What’s In This Post on YouTube User Stats?

Lots. We gathered a ton of stats on how each generation – Generation Z, Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers – uses YouTube. We included info on the number of YouTube users who are from each generation and checked out surveys released by Google to identify those differences and even the small nuances in how older people use YouTube compared to younger users. Plus, you can find a nice roundup of general stats on YouTube usage, penetration, and trends.

Pretty compelling stuff.

Oh, and if you’re looking for more general information about the platform, click over to this post on YouTube statistics!

YouTube Audience Demographics

There are between 2.49 billion and 2.7 billion users on YouTube, making it the second most-used social media app in the world. YouTube is probably the most commonly used social media app across demographics. There’s very little variance from age group to age group in the percentage of them who are on the platform.

According to Statista:

• 94% of US internet users 13-14 years old say they’ve watched YouTube (this is a Pew Research stat)
• 77% of US internet users 15 to 35 years old watch YouTube
• 73% of 36 to 45-year-olds watch YouTube
• 70% of 46 to 55-year-olds watch YouTube
• 67% of those 56 and older watch YouTube, and
• 80% of parents say their children under 11 watch YouTube

These numbers (the ones up here ) show a consistency in use between generations. By contrast, the preferred platform may change depending on the age and gender of the users. For instance…

• Men between the ages of 25 and 44 prefer Facebook (Digital 2023 Global Overview Report – Slide 185)
• Women of the same age lean more toward Instagram (for 25 to 34-year-old women) and WhatsApp (for women 35 to 44 years old).
• Teens 13-14 years old lean more toward YouTube followed by TikTok and Snapchat.
• Teens 15-17 years old lean more toward YouTube followed by Instagram and TikTok.

Point is: most people who are online are also on YouTube, so you can rest assured the consumer you’re targeting is on the platform.

YouTube Usage Habits for the Over 60 Consumer

67% of Baby Boomers, ages 60 – 77, watch YouTube.

Many marketers seem sort of bent on getting Gen Z eyes on their products, but brands can reap huge rewards by targeting the mega-spending generation known as Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers should be a BIG DEAL to brands and marketers. According to Think with Google, they spend at least six hours a day online and own an average of five devices.

Be honest. Internet users over the age of 60 are probably the folks you expect would spend the LEAST amount of time watching YouTube videos. But in reality, the cool kids who make up the 55-and-up crowd account for 17.8 percent of YouTube viewers – that’s like 445 million folks.

HOW THIS COHORT CONSUMES YOUTUBE CONTENT

With an estimated 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day, you would think this generation had oodles of time on their hands. But, according to a survey run by Google of YouTube statistics, one of the big reasons more seasoned consumers love YouTube is because it helps them save time.

YouTube is a GREAT resource for getting a better understanding of a product. It’s sort of a mid-funnel buying guide they can easily use without having to go to a store, spend hours on with tech support, or call in a younger (know-it-all) relative. According to HubSpot, 26 percent of these sophisticated shoppers say they discover new products most often on YouTube.

That said… mature consumers are far more likely to respond positively to data-driven product reviews (think “here is the product, here are the specs”) than opinion-based product reviews of another YouTuber’s experience with a brand or product (such as “My boyfriend has one of these and it works really great! Blah! Blah! Blah!).

Video content serves as a vehicle by which elder consumers can learn new skills – something a lot of Boomers are really into post- empty nest. So, whether they want to learn how to play guitar, pick up a new language, or even become a social media influencer themselves, they’re turning to video to learn how to do it.

WHY BABY BOOMERS HEAD TO YOUTUBE :

• How-to videos for learning new skills
• Entertainment roundups to keep up-to-date
• Online tutorials that can save them time
• Getting up on new music
• Product demonstrations and walk-throughs (not necessarily reviews)

YouTube Usage Habits for Gen X Consumers Ages 45-59.

7 in 10 Generation Xers watch YouTube.

Born into a world that drastically changed around them as they grew up, Gen X is probably the most adaptable generation. When the older Gen Xers were the youngest people in the world, having a TV in the home was juuuuust becoming the norm.

Now, programmed TV is becoming obsolete as people spend more of their time consuming content online rather than watching live TV (and TV manufacturers were smart to make televisions essentially 50-inch monitors for watching ESPN+ and YouTube – that definitely kept electronics companies in the game).

HOW GEN XERS CONSUME YOUTUBE CONTENT

Gen Xers spend A LOT of time watching video, and especially old school content – stuff from their teen and adolescent years. In fact, 75 percent of Gen Xers use YouTube to get access to nostalgic videos.

While this generation is all about the nostalgia effect, they’re still spending more time watching video content on their computers and smartphones than they are on traditional TV. Gen Xers account for over 1.5 billion views on YouTube every day, so the incentive to engage with them is definitely there.

Gen Xers aren’t just spending time on YouTube though. While it is an important platform, Gen Xers share content – especially video – more readily to Facebook than any other site. I know. I know – doesn’t fall into the category of YouTube statistics. But…

Their propensity to want to share to Facebook is mirrored on YouTube and Instagram, showing that to reach this generation (well, any generation really), you’ll need to develop a multichannel approach.

WHY GEN XERS HEAD TO YOUTUBE :

• Nostalgia-driven video to take them back to their childhood
• DIY videos they can follow along
• Current news and trending events

YouTube Usage Habits for Millennial Consumers Ages 28 to 44

3 in 4 Millennials watch YouTube.

Millennials – YouTubers who in 2024 will range in age from their late 20s to their early 40s – make up one-third of YouTube’s audience. YouTube reaches more 18 to 34-year-olds than any of the TV networks, and that’s just on mobile devices; we’re not including browser views.

Despite Instagram and Facebook essentially becoming video platforms over the past few years, YouTube is still the video platform of choice for most Millennials. And as YouTube’s been leaning into building out more social features since the pandemic, the platform is largely seen as a social network; it’s become a place where people can connect with one another through video since you can now follow your favorite commenters, it’s a hub for synchronized activities, and it’s the perfect spot for community-focused activites. Much of that synchronicity and community is driven by the 18 to 40 crowd.

HOW MILLENNIALS CONSUME YOUTUBE CONTENT

Millennials are avid YouTubers. Fifty-four percent of Millennials check YouTube every single day. While about 1 in 10 Millennials use ad blockers, and more than half only watch YouTube ads to the Skip Ad point, 29 percent of Millennials actually watch YouTube ads all the way through. And don’t forget our earlier stat about the 90 percent of people using YouTube for product discovery.

Sponsored Content and Creators: Contrary to popular beliefs about how Millennials relate to brands, many Millennials (especially Millennial women and moms) want and expect to see sponsored content (we talked about that a bit in the What Makes Them Buy post), AS LONG AS it’s the right ad targeting the right person on the right platform at the right time. And many Millennials are actually kinda sweet on well-targeted video ads.

Entertainment: Thirty-seven percent of Millennials admit to binge-watching a block of something every day, and upwards of 65 percent of Millennials binge-watch at least once a week. So, it’s good news to marketers that 62 percent of Millennials actually take action after seeing an ad.

Social Commerce: According to Klarna, 49 percent of Millennial YouTubers have used the platform to purchase a product.

MILLENNIALS ARE AVID CONTENT CREATORS AS WELL

I was trying to scratch an itch – and that itch was just my suspicion that Millennials are probably the most active content creators on YouTube. I didn’t find any specific data to support me. But I did find a few breadcrumbs that will push me to keep searching.

There are roughly 303 million content creators in the world and the average age of a content creator is 40 years old. Millennials represent 42 percent of creators globally. And roughly one in four of those creators say they create video content. That’s according to a report published by Adobe called “Creators in the Creator Economy.” In fact, the 2023 YouTube Culture and Trends Report, says that 40 percent of 18 to 44-year-olds identify as video creators.

WHY MILLENNIALS HEAD TO YOUTUBE :

• News and human interest stories to keep up to date
• Unboxing and product review videos to influence their spending
• Quick and fun entertainment content
• Fan content

YouTube Usage Habits for Gen Z Consumers Ages 12 to 27

77% of Gen Zers, ages 12 to 27, watch YouTube.

Enter Gen Z, the largest and most diverse generation in history. These social media natives are growing up in a world of selfies, influencers, and hashtags. They know how to navigate the online world better than anyone else, and their video consumption habits reflect this. Growing up, YouTube had more influence over this generation than big names like Oreo, McDonald’s, and even Lego.

YouTube is their most used platform, closely followed by Instagram or TikTok, depending on their age – all three video-first platforms. So, it’s safe to say that if you’re targeting Gen Z, you need to be targeting them through video. On YouTube.

HOW GEN ZERS CONSUME YOUTUBE CONTENT

Fifty-nine percent of Gen Z video consumption is through social media, where they spend twice as much time as they do on streaming services, and five times as much as on traditional media. What are they watching, though?

Entertainment – While YouTube isn’t the top music streaming platform (Spotify holds this spot), it’s a key channel for new music discovery. If your mind went to TikTok, you’re onto something! TikTok is a key player when it comes to introducing new music to the masses, but YouTube has TikTok beat with the under-25 crowd: 26 percent of this group rely on TikTok for new music discovery while 40 percent name YouTube as their go-to.

When it comes to streaming – listening to your favorite music – Spotify and Apple Music are the top music streaming services, with 60 percent and 26 percent (respectively) of teens using those platforms as their go-to.

Setting the Mood – One of the HUGE shifts that came out of the pandemic was repurposing YouTube as the app you can use to find the content that brings you joy. It’s not a typical social feed driven by what’s trending, but YouTube gives its users the chance to heavily curate the kind of content they watch.

• 83 percent of Gen Z YouTubers have used YouTube to watch soothing content that helps them relax and cope.
• 90 percent say they have watched a video that helped them feel like they were in a different place.
• 53 percent of Gen Zers say like online horror content

Content Creators: This is a pretty big one – six in 10 Gen Z YouTubers say they tune into YouTube to keep up with content from their favorite YouTube creators. And we’re not always talking about your typical social media influencers. We’re talking about a pretty wide range of content creators.

• 60 percent of YouTubers say they’re open to watching content from creators who use AI to generate their content.
• 52 percent are already watching content created by virtual YouTubers
• 47 percent of Gen Zers have watched videos made by fans of a topic or person

The data is pointing to younger YouTubers creating more immersive and all-encompassing experiences for themselves on the platform, heading to YouTube for the freedom to create and to find just about anything, and find it in a variety of different content formats.

WHY GEN Z HEADS TO YOUTUBE:

• For the sheer joy and ease of it
• Humor – They love videos that make them laugh
• Following content creators
• Setting the mood
• New music discovery
• Vibing with their community (often through fandom)
• Short and snappy content to compete with their busy lives and busy minds
• Unboxing and product reviews to keep on top of trends

That’s It for Our Roundup of YouTube User Statistics!

When you’re talking about online video, you should always begin with the powerhouse – YouTube. YouTube is packed with features that can really help you elevate your video marketing. YouTube has blazed a trail that other platforms have tried to follow, but it remains distinguished for its powerful recommendation engine and serves as a go-to platform for community, entertainment, product discovery, vibing out, and digging into moments.

If you happen to be considering YouTube influencer marketing to amplify your strategy this year, reach out! We’re a BOSS YouTube influencer marketing agency.

The post 2024 YouTube Audience Demographics: User Habits by Generation appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Since then, other significant changes have happened on and around YouTube. Communities are thriving on the platform. Short-form video’s become a thing. Super long-form video? Also a thing. So, we’ve been keeping an eye on YouTube because it’s constantly changing, and marketers have to make a conscientious effort now to stay up to date with what’s happening on the platform. So, we’ve got YouTube statistics for you.

In this post, we’ve cataloged a list of YouTube stats that will help you understand all the basics about everybody’s favorite platform — how many folks are on the platform, who’s on it, how long they’re spending on the app, and what they’re doing while they’re there. We cover that, and a lot more in this post of the 2024 YouTube statistics, demographics, and usage data. Woot! Woot!!

Essential YouTube Statistics for 2024 Marketing Pushes

#1 YouTube has about 2.5 billion monthly users.

YouTube is the OG of video content platforms. Launched back in 2005 (on Valentine’s Day), YouTube now has over 2.49 billion unique users every month. I’ve actually seen this number as high as 2.7 billion on a trusted site recommended by Google.

Whether you’re leaning more toward 2.49 or 2.7, YouTube is the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. To put that in perspective, there are 5.3 billion people on the internet, and 47 percent of them are using YouTube. That is A LOT of people.

#2 Roughly 90% of YouTubers are outside the U.S.

Only about 10 percent of YouTube users are in the United States. Still, US-based users represent the second largest audience, after India, where 18.5 percent of YouTubers (462 million people) reside. The platform’s available in 100 countries and in 80 languages.

#3 YouTube is the 2nd most-visited website in existence.

Right? No surprise there. YouTube is the second most visited website in existence after Google AND the second largest search engine in the world… also after Google.

#4 A billion hours of UGC and branded content are watched on the platform daily.

And that’s not even hyperbole! The range of content across YouTube is phenomenal, namely because it’s all user-generated content. Over a billion hours of video are watched every day on the platform, and you can find videos on a crazy range of topics from…

…. Learning how to boil an egg so it’s easy to peel

…. To getting a behind-the-scenes look at a movie  you don’t want to admit you firggin’ love (Shut-up! You’re crying!).

… Or listening to the munching sounds of a guy who’s gotten kinda famous for eating on camera

… Me watching my kids watch other kids play games with their parents

… Or kids watching grownups play with dolls.

#5 YouTube reaches more young adults than all the TV networks combined.

On mobile alone a good look at YouTube statistics reveals that the platform reaches more viewers between the ages of 18 and 34 years old than any of the TV networks. In part, because…

#6 About 1 in every 15 YouTubers is watching the channel on a TV.

That’s right. On their big screens. Though 3 in 4 YouTubers access the app from their mobile devices (even when they’re at home), YouTube has 150 million connected TV (CTV) viewers in the U.S.

#7 Most Americans ages 5 and up watch videos on YouTube.

Seriously, if I’m not on there goofing off or using The Huberman Lab as the soothing white noise that blankets my day, my 1st grader is watching The Fun Squad and my 3rd grader is obsessing over episodes of Mr. Beast. And we’re the norm.

In truth, YouTube usage stats confirm that YouTube is unanimously the MOST popular social media app when you take all the age groups into account. The top preferred or top used app changes from demographic to demographic. For instance, young adult men between the ages of 25 and 44 prefer Facebook, while women of the same age lean more toward Instagram (for 25 to 34-year-old women) and WhatsApp (for women 35 to 44 years old). But YouTube is the one app that all generations use just about daily.

According to Statista:

• 77% of US internet users 15 to 35 years old watch YouTube
• 73% of 36 to 45-year-olds watch YouTube
• 70% of 46 to 55-year-olds watch YouTube
• 67% of those 56 and older watch YouTube, and
• 80% of parents say their children under 11 watch YouTube

So, your audience is probably on the platform.

.

YouTube Trends: Video Content Consumption

#8 40% of adults describe themselves as video content creators.

This is one of my favorite YouTube trends because it signals an important shift in both who is creating video and how video is being created. Similarly, four in ten YouTube users between the ages of 18 and 44 would consider themselves content creators. That’s not insignificant! The Future of Creativity: Creators in the Creator Economy, a study published by Adobe, reports that there are roughly 303 million people in the world who identify as content creators — 165 million of whom joined the creator economy since 2020.

#9 More than 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every single minute.

According to the 2023 YouTube Trends Report, 82 percent of people online (18 to 44 years old) say they’ve posted video content to one of the major video platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Stories, Snapchat). What this means is that content creation is becoming the norm, not just limited to a select few content creators who do it for a living.

