Influencer marketing ROI ‘outperforms’ linear TV and paid social, study finds

New IPA research finds influencer marketing ROI outperforms linear TV and paid social, delivering “strong returns particularly over the long term”. 

Spanning 220 campaigns from 144 brands across 36 sectors and 28 markets, the findings are taken from a cross-industry influencer database, led by IPA Effectiveness Leadership Group member Jane Christian, executive vice-president of analytics, WPP Media.

Based on 59 UK campaigns, the short-term ROI of influencer marketing was found to be comparable with all channel averages, delivering a short-term ROI index of 99, aligned with the all-channel average of 100. Some 4.5% of short-term sales from the campaigns were also driven by influencers.

Despite the short-term sales percentage for linear TV being 32% compared to influencers at 4.5%, the ROI index is comparable with the return on investment for influencer marketing coming in at 99 versus linear TV ranking at 97.

The ROI index for influencer marketing also exceeds standard paid social (86), despite paid social having a 13% sales contribution.

Another study of 18 UK campaigns found the long-term ROI effect of influencer marketing was greater than that of paid social. According to the IPA data, influencer marketing has an ROI index of 151 compared to 77 for paid social.

Influencer marketing also has the greatest long-term multiplier across all media channels at 3.35, compared to linear TV at 3.27, the study suggests.

Global findings from the study reveal influencer marketing ROI outcomes “do not strongly correlate with media optimisation factors such as spend levels”, with effective creator marketing hinging on the “fit between brand and influencer and the quality of creative content”.

Why it’s ‘time for influencer measurement to grow up’

Managing director of audience intelligence and marketing science at Wavemaker, Dominic Charles, says the results provide a “clear view that influencers can hold their own relative to other channels”, describing creators as a “highly effective source of growth for brands”.

Director of effectiveness at the IPA, Laurence Green, describes this as a “landmark moment for influencer marketing”.

“With the right influencer-brand fit and powerful ideas, influencer marketing has the potential to punch well above its weight. While it’s still early days, and we need to build further evidence, this data gives marketers a far firmer footing for investment and creative ambition alike,” says Green.

In recent years, marketers have recognised the need to evolve their measurement of influencer marketing. Beauty brand Elemis, for example, has adopted a “three C” approach to measuring influencer effectiveness.

“When we determine what kind of success we’re going to see from any influencer campaign, it’s going to be either for conversation, conversion or content,” explained Elemis head of social content Hannah Sheahan told Marketing Week.

Earlier in the year, the effectiveness of influencer marketing was also demonstrated by Whalar’s Creator Effectiveness Meta-Analysis report, conducted in partnership with Kantar, which found that using creators for brand building drives long-term equity and short-term sales, outperforming traditional digital advertising.

Creator content was found to perform better than 77% of ads in delivering new information and 72% of ads on credibility.

At the time, Kantar’s senior vice-president of creative strategy, Kerry Benson, said effective creator content comes down to whether it is engaging enough to gain attention, drive an “emotional connection” and create a “brand memory” to impact short-term and long-term brand building.