Trying to find opportunities to enhance their marketing efforts, business owners and marketers continue to turn to social media, particularly influencer quotes, to speed up their results when it comes to boosting awareness, engagement, and sales. Showing just how prevalent influencer marketing is currently, 93% of marketers stated they’d used influencer marketing within their overall marketing strategy.
According to statista.com in 2022, global influencer marketing market valued at a record 16.4 billion U.S. dollars (approx £13 billion ). Ad spending in the Influencer Advertising segment is projected to reach £1bn in 2023 in the UK. In global comparison, most ad spending will be generated in China.
AD SPENDING GLOBAL COMPARISON
There are a number of reasons to invest in influencer marketing. Here’s a breakdown of the most common goals to provide an idea of what it can help you achieve:
Raising brand awareness (86%)
Reaching new or targeted audiences (74%)
Improving brand advocacy (69%)
Increasing sales conversions (46%)
As the social and creator landscapes continue to evolve, how can marketers make sure that they’re investing in the right social platforms, brand initiatives, and influencer strategies?
Traackr’s 2023 UK Influencer Marketing Impact Report analyses survey data from 500 Gen Zers and Millennials to better understand how influencers, content, and social platforms have shifted consumer purchase behaviour. Here are the highlights:
PLATFORMS
Although new social platforms have emerged over the past few years, it appears that Meta is still very popular in the UK. When asked which social platforms they use most regularly (at least once a week), all consumers ranked Instagram number one, with YouTube coming in second, Facebook third, TikTok fourth, and Snapchat fifth. Twitter came in at sixth, with LinkedIn and Reddit nearly tying for seventh.
However, results diverged when analysing platform use by generation. Millennials use Facebook and Twitter much more than Gen Z, while Gen Zers use Snapchat much more than their older counterparts. YouTube and TikTok ranked in the middle for both generations, indicating that these might be great platforms for marketers to focus on if they are targeting multiple age groups.
CONTENT: VIDEO
TikTok’s rise in popularity kicked off social media’s migration towards video content. Now, it’s a big focus for most platforms, with Instagram prioritising Reels and Stories and YouTube promoting Shorts.
69% of all consumers say that they prefer to watch comedic/humorous videos on social media. Cooking videos came in as the second choice, with fashion ranking third, fitness fourth, and travel fifth.
What makes consumers want to engage with content is quite different from what makes them want to follow a brand on social media.
SOCIAL COMMERCE & PRODUCT RESEARCH BEHAVIOURS
YouTube ranked #1 for product research, but Instagram won social commerce.
On the other hand, 39% of UK consumers ranked Instagram as the number one social platform that they are most likely to purchase products on. This was followed by TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. When looking at responses by generation, Gen Z was 26% more likely to purchase products on TikTok than Millennials.
INFLUENCERS DRIVE PURCHASE
Consumers are ready to purchase products on social platforms, but what helps convince them? Traackr’s survey found that 71% of consumers feel that influencers’ posts have some sway on their purchase decisions, with 51% stating that they look to influencers for product recommendations.
PRODUCT QUALITY REMAINS TOP CONSIDERATION, BUT PURPOSE DECREASES PRICE SENSITIVITY
Further, 56% of consumers are less price sensitive when purchasing a product from a brand that aligns with their values. Gen Z respondents had stronger opinions about this than Millennials: they were 6% more likely to “strongly agree” that they are less price sensitive when purchasing from a brand that aligns with their values.
Note: Traackr survey was conducted for this report using the online survey platform Pollfish. The sample of 500 individuals in the United Kingdom was surveyed between November 2, 2022 and November 3, 2022. The margin of error is ±4.38% and no additional weighting was done to the initial sample.