Technology, cool YouTube features, creative filters, and generative AI are really pushing content creation to the next level, and in so doing, making video creation a more easily accessible and widely used form of expression.

#10 87% of adults are watching at least 4 content formats on YouTube.

Shorts, long-form video, podcasts, livestreams — most adults are grabbing content from YouTube in whatever way they see fit. And that’s a good thing. And with 18 to 24 year-olds, they’ve come to expect it with 67 percent of Gen Zers saying they like when their favorite creators create content in multiple formats.

#11 YouTube Shorts are now racking in more than 70 billion views every day.

YouTube’s short-form video app first rolled out in India after the Indian government banned TikTok back in 2020. Shorts arrived in the US a few months later in the spring of 2021, and has since grown exponentially. From 2022 to the end of 2023, daily views on the app grew from 1.5 billion to 70 billion views a day. And the best part — no one’s had to complain about their YouTube feed being inundated with Shorts — YouTube just kinda went with the flow and users got a chance to discover Shorts on their own. Very cool.

#12 People watch more YouTube on their TVs than they watch Netflix.

People are watching YouTube on their TVs 80 percent more than pre-covid numbers. Over 94 percent of consumers who stream services to their TVs watch YouTube, compared to 75 percent of those who stream Netflix.

And we’re spending more than 40 minutes each session watching content on our mobile devices, too. The platform is steadily spreading throughout our lives to become one of our main sources of video content. When it comes to YouTube statistics, this is an impressive one. In fact…

#13 The data says YouTube is currently outperforming Netflix, Disney Plus, and Prime Video.

Yeah. YouTube has more users than each of those streaming services, and YouTubers spend more time watching video content on the platform than they do watching video on Netflix, Disney Plus, or Prime Video. In my Elon voice, “Hey, Bob!”

Surely, I’m not the only one who has fallen into a recommendation-video-fueled rabbit hole and lost (or invested depending on how you look at it) HOURS to a random, yet interesting, parade of YouTube videos. People are watching more than one billion hours of YouTube videos every day. That’s more than Netflix and Facebook combined

#14 Nearly a quarter of the time people are watching video is now spent viewing live content.

Live streams have become an integral part of the digital environment allowing people to leverage different content formats across platforms to meet different content needs. Live video became a huge deal during the pandemic, and it’s still a staple personally and professionally:

• 42% of people in the US say they’ve watched a live stream
• 40% of marketing execs say they expect to attend work-related conferences and events that are completely virtual
• 52% of live video viewers stream live content via social media networks
• 39% of YouTubers regularly watch live streams

#15 79% of people say they achieve deeper connections when they watch YouTube TV. 

YouTube lends itself well to community building. A few years ago, the idea of virtual presence became a thing — just knowing other people are participating in the same activity. This is true even if the only way of knowing others are participating is by the view counter and the stream of comments on the right side of the screen. It’s sufficient enough to make people feel closer and more connected to one another.

Case in point…

When I grabbed this video embed , 38K people were tuned in to the live stream. At 1:33 PM on a random Wednesday.

YouTube’s Trends Report talks a bit about this: the community that vibed around Lofi Girl’s lofi hiphop channel helped pave the way for a Lofi Girl synthwave channel to be introduced to much anticipation by leveraging YouTube’s Community tab.

The creators of Lofi Girl have built a virtual community around the age-old idea of a study group. And that community engages on YouTube and Discord.

#16 Watching YouTube is considered time well spent.

76 percent of YouTubers agree the platform’s the best place to get a variety of opinions on a topic. It gives users the chance to conduct simple searches to find the content they want to watch, and provides a pretty good catalog of thoughtful perspectives and in-depth commentary. That’s according to data published by Think With Google.

Nearly 7 in 10 YouTubers (69 percent) have gone on a deep dive into a movie, music, or fan theory on YouTube. And believe it or not, 54 percent of those surveyed say they would rather watch YouTube creators break down a major event rather than watch the event itself.

I happen to be an MCU buff, but I never read comic books growing up. So, every superhero movie I watch is just a big surprise to me. “Holy crap! Is Howard Tony’s dad?” Actual quote. I’ve found that an important part of my experience connecting with the massive community of Marvel fans — many of whom watch all the things and read all the comics — is watching Easter egg videos on YouTube to help me understand what the heck I just watched, and to infuse the appropriate amount of excitement and anticipation into my experience ahead of Marvel’s new movies and shows. Most of my Marvel knowledge (and I have A LOT of it) I actually gleaned from watching content created by other MCU fans on YouTube.

Super important. Channels like New Rockstars help me decode the significance of events that transpire in the MCU and imbue me with all kinds of geek knowledge about the mythos and ethos of superhero fandom. It’s my version of filling my wine tumbler with fermented goodness.

Coincidentally, superhero movie fans — we’re the most likely fan group to watch livestreams on YouTube.

#17 Young adults lean into YouTube to help them achieve or enjoy different moods.

YouTubers — especially younger users — leverage the platform to help them find the right content for whatever mood they’re in.

• 83% of young YouTubers have used the platform to watch soothing content that helps them relax and cope
• 90% say they have watched a video that helped them feel like they were in a different place
• 53% say they like watching online horror content

YouTube Statistics: It’s Effectiveness As a Marketing Channel

#18 70% of the content people watch on YouTube are recommendations from YouTube.

YouTube’s algorithm is STELLAR when it comes to matching user behavior with the types of content they are most likely to find interesting. The beauty of this is it nicely positions brands to be found by their audience when these brands invest in YouTube influencer marketing. Just sayin’.

#19 YouTube is a MAJOR product discovery source for users.

It’s not going to be super shocking to learn that 90 percent of YouTubers say they discover new brands or products when they watch YouTube videos.

Case in point: I started seeing Baerskin Hoodie ads a few months ago. Yeah… no, none of these people are African American moms like me… but then I watch A LOT of content about sci-fi and action movies, off-grid living, and surviving the Northern Territories. So, I get why I’m seeing the ads. To the algorithm, I’m sure my watch habits overlap the watch habits of someone who would be into this product. And the targeting was spot-on. I’m ordering these for myself and my daughters. And I recently found out my dad – who hunts, fishes, and works outdoors – owns Baerskin hoodies.

#20 70% of people say they bought a brand after seeing it on YouTube.

Now, compare that to the 40 percent of users who said they had purchased something after seeing it on YouTube just a few years ago. That’s a pretty big jump.

#21 Video ads get 3X the eyes of regular TV ads.

This is important because people are 3X more likely to pay attention to online video ads over television ads. They are twice as likely to give their attention to a YouTube video ad, even over Instagram and Facebook video ads. No doubt that has a lot to do with the platform’s targeting capabilities.

#22 YouTube ranks 3rd with marketers as a preferred social media marketing channel.

Facebook has been the leader in social media marketing since forever. And Instagram is the primary platform for influencer marketing efforts. YouTube occupies a sweet spot that more than half of marketers say makes it worth leveraging. In fact, according to The State of Marketing 2023, a report released by HubSpot, 57 percent of marketers were leveraging YouTube as part of their marketing strategy. Because these are the type of YouTube statistics they know how to leverage.

#23 YouTube also ranks 3rd with marketers for social media platforms that offer the highest ROI.

Brands and marketers continue to allocate resources to YouTube marketing. YouTube ranked third among influencer marketers for most popular platforms and third as the social media platform that offers the highest ROI when selling products directly in the app, according to HubSpot’s 2023 Global Social Media Trends Report.

2024 YouTube Statistics in Conclusion

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve seen a marketer acting like video is the only strategy out there. YouTube probably isn’t the only channel that comes to mind when video marketing is mentioned, but it’s a pretty effective one for running influencer campaigns, amplifying reach, and diversifying the content of your multichannel marketing push.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn all have video features that can breathe new life into repurposed content and pivot your brand from being a name in the network to being a human-centered collective of professionals that other organizations know, respect, and admire.

Take these YouTube statistics as proof. The platform can add a touch of mid-funnel magic to the sales cycles of marketers and brands. It allows for creative, high-impact storytelling that your team can personalize AND scale.

The post 23 YouTube Statistics for 2024: The Stats and Trends That Drive YouTube appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Holiday Shopping Began Much Earlier This Year

Every year, shoppers start grabbing stuff a little earlier. But this year, Black Friday sales OFFICIALLY kicked off November 1st. This came after a Mega Sale period that extended beyond the normal two-day Prime sales. Instead, It began with Target’s Circle Week, which ran from October 1st – 7th,. It then went through Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days from October 10th – 11th. And it ended with Walmart’s Holiday Kickoff Sale from October 9th – 12th.

Many of us are finally settling in a bit after the economic shifts brought on by the pandemic. And we’re still grappling with inflation. In fact, Moody Analytics’ Chief Economist Mark Zandi says that inflation is costing consumers $709 a month more this year than two years ago. Yikes!

This year, 41 percent of holiday shoppers planned to start their shopping by October or earlier. And they’re mostly doing it to spread out their holiday budget.

Cool Takeaways from This Year’s Holiday Strategy

Nearly half of Gen Zers plan to use social media to shop this year.

For years, Facebook has been the leader in social commerce, and a favorite platform for marketing (and holiday marketing!) and paid advertising. But as the buying power of the world’s young adults increases, marketers would be well-advised to keep their eye on them. This year, 48 percent of Gen Zers say they’re planning to do a little social shopping via TikTok and Instagram.

Those are two HUGE platforms shoppers use to find ideas. Thirty-seven percent of shoppers defer to social media before making a purchase. And 85 percent of Gen Zers say social media influences their purchase, at least to some degree.

Online retailers with physical stores can woo customers with convenience and speed.

Believe it or not, younger consumers shop in-store as much as they shop online. And while older consumers are shopping online more, they are suckers for a great in-store experience. (With some friendly and knowledgeable help on standby in case they’re needed.) Add to that the impact social media can have on fueling sales and the word is your brand needs to have multiple touchpoints. In marketing lingo from the brand perspective, or in the minds of consumers, you need multiple destinations.

Social ads are a welcome interruption for shoppers, especially for holiday marketing.

Forty-two percent of Millennials and 50 percent of Gen Zers say social media is THE MOST RELEVANT channel for ads. Millennial women surveyed by Bustle say they expect to see brands represented on social media. Gen Zers say sponsored content resulting from partnerships between brands and their favorite influencers Is an acceptable way for brands to approach them.

Eighteen percent of holiday shoppers get their gift ideas from social media ads. And seven percent say influencer recommendations are a source of gift ideas this time of year. They make room for the unintrusive way in which social media ads and sponsored content show up on social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest because users visit those platforms to source ideas. Interestingly, on Pinterest, eight in ten users ARRIVE on the platform with purchase intent. But only three percent of searches are branded.

That means…. shoppers are looking for products, not necessarily specific brands.

Influencer marketing is a go-to strategy for getting holiday sales.

Most marketers identify the primary BENEFIT of social media marketing on platforms like Instagram and TikTok as increased exposure. But both are also highly shoppable. Instagram is the preferred platform for product discovery, whereas Pinterest is the platform pinners use to plan purchases.

Eight in ten marketers say influencer marketing is an effective strategy. In just the last five years, influencer marketing has gone from being a $500 million industry to being a $21B industry.

No kidding.

So, if you’re still grappling with whether or not you should incorporate social media marketing into this last-minute holiday push, the answer is absolutely.

Without further ado, here is the step-by-step guide to holiday social media marketing.

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The post INFOGRAPHIC: 2023 Holiday Spending and Trends + Marketing Ideas and Tips appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

So today, we’re looking at the one thing that probably drives more conversations, actions, and pivots for social media marketers than anything else – social media algorithms. 

Listen to a recap of this article

Why We’re Having a Conversation About Social Algorithms

In 2023, nearly every company you can think of is using social media to reach their audience. Statista published a stat that said 9 in 10 marketers in companies with 100 or more employees are leveraging social media marketing in one way or another. Social media is not only one of the most effective marketing channels (according to 77 percent of social media marketers polled by HubSpot), it’s also one of the most reliable customer acquisition channels for brands.

• Two-thirds of the world’s population is online
• 59 percent of the people in the world (4.7 billion folks) are also active on at least one social media platform (Data Reportal)
• 65 percent of U.S. consumers say the link in a post led them to discover a product they weren’t originally interested in purchasing (Retail Touchpoints)
• 47 percent of US consumers have engaged in social commerce, meaning they’ve made a purchase through social media (Mintel)

Social media presents brands with a unique opportunity to reach audiences organically. But also to forge connections and compose a brand narrative that clearly articulates and reinforces its values and its value.

Upwards of 68 percent of companies are adding an influencer marketing strategy to their digital marketing efforts. But even without partnering with influencers (and allowlisting influencer posts to boost the reach), a brand’s ability to consistently create social media content that resonates with consumers really is its best chance at building brand loyalty. (Enter Wendy’s rogue, brass-b*lls social media strategy)

I recently updated one of our seminal posts, entitled “Is Influencer Marketing Dead?”. As I was raining down verbal blows upon the heads of influencer marketing haters and naysayers, something kinda stuck out in my mind as I researched stats. Here’s the thoughtful blurb that will serve to set the stage and provide context for this article on social media algorithms:

Right now, young adults (ages 16 to 30) spend an average of 1 hour more on social media per day than the average person. Half (friggin’ HALF ) of Gen Zers spend 4 hours OR MORE on social media every single day. That kind of time investment leads me to believe that the way younger consumers are using social media is more encompassing than the way older consumers social. For example:

• Search: About 47 percent of 16 to 34-year-olds use social media as a primary source of information when researching brands. Meanwhile, 44 percent rely on search engines.
• Spying: 82 percent of adults ages 16 and over use at least one social media platform to follow or research brands.
• Connecting: For Generation Z, social posts aren’t a highlight reel like they were for Millennials. They’re the social media equivalent of their train of thought. Their posts and stories are a window into their lives and passions. 
• Living a lifestyle of sharing and influencing: 41 percent of Gen Z describe themselves as video content creators, signaling a shift to a culture of creativity and influence.
• Innovation: 65 percent of Gen Z surveyed say they used a filter, feature, or effect on a video app over the past year. And 60 percent of Gen Zers surveyed say they’re open to watching content from creators who use AI to generate their content.

If younger consumers are spending more time online, it makes sense to me that they are also using social media to fulfill more of their needs in key areas such as self-expression, friendship, work, entertainment, and completing daily tasks (like shopping and figuring out what to do for the weekend).

In order to reach them, you have to make your brand a welcome addition to their feeds by creating the right content for the right platforms. And that means understanding the algorithms.

The Interest Graph vs. The Social Graph

Simply put, social media algorithms are sets of rules used to determine how and when to surface content. They use different user signals to determine what content to display. The recipe for how these signals are weighted changes from platform to platform, as well as within a single platform to power different features.

(Much respect to our Dev team – I know that this is an oversimplification. You guys are nothing short of wizards. All of yuz!)

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to look at two primary types of social media algorithms: the interest graph and the social graph. As a general rule, let’s concede that socially-driven algorithms prioritize content based on what the content is and who it’s from while interest-driven algorithms prioritize content based on how the user interacts with the content and how they’ve engaged with similar content in the past.

So, with Facebook’s socially-driven algorithm, I get to see my octogenarian great-uncle in his Sunday’s best, and it warms my heart. Love that dude. On TikTok, even though I may follow Unc, I never see his content. But I see a lot of content from the “Cocaine Bear” guy because he’s hilarious and just about the only type of content I engage with on TikTok is funny videos.

By the way, that movie’s not suitable for family movie night…. just a heads up. Learned that the hard way. Ya can’t unsee it, guys.

