Businesses are increasingly getting on board with influencer marketing, with Business Insider predicting that spending will reach an astonishing £12.9 billion by 2022.
That said, sourcing an appropriate influencer for your brand, establishing a relationship with them and devising a content strategy can be tricky. In addition, you’ll also need to monitor, manage and tweak the campaign as it progresses.
It’s not surprising see why many companies try to introduce automation into their influencer marketing campaigns. While this can return some attractive benefits when employed effectively, there are risks. You can damage the credibility of your advertising campaign and – worst still – your brand.
So, is influencer marketing automation a good idea? Here’s a rundown of the pros and cons of an automated strategy…
Influencer marketing automation benefits
There are certain parts of the influencer marketing process which are very time- and resource-intensive. With literally hundreds of thousands of influencers to choose from, narrowing down that selection to find one that fits your brand can take an incredible amount of time when managed manually.
Setting search parameters that meet your target market can simplify an otherwise laborious ordeal and unite you with individuals best suited to delivering your message.
After locating the ideal candidate and establishing a relationship with them, automation can also help to optimise the maintenance and monitoring of that relationship going forward. For example, reminders about weekly or monthly assignments can be automatically sent out, while influencer payments can also be managed with a greater degree of precision by a computer.
What’s more, the analytical capabilities of AI are far more efficient than a human set of eyes, allowing you to quickly and easily identify which influencer campaigns are performing most effectively.
Influencer marketing automation pitfalls
Despite these attractive advantages, marketers looking to take advantage of automation should also exercise caution. While using a robot to sift through half a million influencer profiles can take a huge burden off your shoulders, automated programmes can rarely create a perfect match.
On top of that, they’re more susceptible to being hoodwinked by fake accounts and bogus followers, meaning you could be throwing away money on an inauthentic influencer who doesn’t hold any real sway.
Meanwhile, the whole USP of influencer marketing is its human element. Brands which fail to establish a genuine connection with the influencer will find their campaigns are not nearly as effective as ones in which the influencer truly believes.
In a worst-case scenario, followers of the influencer could even see through the charade and figure out that their idol is incentivised by nothing more than profit, thus damaging both the influencer and your company in one fell swoop.
A balanced approach works best
It’s clear that automation can bring some value to an influencer marketing campaign – but that it’s also fraught with peril. In order to leverage the advantages without falling foul of any of the drawbacks, it’s best to only use automation in moderation.
Sure, enlisting the help of AI to narrow down your search and optimise your management of your strategies can be beneficial, but a human touch will always trump a computerised one.
That’s where we come in…
The easy way to find your perfect influencer
At Find Your Influencer, we use our in-depth knowledge of the industry – including automated innovations – to help your company quickly and easily find the perfect influencer for your brand and target audience.
All that’s required from you is to list your campaign on our job board, then sit back and relax as the best-placed influencers come to you.