Over 50% of marketers to increase influencer marketing spends in 2021: ClanConnect.ai study

AI-driven influencer marketing platform, ClanConnect.ai, has come up with a study around the importance of influencers in the marketer’s media-mix. The research comprises insights from CMOs of brands across the FMCG, infrastructure, fashion and textile, media and entertainment, BFSI and pharmaceuticals space. 

 

The data states that 78% of marketing leaders leveraged influencer marketing in 2020, while over 13% of them initiated influencer activity for the first time in 2020. However, 52% of brands engaged more than 10 influencers in 2020. 

 

It also found that over 41% of brands have taken the onus of managing influencer marketing mandates, whereas 15% of them have employed dedicated influencer marketing platforms and marketplaces to create and manage highly targeted and impactful campaigns.

 

On the flipside, 89.13% of marketers are concerned about the many influencer frauds that are doing the rounds, with regard to fake followers and engagement. 

 

 

Here are some of the findings from the study:

 

Increased spends on influencer marketing: Budgets allocated to influencer marketing grew significantly in 2020, as compared to 2019. 39.13% of marketers mentioned an increase in spends on influencer marketing, while the other 60.87% saw no change in spends between 2019 and 2020. More than 50% of the respondents increased their marketing spends in 2020 vis-à-vis 2019. As influencer marketing gained prominence, 58.70% of CMOs have allocated separate budgets for influencer activities in their 2021 marketing plans and 52.17% have decided to increase spends in 2021, as compared to 2020. Almost 90% of marketers are planning to allocate 25% of their entire marketing budget towards influencer-led activities in the current year, with over 50% of the respondents interested in increasing budgets by up to 25% in 2021. 

 

Scope for influencer marketing: Instagram was found to be the most effective platform for influencer campaigns by 50% of marketers, while LinkedIn took second preference by 23.91% and YouTube by 15.22%. The research found that 60.87% of marketers believe that the ambit of influencer marketing can also expand into affiliate campaigns and revealed that almost 87% of CMOs preferred to use micro-influencers in about 25% of their influencer campaigns.

 

This stated that brands prefered to engage influencers having a dedicated following, regardless of the number of followers. 

 

Kunal Kishore Sinha, co-founder and COO – ClanConnect.ai, said, “Influencer marketing is at the cusp of exponential growth. It is the veritable future of marketing, a fact that is evident from this first-of-its-kind survey report. At ClanConnect.ai, we are excited to be at the forefront of such a fast-growing sector and are geared up to gain further scale in the coming months.”