HypeAuditor, the AI analytics platform for brands seeking fair, transparent, and effective influencer marketing, today released its second annual “State of Influencer Marketing 2021” report. Revealing 2020’s most influential social media leaders, as well as industry-pioneering best practices, the full research paper is available here.
“Unsurprisingly, 2020 was an extraordinary year in every sense, and the digital and social landscape continues to evolve so fast that it can be hard for even the most progressive brands to stay abreast of all changes,” said Alex Frolov, CEO and Co-Founder of HypeAuditor. “The global pandemic offered unprecedented opportunities for influencer collaborations, who uniquely leveraged their platforms to drive awareness for social justice and political campaigns, and our new report reveals that whether they drove these conversations or sidestepped them, only the savviest influencers knew how to monetize them effectively.”
HypeAuditor provides a comprehensive set of tools for brands to discover and analyze influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, verify their authenticity, and track the results of influencer marketing campaigns. In March 2021, it expanded its capabilities with a unique influencer industry tool that enables in-depth market research and competitor analysis, all of which are based on machine learning (ML). HypeAuditor’s mission is to provide the ultimate analytical services to ensure that brands and agencies work effectively with creators.
Following are eight key learnings from HypeAuditor’s “State of Influencer Marketing 2021” report:
- Instagram’s influencer market is expected to grow 15% in 2021. The estimated global market capitalization in 2021 equals $5.8 billion, which implies 15% growth from $5.0 billion estimated for the end of 2020.
- 43% of global Instagram users are between 25 and 34 years-old. More than half of global audiences are 34 and younger (80%), which makes Instagram worthwhile for brands and marketing specialists.
- The number of influencers involved in fraud is still very high (55%), which means fake influencers and engagement could cost advertisers millions of dollars each year. That said, the average percent of Instagram accounts involved in fraud decreased by 8%.
- On average, marketers receive $4.87 of earned media value (EMV) for each $1 paid for an Instagram influencer’s promotion. EMV is the accepted advertising industry standard for measuring PR activities and influencer marketing campaigns.
- More than half of TikTok users (69%) are under the age of 24 with 39% between 18 and 24, which makes people of this age the largest user group. Within this age group, 24% of users are female and 13% are male.
- Nearly half (41%) of TikTok creators are nano-influencers with only 1K to 5K subscribers. The TikTok influencer landscape differs from what is seen on Instagram.
- Two out of three (66%) of YouTube users are aged between 18 and 34, but teens are the third largest user group. However, the platform doesn’t just appeal to grown-up audiences, especially since teenage users are the third-largest group accounting for almost 14% of all YouTube viewers.
- COVID-19 made its adjustments and slowed down the growth of the industry, but influencer marketing didn’t suffer as much as other industries.
Additionally, the report includes a preview of 2021’s trends that the HypeAuditor research team identified from January through March 2021. Seven key findings that marketers should consider when planning for the remainder of this year include:
- Brands will shift ad spend towards influencer marketing.
- Performance-based influencer marketing is the future.
- More brands will be using TikTok as a marketing platform.
- The popularity of micro-influencers will continue to grow.
- Brands and influencers will be more attentive to content they post.
- The importance and relevance of virtual influencers is on the rise.
- The top growing categories in Q1 on Instagram were finance and economics and DIY — how people can make the most of their finances and how to save money by doing projects themselves.
HypeAuditor’s “State of Influencer Marketing 2020” report analyzed over 12M Instagram accounts, 4.5M YouTube channels, and 5.2M TikTok accounts. The research team also used data from a wide variety of sources, including market research agencies, the internet, social media companies, news media, crowdsourcing, and the company’s proprietary internal analysis. Subsequently, they processed the data by anonymizing, sorting and structuring, cleaning and removing any irregularities, and enriching the data. Finally, they transformed the data into intelligent estimations by using estimation and machine learning algorithms developed by their team of data scientists and influencer marketing experts.
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