Variants of advertising on Instagram, Snapchat or blogs and the value for brands and PR. In recent weeks, the topic of “Instagram and Snapchat for companies” has been discussed publicly as well as in many of my presentations and trainings at brands, and there have been some controversial discussions about advertising on Instagram. Therefore, I would like to give you again in the column “Bloggerlife personally” an insight into the blogger thoughts and expectations of social media.
Every fashion blogger, travel blogger and lifestyle blogger certainly uses Instagram and maintains the account more or less actively. Over 50% use Snapchat to share current content with their followers. But where is the added value for companies? Is advertising on Instagram and Snapchat worthwhile or would it rather be on blogs?
Value of advertising on Instagram and Snapchat for brands & PR – which target group?
If two years ago it was still blogger collaborations after the watering can principle, this has now become with advertising on Instagram and Snapchat with some companies. If one had once simply invited 30 bloggers to an event, a good blogger will certainly be among them, so today one looks only at the number of followers. It is not without reason that people often talk about “100,000 is the new 10,000”.
If 12 months ago an Instagramer with 10,000 followers was a good brand, the like numbers were settled at 500 likes per picture, today companies often send Instagramers on their travels with 100,000 or 200,000 followers.
So far so good – and there are many Instagram accounts, some of which are even larger and were, for example, at my #BerlinOffline event, which have been able to move a good community for years and accordingly also have activities and Like ratios of 5-10%. Perfect for a company!
But especially in the fashion and lifestyle segment among bloggers, there has been an interesting development in recent months. The follower numbers increase by 300-500 followers on Instagram every day, although there is hardly any activity of their own. Instagramers with a size of 50,000 followers are subsequently appointed as “brand ambassadors” and become the figurehead for an event.
50k followers sounds impressive at first glance and, depending on the channel, can be very interesting and have a high level of activity. However, if the account then gets a maximum of 500 likes, the blogger is addressing just 1% of the actual followers for advertising on Instagram.
For many other accounts in the 50-100k follower range, engagement of 3-5% or higher is not uncommon. Surely every channel (like my channels) has once a bad picture with it, but always address about 1% of followers is rather rare, especially if you then do not even get 10 comments without much sense to it. Another alternative: an account with 65,000 followers gets with premium products, (such as Chanel bags, etc.) just 65 likes and 5 comments when advertising on Instagram.
Now, of course, as a company, you have to consider what is the advertising on Instagram cost for a luxury trip with a blogger who is only to do Instagram, if one to two photos are to be uploaded daily. Blogger trip – cost compared to engagement and likes per image – advertising on Instagram.
Now how exactly to calculate advertising on Instagram?
Five days trip for, usually two people, for example, in the Caribbean, hotel, pocket money, etc. quickly once costs in the marketing budget of 10,000 EUR, with 10 photos to be uploaded, this is the equivalent of 1,000 EUR per advertising on Instagram photo, which uploads a blogger on Instagram or calculated on the ratio 2 EUR to 2.50 EUR per Like per image.
This is of course only an approximate calculation for advertising on Instagram and should only compare a cost/value and question why so many collaborations with advertising on Instagram for companies often run dissatisfied and what can be changed.
If you then take into account the age group of the advertising on Instagram, which are addressed at the 500 likes, as well as the closest followers and family members who like every picture anyway, then probably a value of 10-20% of potential customers still comes out for most accounts. Who of these still 50-80 Likes afterwards on the one hand interest in a journey into the Caribbean and the own budget for such a journey has, might lie with 5-10% maximally.
Whether the prospective customer decides then afterwards for the hotel of the blogger or nevertheless a more favorable hotel locally or a package offer selects, remains naturally open to question. At least the posts are found via the #Hashtags or the blogger’s account for a longer period of time and can theoretically attract further likes and potential interested parties – even if the image is not directly retrievable when I enter “#TraumzielKaribik”.
The image is there, but is already pushed into the background by hundreds of other photos in front of it, and those who then look at 20-page-old images are more likely to be in the minority.
Snapchat – advertising deleted after 24 hours
Currently, there is a very good example, where a large tourism company wants to address the young readers and even shares the current experience reports via Snapchat. The big problem of course – the target audience on Snapchat is often between 12-18 years old – but the Instagrammer is over 40. Does this still reach the target audience and what’s the point if the videos are deleted again after 24 hours. Of course, you can still take a screenshot as a follower, but who clicks on anything?
