influencer campaign composition - an empirical study of influencer marketing campaign considerations

Abstract: Influencer marketing has become one of the prominent marketing strategies for companies. However, how practitioners, in actuality, form a decision basis and what considerations there are in the process of designing an influencer marketing campaign regarding influencer selection, performance measures and optimization continue to elude researchers. To shed further light upon this, the present study takes on an exploratory, inductive approach where several in-depth interviews were conducted with influencers, representatives from companies, and influencer agencies. The findings reveal that, in reality, there are only rudimentary ways of treating those subjects wherein four ways of categorizing influencers were identified: a) the size of the following, b) demographic and c) geographic categorization, and d) niche and personality in conjunction with three main performance measurements: 1) reach, 2) engagements, and 3) conversion rate. Continuing, the study identifies additional topics of interest that seemingly influence the decision process, such as interparty miscommunication, the level of creative freedom, and compensation levels for influencers. The study concludes that a lack of categorization sophistication regarding influencers, brands, and products results in narrow sets of performance measures, most commonly sales and engagement, and highlights the need for adequate non-monetary performance measures to better capture brand-related effects. It is also acknowledged that influencer marketing management needs efficient communication and a balanced level of creative freedom between the three identified main actors to lead a successful collaboration. While the study has its limitations, it contributes both managerially and theoretically by outlining key considerations to help navigate the influencer marketing landscape and illuminate prominent areas of interest to study further as well as presenting a variety of perspectives on many common issues of the stakeholders involved in influencer marketing aiming to give insight and a better understanding of the multiple parties to promote better collaborations.