“According to a poll by Tomoson, businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing” — this is not realistic
For the past few years, blogs and people in the marketing profession have been quoting Tomoson’s claim that “businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.” It is my experience and opinion as someone who has been engaged with influencer marketing as both a brand and as an Influencer that such a claim is not only too black & white, but also dangerous.
This Tomoson quote is everywhere!
This quote is everywhere!
In my opinion we have to refrain promising “Tomoson results,” and here is why:
A) Tomoson was built as a marketplace that matches brands with Influencers, to help close endorsement deals between the right brands and the right influencers.
I’ve played with that platform for the last three years, with dozens of brands that I have helped seek influencers with … close to zero results. I have interviewed hundreds of people who have experienced similar results (enter the word “Tomoson” on Facebook to read the same).
Tomoson was one of the pioneers of this kind of marketplace and they built a great, user-friendly website. However, it seems like they are not managing to go the last mile and “close” the deal between the parties. There are brand offerings, there are interested influencers, but the deal “closing” is NOT happening in great numbers as far as I have seen.
B) As my friend Jim Tobin (@jtobin) points out, the original $6.50 quote referred not to sales but to “earned media value.” Read the full AdWeek quote:
https://i1.wp.com/dearmishudad.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/in-earned-media.png?w=654&ssl=1
Getting earned media value means it would have cost them that much to buy the equivalent ad space. Of course, that ad space may or may not have actually sold any product. To see someone twisting into $6.50 in sales… That’s just not accurate.
Source: https://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/report-influencer-marketing-can-yield-big-returns/616512/
Getting earned media value means it would have cost them that much to buy the equivalent ad space. Of course, that ad space may or may not have actually sold any product. To see someone twisting it into $6.50 in sales… That’s just not accurate.
Hmmmmm… perhaps people with a vested interest in misquoting them?
C) Do you see the word “Marketing” in “Influencer Marketing“? That’s because it is Marketing, not sales. Good Influencers do not do aggressive sales. Instead, they market, they open a conversation about brands to the community they built, bring trust, bring positive bias, toward – yes, future delayed, usually untraceable (especially in places such as Instagram, Facebook, Lion and WeChat) sales.
D) Think: why don’t stock brokers declare that “you will get $8 for every $1 you spent.” It doesn’t make sense, right? It’s ok to say that, under x conditions and considering a brand of type a and customers of type b and c, then there might be probability of x% success that for every $1 spent then the brand earns $7. But to say that under every and any circumstances “you get $6.50 on each $1 spent” is NOT ok. It is preposterous and wrong.
I recommend that influencers and marketers stop making such false promises.
What do YOU think?
Sincerely yours,
#DearMishuDad
Dear Mishu’s Dad is the Author of “Influencer Marketing MASTERY” — a guide for brands to identifying, finding, and working with Social Media Influencers, now Available as an Audiobook – Listen to it while you drive or at the gym
Once you are ready to contract an Influencer, you can download our Sample contract Influencer-Brand contract which has all the information you need to establish a win-win, productive relationship with Influencers
