From year to year, influencer marketing is experiencing increasingly significant growth. Tons of brands allocate the majority of their marketing budget to partnerships with macro and micro influencers. Brands that master the mechanisms of influencer marketing and choose the right influencers increase their chances of generating significant gains.

Influencer marketing is based on a test-and-see marketing tactic. Choosing the right social influencer is not an easy task. Following the end-to-end campaign process can seem overwhelming when you’re setting goals from scratch. But one thing is certain: influencer marketing is undoubtedly the way forward.

In this vein, one of the most important decisions you will have to make concerns the choice of influencer types, namely micro or macro among the incessant waves of influencers, agencies, and platforms. So which one offers more advantages? And especially which one meets your needs?

Before deciding which type of Instagram influencers you want to use for your campaign, let’s start by understanding the difference between micro-influencers and macro-influencers.

What is a Micro-Influencer?

Micro-influencers are multiplying. And this isn’t just a trend – data confirms the claims. A study by Influencive revealed that 83% of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a micro-influencer. Furthermore, from a business point of view, research by ExpertVoice has shown that micro-influencers achieve 22.2 times more conversions per week than their macro counterparts on social platforms.
It is quite common to be confused about the definition of a micro-influencer in terms of the number of followers. This is normal, given that the number and performance vary from one influencer to another. Generally, micro-influencers have between 10,000 (or fewer) and 50,000 followers.

Many characteristics distinguish micro-influencers from macro-influencers. Authenticity comes first. Since micro-influencers generally lack the budget, resources, and relationships that macro-influencers have, they must develop real relationships with their followers to remain relevant.

• Stronger Bonds

They focus on community and closeness. Being a micro-influencer involves taking time every day to respond to direct messages, comments, and reactions from their followers. The success of a micro-influencer relies on community and closeness rather than sheer fame. They maintain an engaged audience through authentic content and genuine connections with their smaller subscriber bases.

• Burning Desire for Growth

Their ambition knows no bounds. Micro-influencers want to grow their audience. Thus, they tend to put in much more effort into their campaigns, resulting in better content (and better results) for your brand.

• Higher Return on Investment

They also show potential for a higher return on investment. Micro-influencers cost much less because they have fewer followers. For this reason, you are more likely to see better value for your money. Micro-influencers record 47% more engagement on their posts compared to macro-influencers, putting your brand in front of more interested potential buyers.

What is a Macro-Influencer?

In many cases, macro-influencers hold titles such as celebrity, television personality, athlete, or opinion leader in their community. They can leverage this fame to build a community and grow on social media in a fraction of the time it takes for a micro-influencer.
Macro-influencers have between 50,000 and 500,000, or even 1 million followers. They benefit from a large following and operate in one or more mainstream areas likely to interest confused targets. Macro-influencers tend to be professional creators who have built their influence in a particular niche over several years, while mega-influencers are A-listers and celebrities with generally millions of followers.

They are skilled, experienced professionals accustomed to working with brands to launch activations with specific goals. Macro-influencers tend to have steady growth in the number of subscribers and collaborations. However, we can expect engagement rates to be lower than those of micro-influencers, unless they have another title that helps subscribers feel they have a real connection with the macro-influencer.

Here are the major distinguishing features of macro-influencers compared to their smaller cohorts, micro-influencers.

• Amplified Reach

The biggest advantage of macro-influencers is their large audience. This allows you to reach diverse audiences and put more content in the Instagram Explorer zone, which is perfect for increasing your visibility.

• Lower Engagement Rates

It can be very, very difficult for macro-influencers to engage with their audience. These are busy people with huge followings, multiple collaborations, limited time, and in some cases, oversized egos.

• Professionalism and Commitment

Macro-influencers demonstrate fairly consistent growth and performance. If you are looking for an influencer who knows how to partner with brands through a defined process, you are in the right place.

What Performance Indicators to Watch Closely?

