At this point, we all know that influencer marketing is much more than just a trend on social media. A recent survey by BI Intelligence actually found that influencer content outperforms typical branded content posted to Instagram by a 203% engagement rate! With such great results, the question at the top of every marketer’s mind is…

How much budget should I spend on influencer marketing?

You should spend 25% of your total digital marketing spend on influencer marketing. As determined by industry leading analyst firm Altimeter.

To get to this answer we partnered with Altimeter Research, a leading analyst firm, and published our findings in a new research paper called The Power of Influence. The paper explores how much budget you should spend on influencer marketing, and shares 6 key drivers for next-generation influencer marketing that you can start implementing today.

After concluding the research study, we gathered that brands should expect to spend 25% of their digital budgets on influencer marketing this year. Influencer marketing should be treated as any other digital marketing channel, using the same processes and benchmarks. It may seem trivial, but a good starting point can be understanding who your audience is, what action you want them to take, and then determine the message that you want to say to them. In the report, Altimeter Research states that influencer marketing is now “an integral part of any digital media plan.” It’s no surprise that influencer marketing as an industry is predicted to reach a valuation of $10 Billion by 2020.

To complement the statistics and research in the paper, we also sat down with real brand marketers at Celestial Seasonings Tea and McDonald’s to hear best practices and insights from the front lines. We were able to have an in-depth conversation about the findings from the paper with the Director of Shopper Marketing & Insights at Hain Celestial, Yolanda Youts, in a new featured webinar titled How Celestial Seasonings Tea Runs Influencer Marketing. Watch the 30-minute, on demand webinar recording to hear some real use-cases from Yolanda, and learn influencer marketing strategies that you can implement at your own organization.

Let us know if you have any questions about influencer marketing, and if we can help launch a campaign with your brand!