@scottseiss Thank you for 1 MILLION followers Reuploading some of the muted vids! #retail #work #fyp #bgcdramaeffect ♬ original sound – Scott Seiss

Algorithm #1: The Social Graph (aka the friends and family plan)

Remember a few years ago when our social media feeds were made up of posts from the people we follow? You had to be super careful about who you followed, and who you engaged with. Owners of new social accounts were hellbent on getting as many followers as they could to ensure their content was visible. The larger your network, the greater your potential reach.

Well, that’s because social feeds surfaced content based on a user’s network, followers, and connections. This was social media’s Social Graph era.

What Is the Social Graph? 

The Social Graph is an algorithm that prioritizes social media feeds to display content from the people and topics/hashtags followed by the user.

Socially-driven algorithms also display content based on the interests of the accounts users are connected to on a platform. Until about three years ago, most social media platforms prioritized the socially-driven feed, with one exception – TikTok. 

Algorithm #2: The Interest Graph (aka social media as entertainment)

In 2020, TikTok went from being the reincarnation of the pre-teen music app Musical.ly to being the app that helped many of us brave the pandemic. 

When Instagram became a go-to news source for young adult social media users – especially as social activism gave way to in-person protests during the summer of 2020 – TikTok grew in popularity, in large part, because it was the opposite of that. TikTok was a chill place that kids had been using to entertain themselves with unproduced, unbeautified short-form videos. No pretense. No soapboxes. No stress.

TikTok’s personalized feed was a stark departure from the feeds delivered to users by other social media platforms. The primary difference was that TikTok’s algorithm prioritized showing content that aligned with the personal interests of each user over just showing the content posted to the platform by accounts in a user’s network. Enter the era of the Interest Graph

What Is the Interest Graph? 

The Interest Graph is an algorithm that focuses on building the feed by analyzing the various interests, preferences, and behaviors of the individual users on the platform.

Instead of prioritizing content posted by the other accounts a user follows, interest-driven algorithms recommend content based on the topics, hashtags, and accounts that users engage with. 

How the Interest Graph and Social Graph Work Together

While there are certainly more algorithms than just these two, my goal here is to get you to draw the proverbial line in the sand about interest-driven algorithms vs socially-driven algorithms.

Both matter. They work together.

And whether you’re building a content catalog or mapping out a plan for your holiday influencer campaigns, you’ll want to have a pretty good understanding of how these two main algorithms-slash-concepts factor into your planning process.

Yes, TikTok’s Interest Graph Changed the Way We Social

TikTok’s interest-driven algorithm fundamentally changed how people use social media AND it changed how social media works. It was freakishly addictive, becoming the favorite pastime of hundreds of millions of people during the lockdowns. TikTok’s team mastered the attention graph while no one was looking and burst into the Western market, spreading across generations faster than any social media app had ever done prior.

TikTok gave way to the advent of videos going viral, even when posted by accounts with little to no following. TikTok also created the viral sound, which popularized unknown artists and birthed and/or jumpstarted the careers of acts like Lil Nas X and Lizzo. 

Social Media Is In the Entertainment Business

One of the major shifts that happened in social media over the last few years has to do with the type of content users want to see. Take a look at this Notion doc my team and I put together on Gen Z content preferences. A lot of this stuff I pulled from YouTube’s Culture and Trends Report last year.

Horror content, armchair traveling, gaming, mental health content, rewatching favorites, watching short-form teasers of long-form content… You’ll notice that a lot of these content preferences could easily be filled by streaming services. But more likely than not, younger social media users will get their fill by scrolling through a social media feed powered by the interest graph.

Today, social media is progressively taking over the role of traditional television as the main outlet for entertainment with younger consumers. According to a recent report from the Daily Mail, individuals ages 15 to 24 in Britain now dedicate more time to using TikTok than watching television. Similar trends can be observed among teenagers and young adults in the United States, as indicated by statistics published by Insider Intelligence. 

According to Data Reportal, platforms like TikTok and YouTube are outshining streaming giants like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney Plus. More time, more users, and more entertainment are attributed to social media platforms — that’s the new norm.

But You Still Need the Social Graph for Building

While the Interest Graph focuses on interests and preferences, the Social Graph delves into the relationships between individuals on social media. It represents the connections, interactions, and networks that people form online, allowing marketers to understand the social dynamics and social influence within their target market.

So, no – the Social Graph isn’t a thing of the past. An influencer with a strong Social Graph is more likely to have a loyal and engaged following, leading to higher engagement rates and a more successful marketing campaign. Plus, there are popular apps that still power features with socially-driven algorithms, even when prioritizing interest-driven content in-feed.

Instagram’s Stories feature is a prime example of the social graph. Originally modeled after Snapchat’s socially-driven disappearing posts, Instagram Stories are short-form videos that can only be seen by a user’s followers. Compare that to Instagram Reels, which are public-facing short-form videos that are displayed in-feed based on a user’s interest. 

Cool facts, Sorilbran. Now, why should we care?

Well, different users engage on social media platforms in different ways. According to Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, teens and younger consumers spend more of their Instagram time in DMs than in Stories. And they spend more time in Stories than they spend looking at content in their feeds (which is where static posts and Reels live).

“Take out all the text,” Mosseri said in a recent interview on the 20VC Podcast. “There are more photos and videos shared in DMs than there are shared in Stories. And there are way more shared in Stories than there are in-feed.” 

If you happen to know or live with a Gen Z teen or young adult, you may have noticed that for this cohort, phone numbers are not the go-to method of keeping in touch – Instagram is. When younger social media users meet someone they want to keep in touch with, they exchange Instagram handles, not phone numbers.

Phone numbers are typically reserved for potential business opportunities, or between people who are in established friendships.

Why not exchange TikTok handles? Because TikTok’s interest-driven algorithm doesn’t prioritize personal connections. So, it’s unlikely that new acquaintances would be able to strengthen their relationship beyond that initial contact because there’s no guarantee they’d ever see one another’s posts on TikTok.

Younger consumers use Instagram Stories as a means to build their communities and get to know one another. Instagram is where potential friendships can start to blossom and where ill-fated relationships go to die (or be unfollowed, as it were).

** It’s also worth noting that this behavior can also be seen in Gen Alphas – they will often exchange Roblox display names instead of phone numbers.**

To achieve the best results in your social media marketing efforts, consider the interplay between the Interest Graph and the Social Graph.

Here’s a Simple Use Case for Social vs Interest Algorithms

So, how do you use this information in your campaign? Let’s look at a couple of scenarios that work in some influencer marketing ideas.

Scenario 1: Let’s say you have launched an influencer campaign to boost your brand recognition. You can work with a content creator who may not necessarily be influential in your vertical, but they have a track record of creating really great, high-value content that the algorithm loves to recommend. 

In this scenario, you may choose to partner with a larger influencer who specializes in crafting stories that offer a high entertainment value since your goals include increasing your visibility and boosting brand recall.

You want your brand to be seen and remembered, and you want to make sure the influencer’s content triggers a positive sentiment ( important) so that when consumers see your subsequent branded content or your ads, your marketing efforts pull them deeper into your funnel and gets them closer to being open to taking an action later.

Here’s why I’m thinking this way…

• 71 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase when referred by social media.
• 58 percent are more likely to have positive vibes about an ad on TV, Facebook, or YouTube if they’re first exposed to the campaign via an influencer’s post.
• Influencer promotions generated 87 percent higher memory and 277% more emotional intensity when compared to ads in television.
• 43 percent of Gen Zers say one of the top ways they like to engage with their interests is through stories posted by brands and influencers on social media. 

Right? So, influencer content can set the mood and establish good feels for your entire campaign. And then there’s this little stack of stats:

With that in mind, let’s look at a really great example of a creator who leads with high entertainment value. Comedian Trey Kennedy is a genius when it comes to super-short skits that are hilarious and relatable. His Instagram feed is full of them. This particular post is from Trey’s paid partnership with [yellow tail]. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Trey Kennedy (@treynkennedy)

Scroll through the comments. Notice how Trey’s followers know they’re seeing a sponsored post. And frankly, they don’t care because the content was so entertaining. The post generated over 27k engagement actions, and was viewed more than 732K times on Instagram alone. (And yes, this campaign was one of ours.)

Scenario 2: Now, let’s say you’re looking at a more traditional type of influencer marketing activation, targeting young adult consumers with a mid-funnel campaign designed to get them to take a specific action. In this case, you may choose to work nano, micro and/or mid-tier influencers who have built their audiences on Instagram. You also want to make sure they have credibility and influence with their audience in a vertical or category that aligns with your product.  

Why? One of the benefits of working with nano, micro, and mid-tier Instagrammers is that those influencers are more likely to have established relational equity with their audiences. This relational equity (i.e. influence) enables influencers to have their recommendations looked at more closely and taken more seriously. 

Here’s a fun stat that may help tie this together: Forty percent of millennials have reported saying they feel like influencers know them better than their own friends. 

So, it remains true that in the realm of influencer marketing, the Social Graph plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of brand collaborations. By analyzing the relationships between influencers and their followers, you can get a pretty good idea of an influencer’s authority, credibility, and ability to drive engagement. 

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Creating Synergy between Social Media Algorithms

To achieve the best results in your social media marketing efforts, consider the interplay between the Interest Graph and the Social Graph. Brands have a chance to uncover new opportunities for content creation and influencer partnerships by learning how to think beyond the product, the mission, and the branded language to take a data-driven approach to marketing on social media.

By comprehending the nuances of these algorithms and their impact on your marketing efforts, you can stay ahead of the game and build marketing campaigns that consistently deliver on your most important KPIs. And isn’t that all any of us wanna do?

About the Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will builds our brand and gets our readers to do a thing

The post Mastering Social Media Algorithms: The Interest Graph vs the Social Graph appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

The spooky season is upon us. And that means you’re ready for all the 2023 Halloween spending, trends, insights, and strategies. We love our Halloween statistics.

Before you dig into this massive infographic, I think it’s only right for me to highlight some of the more interesting (read, valuable) Halloween stats contained herein.

Halloween Spending, Sales, and Stats

When autumn finally rolled around in 2020, less than half of us were interested in celebrating Halloween in the traditional sense. (It may have had something to do with the fact that every single day of 2020 seemed a little like Halloween…) For most of us, that resistance was tied directly to still being hesitant to gather in crowds, go door-to-door, or (heaven forbid) take anything out of anyone else’s hands.

We’ve come a long way since those dark days. In fact, this year will see the highest percentage of people celebrating Halloween in nearly 20 years, according to the National Retail Federation.

This year, trick-or-treating is back on the agenda, and candy is still the most popular thing to buy for Halloween. You won’t be surprised that 95 percent of celebrants pick some up for the big day. More than two-thirds of celebrants (68 percent) have plans to hand out candy this Halloween.

Per-Person Halloween Spending tops $108 This Year

2021 was historic for Halloween spending because it was the first year per-person spending pushed past the $100 mark. This year, celebrants are set to spend an average of $108.24 on Halloween festivities, totaling approximately $12.2 billion in sales — the highest in recorded history. 

Candy’s Popular, But the Biggest Investment Still Goes to Costumes

This year, in 2023, each of the top Halloween spending categories — candy, decorations, costumes, and greeting cards — will see significant increases. That’s not just over last year’s numbers but also over 2019 pre-pandemic spending numbers. 

In fact, with the exception of greeting cards, the most popular spending categories for happy Halloweeners have each seen significant growth in sales since 2019. 

• Candy sales are up 39 percent, from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $3.6 billion this year
• Sales of Halloween decorations are up 50 percent, from $2.6 billion in 2019 to $3.9 billion this year 
• Costume sales are up 34 percent, from $3.2 billion in 2019 to $4.1 billion this year

Check Out Our Halloween Infographic

For more info on how you can use influencer marketing in your digital strategies this season, check out our Halloween trends post. And check out this EPIC infographic for more ideas. Bonus: there are campaign strategies, tricks, and treats at the bottom of this sucker!

COPY and PASTE THIS CODE to EMBED THIS GRAPHIC.

About This Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will build your brand and get your audience to do a thing.

The post [Infographic] 2023 Halloween Spending, Sales, Stats, and Trends appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

I’ll be honest — the influencer marketing industry has changed A LOT over the past decade. However, the principles that govern influencer marketing are pretty well established. People will always talk to other people about their experiences. And many of those conversations are happening online because 6 in 10 adult humans are online.

Influencer marketing isn’t dead. But just so you have a chance to understand why we’re taking that position, let’s look at the data. And you can decide for yourself if influencer marketing is over.

Is Trouble Looming for the Influencer Marketing Industry?

I saw a stat recently that said 48 percent of consumers distrust influencer marketing. This stat, along with a handful of similar stats, is making the rounds in our industry and it gets cited over and over again. I saw another stat just last week that says 90 percent of consumers are turned off by influencer marketing. Both stats were used as headlines.

These types of headlines have been floating around for years. I know that because I originally wrote and published this article as a response post in 2018. Most of the articles with these types of gloom-and-doom headlines around influencer marketing are either misquotes or clickbait. If you keep clicking through the links to find the original source of the stat, you’ll discover the stat is either misquoted from a study with similar wording, but a completely different meaning, or it’s a “shock stat” created to get you to click to read the article. Happens all the time.

In Reality, Influencer Marketing Is Having a Growth Spurt

The influencer marketing industry has more than tripled in size in the last four years, ballooning to a market size of $21 billion. New influencer marketing best practices and laws help to further formalize influencer marketing as an industry, not just another growth hacking strategy.

So, if you happen to be one of the 5 to 8 percent of marketers still grappling with whether an Instagram influencer marketing campaign would be worth the effort, you’re in the right place.

Influencer Marketing Isn’t New

Influencer marketing isn’t new. The history of influencer marketing stretches as long as human history. But social media influencer marketing? Yeah, that’s newish. If you don’t count forums and chat rooms, leveraging word-of-mouth marketing in digital spaces is a relatively new tactic for boosting awareness. But using influential creatives to get the word out about something? That’s always been a thing.

Yeah, before Ronald Reagan was president, he was an actor hawking soap for daytime television. Soap operas, if you will.

At its core, influencer marketing is word-of-mouth marketing in a digital space. So… Instagram didn’t invent influence. And Instagram won’t end it.

5 Signs That Influencer Marketing Is Alive and Well

In recent years, influencer marketing has been under scrutiny, with talking heads and skeptics predicting its imminent decline. But we don’t believe that. Not because we’re plucky and optimistic, and not because we’re an influencer marketing agency living in denial. We don’t believe it because the data doesn’t back it up, and if there’s one thing we’re big on, it’s data.

So let’s look at several compelling signals that suggest influencer marketing is far from dead and is, in fact, thriving.

Signal #1: People Are Living Life on Social Media

Social media has woven itself into the very fabric of our lives. There are 8 billion people on this planet, and 68 percent of us are online. What’s even more fascinating is that 87.5 percent of those who are online are also active social media users. That’s around 4.8 billion people. Regardless of geographic location or age group, social media users spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on social media platforms.

That’s 75 hours a month.

Or three full days dedicated to social media every single month.

That’s the average, but the number’s even higher for Gen Z.

Social media is how we connect:

Remember when a phone call or face-to-face meet-up was the only way to catch up with friends and family? Well, those days aren’t entirely gone, but social media has become our go-to avenue for staying in touch. These days, new acquaintances are just as likely to exchange Instagram handles as phone numbers.

Nearly 45 percent of social media users aged 16 and above follow their friends, family, and people they know on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and WeChat. It’s where we share milestones, inside jokes, nostalgic memes, and TikToks so that we can tag our siblings and ask them if they agree with Miss Tanara’s assessment that everybody’s so creative with their cooking.

Social media is a growing source of entertainment:

The days of traditional TV dominating our entertainment are quickly fading into oblivion. According to Daily Mail, young Britons between the ages of 15 and 24 are spending more time scrolling through TikTok than they are glued to their TV screens. Similar trends can be observed among teenagers and young adults in the United States, as indicated by statistics published by Insider Intelligence.

