At first, growing an online brand was all about search engine traffic. Then it was all about online ad auctions. Having one or both of these figured out means you could take your brand to over 8 figures, but if you want to elevate your growth potential to the next level, influencer marketing is the next infinity stone for your gauntlet.

Last 5 years of Influencer Marketing

“Why haven’t I heard about Influencer Marketing before?” Probably because the market for it has been considerably small until recently. In 2016, only $1.7 billion was spent on influencer marketing. That’s pennies compared to the $450 billion paid media spend we’ve seen. Since then, it has seen roughly 50% YOY growth and in 2022 it’s projected to be as large as $18 billion. 10x growth over 5 years is incredible, but it still has a long way to go. Online advertising will likely hit $700 billion/year by 2024. Influencer marketing is hardly scratching the surface of that.

While spend towards influencers has been growing, so have the creation tools and agencies that make it easier for you to manage and optimize your marketing. In 2016 there were 335 combined tools and agencies. Now it’s over 1500 and growing even faster. It’s important to take advantage of these agencies and tools when possible. They each have their own specializations and use cases.

Sprint #LiveUnlimited

Brands of all sizes can benefit from influencer marketing, but one of the most famous cases is Sprint. Like many large companies, Sprint wasn’t looking for an immediate return on their investment - they just wanted views. Instead of creating an ad and boosting it through an ad platform, they hired influencers to promote their #LiveUnlimited campaign. They did this because boosting an ad through an ad auction will result in increased CPMs (Cost per 1000 impressions).

Hiring influencers allows higher reach at a lower cost, with a higher likelihood of organic shares. Sprint’s campaign with social media star Lele Pons reached over 7.4 million views from a single video. Assuming a $10 CPM on an ad platform, this would cost Sprint $74,000 to reach the same number of people through an ad platform. Through careful influencer research, they were able to curate a successful #LiveUnlimited campaign.

Tools to Use

In the early days of influencer marketing, you’d have to search for influencers in your industry and hope that their audience would respond positively to your brand. Over the last few years, hundreds of tools and agencies have formed to help bridge these gaps and make it easier than ever for a marketer to have exact information. Tensor Social is one of the leaders in the field. Say goodbye to guesswork. Tensor Social is an easy to use platform that collects, organizes, and feeds you everything you need to know about an influencer’s audience. Don’t know which influencer you want to work with? With Tensor Social, you can filter for the demographic you’re looking for and find influencers that meet your criteria.

As digital marketing spend begins to exceed half of all marketing spend, influencer marketing will become increasingly popular. Hop on the wave now and be a first-mover in this fast growing channel!

Influencer marketing and the success of campaigns all depend on choosing the right influencers. Whether you’re looking for a full-scope campaign or just getting connected to influencers, platforms like Tensor Social can do it all for you. They match you with the right influencer, provide performance metrics, and manage the entire process so that you can put in minimal effort to see your investment work!

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