The best channels for influencer marketing

Learn how to choose the right social media channels for influencer marketing in 2023.

Connect with top-performing influencers. Grow your brand.

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Influencer marketing reached $13.8 billion and is continuing to grow at an accelerated rate. More than ⅔ of all adults originate shopping from creator recommendations, so it’s no wonder why 60 percent of marketers agree that influencer marketing has a higher ROI than traditional advertising.

Experienced Influencer marketers know that finding the right social media channels and blogs for their brand is less about the channels themselves and more about the creators they use and their followers on the channel. 

Every social media platform has its own type of content and audiences. Each platform’s features, audiences and influencers who use them most continuously evolve and change. The “LTK Law” identifies that a new significant social platform emerges around every three years.

That’s why LTK serves as a hub and storefront for creators to have their preferred social channels steering back to a trusted and shoppable experience that’s always relevant. With that in mind, it’s still important for marketers to understand all the channels available for creators and the key differentiators among them to evaluate when and where their messages best resonate.

 


How to choose the most effective social channels for your influencer campaign

 

1Establish your influencer marketing goals

Define specifically what you need your influencer marketing to achieve. It could be brand awareness with specific audiences, boosting sales, driving traffic through a retail co-op marketing program to elevate awareness and placement in the retailer’s footprint, improving your SEO rankings or building a content library to use across channels. Knowing this will help you prioritize the social platforms most geared toward your goals.

 

2Define your target audience

Who are the customers you need to connect to your brand? And who are you trying to reach? Each platform attracts different types of social media users with unique preferences and creator engagement habits. Where does your target audience live and shop the most? What content do they love to engage with? That’s where you want to be.

LTK national research studies conducted in 2021 found the top three ranked reasons why Gen Z visits social sites are to: 

1) Post and share content

2) Seek advice from social media influencers 

3) Be entertained  

The same study found the majority of the online purchases were conducted on mobile devices, making social and other channels that are more mobile friendly align best to this audience.  

Another LTK study found that the top three reasons why all adults visit social sites is to: 1) Post and share things they like with friends and family, 2) Seek tips and advice from social media influencers, and 3) Stay updated on friends and family.

 

3Branch out to various channels with creators who align with your brand

Work with influencers who live on various platforms. Whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or Pinterest, SnapChat, Twitter, or blogs, every visual platform has its own personality and a brand can benefit from the unique audiences that flock to each one.

Finding the right creators with the best audiences for your brand is the most important choice when thinking about channels. Creators with loyal followings often work across channels to expand their reach. But Creators are often short on time and it is common for them to limit their footprint to reduce their production work, relying on LTK as their store hub for all the channels they choose.

Creators who use YouTube often leverage it as a search engine with longer-form, engaging video content. TikTok has become widely used as short form video that tends to be entertaining. Instagram and Facebook offer a variety of ways to engage consumers on their phones. Pinterest is most relevant for curators who access social on their computers. Snapchat has quick, in-the-moment, opportunistic, relevant messages, and Twitter often serves as a reminder and alert tool for people with very similar interests. All platforms are different, but what matters most is each has a unique role in reaching audiences with the right influencer.

LTK's most recent study, Gen Z's favorite social channels are: 

  1. YouTube
  2. Instagram 
  3. TikTok
  4. Snapchat
  5. Facebook
  6. Twitter 
  7. Pinterest

The social channels that Gen Z follows Creators on the most: 

  1. Instagram 
  2. YouTube 
  3. TikTok
  4. Facebook
  5. Snapchat
  6. Twitter
  7. Pinterest

The social channels Gen Z buys from Creators the most: 

  1. Instagram
  2. TikTok
  3. YouTube
  4. Facebook
  5. Pinterest
  6. Snapchat
  7. Twitter

Social channels that all adults shop Creator's from the most:

  1. Instagram
  2. Facebook 
  3. YouTube 
  4. TikTok 
  5. Pinterest
  6. Twitter
  7. Snapchat 

To get the most out of every channel, Creators are able to use LTK links on each platform, making it easy for brands to track KPIs – no matter the channel. Let’s dive into each one.

 


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Top social media channels for influencer marketing in 2023

 

Instagram

Creator's LTK post on Instagram on iPhone

Instagram is a top influencer hub for Millennials and Gen Z, who make up almost 60 percent of Instagram’s audience.