And it’s not just TikTok. According to Data Reportal, platforms like YouTube are outshining streaming giants like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney Plus. More time, more users, and more entertainment are attributed to social media platforms — that’s the new norm.

People are on social media, and brands go where the attention is.

Signal #2: People Like (and Trust) Influencers

One of the most telling signals of the continued relevance of influencer marketing is the popularity of influencers themselves. Social media users genuinely enjoy following influencers who resonate with their interests and values. When it comes to spending time on social media, 21 percent of users are there to find communities of people who like what they like. And those groups are often moderated, hosted, or created by influential content creators.

1 in 5 social media users say following influencers is one of their main reasons for using social media, and those percentages get significantly higher with younger consumers.

Influencers first; ambassadors second

It’s worth remembering that influencers don’t become influencers because a brand hires them. Content creators become influencers long before they’re partnering with brands. And yes, there’s a difference between content creators and influencers.

One of the key metrics The Shelf influencer marketing platform measures during the influencer selection process is category influence — the specific vertical in which a content creator wields influence.

The categories show the topics around which an influencer creates content that are received well by their audience. And those categories are usually supported by the catalog of regularly used hashtags on topics that are closely aligned with their category of influence.

So…

When you see headlines that say people are tired of influencers or that they don’t trust influencers, I would bet dollars to donuts that the thing they actually don’t trust is ads — influencer-generated sponsored content that looks super ad-sy. to !!

This isn’t an a-ha moment for anyone, is it? Unless it’s a Ryan Reynolds-styled advertainment spot, NO ONE likes ads.

They’re disruptive.

They’re superficial.

And they come off as tone-deaf and inauthentic. Sometimes it’s not even because it’s a bad ad! It may be more about the placement. Publishers promise targeted placement, but it’s getting harder and harder for them to grab the data they need to ensure it’s potential buyers who are being targeted with those ads.

Without enough first-party data (and the tech to make that data meaningful) publishers and social media platforms aren’t able to place every ad contextually. That means I end up seeing a Doja Cat video snippet in the middle of my Sunday morning digital church livestream replay. Or my kids have to sit through ads of a middle-aged guy talking up his migraine meds in the middle of their “Come play with me” YouTube binges.

Influencer marketing, when done right, is the fix for tone-deaf ads. Or, at least, it should be. Influencers offer a sense of authenticity and relatability that traditional advertising often lacks. Whether it’s a travel vlogger sharing adventure stories or a beauty guru offering makeup tutorials, influencers create content that resonates with their audiences.

Signal #3: Influencer Marketing Works

Influencer marketing works. And there are a couple of reasons why this is so. Without dropping a bunch of stats in your lap, I first want to set the stage for how people use social media. Those insights will inform the context of the stats and make ’em hit different.

WHY DOES IT WORK?

Social media plays a more significant role in our day-to-day.

Right now, young adults (ages 16 to 30) spend an average of 1 hour more on social media per day than the average person. Half (friggin’ HALF!!) of Gen Zers spend 4 hours or more on social media every single day. That kind of time investment leads me to believe that the way younger consumers are using social media is more encompassing than the way older consumers social. For example:

• Search: About 47 percent of 16 to 34-year-olds use social media as a primary source of information when researching brands. Meanwhile, 44 percent rely on search engines.
• Spying: 82 percent of 16 to 64-year-olds use at least one social media platform to follow or research brands.
• Connecting: For Generation Z, social posts aren’t a highlight reel like they were for Millennials. They’re the social media equivalent of their train of thought. Their posts and stories are a window into their lives and passions. 
• Relationship-building: During a recent interview on the 20VC podcast, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said young people are spending more time in DMs than in Stories, and more time in Stories than in Feed. That’s also where the most rich media (i.e. videos, gifs, pics, audio) are being shared on Instagram.
• Living a lifestyle of sharing and influencing: 41 percent of Gen Z describe themselves as video content creators, signaling a shift to a culture of creativity and influence.
• Innovation: 65 percent of Gen Z surveyed say they used a filter, feature, or effect on a video app over the past year. And 60 percent of Gen Zers surveyed say they’re open to watching content from creators who use AI to generate their content.

We have a hub dedicated to Gen Z: their values and characteristics, how they use social, and their spending habits.

That said…

Social media is the key to brand visibility.

Visibility on social media today carries the cachet that an ad in the Yellowpages carried a generation ago. It’s the primary way your customers are finding you. And it’s a really straightforward way to legitimize your business.

For many consumers, social media is their primary method of discovering new goods and services and researching brands. Consumers aren’t just searching by hashtags and paying attention to the recommendations of influencers; they’re also scrolling your feed and looking for reasons to patronize your business. Added bonus: social media content is visible in the SERPs.

Influencer marketing paves the way for tons of earned media value.

So, earned media value is a way of quantifying the benefit you get from your marketing efforts in a formulaic way that translates mentions into likely conversions. All by itself, earned media is just that — it’s earned. It’s not sponsored content. But often you’ll see stats that tie influencer marketing to increases in earned media value, kinda like how TV spots eventually lead to more sales.

While you’re not gonna be able to use middle school algebra to convert a Like into a sale, there is a direct correlation between influencer content, mentions, and brand lift. Not every sale generated from social media will convert with a click-thru from an influencer post, but we know that most adults have purchased something, or considered purchasing it, after seeing influencer content.

Influencer marketing is an extension of earned media. And if you have a strategy team (like ours) that nails the concepts, they can provide influencers with a framework that will help them not just leverage their influence, but also tap into their mojo as content creators. Great influencer content gets shared and talked about.

Influencer content can provide a nice boost to your other marketing efforts.

Great content also lends itself to positive brand sentiment. Great influencer content can positively impact your customer’s sales path. According to Salesforce, the path to purchase now fragments across nine different channels, and the average social media user is on different seven platforms.

Influencer-generated content makes it easier for brands to show up on different channels with nuanced messages and creative that’s native to each specific channel. That’s what distinguishes traditional ads from influencer content, and it’s a compelling reason to repurpose your influencer content for paid activations through allowlisting.

But even if you’re running full-funnel campaigns using other tactics, consumers are 58 percent more likely to have positive vibes about an ad on TV, Facebook, or YouTube if they’re first exposed to the campaign via an influencer’s post. A neurological analytics study found that influencer promotions generated 87 percent higher memory and 277 percent more emotional intensity when compared to ads on television. 

Plus, if you’re targeting younger consumers, Gen Zers are much better than the average consumer at recalling brands and messaging from ads, even if they’ve only seen them for a second or two.

WHO SAYS IT WORKS?

I tried to color outside the lines a bit on this to deliberately seek out influencer marketing stats from publishers that are not influencer marketing agencies or influencer marketing publications. I found this little gem in the Harvard Business Review in a 2022 article entitled “Does Influencer Marketing Really Pay Off?”: 75 percent of brands now have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing.  

HubSpot reports that 68 percent of marketers work with influencers, and 34 percent are investing between $50K and $500K a year on influencer marketing.

Half of marketers said they believed influencer marketing helped them to woo higher quality customers.

Signal #4: Platforms Provide Support for Influencers

Interestingly enough, influencer marketing has earned its spot as a staple of digital marketing strategies, so much so that both brands and social media platforms are building hubs to actively support influencers. These hubs provide content creators with various tools and features that allow them to enhance their profiles and increase their reach, long before they’re on track to become influencers.

On TikTok…

TikTok’s Creator Portal is the resource hub for TikTok creators, helping newbies navigate the platform and get the lay of the land. The portal also provides TikTokers with a catalog of how-to videos that help TikTokers upskill in everything from their on-screen presence to video effects and editing.

On Meta…

Instagram’s Creator Lab rolled out in 2022 as an educational hub crafted by creators for creators. Instagram brought in content creators to share their invaluable insights gained from their journey, and walks creators through three key areas of content creation on Instagram:

1. Expressing Yourself: Discover your purpose for creating, refine your voice, and enhance your content.
2. Building Community: Learn how to forge meaningful connections and nurture a loyal following.
3. Growing Long-Term: Dive into strategies for the long game, monetizing your content, and establishing a sustainable career.

On Amazon…

Creator University is designed to help influencers and Amazon affiliates learn the ins and outs of selling on the platform. The platform decodes the influencer dashboard, breaks down Amazon’s Operator Agreement, and even walks you through best practices for setting up an Amazon storefront.

Plus, platforms continue to build out features that simplify the process of creating, posting, and monetizing content for creators, as well as tools to boost their visibility and simultaneously build their respective brands.

Signal #5: Governments Continue Formulating Laws to Formalize and Legitimize This Space

Lawmakers now oversee the influencer marketing industry. The rise of influencer marketing laws in places like Brazil, China, Japan, and the US are a sign that the influencer industry is growing up, not fading away.

For the last few years, countries have consistently been formalizing the rules that regulate the influencer marketing industry around the globe. It’s a clear indicator that the industry is maturing. It’s like going from the Wild West to having structured laws that keep everything in check.

In the US, the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines set the standards for transparency in advertising. They’re basically saying, “Hey, if you’re promoting stuff and you’re getting perks or cash, just tell your followers.” It’s all about honesty and fairness.

Now, take Japan, for instance. They’ve banned sneaky online marketing and made it clear that advertisers are the ones who need to play by the rules. They want to stop misleading product info from spreading.

In the UAE, they’ve got influencer licenses! If you’re a creator taking money for ads, you’ve got to get one. It’s a way of making sure influencers are responsible and transparent.

China is also taking steps towards transparency by making Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs are influencers) reveal which networks are backing them and whether their content is pro or user-generated. It’s about keeping things crystal clear.

And Brazil? One of the issues Brazil prioritizes is one we constantly seem to be arguing over in the US, and that’s protecting minors from sketchy online content. With influencer marketing gaining traction, they’re making sure there are safeguards in place.

So, what’s the bottom line? These laws and regulations are a signal that the influencer industry is growing up and becoming more professional. It’s not going away; it’s just becoming more responsible and accountable.

Recap and Wrap-Up

So, there it is. Five signals that make it evident the influencer marketing space is evolving and maturing, but not disappearing. Influencer marketing is far from obsolete. The signals mentioned above collectively indicate that influencer marketing remains a potent tool for brands to connect with their audiences, build trust, and drive engagement. As long as influencers continue to resonate with consumers and deliver value to brands, influencer marketing will maintain its place in the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing.

So, if you’re considering becoming an influencer, remember that success lies in your ability to build a strong, ethical digital marketing business.

About the Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will builds our brand and gets our readers to do a thing

The post Is Influencer Marketing Dead? appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

What Is An Influencer?

Our first order of business is to understand what an influencer is, and you’ll see why in a sec. A social media influencer is a social media user who has built a reputation for being knowledgeable about something. Influencers create compelling content around the topic they’re known for in a way that gets other people to take a specific action.

Content Creators vs Influencers

The terms “content creator” and “influencer” are often used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same. Content creators are those who create content for online spaces and monetize that content. Influencers are those who are able to build a sizable audience on a single platform and earn money by posting social media content to that platform. The size of the audience determines the influencer tier — the type or category of influencer.

Globally, only 1 in 5 content creators even want to become influencers. By comparison, 1 in 3 content creators want to earn money through content, and 1 in 2 content creators want to own a business. So… not everybody’s looking to be an influencer.

All influencers are content creators, but not all content creators are influencers.

How Many Influencers Are There?

There are between 40 million and 50 million social media influencers worldwide, depending on whom you ask. Sounds like a lot, but consider this. In the US alone, there are:

• Approximately 33 million small businesses, according to the Small Business Administration
• 200,000 mid-sized businesses, and
• 20,000 large businesses

Large companies typically own a portfolio of different brands. For instance, Unilever owns 400 brands. Nestlé owns 2,000 brands. LVMH owns 75 “distinguished houses”. So, you can see how a pool 42 million influencers can seem like just a handful to discerning Marketing Directors at these bigger companies.

I read a recent stat that said 165 million new content creators have joined the creator economy since 2020. There are now around 303 million content creators around the globe, and 14 percent of them (around 42 million) are influencers.

• 23 percent of internet users identify as content creators
• 14 percent of content creators are also influencers
• Influencers represent about 3 percent of the global population

What Does It Take to Become An Influencer?

More. That’s the answer. Influencers are content creators who do more than other content creators. They spend more time on content development, more time getting good at creative activities, more time building relationships and forging those connections that will help them to influence people. They do more.

But there are four main signals we want to look at for influencers: intent, time, dedication, and connection.

Signal #1: Intent

In order to become an influencer, you have to want to become an influencer. Having a sizable following isn’t enough. When we published the first version of this post in 2018, the average social media user had something like 300 followers on Instagram and 150 on Facebook. TikTok wasn’t even a thing yet.

In 2023, Mention reports that half of Instagram users now have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. And according to Statista, half of TikTokers have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers on the app.

That means technically, most Instagrammers and TikTokers have the numbers to become nano– or micro-influencers. But most have no desire to do so. The intent to influence is a key component of being a social media influencer. It’s one of the primary signals that distinguishes a content creator from an influencer.

Signal #2: Time

Becoming an influencer requires a heavy day-to-day investment of your time and attention. “Creators in the Creator Economy” reports that content creators spend an average of 9 hours per week in content development, while influencers spend an average of 15 hours a week in content development.

Not only that, but the average content creator is involved in 2.8 creative activities, whereas, the average influencer is involved in 4 creative activities. In fact…

Each of the major social media platforms has created an education hub designed to support content creators who want to build their audience, reach, and influence on the platform. Amazon’s Creator University is a type of education hub for Amazon influencers. Instagram has its Creator Lab, and TikTok has the Creator Portal. Each learning tool is specifically designed to help influencers grow their skill set.

So content creators go from wanting to create content to being good at developing content strategies. They go from creating solid content strategies to being good on camera. And from being good on camera to understanding lighting. And from there to video editing and filters. And then to post-production and repurposing. Whenever they are ready (or need to), content creators can add new skills that will benefit them on the platform.

Influencers are also twice as likely to post content daily compared to content creators. Content creators are 3x more likely to post monthly than influencers. Overall, 89 percent of influencers post to their social channels at least weekly, compared to 68 percent of content creators.

Signal #3: Connection

Once upon a time, creating the right content was the most important part of becoming an influencer. Today, it’s as much about being able to authentically connect to your audience as it is about creating content. Earning sway on social media is about relationships. It’s about your ability to find your tribe and connect with them.

Being a content creator lends itself nicely to facilitating connections, in part because those who create content every day tend to be happier. For content creators, there is a positive correlation between their posting frequency and their happiness. The more frequently they post, the happier they are, in general. AND there’s also a mood boost if they get paid for creating social media content specifically.

Here’s why this matters: a study conducted by the University of Washington found that an influencer’s “activity rate, level of post positivity and follower brand-fit (or the degree to which the interests of an influencer’s followers match the sponsor), all produce more engagement on influencer posts.

Posting makes content creators happier. The more positive they are, the more engagement their posts get.

Just a really quick word on this: We understand that this isn’t the case for some creators, and many influencers have found it in their best interest to step away from the grind of content development to build more balance into their daily lives and optimize their peace of mind and happiness.

According to the study, 83 percent of influencers who post daily say they have a positive mood. By comparison, 62 percent of content creators say they have a positive mood. But…

77 percent of content creators who also earn money from social media AND post every day say they have a positive mood.

Turns out… good vibes matter. They help content creators forge the relationships they’ll need to become influencers. Those relationships and connections are what will enable influencers to move their followers to do something, whether that’s getting them to click on your content, pay attention to a recommendation about a brand or product, or get them to follow a brand account or go to a brand’s page. Being an influencer means you can get someone to do a thing.

