Authenticity in Influencer Marketing in the AI Age

Influencer marketing has surged in popularity. What was once a small idea for companies to pursue is now one of the cornerstones of modern brand promotion. However, the marketing landscape is always changing, and it is always subject to technological changes. The most notable change in recent years is artificial intelligence – AI for short.

AI has quickly established itself as a presence in every sector. It is changing how people create and consume information and how businesses operate. As such, it is now also a large part of marketing too. Read on as we take a closer look at the role of AI in influencer marketing and why staying authentic is more important than ever!

How is AI shaping influencer marketing?

The new integration of AI into influencer marketing has unlocked a world of opportunities. AI tools can help with some of the toughest hurdles that marketing campaigns face. With the right tools, you can take control of branding, data, insights and more. However, when using AI, it’s important to remember that it’s not a replacement for human intelligence. It’s an extension of it.

Here are some of the ways that AI is used by companies to unlock influencer marketing:

1. Finding the perfect influencers

AI is a great tool for processing information. That can be useful when finding the perfect influencers for a brand. For example, AI can check the background of an influencer to see if they are the proper fit in terms of age, location, interests and previous brand partnerships. Or it can be used to search through datasets with certain criteria in mind.

2. Preventing influencer fraud

Brands investing their marketing budget in influencer marketing are plagued with the reality of influencer fraud which costs them billions of pounds. The influencer marketing sphere is fiercely competitive, and unscrupulous influencers resort to buying fake followers and adjusting engagement rates, leading to skewed ROI expectations for brands partnering with them. Even though your influencer marketing metrics show engagement and interest, there’s no actual sales conversion.

To prevent such fraud, AI intelligence tools are indispensable in scrutinising an influencer’s profile, detecting any indications of dubiousness. These tools delve beyond just the surface-level stats of followers and recent content to trace sudden spikes in followers, which could hint at purchased followers, and reveal problematic content that doesn’t fit your brand positioning. Additionally, AI helps stave off fraud by detecting and eliminating fake bot accounts, ensuring that only genuine people are targeted with your content.

3. Enhanced examination of influencer audiences

In the past, influencer marketing agencies heavily relied on Facebook’s Open Graph to swiftly identify target audiences and discover the perfect influencers. However, due to a scandal, Facebook has restricted this functionality, leaving marketers with incomplete and inconsistent data.

To overcome this challenge, AI has stepped into the realm of influencer marketing. Leveraging AI and machine learning, marketers can now assess whether an influencer’s followers align with their desired demographics. Influencer marketing platforms incorporate audience analysis features that effectively analyse an influencer’s follower base, providing insightful demographic information.

AI tools also assist in evaluating the level of engagement among an influencer’s followers. This means that a high number of followers does not always equate to substantial engagement and AI tools have the capability to unveil this disparity. As a result, brands now have the ability to select influencers based on their expertise and suitability for their target audience.

4. Aligning the appropriate content with the suitable influencer

In influencer marketing, granting influencers the autonomy to portray your brand is paramount. You’re entrusting them to showcase your brand in the best possible light. However, when you work with the wrong influencers, it can result in the opposite outcome.

Locating the perfect influencer is easier said than done. However, AI intelligence tools have simplified this task. These tools scan an influencer’s values and mission and determine how well they align with your brand. AI intelligence tools excavate an influencer’s affiliations with other brands and check their activities to minimise any potential risks to your brand image. Working with the right influencers ensures that you preserve your brand reputation, which you have worked hard to create.

AI intelligence tools also assist in selecting the best-suited content for each influencer. This saves time on A/B testing, and past data determines the winning content for every influencer. These tools analyse millions of topics daily, detecting the ones with real engagement. With this valuable information, you can partner with the influencer to build content that promises the highest engagement.

Additionally, AI intelligence tools can customise content for each influencer, depending on their followers, interests and prior interactions with the brand. This ensures that the content is pertinent and compelling to their followers, resulting in higher engagement rates.

5. Content creation

AI is frequently used by influencers and brands to simplify the creative process. From strong brand imagery to video scripts, there are many ways that AI can be used to streamline the process. AI has become increasingly advanced when it comes to creating artwork for example. The extent to which an influencer uses these tools will vary depending on the person, but the option is always there.

