6 Game-Changing Ways AI Can Boost Your Influencer Marketing

AI is growing faster than ever. MarketsandMarkets predicts that the artificial intelligence market will skyrocket to $407 billion by 2027. In this constantly changing environment, you either adapt or risk falling behind. As a result, companies and businesses around the world are incorporating AI into their day-to-day operations. According to a survey conducted by Forbes Advisor, a whopping 64% of businesses are confident that artificial intelligence will boost their overall productivity. A very optimistic outlook, isn’t it?

Today, it’s hard to imagine any aspect of our lives without AI, and influencer marketing is no exception. According to a recent study by the micro-influencer platform SocialPubli, 82% of marketers view AI as an opportunity for growth and success, with 76% already using AI in their work.

Last year, Meta's announcement of partnerships with "cultural icons and influencers" sparked many discussions. The company created AI-powered chatbots with unique interests and personalities and their own Instagram and Facebook profiles. Some resemble such celebrities as Snoop Dogg, Charli D’Amelio, Kendall Jenner, Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, and others.

While some see AI as a threat that could eventually take over human jobs, it's important to understand the many benefits that it can offer to marketers. Right now, AI is already being used in influencer marketing to brainstorm ideas (45%), write social media posts (47%), create images and videos (39%), do editing (36%), and conduct research (35%). However, the potential of AI certainly spreads far beyond these areas.

How AI Can Revolutionize Influencer Marketing

Discover relevant influencers with a relevant target audience

When it comes to choosing influencers for collaborations, understanding their target audiences is key. While some platforms claim to be well-fitted for this task, manual review and verification seem to be more reliable at the moment.

AI tools are already here to help, but in my experience, their current data doesn't quite match up with actual sales performance. They either miss important factors, or their methods are off. So, let's just imagine that AI keeps getting better and will one day reach a point of perfection. How could it help with searching for relevant influencers?

When working with influencers, you should always watch out for certain red flags like low-quality followers, low frequency of posts, or low engagement rates. AI could help by performing initial checks on influencers and eliminating those who don't meet these standards. I can’t even begin to explain how much time it could save.

Moreover, AI could check subscriber engagement, comment frequency, the sentiment of comments, any involvement in scandals, and alignment of political views with the brand's policy.

In theory, interests could be analyzed as well. But automatic assessment of interests can be very complex because each audience category can have many subcategories. For example, imagine trying to sell a healthy vegan product. The system might suggest a list of influencers interested in healthy eating, but what if one of them supports healthy living but opposes veganism? You'd only catch these nuances through manual review.

AI could also consolidate data from various platforms. Instead of manually copying and pasting links and calculating average metrics, AI could streamline this process by integrating all the data. It would also be a significant time-saver.

Create and edit content

According to the Artlist Trend Report 2024, 52% of video content creators are already incorporating AI into their workflow. However, I don't believe in AI replacing creative professionals anytime soon. I’d say that at this stage, it primarily produces content at the level of a junior manager.

Nevertheless, there are numerous areas where AI can be very beneficial. For example, many creators struggle with writer's block or feel lost when they need to come up with a cutting-edge and highly effective creative. AI can inspire and generate ideas as a starting point. AI is very accessible and very cost-effective. This makes content creation more budget-friendly, as even basic free versions of AI can offer some guidance.

However, most AI platforms today have significant limitations and require validation. You need to check their outputs carefully because results can be very different — some are just funny, while others are alarming.

Streamline your daily workflow

AI could help create spreadsheets, develop formulas, or even generate reports. Once again, AI is still in its early stages, so there are plenty of mistakes, and most of the data isn’t very accurate. While AI can provide guidance and explain some processes, you still need to proofread and verify everything carefully. But we're here to dream about the future.

Imagine you could simply say, "I need to design a spreadsheet for this advertising campaign. I'm stuck on the layout; can you help?" And it would create a template for you. Moreover, if you work with many managers or agencies, they are likely to send you information in various formats, and AI can help you standardize it.

