Dive Brief:
- Collective Bias, an influencer marketing firm, analyzed 300,000 hours of brand-supported content from over 5,000 influencers and found people viewed influencer content for an average of 2 minutes and 8 seconds, compared to the digital display ad average of 19.2 seconds.
- According to Collective Bias, the longer viewing time for influencer content is an indication of relevancy and quality in the content.
- "Determining the success and impact of a social media marketing campaign used to involve a lot of guesswork given the lack of measurement standards for social," Bill Sussman, CEO of Collective Bias, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Illustrating the increasing use of influencer marketing in the U.S., research from Augure from last year found 61% of U.S. marketers planned on increasing influencer marketing budgets in 2015.
"We've long acknowledged the effectiveness of incorporating influencer content into marketing programs, but with our latest offering, we can say with confidence that we are providing our clients with a level of analysis and measurement that is unmatched," Sussman said.
What is interesting about the report is puts some performance metrics behind influencer marketing, a tactic that has come under some fire from marketers and agencies for its lack of key performance indicators. A recent Forrester report found that more than half (53%) of the marketers surveyed said measurement was their main challenge with social marketing.
"I think marketers are not willing to take the risk of not receiving metrics. At least in my experience when we speak with clients about influencer marketing they roll their eyes saying ‘thanks so much for your promises,’ and it's very much a hard selling point," Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group told Marketing Dive in January.
With these new numbers in hand, however, marketers can more comfortably jump into the influencer marketing arena, especially knowing at least viewability is less a concern.