Do a thing? Yeah, do a thing. If you can’t move them to DO something, it’s not influence, and you won’t make much money as an influencer… if that’s your goal.

Signal #4: Dedication

How long is all of this going to take??

I’ll be honest: It takes longer than you hoped to become an influencer, but not as long as people think. The average influencer has been creating content for about three years. According to “Creators in the Creator Economy”. Forty-two percent of influencers have been creating content for less than two years, and 58 percent have been creating content for three years or more.

Growing your following is great, but it’s just a first step… sort of like deciding you want to become a doctor, but first you have to finish high school. Growing your audience doesn’t make you an influencer (looking at anyone who’s ever “bought” influence), just like finishing high school doesn’t make you a doctor. But you need the audience if you want to become an influencer, just like you need that diploma if you’re ever to become a doctor. And both tracks — whether you’re shooting to be a doctor or an influencer — take time.

Thankfully, becoming an influencer isn’t going to take you a decade to accomplish, but trust me when I say the late nights of curating your feed, building a bank of video content, styling trendy looks, sourcing inspiration where you can find it, and outwitting algorithms is a part-time job on its own.

And after you do all of that, you’re going to have to learn to do it for the brands you work with as well if you want to make money as an influencer.

So… no. Not an easy side hustle.

Contrary to popular belief, influencers have to put in a lot of work before they ever get to the point where brands — the good ones — seek them out for partnerships. Plus, the greater your reach and influence, the harder you may have to work to maintain it.

Conclusion

As humans, we always want to be entertained. And we’re always going to be on the hunt for the next big thing — the next innovation. We’ll want to learn new skills, do new things, and join in the fun other people are having. As the world evolves and innovation drives us all forward, there will continue to be new things to discover and the opportunity to build communities around these new discoveries.

That means, there will always be room for influencers — community leaders, key opinion leaders, and ambassadors.

Becoming an influencer is doable, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult. For all the social validation you get from your online community — whether from friends, followers, or brands — becoming an influencer is hard work.

About the Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will builds our brand and gets our readers to do a thing

The post Influencers in the Creator Economy: Is It Too Late to Become an Influencer? appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

That means people are looking for ideas for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the winter holidays during the same period of time. So, let’s talk about some of this year’s Halloween trends and how you can get in on those trends to drum up last-minute Halloween sales, AND stay top-of-mind for the year-end holiday push.

Halloween Has Officially Made a Comeback and Is More Popular Than It Was Pre-Pandemic

Question it if you want, but people LOVE Halloween. The U.S. is one of only three countries where Halloween festivities are a big deal. The other two are Canada and Ireland. And there’s a whole lotta Halloween fun brewing in the Middle East and North Africa, as well.

Halloween is celebrated in countries around the world… but it’s a bona fide retail event in the US… which is why we tend to focus our Halloween marketing content on American buyers. In the US 73 percent of adults are planning to celebrate Halloween.

So, you can rest assured, this is not the Sweetest Day of the world, where your neighbor has never heard of it because he only moved here from Tennessee a few months ago. Halloween is different from place to place, but it’s still Halloween. And whether festive and cartoonish or dark and menacing, people all over the world take part in their annual Halloween celebrations.

PEOPLE START THEIR HALLOWEEN PLANNING REALLY EARLY!

The yearly uptick in Halloween-themed content usually hits Pinterest starting in June. Yes, June. That’s when people really start planning for Halloween (and Thanksgiving and Christmas).

You may have noticed that right around Independence Day, the Halloween-themed stores started showing up. Not long after, pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns start lining store shelves and the sidewalks in front of stores. That’s because 45 percent of those celebrating the holiday plan to start shopping before October. And for at least half of consumers between the ages of 25 – 44, both the planning and shopping happen in the days and weeks leading up to October 1st.

HALLOWEEN SPENDING PICKS UP IN SEPTEMBER

Actual Halloween spending really starts to pick up in September (or even a little earlier). The average American celebrant plan to spend $108 and some change on Halloween stuff this year. Not bad.

To put this in perspective, the average family spends $5 per person celebrating Thanksgiving Day and about $75 per household to celebrate the Fourth of July. As far as spending goes, Halloween is a mid-tier retail holiday.

By the time September 1st rolls around every year, shoppers have already spent about $500M on Halloween-related purchases. That means, Back-to-School, Labor Day, Halloween spending, and holiday shopping now officially overlap every year. But most Halloween spending (55 percent of it) happens in October.

WHICH MEANS…

Right now, they’re planning, Pinning, bookmarking, saving, Liking, Following, “tutorialing” and budgeting. So, it’s the perfect time to roll out your Halloween marketing campaign on social media to help you sell a lot now and sell even more over the next few months

Halloween Trends for 2023 

The world’s spookiest retail event is growing, but it’s also evolving in some really important ways. We’ve put together a list of the things we see in the data that are shifting in this space. Plus, tips on how you can leverage this info to help you better target your Halloween marketing campaigns. And of course, each one of these ideas provides a seamless opportunity for you to incorporate influencer marketing, even if you’re not necessarily working with Halloween influencers.

Halloween Trend #1: TikTok and Instagram are the top social platforms for Halloween inspo.

According to Statista, Instagram and TikTok top the list of social media platforms consumers rely on for ideas, with 32 percent of those surveyed saying they used those platforms to get inspired.  

Other popular platforms including YouTube and Pinterest are named among the top sources of Halloween inspiration for both decorations and costume ideas.

According to the Statista: 

• 30 percent of Gen Zers and 26 percent of all adults turn to YouTube – FYI, men are more likely than women to default to YouTube
• 29 percent of Gen Zers and 21 percent of adults turn to Pinterest for ideas and shopping, and women are more than twice as likely to go to Pinterest than men
• 17 of Gen Zers and 29 percent of all adults turn to Facebook

It’s interesting to note that in 2021, Facebook reigned supreme as the top social channel for inspo, but as Gen Z ages up, visual platforms become the most important channels for brands trying to reach Gen Zers, after search and in-store displays.

According to everyone’s favorite idea engine (Pinterest), consumers start their Halloween-related searches as early as May. From May to October, Halloween-related search volume on the platform consistently increases month over month. 

How to Use This In Your Marketing Strategy

It’s always a good bet to know where your audience is spending time online. We know that younger consumers a skewing toward platforms that display content based on interest not relationship, namely TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. These could be pretty keen signals that this group searches for Halloween-related content topically (i.e. “Stranger Things costume ideas” or “funny Halloween costumes for couples”). That means you need to lean into creating content that focuses on a single topic and that the content is optimized for that topic. By that, we mean optimize posts with hashtags and the words you use in your caption, and optimize your rich media so it’s searchable online.

Halloween Trend #2: Pop Culture Is In, Cultural Appropriation Is Out

Now, if you recall, in 2020, Pinterest was the go-to spot for politically correct Halloween ideas. The platform actually launched the Cultures Aren’t Costumes campaign to provide cultural context for costume ideas to minimize the likelihood that searchers would choose costumes that could offend. Good Housekeeping published a really great article on cultural appropriation and Halloween just last week.

What Is Cultural Appropriation?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, cultural appropriation is the “unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”

To keep it simple: we don’t poke fun at groups of people, conditions, cultures, lifestyles, ideologies, or circumstances.

Cultural Appropriation is a sticky topic right now because many of us are unlearning colloquialisms, behaviors, and practices that we didn’t even realize were harmful.

Case in point: we recently published a statement on why we were moving away from the terms “whitelisting” and “blacklisting” and instead using “allow listing” and “deny listing.” Truth is, you can’t really do better until you know better. And it’s the responsibility of every individual to be ever on the search to know more and to know better.

Pop Culture Is a Yes

I have two words for you: Wednesday Addams.

Over the weekend, we shared a bit of family fun at Six Flags Over Georgia, trying our darnedest to get out of the park by 6pm so my little kids wouldn’t have to face the park’s hired ghouls. We failed. Kids got scared. Tears were shed. But let me tell you – we saw our fair share of elementary school-aged girls decked out in Wednesday Addams costumes. (I honestly didn’t even realize that show was for kids. So, my kids aren’t oblivious, but they have very little first-hand experience with any of the Addams Family titles.)

While the most popular costumes still include the typical stuff – superheroes, princesses, and witches – Wednesday Addams made its debut at #10 on the list of the top children’s while Barbiecore landed a bit higher debuting in the top 3 Halloween costumes for adults, and #7 for kids.

How to Use This In Your Marketing Strategy

Tap into what’s hot culturally, whether that’s Wednesday Addams or the Kelce x Swift combo. You can hop on Google Trends and Pinterest to see what’s hot.

What about a costume tool? Google FrightGeist is an interactive tool that can show what’s trending in different parts of the country. Plus, it has a Costume Wizard, which is a recommender tool that allows users to input a few parameters and then recommends a costume based on the user inputs.

It’s fun, actually – told me Pikachu would be the best costume for me.

Halloween Trend #3: Halloween Experiences

Experiences are a BIG part of Halloween celebrations. This year, nearly 1 in 3 Halloween celebrants are heading to a party or an event.

Among Halloween celebrants, 68 percent plan to hand out candy, 50 percent will decorate their home or yard, 50 percent will wear costumes, 46 percent will carve a pumpkin, 32 percent will throw or attend a party.

Haunted Attractions

Hey. remember when haunted houses were literally a 4-person cart zigzagging on a rickety track through the detached container of an 18-wheeler? I do.

Today, the haunted house industry is… well, an industry. I want to tread lightly here, as the haunted attraction industry is still formalizing despite its explosive growth, and it’s not easy to find up-to-date stats.

Back in 2013, NBC News reported Americans spent around $7 billion celebrating Halloween. At that time, there were 2,500 haunted attractions around the world, most of which were in the United States. The haunted house industry was generating $300 million a year in revenue then.

Since then, overall Halloween sales have grown by 30 percent, and Halloween participation is up 11 percent. It makes sense to assume the haunted attraction market has experienced growth as well. What used to be a six-week season leading up to Halloween extends through the year as Spring Screams events during spring break, and escape rooms housed in malls (we have an escape room in the small town in which I live as well as the local mall, Sugarloaf Mills, which is packed with all kinds of attractions, a handful of whom are designed to at least creep you out, even if you won’t admit to being scared.

The Detroit Free Press recently reported the arrival of Nightmare on Bagley, a pop-up horror restaurant that’s slated to serve customers from 5pm to 11pm through November 5th.

@detroitdar

On Bagley has officially opened up there halloween themed bar ! Its Wed-Sunday 5-Midnight ! Yall check them out before it ends

♬ original sound – DetroitDar

There are now 4000 haunted attractions in the U.S, not including the haunts you can check out in the local amusement park. In the U.S., about 20 percent of the 240 million+ people planning to celebrate Halloween are also planning to visit a haunted attraction. That’s 48 million people. The average haunted attraction costs between $15 and $20 per person, with theme parks charging as much as $100 per person. I would estimate today, the haunted industry rakes in close to $1 billion a year, which HauntWorld.com backs up. Here’s a great quote I grabbed from Listverse: There are more haunted houses in the United States than Targets.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

Experiences are the bee’s knees, man. And the popularity of attractions is proof-positive that adults – not kids – are the target audience this Halloween. Haunted attractions have been labeled a 100 percent American export. The fastest-growing market for haunted attractions outside the U.S is the Asian market.

As well, the rise of computer-generated graphics in Hollywood movies has created an opportunity for makeup artists who specialize in film makeup and horror makeup to offer their services – at least on a part-time basis – to haunted attractions to help create different looks.

Lastly, the emergence of year-round extreme haunts and offshoots of haunted attractions like haunted hayrides, zombie paintball, escape rooms, and virtual haunted houses are on the rise, and making their post-pandemic comeback.

The science behind haunted attractions is that they provide a way for people to be downright terrified and to legitimately feel threatened but have an “out” so to speak. Haunted attractions are a great way to be afraid and in a safe place at the same time.

Corporate backing and sponsorships of haunted attractions are on the rise. Melissa Cardone’s Ten Thirty-One Productions creates spooky hayrides and other haunted events in both Los Angeles and New York. Cardone got a $2 million investment (for a 20 percent stake in her company) from Mark Cuban during her “Shark Tank” pitch in 2013.

Consolidation among producers of larger haunted attractions is becoming the norm in the haunt industry, due in part to the fact that this generation simply doesn’t scare as easily. And it’s getting more and more expensive for smaller attractions to acquire the type of equipment needed to compete with the larger haunts.

I get it – you may not be ready to drop two rocks on a haunted attraction like Mark Cuban can, but partnerships may make sense for you business. For instance, drink startups may consider striking a deal with haunt production companies to provide energy drinks, soda, water, or novelty foods. Smaller brands could target local haunts to provide novelty items, screen-printed apparel, or partner programs that provide discounts for haunted house patrons who visit their establishment within the same day.

Halloween Trend #4: Candy Sales Are Up; Trick-or-treating is Making a Comeback.

As you would probably expect, two of the most popular categories for Halloween spending are candy and costumes, both of which are fueled, in large part by trick-or-treaters. When Taboola analyzed searches around the term “candy bar” in the fall of 2021, it reported searches were 2495 percent higher in the 90 days leading up to October than they were for all of 2021.

According to the National Retail Federation, in 2023, 96 percent of Halloween celebrants are planning to buy candy to celebrate, while 77 percent plan to spend money on decorations. Sixty-nine percent are planning to buy costumes (for themselves, their kids, and/or their pets), and 39 percent of Halloweeners plan to pick out Halloween cards.

While candy is definitely the most popular item people will buy for Halloween, it doesn’t account for most of the Halloween spending. The 96 percent of people who will buy candy will spend about $3.6 billion, while the 69 percent of people planning to buy Halloween costumes will be responsible for $4.1 billion in Halloween spending.

First, fewer families are venturing out for trick-or-treating than they have historically. In 2016, fewer than 1 in 3 Halloweeners planned to go trick-or-treating, which, until then, was the lowest participation rate in recent history. Throw in a global pandemic and the number of people who planned to take their kids out to hunt for candy by 2021 was fewer than 1 in 4, but that numbers inching up as we get back to pre-pandemic Halloween activities.

Another key contributing factor may be something we talked about in our back-to-school post and that’s that there are fewer school-aged kids in the neighborhoods these days. America’s aging up.

Family-friendly alternatives to trick-or-treating are cropping up all over the place. More community-focused Halloween activities are on the rise. So, while going door-to-door to get candy doesn’t seem to be as popular anymore, attending fall or Halloween events sponsored by local businesses or community organizations is gaining traction.

Older Halloweeners are further solidifying the “experiences” trend for Halloween by throwing costume parties and participating in fashion shows to display their costumes. More people are planning to throw or attend a Halloween party this year than go trick or treating – 25 percent compared to 24 percent. For young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 years old, 43 percent of them have set their sights on a Halloween party.

And let’s face it – experiences like fashion shows and parties make for more engaging social media posts than trick-or-treating. These are also events that would work well as part of an event-based influencer marketing strategy.

Here’s a Halloween marketing idea for ya: Host a community event (online or offline)

In our post on Halloween marketing ideas for local small businesses, one of the ways we recommended brands boost their visibility and stay top-of-mind as we roll into the winter holiday season is to get involved in local Halloween festivities by sponsoring or hosting events like trunk-or-treat, drive-thru trick-or-treating for families, and even sponsoring costume contests.

This tactic employs Robert Cialdini’s rule of reciprocity, encouraging people (in this instance, it would probably be parents of the trick-or-treaters) to remember and patronize businesses that have offered something of value to their kids. Your good will won’t be lost on your customers.

Here are some ways this can shake out in an influencer marketing campaign…

Makeup brands can work with Halloween influencers or MUAs who specialize in horror and special effects makeup looks to teach parents and teens how to add gore or whimsy to the costumes of older kids using regular drugstore makeup. In high school, I went trick-or-treating as 1982 Carrie (the way she looked after that kiss from The Greatest American Hero made John Travolta and the blond dump pig blood all over her). We could never nail any makeup looks, so we had to go for themes.

