Micro Vs Macro Influencers: Which Is Right For Your Campaign

One of the things that caused social media to become such a cultural revolution was the inclusion of public metrics like follower counts, likes, shares, and other indications of how popular a user or piece of content was.

The addition of these features is often referred to as “gamification”, or the act of adding a game-like quality to an activity that isn’t actually designed to be a game.

The goal is to increase interaction and draw people in the same way any compelling game can quickly draw users in.

But in marketing, these numbers are more than a game and they hold an incredible amount of value. Follower counts are not just something to brag about, they are a type of currency and an asset that can be converted to other forms of value for brands.

Because of that, the follower or subscriber count of an influencer has become what most people see as the major indicator of an influencer’s value.

On some level, that is true and follower count is a critical metric for how much value an influencer can bring to a brand. But it’s only a starting point and in many marketing situations, higher follower counts can lead to increasingly smaller returns.

For example, would a local restaurant benefit from airing a commercial during the Super Bowl? Probably not and they would benefit much more from a targeted local campaign or working with small content creators in their niche.

This is an extreme example but it illustrates how going for the maximum number of people that can see your message doesn’t always yield the best or even the fastest results in marketing.

With influencer marketing, you can leverage this concept to its fullest by accessing the full variety and diversity of influencers available across a wide array of industries and business niches. This includes smaller micro influencers and also larger macro influencer accounts.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about micro influencers vs macro-influencers and how to use each one to maximize your brand’s marketing efforts and campaign ROI.

Understanding Influencer Types

Micro and macro influencers are just two types of influencers based on their total follower count. With influencer marketing, there are generally five total influencer categories that are used.

Different marketing agencies may use slightly different thresholds than shown below, but the core concept and categories remain the same even if the specific numbers vary by a small amount.

Nano Influencer

10,000 or fewer followers

This is the smallest influencer type by follower or subscriber count. These influencers can simply be new and are still growing. While in other cases, they create content in less popular niches so they grow more slowly than influencers in more mainstream categories.

Nano influencers often have some of the highest engagement rates and offer strong targeting options for marketing campaigns with very specific goals or audiences they want to reach.

Micro-Influencer

10,000 to 100,000 followers

Micro influencers are the next largest influencer type and they share many of the same benefits as nano-influencers, just with larger audiences.

Micro influencers can also be newer influencers or established influencers who happen to produce niche content that has a narrower appeal.

When trying to target specific audiences and customers, micro influencers are generally the top choice for marketers and brands of all sizes. They provide great targeting, and engagement, and are still budget-friendly enough to fit any campaign.

Mid Tier Influencer

100,000 to 500,000 followers

Mid-tier influencers have larger audiences and they’re also commonly recognizable by name in the niche they participate in.

Despite the larger audiences, mid-tier influencers can have very engaged audiences depending on the content they produce and the niche they are in.

Macro Influencers

500,000 to 1 million followers

Macro influencers are starting to approach the top tier of influencer reach. Some macro influencers may even be recognizable audiences outside of their niche or by those in adjacent niche categories.

Focused targeting is still very possible for macro influencers assuming they create content in a specific niche and don’t produce general content.

VIP Influencer

1 million or more followers

Most VIP influencers are recognizable by users of social media regardless of their niche. These are usually celebrity accounts, but there are still many influencers who built their celebrity status solely through social media.

While most of these influencers produce general audience content, some VIP influencers are tied to niches such as technology, travel, or fashion.

Benefits Of Choosing Micro Influencers

Now that we’ve explained where micro influencers sit in the overall hierarchy of influencer categories, it’s time to go over the benefits they offer for marketing campaigns. Knowing these benefits can help you decide when they will best fit your campaign goals.

Increased Authenticity

The core of influencer marketing is the authenticity and trust that an influencer has with their audience. With micro influencers, that trust and authenticity are often higher than with larger influencers.

The reason is that micro influencers have a tighter relationship with their audience. You can think of it as the difference between a musician playing a set in a small, intimate setting compared to a giant stadium.

Even if they play the same songs, the audience will feel a stronger connection to the performance in the smaller setting.

Influencer marketing is similar and smaller audiences tend to connect more with the influencer who is in a particular niche that the audience cares about.

Micro Influencers also tend to interact with the audiences at a higher percentage. This means they often like comments left by their followers or even respond to specific comments or questions.

Influencers with larger audiences may sometimes interact with their followers, but the percentage and style of interaction is less impactful.

