Here’s a question: Is bigger always better? In the creator world, there isn’t always a clear answer. If you’re a brand looking to hire someone to work with you, you’ll probably consider a wide range of influencers, both big and small. Those with hundreds of thousands of followers could give you impressive reach, while others with a smaller community of loyal and highly engaged followers could actually bring you more sales at a fraction of the cost.
We have a battle on our hands: the micro influencer vs. the macro influencer. To decide a winner in terms of ROI, you have to look at each campaign specifically and think about what you actually want it to achieve.
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A micro influencer is a social media creator with a relatively small but engaged following. Micro influencers are commonly defined as having between 10,000 and 100,00 followers. Forbes describes them as serving “more niche audiences,” noting that they “can be beneficial to a brand because they provide access to a small subset of a targeted demographic interested in your business.”
Most micro influencers home in on a specific niche. It could be cycling, like Georgina Grant, or fashion, like Jasmain Farara. At this stage, their page can look more like a passion project that may or may not grow into something bigger.
For brands, that can be a significant advantage. A skin-care company, for example, may achieve better results by partnering with a creator whose audience actively seeks product recommendations. A big creator, however, may just post to masses who aren’t seriously engaged.
Micro influencers may also seem more like friends to their followers – they’re not comparable to celebrities, so they have a more relatable feel. As a result, more people may feel encouraged to buy products they use. For smaller companies with limited budgets, they’re also a great option because they’re typically cheaper to hire. Micro influencers are usually paid around £250 to £1,500 per post, while macro influencers are paid £5,000 to over £20,000.
Definitions vary, but macro influencers are often creators with between 100,000 and 1 million followers.
Macro influencers are usually very established creators. They may have been at it for years and be experts in their field. They could be entrepreneurs like Grace Beverley, OG influencers like Zoë Sugg, or food creators with a big social output like Top Jaw. Their audiences can span multiple demographics and interests, making them attractive to brands seeking widespread visibility.
Their larger platforms can also support more ambitious campaigns, from polished video productions to product launches to collaborations across several channels or with big-name celebrities. Their content is usually filmed at a much higher standard, but it also costs much more.
If you’re looking to reach as many people as possible, there is no question about which way to go. Macro influencers have millions of people watching them, and they can generate a lot of interest. It all comes down to how much you want to invest.
How do you measure the ROI of a campaign? It depends on what you were hoping it would achieve. Decide that at the start of the project and communicate it to your chosen creator.
Here are a few things you may want to consider.
1. Engagement rate
Engagement rate measures how actively an audience interacts with a creator’s content. Depending on the platform and what you’re hoping for, you may consider likes, comments, shares, and saves. Try this formula, recommended by Forbes, to measure effectiveness: total engagements / total followers × 100 = engagement rate (%). It’s particularly useful when looking at micro influencers, because it scales up their success.
2. Cost per engagement
Cost per engagement (CPE) shows how much a brand spends for each interaction a campaign generates. The equation is: total campaign cost / total engagements. Suppose a brand spends £500 on a micro influencer campaign that generates 1,000 engagements. The CPE is £0.50. But if a macro influencer charges £5,000 and generates 5,000 engagements, the CPE is £1. With those results, it would have been better to spend the money working with the micro influencer.
3. Cost per acquisition
For campaigns designed to generate sales, sign-ups, or enquiries, cost per acquisition (CPA) can be more useful than engagement metrics. The equation is: total campaign cost / number of acquisitions. It basically means that if a micro influencer campaign costs a brand £1,000 and generates 50 purchases, then the CPA is £20. But if a macro influencer campaign costs £5,000 and generates 200 purchases, its CPA is £25. In this case, the micro influencer again performs better.
4. Reach
Reach measures how many different accounts are exposed to content. If your main aim is to get the product in front of as many people as possible, this is a good metric to measure. Macro influencers probably have an advantage here, since they have more followers. But it’s not always quite so simple. A micro influencer with a smaller but highly engaged audience, for example, may reach fewer people overall, but the people they reach are more likely to buy products based on their recommendation. If you’re a brand, ask creators for performance data, including average views and impressions.
