ROI — Brand V/S Influencer – One Impression

                                   ROI — Brand V/S Influencer – One Impression

Since the boom of social media Influencer Marketing, companies and brands have continuously evolved the parameters of influencing to have better returns. While some companies have achieved 7X returns by using Influencer Marketing, others have 11X. A few brands focus solely on Influencer Marketing, knowing it to be the most cost effective method to reach their target audience. Brands invest billions of dollars every year to reach and retain their target audience through various mediums like TV, radio, digital advertisements, celebrity endorsements and more, which are high investment methods.

Investment does not merely refer to the money directly spent on the campaign, but the collective time and effort that goes into strategizing, conceptualizing, and executing the campaign. If done right, each of these methods reaches out to millions of potential customers and is able to increase the brand’s presence and sales, on average giving returns of 2X — 5X. But the costs involved are extremely high and if the ad campaign is unsuccessful, it costs the brands a lot of money! So, why do brands still engage in such high cost marketing methods? Simply because they will give the brand a very high return on their investment as well. Social media Influencers are able to generate a higher impact with respect to the investment required, the campaign is more flexible and significantly easier to track.

As an Influencer, it is critical for you to understand your Return on Investment. You’ve spent endless hours thinking how to engage your followers and in understanding their interests. You have spent money on organizing photoshoots for the products you share with your followers and hours scouting for the perfect location and theme. The return for Influencers may not necessarily be indicated by monetary compensation, but higher impressions, reach and engagement of the posts. That is the goal you have been working towards, to try to influence as many relevant followers as you can.


You have worked hard and long, feeling you deserve to be paid for delivering a brand to thousands of followers on your platform. But, how relevant are your followers to the brands? Will engaging with your page give the brand a high ROI? The better an Influencer is at engaging relevant audience, the more likely they are to provide brands with promising results and in return, they can certainly ask for monetary compensation. It’s no longer about the number of followers you have, it is about the amount of relevant target audience amongst your followers for the brands.

For example, Fashion Blogger A who charges Rs 10,000 /- for a post has 100,000 followers on his/her page and gets an average engagement between 5000–7000, with a follower ratio of 70% men and 30% women. Also, the followers have no definitive age group and are located all over the world. At the same time, there is Fashion Blogger B, who charges 10,000/- for a post and has 50,000 followers on his/her page with an average engagement of 2500–3000. The follower ratio they carry is 30% men and 70% women. The followers’ age is focused between 17–35 and they are located in major Indian cities.

If you are a women’s fashion label, who will you want to engage in a paid collaboration with? Blogger A or Blogger B? What will be more relevant to you, the number of followers? Or the quality of followers?

In the end, everything is about Return on Investment. Business, service, education, personal relations, influencing etc. — what are you getting in return for your investment? And does that satisfy you? There is no right or wrong answer. The more you invest, the more likely you are to get higher returns.

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