of an integrated strategy. 44% plan to use influencer content to improve the performance of other digital channels and 36% of marketers plan to integrate influencer content with e-commerce to drive product sales.

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“The key to realizing influencer marketing ROI is to leverage the content beyond the initial campaign to improve the performance of other programs. Our survey found that 81% of marketers are using influencer content in other channels, with 51% reporting that it outperforms brand-created content. Of those that haven’t tested influencer content against brand created content yet, 59% plan to do so. In 2018, you will start to see marketers use influencer marketing to develop a strategic blueprint that will enable them to drive greater returns from their paid, owned, and earned media,” says Nader Alizadeh, CEO and co-founder of Linqia.

Additional findings from the survey include:

• 76% of marketers cite determining influencer marketing ROI as their top challenge. Following Facebook’s recent move into branded content, 42% of marketers ranked changing social network algorithms as their second biggest challenge in 2018.
• 46% of marketers are using product sales to measure the success of influencer marketing, a notable jump from just 34% last year.
• 92% of marketers cite Instagram as the most important social network for influencer marketing in 2018, followed by Facebook (77%). At 71%, blogs are a close third, up from 48% last year.
• 50% of marketers report that Snapchat will be the least important social network for influencer marketing in 2018, in line with recent news about influencers leaving the platform in favor of Instagram Stories.
• 71% of marketers say they are up-to-date with the current FTC Endorsement Guides, up from 55% last year, indicating that marketers are taking the guidelines more seriously.
• 41% of marketers partner with a managed service or “turn-key” provider to run their influencer marketing programs. 19% manage their influencer marketing programs in-house and 18% rely on their agencies. 14% use a mix of providers while only 7% choose to manage their influencer marketing programs with a self-service platform.

181 marketers and their agencies participated in The State of Influencer Marketing Survey 2018 in November 2017 across a variety of industries, including CPG, Food & Beverage, Media, and Retail.

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