Being a blogger or influencer can be tough. On one hand there's the constant need to create a never-ending stream of amazing content for an increasingly fickle audience and then there's the brands that we have to cater to so that we can attract those ever important sponsorship dollars that allow us to continue doing what we do. One aspect of this that most bloggers and influencers don't consider is how brands see them before they even reach out. Influencer tools like Click Analytic can quite literally make the difference between getting a pitch from your favorite brand and being overlooked while your friend scores the gig instead.
We tested Click Analytic a bit and while the results can be frustrating to see, there were actually few surprises in terms of the results that we expected while looking at a host of different Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok accounts. The challenge that I see with tools like this though is that it is easy to assign accusations of "fraud" or "deceptive behavior" when a brand sees low engagement scores or "Authenticity Scores". However, it is important to recognize that mistakes made many years ago sometimes never go away and so activities that once were acceptable such as follow-back as a primary way of growing your channel may now be something that undermines your efficacy.
On the other hand there are also other factors at work such as simply attracting an audience in other countries - in my case at ManTripping - folks in Mexico since I live so close to the border and share many interests with people that live in Sonora, Baja California, and Baja Sur as well as Mexico City.
However, when used properly, influencer analytics tools like this can be a great help to brands but should never be looked at as the final word. For any blogger or influencer out there who wonders what their profile looks like, I encourage you to contact companies like Click Analytic and ask for a copy of the report. This is true not just for these guys but for others out there that compile our profiles such as Cision.
It is essential though that you remember that while you might find things you consider "inaccurate" or what to change, please remember that each of these organizations has their own way of counting and sorting. You will be unlikely to "fix" anything but just the knowledge that something looks "bad" should be your cue to work to resolve the problem or communicate your positive points better to prospective brands.
Enough of me talking, let's chat with Paul Boulet, CEO & Head of Growth for Click Analytic!
There are a lot of tools out there for measuring and ranking influencers, what makes Click Analytic unique and better than others out there?
Most of the tools are mostly addressed to large enterprises (Most of them have a starting price of +$9’000 a year). When we launched Click, our goal was to provide a more affordable alternative to the market so that any brand or agency could enter the industry while accessing relevant data.
We also have one of the biggest database on the market, +120M influencers globally, which is 700% more than our closest competitors. In addition, we provide a more significant number of data points that are not always accessible on other tools (audience brand affinities, audience interests, likers metrics etc.)
Data can be overwhelming to marketers who aren't experienced in working with influencers, what advice do you have for marketers to avoid getting bogged down with statistics and letting numbers drive recruiting decisions instead of looking at quality of content and alignment with the right audiences?
We always tell our clients to look beyond the numbers. Influencer marketing is heavily focused on content and therefore, it should be valued as much as the data information. Now brands also need to weigh the numbers as they could drastically impact the performance of their campaign.
What are some common questions that brands have when they come to you looking for influencers to work with?
- How can we use influencers to achieve our objectives? What are the best tactics?
- What filters should we use on the tool to find the best influencers for us?
- How do you make influencers answer?
- Can you help us to build a strategy to achieve X using influencers?
Many influencers have responded to KPIs such as "likes" or "followers" and devised a wide variety of artificial methods to inflate those numbers. This is particularly rampant on Instagram. What are you guys doing to help sort through these tactics and help your users identify more authentic influencers?
We built our own Influencer Authenticity score to help users identify the most « authentic » and organic audiences. We also provide the different types of accounts within the audience, such as :
- Unreachable users (inactive, fake etc.)
- Influencers / Businesses (accounts with +5000 followers)
- Mass followers (accounts that follow +1500 other accounts)
- Reachable users (authentic accounts)
One of the challenges many influencers have is that they don't understand how brands see them through tools like this. That means that there is rampant speculation as well as simply bad advice on "what brands are looking for". What is your advice for how influencers can make sure that what brands see using tools like yours matches what they feel they offer to brands.
Well, brands can have multiple objectives: sales, awareness, content creation etc. which would impact the way they search. Automatic tools help brands find more profiles, get instant access to their stats, and not only profile esthetic. Tools can actually help influencers to generate more revenues as they will get found by brands.
Brands will look at:
- Your audience/ does it match their target
- Your account esthetic / do you provide quality content
- Your performance / is your account authentic, and can you help them reach their target
If an influencer as "made a mistake" in the past with buying followers or buying likes on Instagram, tools like yours may be able to detect these. What advice do you have for influencers that want to clean up their profiles so that they don't look bad to brands using Click Analytics?
Instagram regularly clean fake accounts on their platform, which can result in a loss of followers. However, if you are ready to suffer a drop in followers but gain authenticity, you can actually « delete » fake accounts yourself. Just go into your followers and block accounts that do not seem legitimate (no pictures, fake name etc.)
Short-term loss can result in long-term victory!
What advice do you have for influencers looking to make themselves easier to be found and more appealing to brands when they do get found, so that they can get sponsorship opportunities that work well for both sides?
I would suggest a few important things:
- Mention in bio your topic of expertise (ex. Beauty + Skincare expert)
- Do not crowd your feed with sponsored content or brand mentions, keep your profile authentic
- Do not buy followers!
- Post quality content
- Focus on your engagement rate. Marketers look at that a lot.
- Use hashtags but not too many
- Have a media kit ready with your recent statistics and previous case studies
Thanks Paul, hopefully these tips and insights will be helpful both for bloggers and influencers but also for brands seeking to work with folks like those in our community of male bloggers and men's lifestyle influencers. If you are interested in learning more about Click Analytic we encourage you to check the tool out yourself.
Brands can get started for free and prices start at only 45 euro on their pay-as-you-go plan to identify influencers for your upcoming campaigns.
