In 2024, everyone should know what an influencer is, they are present on social media, video content, podcasts, and even reality TV shows. But do you know what a micro-influencer is? While the term ‘influencer’ is used more commonly, there are many different types of influencers – with each one providing different benefits and audiences for business marketing. In this article, I am going to cover what a micro-influencer is, how to find them, earnings, and other information so that your brand can effectively implement an influencer marketing campaign.
What Is A Micro-Influencer
A micro-influencer is a type of influencer who typically has a smaller, but highly engaged and niche audience of between 10k to 100k followers on social media or other digital platforms.
Unlike macro-influencers or celebrities who might have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, micro-influencers often have follower counts ranging from a few thousand up to around 100,000. Which is also more than nano-influencers. Despite having fewer followers, they are known for having a stronger, more personal connection with their audience, often resulting in higher engagement rates.
Micro-influencers are frequently considered experts or passionate enthusiasts in specific niches such as fashion, beauty, gaming, fitness, or lifestyle. They tend to produce content that resonates deeply with their followers, making them attractive to brands that want to target specific demographics or interests. Their authenticity and perceived trustworthiness make them effective at influencing their audience’s purchasing decisions.
Collaborations between brands and micro-influencers usually involve sponsored posts, product reviews, or brand ambassador roles. These partnerships are beneficial for brands seeking to reach a targeted audience with a high potential for engagement and conversion and for micro-influencers seeking to monetize their influence and content creation skills.
How To Find Micro-Influencers
Finding micro-influencers can be challenging, especially when you have to consider fake accounts and fraud. You can’t start a brand partnership based on the number of followers an influencer has or their ‘status’, you need to consider engagement rates, authenticity of followers, values of the influencer, and even the cost.
That being said, there are 2 different methods you can use to find micro-influencers;
The first is using an influencer marketplace or service. These platforms have influencers already listed, with metrics about their performance, reviews, prices, and more useful information. Communication and payments are usually processed through these platforms too, reducing the risk of fraud. This method is time efficient and makes running influencer marketing campaigns simple.
Popular choices for this method include:
The second method is to find influencers manually. As you may have guessed, this means searching on social platforms manually for individuals. You will need to look at follows, likes, reactions, comments, quality of audience, and the type of content the influencer posts. Then you would have to reach out and discuss a partnership for promotion.
You can search manually by using hashtags, searching trending topics, using Google search, checking trending tabs on different social platforms, and even checking the news as many influencers are covered in stories.
Personally, I recommend using a marketplace or influencer platform, while backing your decision up through a manual check. Some red flags to look out for include:
- Authenticity of Followers: Look at the follower list of the micro-influencer. Do they seem like genuine accounts, or are they all strange names and are they from one country specifically? If the influencer has thousands of followers that all have odd names, low followings, and don’t interact, then they have likely paid for them and you should look elsewhere.
- Followers VS Engagement: You should take a look at what type of engagement the micro-influencer gets on their account. For example, according to data, influencers on TikTok with less than 15,000 followers see an engagement rate of 17.96%. Generally speaking, if there is a high number of followers / very low engagement, the account is either fake or has been purchased by someone else.
- Read Comments: If you find a micro-influencer that has a steady stream of engagement and genuine followers, be sure to start reading the interactions they get on the posts. Are they genuine? Do they relate to the content? People can purchase fake comments to make their profiles seem legit, so be sure to do your due diligence.
- Number of Posts: In order to achieve growth and popularity on social channels, influencers need to post frequently. If you see high followers and high engagement, but a low number of posts or infrequent posts, this could be a fake account too.
How Much Does A Micro-Influencer Cost?
A micro-influencer can cost anywhere between $20 – $1,500 per post, with the addition of sending them products to review. However, these are just estimates, rates can vary depending on the influencer you work with, their engagement rates, their audience, and other factors. You will need to weigh up the value of the partnership to settle on a price, however, it’s worth noting that influencer marketing can 11x the ROI compared to banner ads!
The price will also vary depending on the platform. These are the current rates you can expect for micro-influencers:
- Facebook: $250 to $1,250 per post.
- YouTube: $200 to $1,000 per post.
- Instagram: $100 to $500 per post.
- X (Twitter): $20 to $100 per post.
- TikTok: $25 to $125 per post.
Before committing to working with a micro-influencer on a regular basis, try one test post and see what results you get. If it’s not in line with your expectations and general standards – try a different influencer.
Benefits Of Working With A Micro-Influencer
Working with micro-influencers can come with numerous benefits for brand marketing, for example, did you know that 36% of brands say influencer content outperforms branded content? Here are some of the key benefits of influencer marketing you can expect:
Low Costs
Generally speaking, working with micro-influencers is more cost-effective, especially when compared to macro- and mega-influencers. In some instances, depending on certain factors, working with micro-influencers can also come with lower costs compared to paid advertisements and other promotional methods.