Highly visual and scrollable, it has nearly 130 million users tapping on shoppable posts each month. This gives influencers the chance to leverage aesthetic content to drive their followers to purchase – often directly from their post or bio.

A 2019 Facebook study found that 66 percent of people use Instagram because it allows them to engage with brands, and 54 percent made purchases after seeing a product in Instagram content. Brands will gain more brand visibility when utilizing Instagram stories, which stay up for 24 hours, can be added to a brand or influencer’s highlights long-term, and often engage audiences through polls, swiping, sharing, tags, etc.

Instagram Influencers Create:

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IGTV Videos
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Video / Image Carousels
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Stories
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Reels
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Live Streams
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Shoppable Ads
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Instagram Takeovers

META’s privacy changes are impacting

influencer marketing platforms.

 

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced

privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators,

LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

 

THIS IS WHY LTK IS DIFFERENT

 


META’s privacy changes are impacting influencer marketing platforms.

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators, LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

 

You are Awesome. Don't forget it.

Distillery cornhole post-ironic shaman godard normcore tumblr put a bird on it. Austin bitters vice pitchfork, jean shorts craft beer kickstarter sriracha tilde pop-up fanny pack. Kale chips cold-pressed put a bird on it mumblecore kogi brooklyn farm-to-table blue bottle yuccie authentic kombucha migas. Literally tilde tacos paleo.

META’s privacy changes are impacting influencer marketing platforms.

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators, LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

META’s privacy changes are impacting influencer marketing platforms.

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators, LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

THIS IS WHY LTK IS DIFFERENT

META’s privacy changes are impacting influencer marketing platforms.

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators, LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

 

You are Awesome. Don't forget it.

Distillery cornhole post-ironic shaman godard normcore tumblr put a bird on it. Austin bitters vice pitchfork, jean shorts craft beer kickstarter sriracha tilde pop-up fanny pack. Kale chips cold-pressed put a bird on it mumblecore kogi brooklyn farm-to-table blue bottle yuccie authentic kombucha migas. Literally tilde tacos paleo.

META’s privacy changes are impacting influencer marketing platforms.

While other influencer marketing platforms have faced privacy issues impacting the way their customers find Creators, LTK’s data and Creators are safe from these changes.

Facebook

Creator's Facebook postFacebook is still successful in the influencer space and for brands looking to find, build, and test new audiences. This highly engaged, community-oriented platform brings all aspects of life into one space, where conversation, shares, and video content thrive. 

With access to 2.7 billion monthly active users, brands have potential for extended reach through Facebook ads and influencers’ organic promotion. Facebook’s ad revenue and general usage have been up in the midst of the pandemic, with ​​the typical Facebook user clicking on 12 ads each month.

As older age groups adopt this platform, they bring higher income to the table, with 74 percent of high-income earners using Facebook. Facebook is also a popular place for businesses to create profiles that house valuable product information, hours of operation, and shared content (from users and influencers).

Over the years, Facebook has evolved, adding various new features inspired by other platforms.

 

Facebook Influencers Create:

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Stories
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Livestreams
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Images
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Videos
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Long-and-short-form posts
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Tutorials
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Targeted Ads
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Content shared from other platforms

YouTube


Creator's Youtube video thumbnail highlighting spring trends


As the go-to video platform, YouTube has approximately 1.86 billion users worldwide, up from 1.47 billion in 2017. Influencers who live on YouTube are skilled at editing and creating video content and have a dedicated following of subscribers. 

YouTube videos are highly engaging, and allow influencers to showcase a product or experience in depth. What’s more, YouTube videos live on an influencer’s channel indefinitely, for evergreen content that builds brand awareness, SEO, conversions, and shareable content for owned channels and digital marketing campaigns. 

When it comes to purchases, YouTubers often encourage viewers to click the link in the description. Given this level of shoppability, YouTube is an effective channel if you’re looking for conversions. In fact, 70 percent of viewers bought from a brand after seeing it on YouTube, and YouTube ads targeted by intent have 100 percent higher lift in purchase intent than those targeted by demographics. 