• Return on Investment

Obviously, we all aspire to have our investments prove profitable. That is why for most brands, return on investment provides the final reckoning and decides the success of the campaign. Everyone wants to know how much money they made from their marketing efforts following campaign costs.
When you have a clear understanding of your goals and expectations regarding the results of your actions, you can assess the performance of your campaign and specify the operational, strategic, and budgetary changes to be made. In the presence of a positive return on investment, it would be wise to duplicate a similar strategy in future campaigns. Conversely, it is a great opportunity to analyze and learn with awareness and knowledge of what worked best and what failed. Ultimately, you will find yourself armed with data and information capable of optimizing every step of the marketing funnel.

• Engagement

Engagement rate is an important measure for brands. In terms of engagement, micro-influencers take the prize. A study conducted by HelloSociety and AdWeek found that accounts with fewer followers had engagement rates 60% higher over a given period.
Overall, higher follower numbers correlate with lower engagement rates. This was demonstrated in a recent study by Markerly. In this study, influencers with about 1,000 followers show an engagement rate of about 8%, while those with more than 1,000 generate a lower rate of almost half. And on a larger scale, influencers with between 1 and 10 million followers generate an average engagement of 1.66%.

• Conversions

There are some notable differences between conversions and return on investment. For example, an increase in the conversion rate does not always equate to an increase in profits. The conversion rate refers to the number of potential customers who have followed a particular action. This action does not always revolve around sales. Sometimes, it involves subscribing to a mailing list, visiting a website, opting for a demo, etc.
Often, brands struggle to assess conversions in influencer campaigns. Return on investment and conversion must be analyzed together for a complete picture – you need a thorough understanding of what it takes to drive a conversion.

Signs that Micro-Influencers are Right for You

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the key differences between micro and macro influencers, you can make a more informed decision about what suits you. If you are still determining how to leverage your budget for the highest return on investment, defining your brand’s goals, and determining your target audience, your influencer can play a key role in setting these milestones. Here are some signs that micro-influencers are the best option for your brand:

• Operating on a Tight Budget

Influencer marketing budgets are increasing year by year and we do not expect this trend to stop. One of the biggest advantages of micro-influencers is that they are a cost-effective option for tight budgets. With the time and money it takes to work with five macro-influencers, you could work with twenty micro-influencers.

• Wanting to Reach Different Audience Segments

If you are in an industry where you can benefit from reaching multiple segments of your target audience, a micro-influencer strategy could be the best option. As mentioned earlier, they are cost-effective. This means you can target a large number of influencers within the same campaign. And because we have the technology to support this, tracking the progress of each influencer is no longer a headache. In one dashboard, you can monitor the performance and results of each.

• Positioning in a Niche Market

Macro-influencers tend to reach more online communities, while many niche brands can benefit from micro-influencers focusing on niche content. A macro-influencer can attract a large number of people at once, while micro-influencer campaigns allow your brand to target a specific niche audience more precisely.
So, if your goals involve more engagement and conversions, micro-influencers may be the best option for you.

Signs that Macro-Influencers are Right for You

Engagement is an important measure for a content element, but it is not always the ultimate goal of marketers. What suits your business or brand best depends on your goals.

• Building Brand Awareness

Building brand awareness is one of the greatest assets of macro-influencers. A SocialBakers study found that content creators with over a million subscribers had the potential to achieve 1000% more than an account with 250,000 subscribers. Based on these results, you will need to work with several micro-influencers to replicate the same amount of reach that a macro-influencer would produce.

• Addressing a Diverse Audience

As mentioned earlier, micro-influencers work well for niche products, but macro-influencers have much more powerful thematic authority with demographic data of the audience. Working with a macro-influencer allows you to leverage a large audience, thereby enhancing your reach. If you have multiple audience segments, this could be the choice for you.

• Incurring Low Risk

Macro-influencers are usually low-risk investments. They have been working with agencies and brands for a long time and demonstrate a high level of professionalism. They are also less likely to have fake followers.
Macro-influencers are happy to take the lead when needed, but generally, you have more creative control over the direction of the publication. By investing more money and having a specific vision and direction, macro-influencers will follow step-by-step instructions, while micro-influencers may be more focused on creating influential messages that strategically align with the brand image they are trying to cultivate.

If reach and visibility are your main goals, macro-influencers are probably a better option.