New survey determines the truth behind influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has become an integral element to advertisement strategies across all consumer industries, yet it might not be as reliable as once thought. According to a recent study, Instagram's monthly active user data might be overrated by up to 45 percent.

Marketing specialist of startup brand A Good Company Emilia Cullborg took an anonymous survey amongst a portion of the brand's ambassador network to help distinguish a clear correlation between influencer marketing spending and sales.

Cullborg distributed a survey to all 4,102 ambassadors in A Good Company's platform, inquiring as to their takes on their role, along with questions of number of followers, engagement and whether or not they have utilized paid services such as engagement pods, paid followers or paid comments. Only around 10 percent of the 4,102 ambassadors responded to the survey.

They survey determined that 60 percent of influencers employ paid services, each experiencing various levels of success. Nearly half of respondents said they would likely not use a paid service again, while 23 percent definitely would use it again.

"As it turns out, marketing spends equal to 744 million dollars is mainly going to Russian Bots and mass-follower accounts, with micro-influencers cheating the system the most," Cullborg wrote in a press statement.