L’Oreal has a specific Halloween Makeup Looks board on Pinterest where you can grab ideas and purchase products to create the different looks. Once you’ve chosen one, you can click on the pins to get the full tutorial and information on the products used.

Side note: The board repopulates its results when you sign in based on your previous searches around skin tone, hair texture, other content you’ve engaged with in the past.

Skincare brands can distribute samples of wipes and cleansing scrubs at costume parties, fashion shows, and dance clubs where local radio stations may be having costume contests on or before the big day. Costume makeup is no joke to get off.

If you’re interested in getting to kids and parents, publicize the event on social media by partnering with local influencers on Facebook and TikTok. You can supply local stores with branded, reusable canvas bags strong enough to hold treats on the big night then be reused after Halloween can get your name in front of parents. The goal is to go where the party is and find creative ways to get your products in front of partygoers.

Halloween Trend #5: Large Outdoor Decorations – We’re Doing It Big!!

Both the Halloween and Christmas seasons saw jumps in decoration sales as people sought safe ways to drum up holiday spirit while maintaining social distance. So, if you’re wondering if you’ve just been ignoring all the giant scarecrows and metal pumpkin yard stakes all these years, you haven’t. Super-sizing our fall decor is just one of the ways we’re trying to keep the melancholy away and solidify our new normal.

And these high-tech Halloween decorations present great photo opps for passersby.

Per-household spending on Halloween decorations is up more than 50 percent over the last ten years from $20.99 per household to $34.76 per household this year. Not a bunch, right? Doesn’t seem like a huge shift in Halloween spending. But we’re talking a jump from $2.4 billion spent on decorations in 2016 and $2.6 billion spent in 2019 and 2020 to $3.9 billion in 2023. And it’s worth noting that 32 percent of Halloweeners are planning to reuse at least some of their decorations.

In 2017, decorations tied with candy for second place in the top four Halloween spending categories. By 2018, people were spending more on their streamers, ghoulish cardboard cutouts, plastic cauldrons, dangling skeletons, perpetually hissing black cats and other creepily creative Halloween home decor than they were on candy. In 2023, 77 percent of Halloweeners are planning to buy decorations, totaling $3.9 billion.

How to use this info in your marketing strategy

Halloween decorators aren’t limited to the stuff you find in the discount stores. And people aren’t always so thrilled to throw purple and orange into their home decor. Both good news because it provides brands with an opportunity to help Halloween shoppers dream up Halloween decorating ideas that won’t ruin their decor.

Share Halloween Accent Ideas

For companies that sell home goods, crafts, used items, furniture, or interior design services the goal should be generating and sharing ideas that include your products. Think about coming up with ideas that will allow customers to transition their interior design from Halloween to Thanksgiving without completing revamping their home.

In the post below, I spy with my little eye… a chic white ottoman, what looks like a vintage clock – similar to something you’d grab from a resale shop and paint black, bats made from construction paper (hello, crafting with the kids!), an oversized mug I can make myself or pick up from my local discount store, a comfy-looking couch, decorative pillows that can be store-bought or made with a little bit of fabric.

Bonus: When it’s time for Thanksgiving, one would only have to swap out the pillows and the blanket, remove or replace the bats, and add warmer colors to the existing collection of knickknacks to make the Halloween-to-Harvest transition simple.

Know what would be cool? A post that shows how a shopper can double-down on seasonal decor by telling them how to use $57 to decorate for both Halloween and Thanksgiving. Something like…

• Spend up to $7 at your favorite Goodwill or local resale shop on an accent piece (clock, oversized plate, creepy painting (resale shops are BRIMMING with horrible, homemade artwork that can easily be rebranded as kitschy.
• Buy 3 yards of the z-pattern fabric from Joann Fabric (on clearance this week for $3.97/yd)
• Buy 5 yards of orange fabric from Walmart (regular price $1.99/yd)
• Buy 3-piece floating shelves from Walmart $10.99

And so on and so on…

Craft-related brands already know how to make the most of this holiday. To go a step further, think about decorations that can easily transition to Thanksgiving. You can find a lot of ideas on lifestyle blogs, like this one.

This is a cute idea for DIY ghost candles from @kailochic that I just saw in my IG feed. Inspo is everywhere.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kara Whitten (@kailochic)

Create Transformation Videos

Another smart idea for creating Halloween marketing campaigns or themed content is to show and not just tell. This strategy translates really well on social media.

Take this example from Lowe’s Home Improvement. They created a campaign where they showed, through Instagram stories, how to transform a vertical space from drag to fab.

Another Halloween marketing idea: Mis En Scene the HECK out of your office or store

So, this Halloween is going to have a lot to do with setting the mood, and getting people in the holiday spirit without necessarily having to get them into the store to do it. People are shopping earlier. Even as we write this article, we’re only a few days out from the second Prime Day of the year. And this is the perfect time to focus on boosting your visibility with some fun decorating ideas.

• Update your window displays, storefront or facade with over-the-top holiday-inspired decorations.
• Add offbeat Halloween elements to offices, conference rooms, and break rooms in parts of your office or building that are okay to post on social.
• Sponsor a local haunt or a crawl of the 10 best Halloween decorations (with the owners’ permission and some fanfare, of course)

This may seem like a small thing, but it isn’t. You want your audience to like, trust, and support you. And that starts by being a brand that is actively engaged in your community – whether online or offline.

Consumers are looking to spend money with companies whose culture and values they can support. According to The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose research, when it comes to patronizing purposeful brands, consumers are:

• 4 times more likely to purchase from the company   
• 6 times more likely to protect the company in the event of a misstep or public criticism   
• 4.5 times more likely to champion the company and recommend it to friends and family   
• 4.1 times more likely to trust the company  

Halloween Trend #6: DIY Halloween Costumes Are Inflation-Proof

Interestingly enough, even though more people are planning to spend money on decorations than on costumes, Halloween costume expenditures make up the largest share of Halloween spending.

Come on… don’t you remember how excited you were to dress up in your not-so-ridiculous pumpkin suit, Ghostbusters outfit or a witch with the most awesome pointy hat and magical wand?

Of all the moms and dads who get dragged out on Halloween to beg strangers for sweets, Millennials are one group of adults who may be doing it willingly… without the kids.

How to use this info in your Halloween marketing strategy

A great Halloween costume is worth its weight in Likes, shares, and retweets. But for Millennials and Gen Z partiers, there’s likely to be a little innovation as well. That usually means planning well in advance and sourcing ideas on social media instead of store racks.

More than 30 percent of Halloween shoppers will source inspiration from online searches, compared to the 26 percent that will go in-store to find ideas. That means your content strategy has to get you found in searches for popular search terms like…

• Halloween costume ideas (enormous number of monthly searches for this one with very little competition, comparatively)
• Halloween costume ideas for couples (another big one)
• DIY Halloween costume ideas
• Creative Halloween costume ideas
• Halloween costume ideas for groups (another surprisingly big one)

That said, creating visual content that ties your brand into Halloween-related themes is key. Pinterest is an invaluable tool for sourcing inspiration for looks of all kinds. Even if your team does most of its targeting on Facebook and Instagram, it will only help you to partner with influencers who can help you repurpose your content for Pinterest, YouTube, and IGTV.

But you’re certainly not limited to just costumes and Halloween looks.

LUSH COSMETICS HALLOWEEN SKINCARE

We’re pretty fond of Lush Cosmetics. Lush has run some pretty eye-catching social campaigns (there was even one where everybody was naked!), and this one is actually pretty cool because it’s a branded Halloween post (#LushHalloween) that isn’t the typical Halloween promo post.

The post is promoting a detoxifying green tea face mask. But there’s no CTA. No coupon code. No talk about the mask being great for Halloween or for restoring skin after piling on horror makeup. And that’s part of what makes it effective as a Halloween marketing post.

Halloween Trend #7: Millennials Are Aging Up, But Refusing to Age Out of Halloween

That’s it. That’s the whole trend. Halloween is more popular than it’s ever been, and the most active cohort is those ages 25 to 44 years old. The oldest millennials are 43 years old this year, and the youngest are around 27 years old, and they’ve gone from trick-or-treating to haunted attractions and spooky bar crawls.

Much of this continued ctivity can probably be attributed to parenthood – taking their kids out for Halloween – and homeownership – really going big on the decorations.

Halloween Trend#8: Halloween At Work

A significant part of our most recent post on Halloween marketing had to do with the concept of bringing Halloween to life at work by doing things like creating Halloween pop-ups that were gram-worthy, holding costume contests for employees, sponsoring a Halloween event for the local kids, and a few other really cool ideas that work for brands whether or not they sell Halloween-related products.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

Fun fact: 1 in every 10 Halloween searches on Pinterest is related to office decor. So, the opportunity is there for you to suggest cool items for people to use to add a splash of Halloween spirit to their workspaces or even to transform entire office into haunted rooms.

Halloween Trend #9: Pet Costumes

Pet costumes account for 10 percent of total spending on Halloween costumes. In 2016, owners spent $420 million on Halloween costumes for their pets. A year later, that number was $440 million. That’s because 1 in 5 Halloween celebrants plan to dress up their pets for Halloween. This year, $700 million is being spent on Halloween costumes for pets.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

The pet industry is notoriously bulletproof. In 2020, 70 percent of U.S. households had pets. Heck, we’ve had a pig, hamster, three dogs, and for a short while, an orphaned squirrel just in the last two years. #lifeinthecountry

There is an opportunity here for marketers to zero in the focus for this Halloween on the furry friends who are considered members of every 7 in 10 households in America.

Marketers can do that by sponsoring live or virtual pet costume contests or fashion shows, or pet-person costume contests, and do it by creating a branded hashtag or using an existing one like #doghalloween (103,351 posts currently) or #doghalloweencostume (111,728 posts currently).

An easy voting system would be having users comment or double-tap. The comments and double taps will help you to boost engagement and provide one metric for determining the success of your campaign.

Halloween Trend #10: Pop Culture Costumes

Coincident with Millennials taking ownership of Halloween is a trend toward sourcing costume inspiration from pop culture. TV character costumes, Halloween meme costumes, and celebrity costumes are on the rise. Overall, 11 percent of those polled said pop culture would inspire their costumes. For older Gen Zers and younger Millennials who fall in the age range of 18 – 24, that number was 34 percent – one in three.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

The first tip is to stay relevant by keeping up on trends. And a simple way to do this is with Twitter and Instagram. A 10-minute cursory view of both platforms once a day will do wonders for you marketing strategies. If your team is able to push out content in hours instead of days, you can capitalize on trends in real time.

The next tip is to help people use what they may already have in their house. The Internet went sorta nuts a couple years ago when a 2016 lecture at Getty Museum entitled Designing the Middle Ages: The Costumes of Game of Thrones was mentioned in an article on Apartment Therapy that revealed Ikea rugs are used as capes on the popular HBO show Game of Thrones. The news increased online searches of Ikea’s SKOLD rug by 775 percent. Of course, Ikea released its own official instructions for recreating the GoT look with a pretty funny sketch.

Halloween Trend #11: Grocery Stores are the New Front Porch

So, did anyone else have to take their candy to the police station to be scanned by the officers growing up, or was it just me? I remember the fun I had as a kid dressing up and trick-or-treating. I also remember CAREFULLY EATING candies that cleared the scan (not all did) hoping Daddy and his cop buddies got all the bad ones out.

Local businesses and community organizations have been taking an active role in reimagining Halloween without all the risks I had to take as a child. As a parent, this is one of my favorite Halloween trends. The idea of handing my little girls a piece of “some guy’s candy” is… umm… not really optimal.

Two years ago, I was in no hurry to get home and spend all evening denying the neighborhood kids treats, so my kids and I stopped off for a few groceries before heading home. I was surprised to discover Halloween had been moved inside the grocery store – in the produce section.

So, in addition to picking up groceries, we spent more than two hours at my local Kroger playing in a bouncy house, decorating cookies, collecting treats, and playing games. My older daughter hung out with friends from school who were working as ghosts and operating games. My toddlers – though not in costumes like the other kids – got to “go fish” in the produce section… unfortunately, they traded the fruit they fished out for candy.

Weird choice, Kroger. Then again… probably much cheaper choice.

The point is my desire to avoid Halloween unwittingly put me smack dab in the middle of a community Halloween party.

And it’s not just my neighborhood. More and more, retailers are becoming the community Halloween hubs because yeah… COVID.

Plus, it’s hard to uphold the “stranger danger” message when Halloween is so awesome for kids.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

Create family-friendly experiences that parents (like me) can use to distract their kids from the fact that their friends are trick-or-treating. Usually, it’s not that kids want so badly to go; it’s more FOMO – they don’t want to miss out on all the fun their friends are having.

Your Halloween festivities can be the fun thing they look forward to this year. Marketers can use this time to not only build goodwill in their communities, but to introduce parents to new products like gummy vitamins (please, please, please somebody make more nutritious gummies for kids!), sauces, salad mixes, hand wipes, and snack ideas. Let them test the products for free at your event and you will get parents who are happy to add your product to their weekly or monthly shopping lists.

About half the things on my shopping list landed there because I got to try it for free first. Speaking of…

The fine folks at La Colombe can thank Ibotta for the thousands I’ll likely spend on draft lattes (genius idea). I literally have to go out of my way to get them, but… I get ‘em.

Halloween Trend #12: Gender Neutral Costumes

Of the $3.2 billion spent on Halloween costumes last year, $1.17 billion of that was specifically for children’s costumes. But for the past few years, the focus for both boys and girls has been on superhero costumes, relegating the former top costume choice of a princess to second place on the list of kids’ costumes.

The trend toward gender-neutral costumes pushes against the idea of traditional girl or boy costumes. And it’s not really about girls wearing costumes intended for boys. It’s more about there being more female heroes from which to choose.

Were I to venture a best guess at the costume my preschooler would pick in a perfect world, I would say Colonel Nick Fury (not sure why she likes him so much), Megamind (again, what?), Thanos (she sees his point), Hawekeye (full disclosure: her older sister teaches archery), and Captain America’s shield.

Yeah. Just the shield. So…

She’s no unicorn. For the past few years, it’s been superhero costumes that have been the top sellers for kids regardless of age or gender.

How to Use This Info in Your Marketing Strategy

You can win loyal fans and generate content that gets shared with parents who support gender neutral costumes (and who often can’t find what they’re looking for) by helping parents source the right suppliers (which you can do by repinning Pinterest pins) or by creating content that gives parents simple DIY instructions for customizing their outfits for the best fit, look, and experience for the kids.

Halloween Trend #13: Halloween Has Officially Become a Thing in Some MENA Countries

Time to expand your ad targeting. Think With Google reports a 26 percent increase in Halloween-related searches in MENA countries this year after the holiday made its debut in in Saudi Arabia last year.

Much like what’s happening here, many of the costume-related searches are being fueled by the content people are watching on Netflix and other streaming services. For instance, Google reports that “search interest for ‘Squid Game costume‘ and ‘Cruella costume‘ crept up 900% and 215% respectively year-on-year.”

Candy searches are also up in the region with searches for “candy corn” being up 150 percent and searches for Halloween candy up 165 percent year-over-year.

This Year’s Big Wrap-Up Isn’t Really That Scary

The big takeaway here is that people are loosening their hold on candy and trick-or-treating as the be all end all of Halloween. This current evolution of Halloween trends means there’s room for brands to dream up family friend experiences… or horrifying ones. Depends on your brand and your demographic.

