What Type Of Influencer Should You Work With?

Selecting the right type of influencer to work with can make or break a campaign’s success. It’s easy enough to think that contracting a celebrity influencer with millions of followers will get your brand the most exposure, but there are many other factors to consider when selecting influencers.

Depending on your brand’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and goals, working with a group of micro-influencers might actually be more beneficial. Here are a few of the most common KPIs we see amongst brands and the types of influencers best suited to meet those goals:

If your goal is brand awareness, work with…celebrity influencers

If high campaign reach and exposure are the numbers you care about, there’s no better way to hit those benchmarks than with celebrity and macro influencers. Typically a macro influencer is defined as having over 500,000 followers.

As strange as it may seem, influencers with larger followings don’t always have the strongest engagement rates (industry standard for macro influencers is around 1-2%, while smaller influencers have higher rates) but an uber-popular influencer or celebrity toting your product will do wonders for exposing your brand to new audiences.

When working with influencers of this size, you’ll need to prepare to put a large budget behind securing just one influencer, so be sure to consider engagement rates, brand alignment, and audience demographics when choosing which macro influencer to work with.

If your goal is sales, work with…micro and mid-tier influencers paired with amplification

Micro (10,000 - 100,000 followers) and mid-tier (100,000 - 500,000) influencers are known to build strong relationships with their followers. These are the influencers that consumers turn to when making purchasing decisions because they’ve formed trust with their audiences.

By combining these posts with targeted amplification, we can optimize programs for link clicks and promote sales conversions with highly targeted customers.

If your goal is engagement, work with…micro and nano influencers

Micro and nano (1,000 - 10,000 followers) influencers may have smaller reaches, but their followers are typically very engaged. If your campaign is focused on generating comments, DM interactions, and conversations, you may want to partner with micro and nano influencers.

Because they have smaller followings, you may need to contract a larger number of influencers (and prepare a large budget for a wide-reaching and heavy lift campaign) to have a large impact on consumers.

If your goal is content, work with…creators

Influencer campaigns are a form of digital advertising, so it makes sense that your brand may want influencer-created content for your own use. Maybe you’ll use the photos influencers create on your own social media channels or website. Maybe you’ll use their videos for an ad campaign. Whatever the case may be, if owning content is your goal, you’ll want to work with true creators.

Consider the content that the influencer create and how well it aligns with your brand’s voice and aesthetic. Beyond numbers and demographics, you’ll really want to find influencers who are a good match stylistically.

When contracting influencers to use their content on your platforms, remember that this may increase their fee. Additionally, you will want to clearly lay out where their content will be used and for how long.