• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 30, 2017

170 marketers from CPGs, food-and-beverage companies, media players, retailers, and agencies participated in Linqia's The State of Influencer Marketing Survey, which shines light on the cost and effectiveness of tactics such as paying a content-creating celebrity to represent a brand.

Whether influencer marketing works can be controversial among brand practitioners, says the report, but the summary of some of the key findings of the study, as reported by AdWeek, are shown here:

• It works… 94% of those who used influencer marketing believe the tactic to be effective
• At the same time … 78% said that determining the ROI of influencer marketing will be a to challenge in 2017
• When it works, here's why… 87% of respondents said that influencer marketing's top benefits entail creating authentic content about their brand, 77% said driving engagement around their brand, and 56% say driving traffic to their websites or landing pages.
• The cost of influencing…  In 2016, most marketers spent between $25,000 and $50,000 per influencer marketing program
• More money for posts… The survey respondents reported those figures will double to $50,000 to $100,000 per program in 2017
• Some follow the law, some don't… 88% of respondents said they make sure influencers disclose sponsored content in order to comply with government regulations. In other words, 12 percent may not be complying with the FTC's guidelines 
• Facebook Inc. rules… Marketers overwhelmingly said Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram were their most important platforms for influencer endeavors. In the survey, 87% cited the two platforms
• Blogs also work… The next most important channel is blogs, with nearly half the respondents utilizing them

And from Influence.CO, of the over 500 influencer accounts studied, the average price paid per post was $271. Brands paying for these posts can request everything from a picture of someone wearing a particular pair of designer jeans or shoes to mentioning a health supplement or specific home goods.

Influencers don’t need millions of followers to attract the attention of branded sponsors, says the report. The average follower count of an influencer is almost 63,000 people. Close to 60% of influencers on Instagram are women, and the most popular category for paid content is lifestyle.

Modeling-related accounts are the most lucrative (charging over $430 per post) and popular (more than 141,000 followers on average). Unlike traditional modeling, these user-curated photos are meant to look organic and capture the air of style. Photography-related accounts pull in an average of more than $385 per post. Food, pet, and fitness-related accounts also earn over $300 per post on average, says the report.

When it comes to popularity, fitness-related accounts average over 131,000 followers, while pet-related accounts have more than 117,000 followers on average. Beauty, fashion, and food-related accounts also accumulate between 59,000 and 84,000 followers, proving that whatever you’re passionate about, there may be several thousand people who share the same interests, suggests the report.

For more from AdWeek, please visit here, and Influence.CO here.