Niche Experience & Expertise

Established micro influencers tend to be considered experts in their niche. This means their opinions and partnerships within that niche carry more weight with their audience.

Some brands may mistakenly think that micro influencers have less authority, but the opposite is often true when dealing with a targeted niche area.

This is crucial for new brands or startups that need to build authority within a crowded marketplace. For this type of authority campaign, micro influencers can often position a startup as an authority faster and for less money than many other alternatives.

Budget Friendly

In general, influencer marketing can have one of the highest ROIs of any marketing channel assuming you create an appropriate campaign.

But micro influencers exceed the average if you’re looking for the most cost-effective influencer marketing solution for your brand.

The reason is that their overall metrics are often stronger than influencers with much larger audiences. This is combined with their lower overall rates for brand partnerships.

So while their reach is lower, you’ll get more bang for your buck when using micro influencers. There are also many to choose from, so you can blanket a wide cross-section of niche markets relatively easily.

High Engagement

Engagement is one of the more crucial metrics that marketers should consider when choosing a partnership with an influencer. Micro influencers will generally have higher engagement metrics due to the relationship they have with their smaller audience.

High engagement is key for brand awareness campaigns that can spread across a social media platform beyond just the single influencer you’re partnered with. High engagement rates can increase hashtag and brand mentions related to the campaign, furthering the reach and ROI.

Local Targeting

There are many micro influencers who are specific to certain regions. For example, some micro influencers may cover a certain tourist area or city. Some travel influencers may also only cover one specific destination or region.

For brands that need a localized audience, micro influencers are generally going to be your only choice. 

Benefits Of Choosing Macro Influencers

After reading about the benefits that micro influencers can bring to your brand’s marketing efforts, you might think there’s no reason to look elsewhere.

But even though micro influencers have many benefits, macro influencers do provide campaigns with certain strengths that smaller influencers can’t match.

Larger Reach With Less Effort

One of the most significant benefits that macro influencers offer is the ability to have a larger reach without any additional effort.

With micro influencers, you will need to manage several influencers, contracts, and campaign creatives to have the same reach as one macro influencer.

Using a few macro influencers is often easier to manage for larger campaigns. This means resources and attention can be focused to ensure the campaign is launched and executed perfectly.

Less Time Vetting Influencers

A critical part of any influencer marketing campaign is the process of vetting influencers before making your final choice for who to partner with.

This is a time-consuming process and it also takes a degree of experience and expertise to understand how to interpret metrics for each influencer to ensure they align with your brand and campaign goals.

It stands to reason, the fewer total influencers you use, the easier this process is. Macro influencers allow you to focus on a smaller number of total influencers to really find the best match possible

More Established Presence

Macro influencers generally have a more established presence regarding their content. This means their style, content, and tone across the channel are consistent and you know exactly what to expect.

Micro influencers who happen to have newer accounts may still be finding their place in the market and experimenting with different content styles as they grow.

While this is great for a micro influencer’s long-term success, it means there can be inconsistency with their messaging and tone.

If you partner with a smaller influencer and then a month later they switch to a new style of content, it may reflect poorly on your brand.

Generally, a contract with an influencer should give you the ability to have certain content taken down if such a situation comes up. But it is still something you want to avoid.

Macro influencers have generally found their place in the social media landscape and will continue with the same tone and style for the foreseeable future.

Easier Contractual Workflow

Speaking of contracts, macro influencers also tend to have more partnership experience. They have partnered with brands in the past and understand the contracts, payments, and other aspects involved.

This means your workflow with them to set up a campaign, payments, and approve any content is fast and easy.

This doesn’t mean that micro influencers are hard to deal with. But it is possible they won’t have the experience of dealing with many brands and small issues may arise that slow down the negotiating process or the execution of the campaign.

This isn’t a rule and there are exceptions on both sides. Sometimes a macro influencer can be difficult to work with while a micro influencer is extremely accommodating.

But in general, macro influencers have more experience with a variety of partnerships and campaign styles to help streamline the process.

Credibility

While micro influencers have a great deal of credibility with their audience, macro influencers can have credibility across a whole industry or segment.

Partnering with a macro influencer who is trusted can immediately bring a higher level of credibility to your brand depending on the campaign style you choose.

Startups who want to make a big splash and enter a competitive market can immediately start to position themselves as a credible presence with one campaign.

This type of credibility is almost impossible with other marketing channels like paid ads, PPC, or other methods.

For brands with an adequate budget and a goal of building credibility, macro influencers can provide very fast results in a cost-effective way that exceeds most other methods.

