Influencer Marketing Grows Up

[00:00:01] It is Thursday, July 25th. Today, influencers are charging more. We have the reasons why.

[00:00:08] TikTok brings the update many wanted, but few actually need. And Apple takes on Google

[00:00:14] on one of the most important platforms on the web. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead on this

[00:00:19] short summer edition of Today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:23] There was a time when influencer marketing was relatively inexpensive. The industry was

[00:00:28] new, creators didn't have a lot of experience, and brands didn't commit much to the experimentation.

[00:00:33] A lot has changed in the last couple of years, and Digiday today has a great piece up on their

[00:00:38] site documenting the rise in rates. Smaller influencers are asking for rates, often double

[00:00:44] or triple what they charged in 2021. Specifically, two or three years ago, TikTok micro-influencers,

[00:00:50] that's those with 5,000 to 20,000 followers, earned about $1,000 to $3,000 per post. Today,

[00:00:57] one industry expert quoted in the piece say they charge between $3,000 and $5,000.

[00:01:03] So why the rise? Part of it is that advertisers now demand content usage rights and exclusivity.

[00:01:10] Influencers have learned they can charge a premium for this. Campaign tracking tools have gotten more

[00:01:15] reliable, and influencer agencies have sprung up to provide a middle layer, a layer which extracts a

[00:01:22] slice of the revenue. There is some good news. Costs for influencers with 100,000 to 1 million

[00:01:27] followers remained relatively stable. Quoting the Digiday piece, quote,

[00:01:32] Influencer marketing isn't new. However, its maturation was spurred by the pandemic lockdown,

[00:01:37] as people spent more time online, and influencers became a direct line to the audiences that brands

[00:01:42] were trying to reach. That said, there's yet to be standardization across the industry for

[00:01:48] influencer marketing pay scales, even as influencers are pushing to standardize their pay,

[00:01:54] negotiating tighter contract terms, and implementing late fees. Even as costs go up,

[00:02:00] spending shows no sign of slowing. To offset rising and largely ad hoc pricing in influencer marketing,

[00:02:07] advertisers are eyeing brand ambassador programs, locking in pricing via long-term contracts,

[00:02:13] gifting products in exchange for posting, and repurposing influencer content across paid media,

[00:02:19] client socials, and more, unquote. Almost all of Google's enormous success in offering local

[00:02:28] advertising is their Maps product. Certainly the mobile app helps, but don't discount the traffic that

[00:02:34] comes in from the desktop version. It's substantial. Perhaps that's why Apple has finally launched its

[00:02:40] Maps product on the web, a full 12 years after offering it on their mobile devices.

[00:02:45] It is in beta, and you can find it at beta.maps.apple.com. It is not available in all regions.

[00:02:52] What does it mean for marketers? It means it's even more important that you update your business

[00:02:57] profile with Apple. Just like Google's business profile, Apple has one. It's called Apple Business

[00:03:03] Connect, and you can find it at businessconnect.apple.com. Additional features,

[00:03:09] including Look Around, will be available in the coming months. Maps on the web is currently

[00:03:13] available in English. It is compatible with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad, as well as Chrome and

[00:03:19] Edge on Windows PCs. Support for additional languages, browsers, and platforms will be expanded over time.

[00:03:29] And finally, I told you it was short. It may be a small thing, but it's a big thing. TikTok is finally

[00:03:34] letting users upload custom thumbnail images for their videos. Until now, this is only available on desktop,

[00:03:40] now it's coming to the mobile app. You'll find it on the same screen as where you drag your video to

[00:03:45] pick an existing thumbnail. Once this update gets to you, you will see a new upload button on the

[00:03:49] right to use. Reels, that's Instagram and Facebook's product, already lets you do this. And YouTube just

[00:03:56] added the ability to add text and filters to screenshots from your videos to use as thumbnails.

[00:04:01] They say custom thumbnail uploads are on the way. That said, thumbnails really aren't as important

[00:04:07] on vertical short video platforms than, say, YouTube's main service. This is because videos

[00:04:12] are fed one after another without seeing the thumbnails. It only matters if people pick a video

[00:04:17] to watch from your account's profile page, which does happen, especially if people first find you

[00:04:23] through a video of yours that goes viral.

[00:04:29] There is actually one extra story that broke just at our deadline, but there's not a ton of

[00:04:33] information about it. ChatGPT has released SearchGPT, their search product. This is similar to

[00:04:39] Perplexity. It's actually what we all thought they were going to announce when they ended up announcing

[00:04:43] 4.0. Not a lot of information about it. It looks basically like a competitor to Perplexity.

[00:04:50] It is up, but only for a very small number of people. You can get on a waitlist for it.

[00:04:54] Once it releases a bit more widely, we will have more coverage about it.

[00:04:58] All right, that's it for today. See you tomorrow.