Of course, this can all change depending on multiple factors: the number of posts, the type of content, the engagement rates of the influencer, the niche, and whether samples need to be sent. For example, if you paid for a micro-influencer to post an image of a product, and as the brand, you provided the image and the caption; this would cost less than asking the influencer to record their own video promoting the product.
Higher Engagement
On average, engagement rates across all industries are considered effective between 1 and 5%. Micro-influencers on Instagram, as an example, can boast a 3.5 – 2.5% engagement rate, this is compared to macro- and mega-influencers who achieve less than 2.5%. This is reflected across other platforms where the engagement rate drops with the more followers influencers have.
The reason for these higher engagement rates is down to trust. Micro-influencers, and influencers in general, have a deeper connection with their audience, and due to the relatable content they create, also have very high levels of trust. This is something that brands cannot achieve, hence why influencer marketing is taking the world by storm. When an influencer posts on behalf of a brand, it will be received in a more positive way than if it came from a brand or paid advertisement.
Increased Trust
Leading on from my last point, one of the main benefits of working with micro-influencers is for the increased levels of trust. These influencers have likely spent years building connections with their audience through consistent and creative content. On top of that, most micro-influencers are not out to sell products and services in every post – they get paid by creating the content, which doesn’t alienate the audience and degrade their trust.
This means that when your brand partners with an influencer, the posts they create will be trusted, which means your product, brand, service, app, or whatever you are promoting, will also get that trust passed on. A caveat here is the type of content, it’s important that the influencer integrates your brand promotion into their content style to remain authentic. If you pay the influencer to say ‘Buy this now!’ it will not have the same effect.
Increased Brand Awareness
Another benefit of partnering with micro-influencers is increasing your brand awareness. Of course, this is generally not the primary goal of influencer marketing, but it is still effective. It’s more effective if you partner with a micro-influencer that is heavily involved in your industry/niche and if you post regularly with them – for the audience to keep seeing your brand name, product, colors, or other factors.
Increases Sales
The latest influencer marketing stats show that 50.7% of brands that work with influencers have an e-commerce store to sell their products. That’s likely because influencer marketing can 11x the ROI compared to banner ads! Therefore by utilizing micro-influencer marketing, you can increase the sales of your product or service.
Best Practices For Working With Micro-Influencers
For many brands, jumping into a partnership with a micro-influencer can be daunting. Especially when 59.8% of brands say they have experienced influencer fraud in 2024, which has increased significantly year on year. However, by following these best practices I have laid out, you can minimize the risks and increase the rewards of your influencer marketing campaigns:
Define Your Goals & Objectives
As with any marketing campaign, outlining your objectives and the goals you want to achieve is essential. Think about what you want your brand to get out of the partnership, is it to increase sales, drive traffic, build awareness, and so on? Then set a benchmark of what you want to achieve to help measure performance – which I’ll cover further down.
Evaluate Their Profiles & Activity
As mentioned earlier in the article, you have to research and evaluate micro-influencers profiles and channels – even if you use a marketplace with pre-filled data. Check for things like authentic engagement, genuine accounts, real comments, regular activity, and signs that the account is authentic and interacts with its audience. This way you can avoid any fake profiles.
Communicate With Them
Just because you find a micro-influencer to work with, it doesn’t mean everything will go perfectly. That’s not to try and scare you off, but you need to make sure you can have an effective, 2-way partnership. For example, imagine the influencer takes several days to respond to a message every time – can you see that partnership working with your brand turnaround times?
You need to ask questions and find out more about their drive, personality, etc. just to ensure they will be reliable. Do your due diligence to make sure the campaign is going to work and be effective.
Ensure They Align With Your Brand
For me, this is one of the key things to consider when working with any influencer. For example, if you partner with an influencer who is very outspoken on controversial political topics – that opposes what your brand stands for – would it be sensible to partner with them? Imagine if your audience discovered that. It could do more harm than good.
It helps to have a list of ‘red flags’ to look out for or have a set of brand guidelines so that whoever manages your influencer partnerships can assess the suitability of that influencer.
Define Scope Of Work & Payments
Although working with influencers can be informal compared to other marketing methods, you should still make sure there is a contract and that a scope of work is defined. This should be outlined before agreeing on the partnership to ensure that both parties are happy with what is expected of them.
When it comes to paying micro-influencers – you should use an escrow service initially. Where money is held by a third party and is not released until all requirements have been fulfilled. You should also agree on the rates and any free samples that will be provided beforehand.
Measure & Track Results
I shouldn’t need to include this, however, 30% of businesses don’t measure their influencer campaign ROI. Measuring and tracking the performance of influencer marketing campaigns is vital – it ensures your budget is being utilized, you are profiting from the partnership and also achieving overall brand goals.
Should Brands Work With Micro-Influencers?
Brands should absolutely work with micro-influencers. With the correct research and partnerships, brands can increase engagement, build awareness, and drive sales, achieving a higher ROI when compared with some other marketing channels.
If you have any questions – drop a comment below!