Among US respondents that watched YouTube influencer videos, 62 percent of interviewees 13 to 24 said that a YouTube influencer recommendation made them more likely to buy a product or service – the same being true for 52 percent of respondents aged 35 or older.

 

YouTubers Create:

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Compelling long-form videos
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Entertaining short-form videos
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Live-streams
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FAQ videos
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Behind-the-scenes videos
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Contests and giveaways
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How-to videos and tutorials (YouTube users are 3 times more likely to watch tutorials than reading instructions)
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Sponsored video promos
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Product demos
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Product reviews

How brands use video to promote your products

TikTok

 

Channels-TikTokRecently, TikTok has taken social media by storm, with short videos often paired with viral audio. TikTok influencers are skilled at creating video content and know how to convey an eye- and ear-catching message within 15 to 60 seconds. They know how to represent your products in action.

TikTok has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, as U.S. TikTok users have now passed 100 million – nearly 38 percent of America’s 267.6 million mobile internet users.

With some of the highest engagement across social, TikTok serves as an excellent platform for brands to sell their products. Just by looking at user comments in TikTok videos, you can see areas of opportunity with questions like “Where is that top from?”, “Where can I get those tie-dye sweats?”, and “Please give us outfit links!”. Often, influencers respond with product details in comments, or provide links on their profile. 

If you’re looking to reach Gen Z, prioritize TikTok in your campaign strategy. 47.4 percent of active TikTok users are between the ages of 10 and 29. That being said, older audiences are growing too, with 5.5 times more American adult users in the last 18 months. 

Urban Decay partnered with LTK creators to promote their Hydromaniac Tited Glow Hydrator on TikTok to: drive awareness, engagement, consideration, and positive reviews of the new product.

The results:

  • LTK curated 18 TikTok creators for Urban Decay
  • The LTK creators had a combined audience of 6.5 million followers to drive awareness and engagement.
  • The campaign generated over 6.7 million views, 470,000 total engagements with a 25percent engagement rate.

Read the Full Case Study

TikTok influencers create:

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15-to 60-second videos
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tiktok challenges
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videos based on trending sounds
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video based on trending hashtags
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collaboration videos
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tutorials and "need-to-knows"

Pinterest

 

Creator's Pinterest profileToday’s most popular digital mood board, Pinterest, is a product-focused platform that has great potential in influencer marketing campaigns. What once was a home for collecting inspiration has now become a hotbed for influencers to connect with consumers looking to purchase.

Pinterest sees 400+ million active users monthly, the largest group of which is in the 30 to 49 age group – predominantly female. Gen Zers and millennials are the fastest growing user groups on Pinterest, making it another platform where brands can reach younger generations with buying power. 

As a visual discovery tool, this platform was not designed to connect people, but rather to connect people to brands and products that catch their eye. Due to the search engine nature of Pinterest and its shoppable features, brands can expect to reach Pinners who are 70 percent more likely to engage with product tags in depicted scenes. 

This influencer channel is a layered platform that takes you from image to a shoppable destination quickly, but because the content is pinned indefinitely, it has a long shelf life – more visibility and searchability long-term.

Influencers on Pinterest can create:

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Pinterest Boards
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Pinterest Ads
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Stories
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Shoppable Pins
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Videos (users watch close to 1 billion videos a day on pinterest)

Twitter

Woman working on Laptop in chic space

Twitter may not be the top influencer platform, but research by Twitter shows that consumers are still attracted to it. This simple tweet-based platform reaches wide audiences quickly, with short-form content that easily spreads via shares and tags. 

The same Twitter research reports that almost 40 percent of users on Twitter made a purchase based on an influencer’s tweet – and influencers created a 5.2x increase in purchase intent when users were exposed to brand and influencer tweets.  

Of the 187 million monetizable daily active users on Twitter, 54 percent are male vs. 43 percent female, with the largest age demographic being 18 to 29 years old.

Influencer tweets are short and engaging, so they’re more effective in promoting company events, industry news, or short-form posts with hashtags.

Influencers on Twitter:

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Tweet up to 140 Characters
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Retweet brand content
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post videos
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post images

Shop LTK

 

LTK is the single largest creator platform, with millions of shoppers. The LTK Shop platform connects brands, creators, and shoppers with the LTK shopping app for instant shoppable content across social that provides the ultimate shopping experience for discovering products across fashion, beauty, home, lifestyle and more, all styled by the Creators shoppers love.