6. Evaluating campaign metrics and effectiveness

Managing multiple influencer campaigns can make it difficult to determine which ones are successful and which ones are not. However, AI technology in influencer marketing provides a solution by connecting essential metrics like brand mentions, website traffic and conversions directly to the specific initiatives of each influencer. This real-time analysis allows you to monitor whether influencers are meeting the agreed-upon goals with their followers.

AI tools not only measure the performance of influencer campaigns but also provide valuable insights on what is working effectively and what can be improved. This information helps optimise future campaigns for better results. Additionally, AI technology offers real-time insights into the performance of influencer campaigns, enabling businesses to make necessary adjustments on the go to improve outcomes.

Moreover, AI tools also track and evaluate competitors’ campaigns by setting competitive benchmarks and monitoring audience sentiments in real time. Considering that the majority of marketers engage in influencer marketing, it is highly likely that your competitors are doing the same. By comparing your campaigns to the competition, you can promptly launch new campaigns if you notice a decline in your share of voice. Furthermore, AI tools allow you to quickly identify successful strategies, enabling you to allocate more resources to these campaigns.

Staying authentic while using AI

In 2023, AI has captured the world’s attention, but here’s an interesting twist: Merriam-Webster has declared ‘authentic’ as its Word of the Year. In a year when AI is reshaping our world, what is and isn’t real has become more important than ever.

Authenticity plays a pivotal role in influencer marketing too. Today’s consumers place a growing emphasis on trustworthiness, credibility and genuineness when it comes to the influencers they choose to follow. Without this, establishing a meaningful connection an audience can be near impossible, leading to the downfall of any influencer marketing campaigns.

With authenticity being such an important part of influencer marketing, you might be wondering if AI could be detrimental. Indeed, you need to make sure that your use of AI doesn’t impact the authenticity of your influencer marketing. But how can you do this? What practices should you stay away from?

Use AI as a tool

You should always view AI as a tool that can be used to enhance your influencer marketing. This means that if it interrupts the authentic nature of this type of marketing, then it doesn’t serve you.

Long-term relationships

It can be vital to build long-term relationships with influencers. While AI tools can help you find the best influencers for your brand and aid in the creative process, creating a long-lasting relationship is more important. This is based on trust, shared values and a sense of authenticity that benefits both your brand and your chosen influencer.

Understand the importance of a human touch

While AI can greatly increase the efficiency of a campaign, a human touch is always irreplaceable. This human touch is always going to be more valuable with an audience, creating a long-lasting connection.

Blending AI and authenticity in the age of virtual influencers

While the human touch is incredibly important, there are exceptions to this rule. At the other end of the spectrum are virtual influencers, also known as CGI influencers. These are fictional computer-generated “people” who possess the physical characteristics, features and personas of real humans. These type of influencers are appearing more and more on social channels. This emerging trend is gaining significant traction in the influencer marketing industry, with new virtual influencers regularly appearing on platforms like Instagram.

Although virtual influencers do not exist in the traditional sense, they rely on the ingenuity of their creators, who remain anonymous. These creators, whether brands or individuals with a passion for technology, are responsible for developing and nurturing the Instagram profiles of these virtual figures, transforming them into globally recognised influencers.

The creators have full control over the appearance, style and behaviour of the virtual influencers. They decide their aesthetics, fashion choices, social interactions, relationships and collaborations on the platform. Notably, the creators retain the earnings generated from brand partnerships forged by their virtual influencers.

Moreover, the creators have the ability to place their virtual influencers in any desired setting. For instance, if they have designed an influencer with a penchant for travel, they can simply insert a high-resolution background image of a distant location, allowing the virtual influencer to “visit” and tick it off their bucket list.

Shudu, the world’s first digital supermodel, is a fantastic example of a virtual influencer. Created by digital artist and photographer Cameron-James Wilson in London, Shudu is inspired by the “Princess of South Africa” Barbie doll.

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Find the perfect influencers for your brand with Hoopla Marketing

Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, influencers are a growing cornerstone of marketing, encompassing a range of platforms. If you want to work with leading influencers, you’re in the right place. At Hoopla Marketing, we have a history of matching brands with the perfect influencers.

From conducting in-depth research to find the best candidates to helping you design a strategy that works for you, we’re here to help you make the most of influencer marketing. Want to find out more? Take a look at we partnered Riva Blu partner with 60 influencers to produce 279 pieces of content or helped Amazon Publishing launch and influencer campaign reach 7.8 million people with 238,000 engagements.