The photos of the Instagrammer a dream – in addition a very nice person, but what does one address the young target group with it? An interesting step by the tourism group, but whether this step is also successful – only the future will show. What is the benefit for me as a company if I have to spend a large sum of money on a trip in order to appeal to an age group of 12-24 years?
How many followers think it’s “cool” when an older person who is not a “YouTube idol” reports for the heavily focused very young Snapchat users? Snapchat can be fun, and I too use Snapchat from time to time – but primarily to see the people I already know and want to know how they’re doing, or when a moment needs to be captured that doesn’t fit on Instagram or Facebook.
For a corporation, of course, it’s a whole different situation. If I’m a TV station, like ProSieben for example, and have my presenters of the afternoon show play a bit with Snapchat, I achieve additional audience engagement at almost zero cost, but when it comes to big long-distance trips, the question arises – return on investment (ROI), because somehow the cost of the PR tour has to be recouped – and even if this is passed on to the fees of the next trip of normal bookers.
YouTube as an alternative – if done right Exactly the same travel company has sent the YouTuber Bibi of @BibisBeautyPalace a few months ago two times with her partner on vacation and paid for it (according to various rumors) not only a nice trip, but also a nice fee. The point here, however, quite different.
The videos have been viewed over 8,000,000 times, the company has been presented in them, and a layer of followers has been addressed who want to buy and also do almost everything that the YouTube idol implements. With over 3,000,000 subscribers (on both channels), less than 0.1% of viewers booking a trip afterwards is probably enough – to have evened out the cost.
The goal is simple – either the younger viewers themselves become customers at some point and book a trip or their parents are told about the YouTuber’s destination until they (presumably annoyed) book the same destination from the catalog. In addition, there are countless links in good position, which further strengthen the offer and the visibility of the company.
You gain a new customer base that is very loyal to the idol – and also books where the idol books. At that point, the higher costs are naturally recouped, and these are easily compensated for by new trips. Another example is currently offered by a major airline, which let a well-known blogger report on a long-haul flight in business class.
The video has not even reached 8% of followers after more than 10 days, the nature of the video not in relation to the premium product. If you then consider e.g. 500 video views (50 views per day) should offset the cost of a long-haul business class flight, something is going wrong in the implementation.
Are the followers not active? Are followers not interested in the person’s videos – or is it simply the wrong target audience. The blogposts will certainly be read more often by the person and hopefully pay for themselves down the road.
Blogger – value of a blogpost, value of a cooperation.
Similar to YouTube, it also shapes up with many blogposts. Some time ago I already presented a fair payment for bloggers in the blogpost “Bloggers do not have to be paid”. If I talk to many companies during my lectures and workshops, how satisfied they were with the reporting bloggers, they are often dissatisfied with the output, especially with newer or smaller blogs.
The reasons for this can be quite different False expectations of cooperation If I choose an “A” blogger, the costs for the blog post and a possible fee are of course significantly higher – however, a completely different community is usually moved. The cost per reader is then converted much cheaper, most bloggers in the top category work professionally and can put the product in the spotlight.
However, if I want to have a cheap blogger who is only satisfied with the product, but the blog has just 1000 readers a month, I do not need to be surprised later as a company if the next day there are not 10,000 new orders. Wrong blogger target group for the cooperation Bloggers are simply selected by “mass” and not looked at how the blogger fits the project. For example, I receive requests again and again, from printable smartphone cases or hostels.
Conclusion: “since you read my blog from the beginning, and exactly these sleeves or the hostel would fit perfectly to my blog – I have to report on it”.
Even if I would write about it, there would not be the target audience on my blog for smartphone cases or a cheap hostel. There the big follower layer is of no use if no one would be interested in it Low value for blogposts – unique selling proposition missing The question that always has to be asked for bloggers and companies, how big should the reports be.