The collective LTK Creator community is full of vetted creators who generate mobile-first, shoppable content that reaches an audience of high-intent shoppers. Built by creators, LTK is a shopper platform with a focused mission: grow your brand’s audience, reach, and economic success.

Last year, LTK Creators generated $3 billion in retail sales through the LTK platform. By introducing influencer marketing as a core part of its marketing approach, LTK nearly doubled Missguided’s sales in 2020, with a 92 per cent year-on-year revenue growth.

“The LTK Brand team is an extension of the Missguided in-house team and supports our Creator campaigns with end-to-end campaign management, allowing us to drive rapid growth.”

– Lucy Harding, Brand & Influencer Manager, Missguided

Brands are able to commission, license, and distribute creator content for their own marketing channels. Faster and more efficient than producing in-house creative, licensed imagery from LTK premium creators can boost social engagement rates and bring brand authenticity to your channels.

LTK influencers create:

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Styled & lifestyle imagery
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product features & reviews
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LTK shopper videos
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tutorials and how-to's
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Product recommendations & testimonials
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Promotional/Sale Information
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Collaboration content

Benefits of ShopLTK:

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Curated influencer shops
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Searchable content
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Influencers audience has a strong intent to shop

Brand sales and engagement are amplified 2X when engaging the right audience. Check out our national study to learn how creator powered marketing can help grow your sales 2X.

Download the Study

Blog

 

Laptop with Creator's blog


Bloggers are the original influencers, and they’re still effective today. Six out of ten buyers check out blog posts at the start of the buyer’s journey.

With in-depth, informative content about various topics and products, a blog post gives more information to loyal followers than a simple social media post. Often, they provide a well-documented experience and recommendations readers take seriously.

Brands can partner with bloggers to reach audiences who are showing great intent and motivation to stay on-page. With a robust library of content on a blogger’s website, this helps brands achieve more awareness, drive sales to their website, and improve SEO.

Bloggers create blog content in the form of:

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Product Testimonials
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Product Comparisons
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Guest Posts
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Checklists
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Listicles
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Written tutorials and how-to's
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video tutorials and guides
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Industry news and updates
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Infographics
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Interviews
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Supporting videos and imagery

Understanding influencer marketing management

To conduct a successful influencer marketing campaign, you have to:

  • Determine goals and budget
  • Conduct influencer research and casting  
  • Determine target deliverables
  • Write and facilitate contracts 
  • Negotiate influencer rates 
  • Ensure contract fulfillment
  • Monitor budget and prove ROI 

It’s a lot to handle alone. LTK can help all of your departments every step of the way and amplify your in-house efforts. As an influencer marketing platform designed for creator management, we help you do it all, so you have the influencer intelligence to run effective influencer marketing campaigns without completely outsourcing to an agency.


LTK Most Loved Product Awards

 

As the global leader in Creator Commerce™, we used our proprietary benchmarking technology to evaluate billions of Creator-linked products and compile our annual list of top performers. Check out the 2021 award winners to see what products—from fashion to fitness and family—everyone is crazy about now.

 

See the most Loved Products


Where to Start Influencer Marketing

 

If you aren’t sure where to start with an influencer strategy, consider starting with a test campaign, guided by influencer data. 

As the leading influencer marketing hub for the last 10 years, LTK has solved influencer marketing challenges through:

  • Amplified distribution through the largest creator shopping channel: shopLTK.com with millions of monthly shoppers
  • Full-service curated creator programs that deliver on your unique objectives
  • Strategic planning based on historical brand performance data
  • Expert brand consulting, planning, executing, and reporting 
  • End-to-end campaign execution and influencer curated casting 
  • Access to the most successful influencer platform in the world 
  • Licensed imagery from premium creators for your own marketing channels
  • Conference and event integration to build long-term relationships 
  • Access to real-time measurable results on the top influencer campaign management software

Use your test campaign as an opportunity to discover best-match lifestyle influencers who convert. As you think longer-term strategy down the road, our influencer marketing platform will help you secure those influencers as your ambassadors. 

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