More Campaign Options

When most people think of influencer marketing, they think of simple product mentions or sponsored posts. But there are far more campaign types that can be customized to reach your goals more effectively and with less total money spent.

Due to their experience, macro influencers can be more comfortable with a wider range of campaign types as well as creative briefs. 

Macro influencers can also create more professional content in many cases. This doesn’t always hold true as some macro influencers intentionally create very raw content that resonates with their audience.

However, a majority of macro influencers in many industries tend to create more professional content or have the ability and resources to do so.

For certain brands, this can make it easier to convey your messaging and style in a way that delivers the best results.

When To Choose Micro Influencers

Now that we’ve covered most of the pros and cons between micro and macro influencers, it’s time to choose when it’s most appropriate to use each one.

Below, we’ll outline the most common scenarios where brands tend to use micro influencers. Go over these scenarios and see how many overlap with your current situation or goals.

If they overlap with the main goals of your campaign, then you should strongly consider using micro influencers.

Campaign Budget Restrictions

Large brands can have campaign budgets well into the millions of dollars, but newer brands and startups are often operating on lower budgets or even solely on credit lines.

This means those brands need the best bang for their buck. In those cases, micro influencers are generally the go-to choice.

Their overall lower rates for paid sponsorships along with their high-performing metrics make them perfect for brands on a budget.

Also, brands can start small with micro influencers and slowly scale up if they find early success. This is a common strategy to ensure you don’t waste your marketing budget on a poorly optimized campaign right out of the gate.

You Offer A Niche Product Or Service

The more of a niche product or service you offer, the more likely you’ll need to work with micro influencers if you want to maintain targeting and positive metrics.

Every industry has different niche categories within it, so you’ll have to make this determination for your specific product service.

However, one piece of advice is to never try to stretch your audience targeting early in the campaign process. For example, don’t start by thinking your niche product will appeal to a larger, less targeted audience just because they share a few common traits.

This can set you up for a big failure. Instead, focus on your core target audience first, and then if you find success, you can start to expand your audience slowly to see how your product and message resonates.

The more niche your product, the more you should consider starting with micro influencers. If you have a product or service that truly resonates, you’ll have plenty of time to scale up your campaign.

Local Products Or Services

If you provide any type of localized service, then you will most likely want to work with micro influencers or possibly even nano influencers.

Larger cities or regions can have several macro influencers specific to their area. In these cases, you can consider macro influencers if their audience is mostly local and not people from outside the area doing research.

For example, an influencer in Hawaii may have a significant share of their audience that is outside of Hawaii and follow the channel to research vacation spots or possibly relocate there. In that case, it wouldn’t be a great fit for a localized campaign.

Highly Segmented Campaign Strategy

Many successful campaigns use customer segments to target each demographic separately. If your campaign strategy relies on targeting several distinct customer segments, micro influencers can deliver the results you’re looking for.

Macro influencers can still provide this type of segmented targeting for your campaign, but it’s much easier to maintain targeting with smaller audiences.

You Want To Build A Partnership

If you want to build a long-lasting partnership as part of your overall strategy, micro and nano influencers will be more open to such an idea.

Macro and larger influencers tend to work with brands for a shorter period before the brand moves on. This is due to a natural decline in results as a campaign runs for longer.

For certain niche categories, longer partnerships can pay off and this is where micro influencers may be appropriate and more cost-effective.

Just make sure your business model and campaign strategy supports longer partnerships and you keep a close eye on the engagement and other metrics to ensure the audience isn’t becoming fatigued.

When To Choose Macro Influencers

Macro influencers can offer some of the benefits of micro influencers but below are the unique situations when it’s more appropriate to choose macro influencers.

Brand Awareness Campaigns

Micro influencers can work for brand awareness campaigns, but they are generally easier and more effective with macro influencers as the central part of the strategy.

The larger reach and established presence of macro influencers are highly beneficial for brand awareness campaigns. If you have the budget and awareness is your goals, macro influencers will help you reach your goals faster and with less effort.

One exception would be if you’re new to influencer marketing or your product doesn’t fit into a specific category. In these cases, you may want to test your strategy with smaller influencers before scaling up.

Longer Campaign Strategies

This is different from longer partnerships. Long campaign strategies are situations when a brand has a campaign span across several weeks or even months.

Sometimes these campaigns are used leading up to an event or product release. Macro influencers are generally better for this type of involved and complex campaign strategy.

Macro influencers will have more experience with this type of campaign and their larger audience helps to build excitement and anticipation for campaigns that are designed to reach a crescendo.