Do I want to set a certain trend on the net only for a short time and see 100 reports at the same time or do I want to build my brand credibly and permanently. If one, particularly gladly in the pre-Christmas period, 40 Blogger at a festively set table sits, with which 50% of the participants less than 2000 Pageviews per month have, then the Internet is filled the next day with reports, but neither from SEO view, nor for the strengthening of the mark brings it something, if the reports are not reasonably written (or not at all reported – it is sufficient nevertheless a mini video with Snapchat).
However, if I invest the money for the evening event in a “cool” blog story with only four bloggers who also have a reach and can place the texts appropriately, the success is significantly higher not only in the short term, but also in the long term. Brand loyalty among bloggers – brand hopping no longer a rarity It is becoming more and more common for bloggers to fail to maintain brand loyalty. As a company, I am not sure whether the next day is already reported on a competitor. This can only be prevented by a reasonable preselection, as well as agreements.
CONCLUSION – Value of advertising on Instagram and Snapchat for brands – Advertising on Instagram
Both Instagram and Snapchat are certainly very interesting networks for communication. How much the effort for large and costly campaigns with accounts pays off and thus advertising on Instagram makes sense, is not directly measurable. With a cooperation and advertising on Instagram with “idols” of the followers, the corresponding ROI will also be present, with smaller accounts or even “large accounts with not so active followers” 🙂 this is of course a completely different effect.
Depending on the orientation and target group, the cooperation can be profitable for both sides, but the advantages and disadvantages of advertising on Instagram and Snapchat must not be forgotten: Not directly clickable links that lead to the target product of the landing page. Often relatively poor engagement (follower/like ratio).
On Snapchat, the story is only available for 24 hours Almost never is there a search engine placement for a single image on Instagram or have you ever found an image when searching for a related story about a hotel or destination on Google? Travel journals, blogs, and booking portals usually rank in the top 50-100 spots – but you rarely find a single image there.
With Google’s upcoming updates, rankings will shift even further to longer texts and quality content – reports of 150 words or less will rank even lower. Although the image can still be seen in advertising on Instagram under a hashtag with a number of many current images and can also be called up under various programs, such as Webstagram, etc. on the Internet – What will change with changes to the API interfaces on Instagram from 2016, it is not yet possible to say, access for third-party providers is to be further restricted.
If the Instagrammer has an appropriate range (>100,000), gets hundreds of comments and thousands of likes on the images, the action will certainly have a success, if there are 50,000 followers, but only 3 comments and 400 likes, the action will not be permanently marked by success. Therefore, actions should be planned accordingly and pros/cons should be weighed beforehand.
Snapchat – how high is the benefit if the video is no longer available after 24 hours – does a YouTube video of the Snapchatters then no longer bring and remains permanently findable and is preferentially ranked in Google? Target audience – often advertising on Instagram appeals to a very young audience and more and more followers and bloggers leave Instagram and switch to Snapchat, for example, where, however, the age group is not older.
Advertising on Instagram – Is it worth it Instagram and Snapchat are interesting networks – but primarily as a supplement to existing blogs or YouTube channels. In the case of the blog and video portal YouTube, the “stories” are available for an unlimited period of time and can be found by search engines and can therefore still appeal to readers who, for example, have not yet engaged with the travel destination at the time of publication.
Advertising on Instagram is never a risk, but you have to consider for yourself where you want to go. Personally, I’m also happy when I search for a report on a topic and then find a blog post even a few months later that helps me with my planning. With advertising on Instagram and Snapchat, I unfortunately no longer see these results.
If I was just busy and not following the Instagrammer, I probably just missed the ad on Instagram. After the fact, I can’t find the posts. If it’s a well-planned campaign that can involve a very high number of followers (like big YouTubers, successful and professional bloggers), the cost of advertising will also pay for itself, if you pick the wrong target audience or convert a lot of traffic numbers once to “traffic per day”, it will not bring great success.
2000 unique visitors per month sound good at first – but are these also converted “only” 66 visitors per day – and for that a product in the equivalent of 1,000 EUR or more – is more than questionable. It will be an interesting year 2016 – with many changes in the social media areas and the various networks, which I will report on in more detail shortly.
PR companies and brands are positioning themselves even more professionally in 2016 in the areas of blogger relations, social media and collaboration with influencers, and I’m already looking forward to being a part of it and reporting back to you about it. It’s exciting to see how advertising on Instagram and Snapchat will change in the future.
