Mega vs. Micro-Influencers with Brad Wirz Pt. 1 (S1-E009-01)

Written by PortMA


We continue our discussion with Brad Wirz, cofounder of Encore Worldwide, about the rise of social media in event marketing. With a quantifiable social reach, mega and micro-influencers play an important role. Which option should you go with between the two when designing a new campaign? We discuss why one type of influencer is better than the other. The following are the insights Brad shared with us.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Comparing Influencers

Micro-influencers are the most common type of influencers on social media. These are people whose followers are between 5,000 and 100,000. As compared to mega influencers, these influencers have a small number of followers. Fortunately, these influencers are more specialized, easier to reach, relatively flexible, and are more trusted by their loyal and relevant audiences.

On the other hand, mega influencers are people who have more than a million followers. They include celebrities or internet personalities who have become famous in recent years. If mass brand awareness is your objective, these are the influencers that you want to work with. The downside is the majority of mega influencers charge more and do not have a close relationship with their followers. Therefore, they’re considered to be less trustworthy as compared to their counterparts with fewer, but more engaged followers.

(You can listen to the full episode of the podcast below.)

Impact of Micro-Influencers

Interestingly, influencers who have fewer followers have a higher level of engagement with their followers than the level of engagement for mega influencers. The reason behind this is that, since micro-influencers are relatively new, they tend to put in extra effort to develop high-quality content. Depending on the niche audience of the influencer, you should expect a greater conversion rate and return-on-investment from the marketing campaigns of your influencer.

Another advantage of using micro-influencers is that they’re inexpensive when it comes to sponsored content from your brand or company. That said, it is ridiculous to waste money sponsoring mega influencers when a small percentage of their followers are engaging with them.

Diversity Is Key

Small and medium-sized influencers who have a few thousand or so followers are the type of sweet spot, where you can get some scale but higher levels of engagement.

To obtain the best results, it’s best to use several micro-influencers to diversify your audience. For instance, employing a micro-influencer from country X, country Y, and country Z will generate more referral traffic from those regions within an affordable budget.

It Pays To Use Micro-Influencers

Many people spend a fortune on mega influencers thinking that they will market their brand to the largest audience. Unfortunately, the majority of these types of influencers do not have a high level of engagement with their audience, and so your product could not be effectively marketed.

However, the micro-influencers who have a few thousand followers are the ones who have a significant engagement level with their followers. Marketing with these types of followers is advantageous because you will spend less and your brand will reach more people.

In our next post, we will continue our discussion with Brad Wirz, dissecting the role of social media in event marketing and the impact of influencers. For more information on Encore Worldwide visit their website at

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