Instagram is the leading platform in the booming influencer marketing industry, but a recent report suggests that TikTok offers brands the most bang for their buck. In a survey of sponsored posts that spanned Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and several other platforms, CreatorIQ found that TikTok’s branded content is delivering higher engagement rates than its rivals.
To compile the report, CreatorIQ and Tribe Dynamics (which the former firm acquired in 2021) used a mix of metrics to measure sponsored posts. The benchmarks varied by platform; on TikTok, for example, CreatorIQ added up each post’s likes, comments, shares, and saves before dividing by total views to determine the engagement rate. For some formats, such as Instagram’s Stories and Reels, “estimated impressions” factor into the equation.
Measuring sponsored posts across platforms is a tricky science, but CreatorIQ’s findings are crystal clear. “Megainfluencers” with at least one million followers on Instagram achieved an average engagement rate of .23%. YouTube’s megainfluencers brought that figure up to 1.6%. On TikTok, the average megainfluencer engagement rate was more than three times as high as on YouTube, reaching 5.2%.
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TikTok’s engaging sponsored posts have earned it a growing share of the influencer marketing pie. “For brand and creator partnerships, we’re seeing an influx of short-form video being used, which typically has higher engagement rates and a higher viral coefficient,” said CreatorIQ SVP of Strategy Brit Starr. “This short-form video trend obviously started on TikTok, but we’re now seeing this migrate over to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts as well.”
Instagram and YouTube may be struggling to keep up with TikTok’s engagement rates, but they have their own advantages in the branded content market. Instagram’s deep reach among young consumers supports its influencer marketing business. YouTube, meanwhile, boasts strong monetization and a solid base of creators. CreatorIQ found that YouTube’s nanoinfluencers (under 10,000 followers) and microinfluencers (10,000-100,000 followers) posted stronger engagement rates than equivalent TikTok accounts.
Microinfluencer-focused strategies have gained favor among many influencer marketers, but TikTok seems to be bucking that trend. Its megainfluencers offer better engagement rates than its microinfluencers, according to the CreatorIQ data. For all the other platforms measured in the report, engagement goes down as follower count goes up.
CreatorIQ is known for dispensing insights informed by its work in the creator economy. The influencer marketing firm has been supported by multiple fundraising rounds, including a $24 million Series C in 2020 and a $40 million Series D in 2021.
