Choosing the right channels is essential to the success of every Influencer Marketing campaign. With millions and millions of influencers out there, it should be absolutely no problem finding the perfect one, right?
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.
Specific Criteria
Assume that one wants to do an Influencer Marketing campaign for a mobile shooter game on English speaking YouTube channels. The advertisement should be on channels that are already showcasing games similar to the game and that have a reasonable size (at least 10k views per video).
This is a pretty standard inquiry for an Influencer Marketing agency like GameInfluencer. However, even with our database of 6 million influencers, those very basic metrics will already take you down to roughly 20 results.
If you now add other criteria, like engagement rate and past campaign performance, which are essential for the success of any Influencer Marketing campaign, it´s likely that you end up finding only very few suitable channels.
Scalability of Influencer Marketing
Does that mean that Influencer Marketing is not scalable? The short answer is no, but it´s very important to keep some things in mind:
First of all, the assumption that when a channel that is already showcasing games similar to your game is always a good pick, is simply wrong. Those channels are a safe pick and should be a staple basis for most Influencer Marketing campaigns. However, many of the most successful Influencer Marketing cases have been on channels that don´t seem like a perfect fit at first glance. If you know what content works on specific channels and if you understand what the viewers are looking for, things can go way beyond simple Let´s Plays on gaming channels. You can do anything from integrations, community contests, cross-promotion on thematically completely different channels, using media not native to the gaming sector, like Instagram Stories or Snapchat posts.
That also means that you must broaden your view of Influencer Marketing for games. It is not enough to just look at gaming channels, but you should ideally have every influencer and every Social Media channel in mind when planning your marketing campaign. This is the only way that you will be able to find the perfect influencer that delivers your KPIs on point.