Are you thinking of using Instagram Influencer marketing for your business? Well, it’s the right time to go for it. Implementing this into your Instagram marketing strategy will result in increased brand awareness along with significant growth in your follower base while driving your sales upward.

Before opting for Instagram Influencer Marketing, let’s know a bit about Instagram’s new algorithm. Optimizing your posts in Instagram is equally crucial as marketing. Instagram is no more a platform where your posts were shown chronologically. Now, Instagram also uses critical algorithms which make the task of advertisers even more difficult.

Follow these simple rules and beat the new algorithms of Instagram:

Seven factors that influence the Instagram Algorithm:

1. How much Engagement You Get

In your Instagram feed, you will notice those posts which have more comments, shares, views, etc. Posts with high engagement will rank higher in Instagram Algorithm. When a post receives a lot of likes, shares, and comments, the Instagram algorithm consider the posts as high-quality content. As a result, the post will be automatically displayed to more people.

However, Instagram Algorithm is not that simple to crack. In some cases, the algorithm not just consider the amount of engagement a post receives, but also the period within which the post accumulate those engagements. So if Post A receive 1000 likes within 3 hours while Post B gets 1000 likes in 1 day, then Post B will be ranked higher by Instagram Algorithm.

Therefore, it is crucial for a business to find the right time to post on Instagram. Before posting anything on Instagram make sure, your post at such a period at which your post will be displayed to maximum users. Therefore, if your post receives quicker likes, then Instagram Algorithm will boost it further.

2. How Long People Spend Viewing Your Post

Same as Facebook, the amount of time, a user spends with a post in Instagram is also essential for boosting Instagram Algorithm. The Algorithm of Instagram considers the time spend by users and decide how much to boost the post.

As an advertiser, try to create compelling captions in Instagram to beat the Algorithm. Write catchy captions to attract users. When users read the caption along with clicking on the “More” button, they will spend more time on your post. Create posts that take customers more time to watch. You can also use slideshow posts such as call-to-action to increase the viewing time.

3. How engaged you are with a particular person

If you engage with a specific person regularly, then Instagram will show you more post of that person in your account. For example, if you regularly engage with your best friend, then you will receive every post of your friend, even if his/her followers’ size is just 20.

4. The time you posted something

Instagram considers the timeline of your posts. If your post something recently, then the Instagram Algorithm will most like show your recent post to your followers rather than the post you posted two days back. However, sometimes things differ on Instagram too. It also depends how often your followers browse Instagram. If your followers use Instagram for only three times a week, then they will see the top posts they missed.

The New Instagram Algorithm has extended the life of a post. If your post is still getting high engagements, then it will be displayed for a long time.

5. What Type of Content you posted

The type of content or genre a user mostly see plays a vital role in Instagram Algorithm. If Instagram only considers the number of engagement, then everyone might end up with the same kind of content.

The algorithm of Instagram considers the genre of the user. If a user likes to watch pictures of puppies he/she will most likely find posts related to puppies on his/her screen.

6. Whose accounts you searched on Instagram

Instagram analyse the accounts a user search on his/her Instagram account. The Instagram Algorithm thinks that the reason a person search a user account because he/she must like his posts. As a result, Instagram will show more contents from that the searched user.

7. When a user shares a post in DM

Instagram tracks all the time a user shares a post with someone through DM. As a business, you should focus on creating crafty and engaging contents that will force a person to share it with his/her friends. Instagram consider all shared posts as a form of engagement and assumes that a user shares the post because he/she likes the post.

How to beat Instagram Algorithm:

1. Post When Your Audience Is Most Active

Schedule your post according to the time when your user will be most active. The new Instagram Algorithm prioritizes the posts based on their timeline and engagements. You can use a tool such as “later” to post your contents at a specific time.

2. Ask your Followers to engage:

While captioning your posts, ask your users to participate and give their valuable suggestions. It is not only a great way to increase your engagement but also an excellent way to get your followers to spend more time in your posts.

3. Create Instagram Hashtag carefully:

An Instagram hashtag is an essential component of Instagram Marketing. Before using a hashtag, do good research about the hashtags which are trending.

