Selecting the right influencer for your marketing campaign can be challenging. With so many terms coined around influencer types and roles, it can be tricky to understand what will work the best for your brand. Through this article, we will break down the 4 types of influencers in detail to help you kick-start your influencer marketing campaign. So, let’s get started.

Four Types of Influencers:

1. Mega Influencers (>500K followers)
2. Macro Influencers (100K-500K followers)
3. Micro Influencers (15K-100K followers)
4. Nano Influencers (<15K followers)

Mega Influencers

Mega influencers are essentially celebrities with national and international following. Their follower-base count range anywhere from 500K to several million followers. The platform-wise distribution of these influencers constitutes 49% Instagram, 33% YouTube, 11% Twitter, and 7% Facebook. Instagram influencers and YouTube bloggers are the superstars of this category of influencers. Due to their wide popularity, they are perfect for brands who want to get their name out in the market in the fastest way possible. Mega influencers provide the highest brand recall. But this advantage comes at a hefty price. Mega influencers are the most expensive of all. Moreover, executing targeted campaigns with them is hard since their audience might not share the same interests as them.

Macro Influencers

Macro influencers are the rising stars who are on their way to stardom. They have followers ranging anywhere from 50K-500K count. Macro influencers are particularly popular in mainstream industries like travel, fitness, beauty, fashion, etc. According to their platform distribution, Instagram influencers make up 79% of macro influencers. YouTube constitutes 10%, Twitter 8%, and Facebook 3% of these macro influencers. They are the stars who have gained fame through the internet itself. They have a wide reach among a diverse audience range and are good for creating general brand awareness. However, like mega influencers, they also come at a high price since they are considered celebrities among social media influencers. Moreover, their engagement rate is also not much promising.

Micro Influencers

Micro influencers are mentors with high authority in their domain. They are trusted leaders having followers count ranging from 15K-100K. They have pretty good engagement rates as compared to the mainstream influencers. According to their platform distribution, 86% of micro influencers are active on Instagram, 7% on YouTube, 5% on Twitter, and 2% on Facebook. Micro influencers are affordable and have a dedicated group of niche followers with high engagement rates. They are good for increasing brand credibility. However, they have a limited reach. To get a good reach, a group of micro influencers is required for the campaign resulting in the need for more planning, manpower, and resources.

Nano Influencers

Nano influencers are specialists in a small close-knitted community. They have the lowest followers count with less than 15K, but their overall engagement rates are the highest. They are the most relatable type of influencers among audiences as their lifestyle is similar to that of everyday people. Nano influencers’ platform distribution comprises 56.57% of Instagram, 30.30% of Twitter, 7.07% of YouTube, and 6.06% of Facebook. They are the most cost-efficient types of influencers with a genuine audience bond. However, they are the least curated in terms of content. They also do not have access to features like ‘Swipe Up’ on Instagram for adding a direct CTA.

Conclusion

Different types of influencers bring different results. While mega and macro influencers are good for building brand awareness, micro and nano influencers excel at driving actions from followers. To fulfill all the different marketing objectives, it is recommended that brands utilize an intermix of all influencers-type at various stages of their influencer marketing campaigns.