Micro influencers will have difficulty building buzz with their smaller audience and may not work for these types of strategic campaigns.

Combining Micro and Macro Influencers

One of the great assets of influencer marketing is how flexible it can be. That’s especially true when it comes to choosing micro or macro influencers for your campaign.

One of the more useful strategies among savvy marketers is to combine macro influencers with a smaller micro influencer campaign.

Sometimes this is done to scale up a successful campaign but retain a high level of audience targeting.

For example, a brand may start with several macro influencers. As time goes by, they start adding micro influencers for more reach while maintaining the targeting they require.

One newer technique is to flood platforms within a certain industry when a product launches or a new brand enters the market. With all macro influencers, this can be expensive and many of those influencers may have overlapping audiences.

By adding micro influencers, you can increase the reach and footprint of the campaign while keeping costs reasonable to maintain ROI.

These are just a few examples, but there are always creative ways to mix and match influencers of different audience sizes to achieve your campaign goals.

The key is to always use the right influencer audience in the right situation. If you do that, you can get creative without losing targeting or having a sharp decline in your ROI.

Micro Influencers Aren’t Just For Small Brands On A Budget

One of the biggest misconceptions regarding micro vs macro influencers is that micro influencers or those influencers with smaller audiences are only for smaller brands on a tight budget.

While micro influencers do provide an onramp for small brands to take advantage of influence marketing at an affordable price, many top brands regularly use these same influencers for major campaigns.

An influencer with 80K followers may not seem like much, but when you consider how much it would cost to reach that many people through other channels, it starts to make more sense.

With influencer marketing, it’s more than just the number of people who see your marketing message. It’s the context in which they see it.

Seeing your message from a trusted influencer that a customer follows is far more effective than a display ad on a website or through a PPC ad with Adsense or another network.

This is why major brands look to micro influencers as a vital part of their overall marketing strategy. 

5 Major Brands That Work With Micro And Macro Influencers

Below are five influencer marketing examples of major brands that found success using micro and macro influencers to achieve separate goals within the same broader campaign.

1 Airbnb

Airbnb is a perfect example of how micro influencers can help round out an influencer campaign that needs localized targeting for specific travel destinations.

Airbnb leverages micro influencers for UGC that showcase a variety of locations that help position Airbnb as an integral part of any adventurous getaway.

2 Tinder

Tinder used macro, mega, and VIP influencers such as Kendahl Landreth (@kendahllandreth) for their successful campaign where each influencer recreated famous rom-com movie scenes to portray their own dating successes and less-successful outcomes.

But in addition to those larger, well-known creators, they also ran a campaign using smaller micro influencers. These micro influencers were college students and relayed personal stories of how Tinder has helped them form relationships during their time at school.

It’s a perfect example of how a large brand can use micro and macro influencers to find success across audiences and markets.

3 Minnesota Twins MLB Team

The Minnesota Twins needed a brand awareness campaign to help bring in younger fans and expose them to the professional baseball park experience.

Through local micro influencers with younger audiences, they offered ticket giveaways and other incentives. The campaign was a great way to target a specific customer segment while using macro influencers to reach a broader audience with a more general awareness campaign.

4 ASOS Insider Campaign

Fashion brand ASOS recently reintroduced its ASOS Insider marketing campaign strategy. This unique twist on micro influencers positioned ASOS employees from within the company as brand influencers. Each one shared special insights into upcoming fashion and trends as well as company information.

The ASOS Insider program is a creative use of employees who are already micro influencers to help promote the brand they work for.

5 Shopify

Ecommerce platform Shopify works with macro influencers as well as micro influencers in the entrepreneurial and business space.

Shopify partnered with business owners and educational micro influencers to help promote Shopify as an affordable and easy way to launch an ecommerce business without the need for coding or extensive technical knowledge.

Using micro influencers, Shopify was able to target a very specific audience comprised of new entrepreneurs looking to launch their first ecommerce business idea.

Final Tips

As you can see from some of the examples above, the choice between micro influencers and macro influencers isn’t always black and white.

For specific cases, you can definitely choose one over the other when it perfectly aligns with your campaign goals, budget, and strategy.

But oftentimes, you can use influencers from both categories to either start your campaign or scale it as time goes on.

The key to finding success in all of these situations is to determine which of your campaign goals most closely align with the right type of influencers.

Using our tips above and carefully understanding your own customers, you can easily leverage the power of micro and macro influencers to maximize your ROI for any campaign.