WTF is Going on With Influencer Marketing

Recently at Socialike, we’ve committed a lot of time reviewing our influencer strategy. In doing that review, there was one question we keep coming back to over and over: Is the ROI there for influencer marketing?

We still utilize influencers often, but in many cases, we find more value in creating our own content and pushing out the message via social ads instead of paying an influencer to generate the content, then push the message out via their channels.

We kept coming back to this question:

• A perceived pro of working with influencers is that they come off as authentic; however, most Tik Tok and Instagram consumers are fully aware that these influencers are being compensated.
• 90% of the influencers we reach out to do not request to try the product first. The first question is almost always about compensation.
• Many influencers don’t participate in affiliate programs.
  • We can offer a 30% commission on a product sale in some cases, and influencers still will not participate. This makes me seriously doubt the influence some of these influencers have.
• From first-hand experience working with hundreds of influencers, we have seen an exponential increase in the cost of working with influencers. At the same time, the number of working freelancers that can create fantastic content for your social feeds has gone up dramatically.

Socialike works primarily in the health and wellness space, and we find a lot of value in working with doctors, pharmacists, dental professionals, etc. When we work with influencers now, we focus on long-term strategic partnerships. It is infrequent that we work with an influencer on a one-off basis. Instead, we want to work with influencers on at least a quarterly basis.