As advertising accountability becomes more critical, questions around the return on investment from influencer marketing has marketers desperate to demonstrate its true worth.
Despite questions over fraud, backlash over trips to Dubai and the coronavirus pandemic hitting advertising hard, influencer marketing continues to grow. According to influencer marketing agency Mediakix, an industry that was worth just $500 million in 2015 could see spend of $15 billion by 2022, if its higher forecast for investment proves true.
Yet this is an industry beset by problems for the brands that are investing. Ebiquity estimates that more than $1 billion has been lost to fraud, while there are issues around unwanted brand exposure and public relations disasters when things go wrong, as they have on a number of occasions.
Angus McLean, director at Ebiquity, says:
Brands need to do due diligence for influencer marketing as they do across other media. That involves having the right contracts and service level agreements, as well as doing due diligence on the background of the people they work with. The threat of an audit or someone checking can make a huge difference to outcomes.
Read Ebiquity’s recent report on ‘The rise and rise of Influencer Marketing’ here. ​
To read the full article in Raconteur, click here.
First featured 10/03/2021.
