The best channels for influencer marketing

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

1—Establish 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.

2—Define 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.

3—Branch 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.

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.

Top social media channels for influencer marketing in 2023

Instagram

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.

Facebook

Facebook 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.

YouTube

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.