4. Try to get more comments on your posts:

Most of the marketers say that Instagram Algorithm pays more attention to the comments and sharing of a post than the likes it garnered. If we use logic, then it is most probably correct. It doesn’t take much time to get likes as it is just one click away. However, to comment on a post, a user has to come up with an idea. Same rules apply to the share feature too. Sharing a post also shows a high level of engagement by a user.

Now that you have a fair idea about the new algorithm of Instagram let’s focus on Instagram Influencer Marketing.

In this Guide for Instagram Influencer Marketing, all your necessary queries will be covered. Starting from:

Finding the right influencers

Disclosing the sponsored posts properly

Determining if the strategy is working for you or not

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a mixture of old and new marketing tools. You take the old marketing tool like a celebrity endorsement and place it in a content-driven modern marketing campaign. In Influencer Marketing, a business collaborates its brand with an Influencer of Instagram to target a wide-scale audience.

Who are influencers?

An influencer is someone who has a large following on the web and social media. An influencer doesn’t need to be a celebrity. An influencer is someone who is famous in his/her field of work. Anyone can be an influencer: a chef, a photographer, a fitness model, etc., provided that he/she has a large number of social media followers. Recognising an influencer on Instagram is easy. Look for your influencer according to your product and the influencer’s number of followers.

Why is Influencer Marketing right for your business?

Instagram is one of the most preferred choices of advertisers when it comes to influencer marketing. If you want to collaborate with an influencer, then Instagram is an excellent platform. Compared to others, Instagram has a faster reach to new audiences. According to data, Instagram offers twice the engagement rate in comparison with other social networks. While other Social Network platform provides an engagement rate of 1.5%, Instagram, on the other hand, provides 3.21% of engagement rate.

As Instagram is one of the most influential platforms in influencer marketing, your brand will be introduced to the new audience via a trustworthy influencer, whom the audience trust from a long time. In Influencer marketing, you do not have to use the traditional form of marketing; instead, use your influencer popularity as a tool.

Followers always consider an influencer celebrity as their friend and all their recommendation is taken as a holy grail. For example, if a fitness model suggests a protein brand in their channel, then the followers will most likely purchase it due to the trust factor, they ingrained on them.

It is an excellent way to raise awareness about your new product or services through an Instagram Influencer marketing Strategy. Apart from raising awareness, the brand became entirely relatable to the audience. As the algorithm of Instagram is limited, businesses are more focused on using the Instagram Influencer marketing as their primary strategy to promote their brand. Currently, more than 67% of advertisers are using the Instagram Influencer Marketing strategy compared to traditional marketing. In coming years, it is predicted that the number is going to increase and the organic reach is going to decline.

How much it cost for the Instagram Influencer Marketing.

The influencers play the influential role in social media platforms, especially on Instagram. As a business owner, you have to consider a series of factors before coming up with a fair price for your marketing campaign.

The rates of an Influencer varies heavily based on several factors. Collaboration between a brand and an influencer is simple, according to the report. A partnership not only beneficial for the brand but the influencer as well.

According to the 2018 Marketing report of Instagram, some influencer charges from $5000 to $10,000 per sponsored post while some influencer also charges between $250 to $1000. In Instagram, you will get influencers according to your marketing budget. No matter how intensive marketing you want to do, you will always find an influencer in your price range.

Even if you are a small business, you can still use Instagram Influencer Marketing to your advantage by collaborating with Micro-influencers. The engagement rate on Instagram is on a decline stage due to new algorithms, but again, a business can benefit by working with Micro-influencers whose follower base are stable and super-engaged.

Who are Micro-Influencers?

Micro-influencers are those influencers, who may not have a massive follower base, but their follower base is significantly high in number. On an average, micro-influencers’ follower base ranges between 1000 to 100,000 followers. Even with a small follower base, micro-influencers are highly influential.

Micro-influencers have their advantage over top-tier influencers. Contrary to the later, the engagement rate of Micro-influencers is tremendously higher.

To back the statement, you can consider the separate studies of HelloSociety and Markerly. Their studies concluded that there is a negative correlation between the size of the audience and the engagement rate.

According to the Instagram algorithm, the rate of likes, comments, and followers on Instagram are lowering contrary to past. This is happening to all accounts, no matter whatever the size is. As a result, more significant size accounts are taking a more vital hit. In this way, we can figure out that, the rate of exposure of a post by a micro-influencer is higher, compared to an enormous influencer. To be precise, if you promote 10-Instagram post by a micro-influencer, it will reach more user base, than posting one promotional post through a huge influencer.