Is anyone else thinking this is an amazing eyeshadow color? Source: Instagram @worldofsfx

But the one thing that is consistent throughout all eight of the trends we talked about here is that the experience you create has to be grand enough, interesting enough, and unique enough to make it into your customer’s Instagram feed. That’s the ultimate goal.

About This Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will build your brand and get your audience to do a thing.

The post 13 Halloween Trends That Can Help Marketers Fuel Their Winter Holiday Campaigns appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

How Influencer Marketing Ideas Can Spice Up Your Holiday Campaigns

Influencer marketing is a type of word-of-mouth marketing strategy in which one company, brand, or entity pays an individual who holds a lot of clout on social media to endorse their product. Influencer campaigns are used by businesses to reach a specific segment of their target audience. But they’re also used to reach wider audiences who may fall outside their typical audience demographic. Influencer partnerships also help brands engage consumers by leveraging the trust, credibility, and reputation of popular social media creators themselves. 

Influencer marketing can take many different forms and the creativity of the concepts you can use is seemingly endless. The key is to have someone on your team who can dream up cool strategies and creator partners who are fantastic storytellers. Influencer marketing ideas can be powerful tactics for hitting important marketing goals.

Here’s to the End of the Basic Product Placement Post

Remember the early days of influencer marketing, when most campaigns were in it for brand lift? Sure, you had the unicorn campaigns like Lord & Taylor’s famously successful paisley dress campaign. But we know that most influencer campaigns for brand lift do not succeed in simultaneously introducing a new fashion line AND selling out its inventory in a few days.

In previous iterations of this post, we created one big list of influencer marketing ideas, tactics, and campaign structures. For this list, we thought it would be smart to update the strategies, yes. But also to divide tactics from concepts and concepts from optimization strategies. 

Consider this list of influencer marketing ideas your starting point for dreaming up cool campaign concepts. (And if the thought of that bums you out, we’re a click away.) 

5 Ways to Work with Influencers This Holiday Season

Whether you’re looking to establish ongoing partnerships, run a one-off campaign, or bring characters to life, influencer marketing can be a game-changer for your holiday marketing strategy. These are the standard influencer partnerships most people probably think of when they think about running an influencer marketing campaign. Here are five effective ways to structure your influencer partnerships this holiday season:

#1 One-Off Campaigns

Good for creating buzz, limited-time promotions, and product launches

How It Works

Select influencers who can authentically promote your holiday offerings. Collaborate on creative content that aligns with both your brand’s message and the influencer’s style. The goal is to generate buzz and drive sales during the holiday rush. 

Running a one-off influencer campaign can create a sense of urgency and excitement around your brand. These campaigns are perfect for short-term promotions, product launches, or special holiday deals.

Benefits

• Creates a buzz around your holiday offerings
• Boosts sales during the festive season
• Perfect for limited-time promotions and product launches
• Allows for flexibility in influencer selection

#2 Repeat Partnerships

Good for brand loyalty, content consistency, audience trust

How It Works

Ongoing partnerships with influencers are like a holiday gift that keeps on giving. These long-term collaborations allow the brand to tap into the same or similar influencers for multiple campaigns. 

An ongoing partnership often includes regular collaborations, exclusive promotions, and consistent content creation. This approach allows influencers to become true brand advocates during the holiday season and beyond.

Repeat partners can lead to sustained brand loyalty and audience trust. Choose influencers who align with your brand’s values and have a genuine affinity for your products.

Benefits

• Fosters long-term brand loyalty
• Ensures content consistency throughout the holiday season
• Builds a deep level of trust with the influencer’s audience
• Provides opportunities for ongoing holiday promotions and campaigns

#3 Ambassador Programs

Good for brand lift, sales promotions, sign-ups, downloads, user-generated content

How It Works

A brand ambassadorship is a long-term relationship between a brand and an influencer, as opposed to a one-off campaign or a couple of campaigns. Some brands develop exclusive ambassadorships, which can prevent influencers from participating in other influencer marketing campaigns or just keep them from working with the brand’s competitor for the duration of the ambassadorship (and sometimes for a set period of time after). 

The ambassadorships are often a combination of monetary payment and free products as compensation, or both. The brand’s goal is to partner with an influencer who aligns with its values and reaches the audience it’s courting. 

Benefits

• Boosts brand lift
• Helps facilitate positive sentiment toward brand
• Demonstrates the value of your products
• Lower front-end financial investment than hiring influencers outright
• TONS of content to reuse across your branded channels.

#4 Work with Created Personalities That Real People Follow

Good for storytelling, brand engagement, creativity

How It Works

Want to talk about innovative influencer marketing ideas? In the digital age, creativity knows no bounds. Virtual influencers and created characters have taken the marketing world by storm. This holiday season, consider partnering with these captivating personas to infuse a unique twist into your marketing strategy. These virtual influencers can breathe life into animations, puppets, and characters related to your brand, creating an imaginative and engaging holiday campaign.

The Tiny Chef x Zenni Optical partnership is a good example of really creative content.

Collaborate with influencers who specialize in personifying digital characters or mascots closely associated with your brand. These influencers excel at storytelling, seamlessly integrating your brand’s message into their content. Through this innovative approach, you can craft a holiday experience that resonates with your audience on a deep and memorable level.

Benefits

• Engages your audience with creative storytelling 
• Encourages brand engagement and interaction
• Makes your holiday campaign memorable and shareable

#5 Pet Influencers

Good for brand awareness, marketing assets for  online and offline ad

How It Works

Partner with popular pet accounts to create scroll-stopping, compelling content. This strategy’s cool because it’s not just limited to brands in the pet supply industry (like this Victoria’s Secret ad).

Benefits

• People enjoy content that includes pets
• Facilitates positive connections to the brand
• People are 3x more likely to buy based on pet influencer recommendations than recommendations from celebrities (not even kidding about that)

18 Creative Influencer Marketing Ideas and Concepts to Get Eyes On Your Brand

#1 Haul Videos

Good for brand lift, clicks, follows

How It Works

Partner with a creator to become one of multiple sponsors for a single video or video series. 

Verticals

Often focused on a holiday (like Mother’s Day, Back-to-School, Halloween, etc.), a specific vertical (like fall home decor, favorite winter beauty products), or even very niche audiences (like hardiest plants for outdoor planting in southern states or tips for growing ginger in a container indoors).

Benefits

• Engaging content
• Reaches a targeted audience (these are viewers who typically see the content as a result of specific searches)
• A fraction of the cost of a dedicated video about your product

Multiple influencers posted Sephora haul videos for the 2020 holiday season.

#2 Livestream Shopping

Good for brand lift, conversions

How It Works

Live shopping (or Livestream shopping), in its current iteration, is the interactive process of buying and selling products or services during a live broadcast on a social or digital platform. Both Amazon Live and Pinterest TV offer live broadcast capabilities that creators use to review products, provide solutions, broadcast tutorials, offer advice, and showcase different products. 

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Greater likelihood of reaching consumers who already have purchase intent
• Usually features multiple products per video

#3 How-To Videos and Tutorials

Good for brand lift, website content, cross-channel promoting, conversions

How It Works

Influencers create video tutorials that explain how your product works and/or the benefits and different uses of your product. How-to/tutorials are the number one type of content social media users want to see from the influencers they follow.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Shareable
• Generate lots of engagement
• Great for SEO

#4 Blogs

Good for clicks, traffic, opt-ins, brand awareness, SEO, customer education

How It Works

Partner with social media influencers who are also bloggers with active, engaged readers. Identify relevant bloggers. Reach out with a personalized pitch. Outline clear collaboration terms. Provide necessary resources, and track performance to ensure your campaign aligns with your brand goals.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• In-depth content
• Builds trust and authority
• Content repurposing
• Longer content life cycle with blogs vs social media
• Great way to explain and demonstrate the value/benefit of a product

#5 Webinars

Good for brand awareness, conversions, sign-ups, building trust, brand reputation

How It Works

Webinars are a dynamic tool in your holiday marketing arsenal, and partnering with influencers can take them to the next level. By teaming up with influencers who align with your products and services, you can leverage webinars to boost brand awareness, drive conversions, and establish trust among your target audience during the holiday season. You can choose to partner with influencers who sell products or services that complement your offerings. For instance, you could:

1. Sponsor a webinar: Identify influencers who host webinars that cater to your target audience. By sponsoring their webinar, you gain access to a highly engaged audience introduced to your brand through a trusted influencer. This method is particularly effective for reaching audiences in B2B, service-based B2C, education, and nutrition verticals.
2. Pitch your own webinar: Take the lead by pitching a webinar to the influencer’s audience. Craft a compelling webinar topic that resonates with both your brand and the influencer’s niche. The influencer can then earn a commission on any sales generated as a result of the webinar, creating a win-win scenario.

Verticals

B2B, Service-based B2C, Education, Nutrition

Benefits

• Establish social proof and trustworthiness
• Boost brand awareness
• Drive conversions and sign-ups
• Build brand reputation

#6 Instagram Takeovers

Good for user-generated content, brand awareness, humanizing your brand, wider audience targeting

How It Works

This dynamic strategy involves influencers temporarily taking control of your brand’s Instagram account, offering their unique perspective and engaging with your audience.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Attention-grabbing
• Humanizing
• Drums up engagement
• Enhances credibility

Need inspiration to get your own influencer marketing ideas flowing? Check out this one-day Instagram takeover of the @zoos_aquariums account by @houstonzoo to raise awareness around Attwater’s Prairie Chicken program and its conservation program.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AZA (@zoos_aquariums)

#7 Podcasts

Good for brand awareness, explainers, promoting sales and discounts

How It Works

Become a sponsor for a podcast where the listening audience overlaps your target audience. Many content creators diversified by adding podcasts to their content catalog. A lot of brands don’t consider podcasts as part of an influencer marketing strategy, but partnering with influencers who have podcasts (and there are tons of them) is great for promoting products whose value is more easily understood when audiences can hear a quick explanation.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Podcasts are considered immersive content — very engaging
• Boosts thought leadership and brand authority
• Extended reach to diverse podcast communities
• Long-lasting impact: Podcast episodes remain accessible over time
• Content Repurposing: Podcast content can be repurposed for various marketing channels

#8 Product Pins/Idea Pins

Good for brand lift, influencer-generated content, conversions

How It Works

Pinterest Idea Pins allow brands and Pinners to add up to 20 pages of video and/or images + text within a single pin. Idea pins can tie content that would typically be multiple pins (maybe across multiple boards) together as one clickable pin. This makes it easier to connect ideas as part of a single theme. (So, a kick-butt candle holder pin could become an Idea Pin about a holiday tablescape, and pins can link back to blog posts/product pages.)

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Visual storytelling: Engage audiences with captivating visual content
• Extended reach: Tap into Pinterest’s vast user base and diverse demographics
• Enhanced discoverability: Idea Pins rank well in Pinterest searches, increasing brand visibility
• Shareability: Pins can be easily shared, broadening content distribution
• Interactive elements: Incorporate polls, text overlays, and product tags for deeper engagement
• Evergreen content: Idea Pins have a long shelf life, providing lasting brand exposure

#9 Glow-Ups

Good for brand awareness, conversions, site traffic, coupon codes/promos

How It Works

Glow-ups were super trendy a few years ago as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. There’s an actual Netflix show based on the concept. With glow-ups, social media users post multimedia before and after shots of themselves. The most jaw-dropping TikTok glow-ups can easily grow the creator’s follower base. Since glow-ups first became a thing, they have evolved, and many posts now zero in on self-awareness, mental health, and incrementally getting better.

In the video below, JENerationDIY created a post-quarantine glow-up of her going from her quarantine norm to being ready to face the public. You’ll notice there’s an affiliate link to a coupon code for thredUP posted in the description section beneath her video.

Verticals

Lifestyle, beauty, nutrition, weight loss, fashion, education

Benefits

• Entertaining
• Inspirational
• Shareable
• Drum up engagement
• Informational and instructional
• Great opportunity to demonstrate value

Check out the text this influencer used in the caption of her glow-up video: “Use my code JENDIY for an extra 30% off of your first thredUP order! Click here: https://bit.ly/thredUPmay2020_JENDIY. Offer expires 06/30/20. Not valid on Goody Boxes, Rescues, or on items over $150. Valid in the U.S. and Canada only. Other restrictions may apply. Thanks to thredUP for sponsoring this video.”

#10 Product Reviews

Good for brand awareness, explainers, site traffic, clicks, store traffic

How It Works

Partner with an influencer who regularly reviews products IN YOUR NICHE or a related niche. Your brand can be one of multiple sponsors for a particular video or the sole product being featured and reviewed.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Great for new products or products where there’s lots of competition in the market from very similar products (like hair care)
• Influencers can touch on customer pain points
• Explain the nuances of your product compared to similar products

Haircare enthusiast Lia Lavon built a YouTube channel dedicated to haircare education and ideas. Her channel reviews not only hair care products, but also synthetic hair and hairstyle ideas to beat the summer heat, plus great-looking, no-fuss vacation hair.

#11 Q & A

Good for brand awareness, brand lift, clicks, and traffic

How It Works

Idea #1: Partner with fashion bloggers and beauty influencers or enthusiasts who’ll do a Q&A of follower/subscriber questions. These will usually be questions centered around the topic they’re enthusiastic about.

Idea #2: Partner with a lifestyle influencer who can contextually embed your product as part of s Q&A about the influencer or their life. These will be more personal questions, but the wide range of question types will likely provide multiple “ins” to introduce products.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Boost brand lift and visibility
• Extol the virtues of your brand/product
• Embed products in a way that doesn’t look like a product placement
• Can be less expensive if multiple products are featured

Both of these surfaced for the search term “Car Q&As.” One has a lifestyle spin, the other has an enthusiast spin.

#12 Advice

Good for brand awareness, clicks, traffic, getting buy-in, branding, brand reputation

How It Works

Partner with an influencer to recommend your product as a solution for a common problem.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Social proof
• Combats decision fatigue
• Makes content actionable

#13 Influencer-Curated Gift Guides

Good for brand awareness, clicks, social proof, conversions, coupons, opt-ins, SEO

How It Works

Partner with influencers who publish holiday gift guides (either blog or vlog) to have your product featured as one of the items on the list. Make sure the influencer’s brand aligns with your own so the recommendation makes sense to their audience.

Verticals

All. The more niched-down the vertical, the better your chances of being able to convert readers. For instance, the infographic on the right is a result that surfaced for the Google search “holiday gift guide for toddlers” from MommaSociety.com.

Here’s why this matters: Mandy is a blogger with a sizable Pinterest following that drums up nearly 2 million monthly viewers. One of the things Mandy publishes on her blog MommaSociety.com (and promotes on Pinterest) is her roundup of toy ideas. We found her under the search term holiday gift guides for toddlers, which is a popular search term.

Benefits

• Great for boosting brand lift ESPECIALLY when featured alongside more well-known products and brands
• Less expensive than a dedicated series of posts
• Holiday gift guides are often published on blogs and vlogs and cross-promoted with Pinterest, which gives them a years-long life cycle
• Continues to be searchable for future holiday guides
• Holiday guides streamline the gift-buying experience for busy shoppers who can be overwhelmed by options

#14 Curated Product Collections

Good for brand awareness, social proof, clicks, site traffic, sales, retargeting

How It Works

Shoppable platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have product curation features that highlight products recommended by influencers.

Verticals

Most often beauty, fashion, and home decor. Works in way more verticals, though.

Benefits

• Spotlight featured products
• Announce sales
• On both Pinterest and Instagram, influencers are featured as curators in Shop tabs

WE ACTUALLY CREATED AN ENCYCLOPEDIA ON THIS STUFF…

The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing

#15 Giveaways

Good for audience engagement, brand visibility, and user-generated content

How It Works

Giveaways are promotional events where your audience can participate for a chance to win prizes, often sponsored by your brand or in collaboration with influencers. Participants typically enter the giveaway by completing specific actions These can include liking, sharing, or commenting on social media posts or subscribing to newsletters. The allure of winning prizes encourages active engagement and interaction.

