May 17, 2021

Are Influencers Worth Your Money?

Joshua Tijerina
Are Influencers Worth Your Money?

Let’s get this answer out of the way quickly: No (or, at least, probably not). With the dawn of influencer marketing, many clients approached Him + Her Digital Co. to ask us if we could get influencers to market their campaigns or products. 

To be immediately honest we will tell you what we told them, “No, it is not something we do, and we aren’t looking to get into it anytime soon.” 

As an agency we have specific expertise, and this isn’t one of them.

I will tell you that of the clients that actually tried influencer marketing the results were less than fantastic. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t good stats on influencer marketing out there. For example, teens seem to trust influencers over celebrities, and growth margins for certain products can be as high as 6:1. But these are isolated or specific demographics; not representative of the dynamic markets most organizations or businesses seek to engage in.

We have worked with clients that have hired personalities specific to their audience. This works at first, but we have seen two things happen over and over again: (1) the influencer content launches well, but eventually settles right around the same engagement levels the organization was before the campaign started; or (2) the audience builds a relationship with the influencer as opposed to the brand, which creates a really costly dependency.

It will take time to see if influencer marketing is worth the cost, but it isn’t going away anytime soon. For the time being, your money is probably better spent on marketing that is proven.