Open Influence has recently completed and released a study that looked at how influencer ads are viewed on social media. The study included a survey, which asked 514 adults in the US that follow influencers on social media a series of questions, many of which provide important insights for marketers.
When asked which social media platform they use to follow influencers, Facebook was the clear most popular, with 73.7% of respondents using it. Instagram was next, with 38.1%, and YouTube was third at 32.5%.
When asked which hash tags would indicate that an influencer is being paid for their post, most people really had no idea. The options that they could choose were #partner, #ad, #spon, #paid, and #collab. In addition to that, respondents could choose ‘none of the above.’ 45.7% of people choose none of the above, which was the most popular answer. The second most common choice was #ad, which got 32.9% of the votes. Respondents could choose as many answers as they thought were right.
While this may seem like a concern, especially with the FTC always putting pressure on brands to make it clear when they are advertising, the reality is most people don’t care whether an influencer is paid or not. When asked about whether it would make a difference if they knew that a celebrity or other influencer received compensation for their posts, 71% said no.