Macro Influencers: When Are They Right For Your Strategy?

When creating a brand campaign, few decisions are more important than choosing the right influencer. One that creates quality content, reaches your target audience and works well with your team is a valuable resource. With so many influencers out there, it can be difficult to know what kind to choose. If you’re thinking about partnering with macro influencers, here are a few things you should know in advance.

Five Influencer Tiers

One way to categorize influencers is by their follower count. Often, influencers are separated into these five tiers:

• Mega influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
• Macro influencers: 500,000 – 1,000,000 followers
• Mid-tier influencers: 50,000 – 500,000 followers
• Micro influencers: 10,000 – 50,000 followers
• Nano influencers: 1,000 – 10,000 followers

Macro Influencer Defined

As shown, a macro influencer is defined as an influencer that has between 500,000 and one million followers. Macro influencers are typically people who have built their following from the ground up. This is in contrast with mega influencers, who tend to arrive on the social media scene with an audience already in place.

Food macro influencer Molly Yeh is an author and host of a Food Network series.

Advantages of Partnering With Macro Influencers

When choosing an influencer, you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons first. A partnership with a macro influencer offers a number of key benefits.

Greater Reach

Macro influencers can reach large audiences with a single post. And their audiences are broader in terms of diversity than micro influencers with 1,000 to 100,000 followers or mid-tier influencers with 50,000 to 500,000 followers. This makes a macro influencer an attractive option if you’re hoping to boost brand awareness. According to a study from Mediakix, macro influencers reach 22 times more social media users than micro influencers. If you’re lucky enough to find a macro influencer with good engagement rates, you can also increase your conversion rate.

More Professionalism

Because macro influencers have amassed large followings, they often have experience working with brands and creating high-quality content. This helps make the process of collaboration between an influencer and a brand more comfortable and more efficient. In addition, many macro influencers are represented by professional managers or agents who establish set terms and conditions for influencer-brand partnerships.

Less Risk

When influencers are more professional, they often present less risk for brands. Macro influencers have established a unique voice and have cultivated a trusting audience. In contrast, many micro influencers are still working on finding their voice and building trust among followers. In an effort to gain followers and appear more influential, some micro influencers have also been known to buy or access “fake” followers. This is risky for brands because these followers typically don’t interact with an influencer, nor are they influenced by them. To identify fake followers, look for three red flags:

1. Fake followers often have no posts or photos.
2. Posts that do come from fake followers are typically irrelevant or gibberish.
3. If social media accounts have many followers and very low engagement rates, some followers could be fake. To find engagement rates, divide the number of likes and comments on a social media account by the number of followers.

For extra certainty in identifying fake followers, you can use special scanning tools or services like Social Audit Pro.

Travel macro influencer Kiersten Rich shares her travel adventures and advice for solo and female travelers.

Disadvantages of Partnering With Macro Influencers

While it’s important to know the advantages of working with a macro influencer, it’s also helpful to understand some of the disadvantages. Consider the following issues that might arise during a partnership with a popular influencer.

High Prices

Although macro influencers offer your brand years of experience and professionalism, these benefits come with a bigger price tag. One common way for influencers to calculate per-post rates is to charge $100 for every 10,000 followers. This means that a macro influencer on Instagram with 500,000 followers could charge $5,000 per post. One with 1,000,000 followers might charge $10,000 per post. Macro influencers with professional representation are likely to charge even higher rates to cover this extra cost.

Lack of Authenticity

For many influencers, perceived authenticity goes down as follower counts go up. In addition, as audiences get larger, it gets harder for influencers to engage with individual members at a personal level. Irrelevance can also affect authenticity and trust levels. For instance, when endorsements appear out of place or staged, audiences don’t trust that influencers actually use the products. To ensure that you choose a relevant influencer, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the influencer have an image similar to the one you want to project?
• Does the influencer have credibility and trustworthiness within your industry?
• Is the influencer already talking about topics that relate to your brand?
• Does the influencer create high-quality content that is in line with your brand messaging?

Additional Considerations for Choosing an Influencer

As you can see, finding the right influencer matters to your marketing campaign. When picking one, it also helps to keep the following considerations in mind.

Your Goals

The first thing you should think about when searching for an influencer is what you want to achieve as a brand. If you want to boost brand awareness, expand your reach or enhance visibility, a macro influencer makes a good choice. If your main goal is to make more sales, you may want to look for a micro influencer. Micro influencers are accessible, they have very targeted audiences and they have high engagement rates. No matter what type of influencer you choose, make sure they genuinely support the goals of your marketing campaign.

Your Budget

Once you’ve set your sights on partnering with a macro influencer, it’s time to decide whether or not you can afford one. Remember that a macro influencer with 500,000 followers is often less expensive than one with an audience nearing one million. But follower counts aren’t the only measure of a good influencer. Other metrics that determine how much money influencers make include follower growth, engagement rates and conversion rates.

Your Target Audience

When choosing an influencer, think about what type of audience you wish to reach. Is your target audience narrower in scope or limited to a specific geographical location? If so, consider a micro influencer who will relate well to members of that group. If your target audience is broader in scope and/or geography, choose a macro influencer with experience reaching all types of people.

Your Influencer’s Audience

Because your influencer’s audience will potentially be your target audience, it’s important to look at influencer-follower interaction. Are audience members engaged and active? Does the influencer offer timely responses to questions and comments? If there is little engagement between an influencer and their audience, you may want to look elsewhere.
If you’re interested in growing your brand, a talented macro influencer can help. Use the tips included in this guide to find the right macro influencer for you.