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Social media influencer marketing in the Philippines

An analysis of social media influencer marketing in the Philippines

Influencer marketing continues its steady growth in the Philippines, and taking steps towards making an impact on businesses. At the same time, influencer marketing is becoming a key part of marketing strategies in the Philippines, with objective-based influencer marketing trending.

After looking at influencer marketing in Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand, we now take a look at the influencer marketing industry in the Philippines. According to We Are Social and Hootsuite, there were 73 million internet users (at 67% penetration rate) in the Philippines at the start of 2020, and an equal amount of internet users are also active social media users (73 million).

internet users, social media users and population size in the Philippines

This represents an opportunity for marketers to leverage on social influencers to drive various marketing objectives - and the use of social media is still growing! The same report pegged year-on-year growth of social media at 8.6% (or a whopping 5.8 million new users!).

That growth stat is particularly interesting when summarizing how influencer marketing in the Philippines stacks up. With an increasing number of people in the Philippines starting on social media, there is a big opportunity for not just brands but influencers too, in engaging with users in their “discovery” phase on a new medium.

With this increasing number of active social media users, the most used social media channels in the Philippines include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. With Facebook and YouTube almost on par with 96% and 95% of internet population penetration rates respectively.

Social media users on most-used social media platforms in the Philippines

How are marketers in the Philippines using influencer marketing?
Leveraging on data from the CastingAsia platform, FMCG, automobile, e-commerce, gadgets and apps have emerged as the top industries that have benefited from influencer marketing in the Philippines.

There has also been an underlying trend over the past six months in leveraging large numbers of nano-influencers and micro-influencers for more action-based influencer marketing campaigns, and macro-influencers for more awareness-based campaigns.

Additionally, Instagram is the platform of choice for social media influencer marketing campaigns, with YouTube coming in as second-most used platform, especially for long-form and experiential content.

Looking at the other side of the equation
The most popular categories for social influencers, across all categorizations of influencers, are the fashion, arts & entertainment, beauty, travel, and food & drink categories, and coincidentally, these are also the top categories of influencers with the highest engagement rates.

Social media influencer marketing categories in the Philippines, including home-based content

At the same time, the fastest-growing social influencer content categories in the Philippines for the past six months are fitness, comedy, and games & gadgets, which also reflects the shift towards home-based content production.

In terms of engagement rates for social media influencers in the Philippines, there are clear distinctions between nano-influencers, micro-influencers and macro-influencers:
Nano-influencers (1k-10k followers): 4% to 10%
Micro-influencers (10k-100k followers): 0.5% to 9%
Macro-influencers (100k-1m followers): 0.3% to 4%

A deeper dive into our data shows that the follower-to-engagement rate sweet spot is for influencers in the 5,000 to 30,000 follower range, and this holds true especially on Instagram.

Although engagement rates might be generally lower for macro-influencers, they still provide a much higher scale of influence compared to other influencer categories, and also bring a greater sense of esteem to brands.

Social influencer creating content

However, deeper research into campaigns run through CastingAsia also shows that influencers that have the most impact with their followers are those who have been consistently producing similar types of quality content, or are able to effectively convey impactful stories to their followers.

This means that apart from identifying influencers based on their follower or engagement count, it’s important to have other types of data like post history, content resonance, follower sentiment, and follower demographics, to truly match a brand and an influencer for maximum impact.

Another key trend that we’re noticing in the Philippines is in celebrities starting to produce more content on social media, in a bid to better connect with fans. This doesn’t just include content on Instagram, but also long-form content on YouTube and other platforms. These instantly-recognizable personalities can also provide your brand with additional acclaim, whilst reaching a wide audience.

Tips from our social media influencer marketing experts in the Philippines
Based on insights from our local team of experts in the Philippines, influencer marketing is becoming a popular tool for marketers, a core part of marketing strategies, and is increasingly being recognized as a new tactic for digital marketing and branding in order to reach a wider audience and build an avid fan base for a brand. There is also a much-needed emphasis on delivering high-quality content, and brands that are able to carry this out are largely more noticeable.

Content posted by good influencers and content creators in the Philippines needs to be engaging and interactive, but also needs to be fresh, natural, and fitting of the influencer in order to drive maximum impact on audiences. When working with brands, influencer-generated content has to be shareable and encompasses a call-to-action to reach the widest possible target audience and deliver positive results.

Create social media content that is shareable to drive positive results

Two factors affecting the influencer marketing industry in the Philippines in delivering results are the availability of valid data and influencer saturation.

It is crucial to utilize validated data to ensure the authenticity of a social media account or influencer. This can be something as simple as understanding follower and engagement trends over time. Alternatively, platforms like CastingAsia can identify and alert users to inauthentic or fraudulent influencer accounts.

As for the saturation of social media influencers, it is important that there is a constant growth of influencers across various categories, with each influencer building their own niche in their specific category - leading to an overall boost to not just the growth of influencer marketing, but also to content on social media.

Consequently, brands that invest greatly in creating quality content will have an edge over the rest. For brands that are starting to implement influencer marketing into an existing marketing mix or marketing strategy, a good starting point is in finding synergy between available data, content, and influencer credibility to determine influencer selection. Remember, influencer marketing is not a one-off tactic, but more of a long-term marketing strategy.

Create social media content that is shareable to drive positive results

Besides that, it’s important for brands to set clear objectives and goals before running any marketing campaign, including when tapping into social media influencer marketing. This is to ensure that there is ample depth to a brand’s target audience through influencer marketing, and from there, a brand can plan and optimize an influencer marketing budget based on the influencer and followers that a brand is tapping into.

AnyMind Group’s offerings in the Philippines

At AnyMind Group, we’ve built out a comprehensive array of offerings for marketers in the Philippines looking to reach audiences locally, or looking at expanding into overseas markets.

The CastingAsia platform enables marketers to discover, activate, manage, track and attribute influencer marketing activities across all major social media platforms, and a team of local experts to provide marketers with best practices and effective strategies for influencer marketing in the Philippines.

The CastingAsia Creators Network is an Asia-wide influencer network that was launched by AnyMind Group, and equips influencers with resources and knowledge, preparing them for further growth. In the Philippines, this network spans local actors, musicians, content creators, social influencers and so much more.

At the same time, AnyMind Group’s various marketing tech brands also provide marketers with a complete suite of tools and services for in-app and browser-based advertising, including the AdAsia Premium Marketplace, the POKKT platform, and more.

Round-ups from other markets
Social media influencer marketing in Indonesia
Social media influencer marketing in Japan
Social media influencer marketing in Vietnam
Social media influencer marketing in Thailand
Social media influencer marketing in Singapore
Social media influencer marketing in Hong Kong

Philippines influencer marketing content hub

Influencer verticals

Overview of influencer marketing in the Philippines - Download here

If you’re keen to learn more or find out how you can run effective influencer marketing in the Philippines or globally, please feel free to reach out to us through the form below.

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