Originally Published Autumn 2021
This is part 2 of our recent Organic TikTok vs Instagram Influencer vs Facebook Ads experiments
Part 1 can be found here
Based on the results of our original experiment we also decided to explore the deeper question: Was the problem with the Influencers or with the Platform (Think: Instagram)?
We measured the response to our influencers' activity on both TikTok and Instagram
... and the simple answer is it appears to be the platform
Our influencers were able to replicate the click through traffic generated by our ongoing organic TikTok experiments
The next question is why? Why can't the influencers replicate their followers behaviour on both Instagram & TikTok?
Could it be TikTok's content engagement algorithm has rendered the defacto social media follower count metric redundant?
Or, is the answer much simpler?
We modified the experiment and invested our creative energy and dollars into Instagram Advertising
Not surprisingly the CTR results - before we adjusted for bounce and bots - mirrored the organic reach of influencers on TikTok
and these numbers point to a deeper insight into the nature of user generated creative platforms
You see the bait and switch for these social media platforms is inflating organic creator engagement to accelerate user growth and then throttling organic reach for these creators at the expense of the paid advertising model they later introduce to monteize the platform
The only question is can the advertising model reach scale before the next 'disruptive/game changing' bait and switch platform gains traction among the creative community and you have to start paying the highest rating stars to keep the audience engaged
Today being an influencer on Instagram is tough.
It's much easier on TikTok, but for how much longer?
and what about the rise of social commerce as a revenue model for influencers?
Well to show you how difficult it is for Instagram creatives to monetize their reach here is a quick 'Rule of Thumb' calculator to help you translate influencer engagement rates into Cost per Click rates
It illustrates how engagement is a more accurate measure than reach when forecasting the ROI on influencer marketing
It also illustrates how difficult it is for the influencer to compete directly with the platform they have built their business on
Note:
a. Shares & Retweets can be added to the Comments count
b. You can add the cost of supplying the promotional merchandise to the influencer in the engagement fee to obtain a more accurate cost per click estimate
c. The average CPC for Facebook & Google for retail apparel advertising is between $0.50 to $0.90
d. The bounce rate of Influencer Traffic is signicantly lower than Facebook or Google Paid Traffic