The number of influencers impacted by fraud falls

HypeAuditor has released its fourth annual ‘State of Influencer Marketing’ report, revealing that the number of influencers impacted by fraud continues to decrease.

Each year, the report provides an overview of the latest news from social media platforms most used by marketers (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube), as well as the predicted trends for the year ahead.

In comparison to 2021, the average percentage of Instagram accounts impacted by fraud has decreased by 12.5% - a concrete result of the platform’s efforts in fighting against dubious practices. This is the fourth consecutive year that this percentage has decreased since 2019.

However, the overall number of influencers impacted by fraud remains high at 36.28%. Close to 60% of Mega and Celebrity influencers with over 1 million followers are impacted by fraud making them the largest category to be affected.

Alexander Frolov, CEO and co-founder at HypeAuditor, said: “In 2022, it has become clear that the influencer marketing industry is maturing. Action taken by social media platforms to reduce fraud is having a real impact, and the percentage of accounts impacted by fraud has decreased once again.

“As a result, influencer marketing is being recognised by the majority of marketers as an important tool to connect authentically with their audiences. This will become more important as we face a year of economic challenges which encourage shoppers to tighten their purse strings.”

The concrete impact of influencer marketing to help brands connect with social media users is also echoed by recent findings from Meta which highlight that 87% of Instagram users take a specific action (i.e following a brand, visiting a retail store, or making a purchase) after seeing a post about a product. As a result, 79% of marketing specialists consider this platform as an integral part of their campaigns.