Giveaways are a powerful tool to supercharge your influencer marketing campaign, driving engagement, increasing brand visibility, and generating user-generated content. 

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Audience engagement 
• Brand visibility increases as more people engage with giveaways
• Fosters fun 
• Builds community

#16 Walkthrough and Demo Videos

Good for brand lift, gift inspo, website content, cross-channel promoting, conversions

How It Works

Influencers take center stage by creating video tutorials that unveil the inner workings of your product or delve into its various benefits and applications. These walkthrough and demo videos provide an in-depth, engaging look at what your product can do and how it can make a difference in your customers’ lives.

This also works for in-store events to promote your big deal days.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Engaging content
• Shareability and engagement
• SEO
• Cross-channel promotion

#17 Private Facebook Groups

Good for fostering communities, skill-building, brand engagement, and loyalty

How It Works

Private Facebook Groups offer an excellent platform for brands to sponsor and collaborate with influential content creators. This partnership can focus on teaching specific skills or fostering a community around a particular topic.

Brand-Sponsored Groups: Brands create private Facebook groups centered around their niche or industry. These groups provide a space for enthusiasts and learners to come together.

Influencer Collaboration: Influential content creators, often experts in the field, are invited to join and contribute to the group as moderators or teachers.

Skill-Building and Knowledge Sharing: The influencers facilitate skill-building sessions, share valuable insights, or lead discussions within the group. This guidance helps members learn and engage with the brand’s products or services.

Community Building Over time, the group becomes a community, where members connect, share experiences, and support one another. This sense of belonging fosters brand engagement and loyalty.

Verticals

Private Facebook Groups can be tailored to suit virtually any industry or topic, making them highly adaptable for influencer marketing campaigns.

Benefits

• Community fostering
• Skill enhancement 
• Brand engagement 
• Long-term relationships
• Audience growth

#18 Entertaining Videos

Good for engagement, brand visibility, and audience connection

How It Works

Entertaining videos have become a potent tool in the influencer marketing landscape, offering a unique way to engage audiences and boost brand visibility. Partnering with influencers known for their entertaining content can be a game-changer. Entertaining videos created in collaboration with influencers inject a sense of fun and excitement into your influencer marketing campaign. By leveraging influencers’ entertaining charm, you can capture the hearts and attention of your audience while effectively delivering your brand message.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Audience engagement
• Brand visibility
• Audience connection
• Shareability
• Diverse engagement

Repurposing Content to Stretch Your Influencer Marketing Ideas

Repurposing content is one of the most underutilized influencer marketing ideas. In order to create that echo chamber effect where your brand is showing up in every place your customers are active, there needs to be a plan for getting the most use out of your content.

Reusing content from an influencer marketing campaign is vital for maximizing its impact. It extends the lifespan of valuable assets, maintains brand consistency, and amplifies your message across multiple platforms. Repurposing influencer-generated content not only increases reach and engagement but also ensures that your brand’s message continues to resonate with your audience long after the campaign has ended.

#1 Email Marketing

Good for brand lift, conversions

How does it work?

Partner with influencers whose email subscribers are most likely interested in your product or service, and have them feature your product as part of their normal email marketing strategy.  

Verticals

All 

Benefits

• Partnerships can include social media influencers, B2B influencers, web-only publications like Morning Brew, and sponsorship packages from larger publications that have a digital presence

#2 In-App Ads

Good for brand lift, conversions

How Does It Work?

Influencers create video content (usually videos that can be used as pre-roll, mid-roll, and in-app mobile ads).

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Brand lift
• Targeted to reach app users, which can include people who may not be looking specifically for your brand or your product
• Track consumers’ online behavior

 

#3 Retargeting

Good for increasing touchpoints along the path to purchase, clicks, and site traffic

How It Works

Retargeting should be part of your conversion funnel for influencer campaigns. One way to keep your product and offering top-of-mind is to repurpose influencer content from an active influencer marketing campaign to be used in your site content as well as a smart ad across the web.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Scroll-stopping content
• Keeping your brand top-of-mind
• Cheaper than buying new marketing assets

#4 Local Search on Pinterest

Good for foot traffic, site traffic, brand awareness, clicks

How It Works

You don’t need to hire a Pinterest influencer to be seen on the platform. Pinterest can include local results for topical searches if your brand has a verified Pinterest business account and you’ve uploaded your products for inclusion in Pinterest.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Wider exposure for retailers with ecommerce functionality
• Extended life cycle for Pinterest posts, as pictures can be repinned to millions of boards by pinners
• Supports local SEO efforts as 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded, so local companies will now surface in results for broad categories

#5 Direct Mail and Catalogs

Good for brand awareness, driving site traffic, expanding your audience, connecting offline and online campaigns

How It Works

Retailers, and especially digital natives, send postcards and catalogs out via US mail with coupon codes or incentives to visit the brand online or locally.

Verticals

All

Benefits

• Introduce ecommerce brands to shoppers who traditionally have bought similar products offline
• Incentivize new and existing customers to buy with discounts and coupon codes
• Influencer content can provide a wider variety of themes for direct mail assets than a product shoot
• Minimizes decision fatigue
• Gives customers a way to rehearse decision-making offline
• Clears the path for buyers to streamline their decision-making process

Which of These Influencer Marketing Ideas Floats Your Boat?

There you have it — 28 influencer marketing ideas spotlighting a few different ways you can work with influencers this holiday season and stave off those basic-looking product placement posts. #kryptonite

If you need help with your holiday campaign or coming up with influencer marketing ideas, there’s still time. We’ve rolled out campaigns in days that converted for our clients. We don’t LIKE TO…but we have done it and delivered. So, if you need an influencer marketing agency partner that can implement these influencer campaign ideas for you, The Shelf team is into full-funnel stuff.

About the Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will builds our brand and gets our readers to do a thing

The post 28 Influencer Marketing Ideas That’ll Boost Your Sales appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.

Think of how impressed your friends and family will be when you bore dazzle them with terms like “collab feature” and “brand ambassador”.

Whether you’re blowing the minds of your non-marketer friends or not, this particular glossary of influencer marketing terms will help you stay up to date on what’s popping in the world of influencer marketing.

And…

It will arm you with an understanding of the elements of influencer marketing. Plus, it will give you the language to communicate effectively with your in-house team and the team appointed/hired to run your campaigns. Believe it or not, this post doesn’t contain any influencer marketing stats — which is kind of our jam — but it’s packed with information and insights. Without further ado, let’s dive into the influencer marketing dictionary.

Ready? C’mon, it’ll be fun.

The First, and Most Important Influencer Marketing Definition

Influencer Marketing or Creator Marketing: Influencer Marketing is a form of word-of-mouth marketing where brands hire social media creators who have expertise and influence in specific areas to talk to their own audiences about the various benefits of the brand’s products.

Influencer marketing isn’t new — not by any stretch of the imagination.

The current iteration of this form of word-of-mouth marketing being driven largely by content posted to social media channels IS new. But influencer marketing has a long history and a critical role in the sales process because influencer marketing works.

When influencers are sourced properly, brands can be assured that their influencer collab puts them in front of people who are most willing to buy their product. Presumably, the influencer’s audience is largely made up of members of the brand’s target audience ( that part’s important). An analysis of the influencer’s followers will verify that their audience is a match for the brand’s target buyer. Actually, you can check out this piece for a more in-depth explanation of what is influencer marketing. And this article will answer your most commonly asked questions about influencer marketing.

Now, let’s get on with the jargon…

Influencer marketing continues to grow and evolve rapidly. New terms and strategies feel like they’re popping up as fast as your phone’s notifications. So, we decided to create a dictionary of key terms to know so that you can learn the ins and outs of the influencer marketing industry and build winning campaigns. 

Influencers: Social media users whose followers look up to them for advice and guidance on specific subjects. Answer your deep questions about what is an influencer in this article. 

Nano-Influencer: Typical nano-influencers have between 1K-10K followers. There needs to be an intent to influence. While their followings are lower, they are often much closer to their community as they likely know some of them in real life. 

Micro-Influencer: The majority of influencers are in this influencer tier. Micros’ experience, content quality, and content themes vary widely. Their higher engagement rates and personal connections with their followers set them apart, and their experience and price tag vary. 

Mid-Tier Influencer: Not quite micros, not quite macros, these influencers expect more than just free product in exchange for posts. They may not be a full-time influencer, and usually have larger engagement rates than the mega and macro influencers. 

Macro-Influencer: There is no industry standard for classifying macros, but the average range is from 300K – 1M followers. These are experienced influencers who may work full-time or have a manager. 

Mega/Celebrity Influencer: Well-known influencers and celebs who have talent managers, and their fees are exponentially higher than other tiers. They typically have higher reach, lower engagement rates, and higher price tags. 

Fake Influencer: These are accounts that appear to be influencers. In reality, the so-called followers actually consist of a disproportionate number of bots or fake accounts. It’s the equivalent of buying a fresh jelly doughnut and biting in only to realize there’s no jelly. 

These various types of influencers can help you increase your ROI. But first, you need to set some campaign goals to ensure you deploy influencer marketing best practices AND that you find the perfect campaign type for your brand. 

Brand Awareness Campaign: Branded campaigns help you get consumers talking about your brand and help you build trust. They work best when introducing a new product, rebranding, and trying to present a value prop big enough to interrupt the buyer’s regular pattern.

Content Campaign: This approach is best when your goal is to get a ton of influencer-generated content (especially evergreen content) that you can reuse across your branded channels and in online and offline ads.

Traffic/Clicks Campaign: These campaigns work best for increasing site traffic, growing your list, getting sales, and running retargeting campaigns. They’re also great for when you need prospects to see your brand a few more times to stay top-of-mind. 

Just as you want to select the best influencer marketing strategy for your brand, you need to effectively track the campaign to analyze the success of your efforts. Different metrics also help you select the best influencers to meet your campaign objectives and hit the most important influencer marketing KPIs. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Values for measuring your influencer marketing campaign. 

Influencer Selection Criteria: This is the predetermined system a brand or third party uses to determine the likelihood of success in choosing to work with an influencer to meet marketing goals. This could include previous partnerships, marital status, storytelling, brand affinity, and lifestyle. Here’s the Agency’s Technical Guide to Influencer Selection. 

Social Media Platform: These are digital channels that allow users to share different types of content such as video, text, photos, etc. Influencer marketing relies on these interactive, virtual spaces like YouTube or Instagram to reach the right audience by carefully selecting the right influencers on each platform. 

Vanity Metrics: Think metrics like follower count which may look great on the surface but not mean much in practice. Vanity metrics may not indicate performance or benefit to your influencer marketing campaign strategy. 

Reach: Influencers’ follower count at the time of posting.

Unique Reach: Campaign-wide metric that means the sum of all influencers’ follower counts across platforms.

Total Potential Reach: Influencers’ follower count x Total number of posts.

Impressions: Total number of times the content is viewed.

Engagements: Number of interactions on post. This includes comments, likes, link clicks, shares, replies, profile visits, sticker taps, etc. 

Total Engagements: The sum of all likes + comments across all posts.

Engagement Rate (ER): Authenticated total engagements divided by total potential reach. 

CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions): It’s your total digital spend, divided by your total paid impressions, then multiplied by 1,000.

CPE (Cost per Engagement): Your total digital spend, divided by the number of paid engagements.

CPC (Cost Per Click): Your total digital spend, divided by your total number of clicks.

Views: A view is a predetermined number of seconds a user allows a video to play. This magic number differs from platform to platform.

Want more than an influencer marketing dictionary? Familiarize yourself further with the analytics and dive into influencer marketing ROI and the metrics you should be watching. 

There are many influencer marketing tactics, systems, and ways to enhance your efforts and amplify the benefits of running influencer campaigns. These terms further explain how to build a winning strategy and optimize so you get the most out of your campaign.  

Call to Action (CTA): A button or request for users to take some type of action. CTA’s are only as good as the concepts used to motivate the audience to increase connections and conversions. This could include promotions, rewards, signups, or giveaways. 

Concepts: Brand-safe creative ideas that make people want to engage with your campaign content. Quizzes, community content, and informational ideas are all concepts that can help you reach your marketing goals. 

Post Type: The combination of media formats and the platform options. Examples include an IG photo, IG story, Pinterest pin, or YouTube short. 

Verticals: Verticals are segments of your target audience identified by their commonalities. For example, adventurers or organized moms could be verticals. 

Distribution: Distribution entails getting greater reach for the top-performing content in your campaign. This helps you optimize your efforts and increase the resources behind high-performing content to boost the ROI of an influencer campaign. For example, this could include boosting, Facebook groups, newsletters, or organic reach. 

Allowlisting: Turning an influencer’s organic posts into a paid ad and running it through their account (instead of running an ad/dark post through your brand’s account). This is available on Facebook and Instagram and allows you to reach new audiences.

Check out our Guide to Influencer Whitelisting. 

Dark Posts: These are social ads (made with either brand or influencer assets) that appear as sponsored content in the feeds of users you’re targeting. They don’t appear on your timeline or show up organically in your followers’ feeds.

User Generated Content (UGC): This refers to the marketing assets or sponsored content that influencers are hired to create for brands during influencer marketing campaigns. Regardless of how influencers are paid for that content.

Sponsored Posts: This type of post means that an influencer is publishing a post that’s compensated by the brand. 

Re-Share: This is when your brand’s page shares the influencer’s original post from their page to yours. This could be retweeting a tweet from an influencer or their page on your Instagram story. 

Repost: A new post published to your page that looks as though it was “reposted” from an influencer’s page. This could be uploading the influencer’s assets to your Facebook page for a new post with their caption in quotes and additional information from you. 

Repurpose: When a brand takes the influencer’s assets, optimizes them for the channel, and then posts them directly to their page(s) with an original caption. This could be sharing assets and a caption on LinkedIn and crediting the influencer for the visuals.

Brand Ambassadors: Much like an influencer relationship, brand ambassador partnerships are more long-term. The influencer typically has an authentic affinity for the brand. These partnerships are more than one-off campaigns with influencers meeting a short-term goal. 

Federal Trade Commission (FTC): The FTC has a set of guidelines for the influencer marketing industry where influencers are required to disclose their relationships with the brand in the post that promotes their product or service.  

Influencer Networks: A roster of an existing influencer network curated by a third party. 

Opt-Ins: Influencers who respond to your “casting call.”

Agents: Professionals who represent a group of top influencers (which isn’t the same as repping a large group of influencers). 

Outreach: Conducting cold outreach to influencers you don’t know and who probably don’t know you. But you have a master plan and a fantastic influencer outreach template that keeps you from looking like a crazy person.

The Influencer Marketing Dictionary in Conclusion

Bookmark this influencer marketing dictionary and refer to it each time you need a refresher on the basics or lingo. It’s a fast-paced industry. Social algorithms and influencer marketing trends are always changing. But that keeps us all on our toes (and is half the fun). So, whether you’re an influencer or marketer, you want to be sure that you’re staying up to date.

Understanding and implementing these terms and practices can help you scale, expand, and amplify your brand. Influencer marketing lets you increase your ROI when you have the right campaign that wins over your audience. 

Enjoy being the influencer marketing go-to specialist on your team with these key terms. 

About the Author

Sorilbran Stone | Content Strategist

I serve as the resident content strategist and the official Head of Content Marketing at The Shelf. Marketing is my happy place. I’m as happy looking at analytics as I am actually creating a thing. I focus a lot on dreaming up and implementing the best ways to create, publish, and distribute content that will builds our brand and gets our readers to do a thing

The post The 2023 Influencer Marketing Dictionary appeared first on The Shelf Full-Service Influencer Marketing.