Factors to consider while selecting the right influencer for your Instagram Influencer Marketing:

Finding the right influencer for your brand is tricky and needs a lot of planning. Start by setting up your goals and expectations before approaching an influencer. If you are a new company in the market and trying to increase your brand awareness, then you might consider using metrics such as influencer’s reach and traffic. If you want to accumulate a lot of engagements for your company, then it is better to team up with a micro-influencers with smaller audiences to get high engagement rates.

1. Instagram Engagement of the Influencer:

If an influencer has a high engagement rate, it can be considered that their followers are paying attention to their posts. It shows the active involvement of the followers. This is the reason why most companies focus on influencer who have the most engaged followers. The standard engagement rate among followers ranges between 2-3% per post. While the engagement rate of 4-6% is considered excellent, posts that garner 10-20%, engagement rate falls under the viral category.

2. Quality of the Followers:

An ideal influencer must have a good rapport with their audience. The follower base also plays a significant role in marketing. As a business, your prime focus is to expose your brand to those followers who can provide a positive contribution to your brand. Suppose you collaborate with a beautician for your health drink brand, then that doesn’t make any sense. You should only pair-up with that influencer whose follower base are relatable with your brand.

3. The size of the followers:

The influence of an influencer to their followers is directly proportional to the amount of engagement they have with their followers. The Instagram algorithm impacts the engagement of larger accounts. In the current scenario, a large number of user base doesn’t contribute to more substantial involvement. It has been noticed that the more extensive a follower base gets, the smaller its engagement rate gets. It will be beneficial to approach an influencer with fewer followers and higher engagement rate.

4. The size of your budget:

Before deciding to partner up with an influencer, first make sure how you are going to pay them. Some influencer charges a flat rate for their engagement while some influencer accepts gifts from Companies rather than charging flat rates. Some influencer even charges according to the number of sales or lead they created for your business. Although, beware of fake influencers too. Nowadays a lot of influencers tends to buy followers to boost their appeal to attract businesses. So, while searching for an authentic influencer, make sure they have not accumulated followers through unfair means.

5. Adequately disclosing Influencer Marketing Sponsors:

Since last year, there has been a notable growth in influencer marketing on Instagram. With influencer sprouting from every corner, the Federal Trade Commission started to crackdown on Instagram Partnerships. The Influencer has to mention their paid partnership with a brand while making a post on Instagram. Before approaching an Influencer, make sure they are FTC compliant.

According to FTC rules, an influencer must disclose their endorsement relationship with followers while promoting a material. The influencer must mention whether they are paid, or the product is being gifted to them or if they have an existing business/family relationship with the brand owner. The whole purpose of these rules is to maintain transparency between the followers and the influencer. A follower has the right to know that if the influencer is being paid by any means for the brand promotion.

Tracking your Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy:

The primary motive to start a marketing campaign is the return of investment or ROI. So, there is no exception in Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy too. As a business, you have to involve in those campaigns, which gives excellent ROI. You need to plan your steps carefully and formulate your strategy. Setting up clear goals and metrics is crucial for an effective Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy.

As a business, you can achieve every type of goal through an Influencer Marketing Campaign.

Some Common performance metrics through which you can measure your Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaign are:

Brand Sentiment:

Analyse the positive and negative posts of the followers. Using the Brand Sentiment metrics, you can figure out if the marketing campaign is successful or not. Are the followers reacting positively to your brands? Is your influencer Influential enough? Is there something that you missed?

Sales:

You can analyze the conversion rate and revenue generation by your Instagram Influencer Marketing Campaign. Is the money you spend worth it? Make sure you don’t spend way more in marketing while there is no significant spike in your revenue generation.

Engagement Rate:

If your primary aim is to increase your brand awareness, then you can analyze the number of likes, comments, shares, etc. you accumulated through your Influencer Marketing Campaign.

According to the Instagram marketing report of 2018, around 79% of businesses consider engagement rate to be the primary metric while measuring the success of their sponsored post. However, Influencer Marketing on Instagram has way more potential than one can comprehend.