Report Highlights Higher Campaign Spend, Deeper Engagement Rates and Overall Strong Advertiser Returns for Influencer Marketing Campaigns

RhythmOne, a Taptica company, released its sixth annual Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report. This report provides insights into return on investment (ROI) and best practices based on an in-depth analysis of 67 US-based campaigns that ran and were completed between January and December 2018 as part of RhythmInfluence, the RhythmOne influencer marketing solution.

RhythmOne’s Full-Year 2018 Highlights

The report provides full-year 2018 campaign benchmarks for key performance indicators across 19 advertiser categories, including engagement rate (ER), cost-per-engagement (CPE), and earned media value (EMV). Also included are Social Media Listening (e.g., positive sentiment) benchmarks, which measure program ROI and efficacy.

Key insights from the report include:

• Influencer marketing spending is on the rise: the average campaign spend on RhythmOne’s influencer marketing offerings increased 2.9x over its full-year 2017 average.
• Influencer marketing drives engagement: engagement rate (ER) across all influencer marketing campaigns averaged 9.66%.

• Influencer marketing delivers earned media value: advertisers that implemented an influencer marketing campaign in 2018 received $8.12 in earned media value (EMV) for every $1.00 of campaign spend, on average.
• Influencer marketing is cost-efficient: cost-per-engagement (CPE) across all influencer marketing campaigns averaged $0.29.
• Influencer marketing engagement is enhanced with video: use of video in campaigns was up 2x over RhythmOne’s 2017 benchmark with a total of 139 videos created.
• Influencer marketing promotes positive brand sentiment: advertisers that applied social media listening in 2018 saw an average of 98% positive sentiment across the board.

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“As influencer marketing continues to mature and drive value for our clients, we are finding that more and more advertisers are looking to leverage the custom offerings that influencer marketing providers bring to the table,” said Kimmy Fleishman, Associate Director, Content at Spark Foundry. “Brands that run with an influencer strategy focused on uniquely driving consumer engagement – especially through emerging channels such as video, Instagram Stories, and even live events – are the ones who find the most success. It all comes down to letting the influencers engage their audiences in the ways that they know best to ensure the message resonates, no matter what the campaign KPIs are.”

Influencer marketing continues to gain momentum with advertisers looking to engage targeted, quality audiences at scale. RhythmOne’s programs work in close concert with programmatic ad campaigns to amplify success, driving consumers down the funnel toward a conversion or action. As influencer marketing becomes a more defined marketing strategy, brands are beginning to make the natural shift to clearly define campaign success, through traditional brand lift KPIs and direct conversions/actions.

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“Our latest Benchmarks Report affirms influencer marketing is an essential element to the digital marketing strategies of leading consumer and business brands,” said Katie Paulsen, VP of Influencer Marketing, RhythmOne. “In 2018, we saw more advertisers activate multi-month and even year-long campaigns in an effort to deepen brand ambassador partnerships and form ongoing relationships with influencers who were key to their campaigns’ success. These investments are paying off with higher engagement rates and brand lift, which prove the value of influencer marketing and set the stage for continued success.”

Over the course of 2018, RhythmOne ran influencer marketing campaigns with 53 unique brands spanning 19 advertiser categories, employing 640 influencers who created 4,533 pieces of content, in aggregate. The full report highlights aggregate campaign results, including category-specific benchmarks across key verticals.

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