I once had an experience where AI proved incredibly effective for a similar task. I was collaborating with different agencies and needed to create a stop list of influencers to ensure they wouldn't be approached with conflicting proposals. There were two main requirements: the list had to be dynamic, and it had to be easy to input new influencers and check if they were already on the list. AI helped me develop a script for the spreadsheet. As a result, this tool has been refined and it’s being widely used today, saving a lot of time.

Analyze Campaigns and Launches

AI could monitor and analyze engagement, click-through, and conversion rates, as well as other metrics, providing insights for future strategies.

Today, many businesses are flooded with data that includes sales figures, lead generation statistics, influencer performance, various marketing channels, methodologies, and timeframes.

If we imagine that the future is here and ChatGPT-6 is already available, you could just ask, "Hey, I'd like to know the impact of these content creators on our overall business performance," or "I want to determine the most and the least effective creators." In general, every brand employs at least one analyst dedicated to tasks like these, spending days or even weeks writing scripts, utilizing SQL, and extracting data. But with AI, you could just write a query, and you're good to go.

In my personal experience, AI helped me build regression analysis models to examine the correlation between sales and influencer marketing campaigns. It suggested certain tools, allowing me to discuss them with an analyst and implement them later on.

Detect Fraud

Currently, most fraud detection is handled manually by managers. For instance, if an influencer produces boring content but has a lot of likes, it can raise suspicion. Other red flags include frequent spelling mistakes, abnormal likes, or comments that don't match the post.

Managers have to manually verify each account, checking for consistent content or a detailed profile description. Sometimes, it's easy to spot fake accounts, like those with a single profile picture, a mismatched description, or a random link.

AI could automate this process using mathematical models. It would analyze subscription patterns, saving managers time and allowing them to focus on more important tasks.

Increase outreach

One of the most crucial parts of the influencer sales funnel is outreach. Your goal is to enhance the funnel's early stages with basic messages like, "Hi, I work with this amazing brand, and we have this fantastic product. We'd like to collaborate with you." Such tasks can be easily delegated to a bot, ideally programmed to simulate human interactions. After the initial contact, a manager can take over.

Certainly, AI’s conversion rate may not match that of your top-performing managers. Moreover, since you're not making personalized approaches to content creators, there's also a risk of missing out. For instance, if you simply send a generic message to an influencer saying, "Hey, let's collaborate," they might ignore it. However, if you had taken the time to mention something specific about their content, it would have been more personalized, increasing the chance of a response.

The risks of using AI

Some experts argue that AI lacks authenticity and emotional connection. But I disagree, and I believe you can customize it to have a specific tone of voice and even add some humor. However, the ethical implications are significantly more important.

The issue of ethics can arise when content creators are contacted by a bot and later feel deceived because they thought they were interacting with a real person. Let's face it: not everyone enjoys talking with a bot, especially when it pretends to be human.

Moreover, as I’ve already mentioned many times, current AI platforms are not flawless, and depending on them for analytical tasks or calculations can be risky. To make things worse, some errors may not be immediately obvious. For instance, while mistakes in math formulas can be identified and corrected, it’s not that easy to see errors in influencer selection. You might think you have received a comprehensive list while actually missing out on some valuable influencers.

Lastly, there are some concerns about data security. There's a risk that AI might start uploading data inputs from other users, possibly including your own. Avoid using confidential sales data, revenue figures, or other sensitive information. However, most influencer statistics, such as links, reach, likes, and comments, can generally be used without concern.

The Recipe for Success

How can everyone in influencer marketing use AI to boost their performance and make their work more effective right now instead of waiting for the perfect AI tools of the future?

1. Instead of 'Google it,' try 'AI it': Use AI as your search engine, especially if you have an unresolved issue. AI can guide you to some unconventional solutions.
2. Study all market cases: Understand AI's capabilities and gather case studies to anticipate future development. Technologies evolve at a rapid pace, and falling behind means having to play catch-up for a long time.
3. Engage with AI when you're bored: Sometimes, interacting with AI and asking random questions can be quite intriguing. Like, what was the first-ever social media post?
4. Exercise critical thinking: Since all AI platforms have their limitations, it's essential to validate their outputs.
5. Stay curious and open-minded: While AI isn't an immediate game-changer or a genius, it's a valuable tool that can significantly simplify and speed up many tasks.