The influencer marketing industry is evolving each year. While macro and mega influencers once dominated the landscape due to their extensive reach on platforms like Instagram or YouTube, brands are increasingly shifting towards partnerships with nano and micro influencers, prioritizing their authenticity and credibility. As a result, micro and nano influencers have become one of the biggest trends to watch in influencer marketing this year.
So, whether you're just getting started with influencer marketing on a limited budget or aiming to target a very specific niche, you may be considering reaching out to nano or micro influencers.
But what exactly are nano and micro influencers, and how do they differ? You may probably know that the primary difference lies in their follower count. Micro-influencers have a larger audience, which allows them to provide broader reach and increased brand awareness. On the other hand, nano-influencers typically have a smaller, but more loyal, audience, leading to higher engagement.
In this article, we'll dive into influencer type segmentation, focusing specifically on these two categories. We'll explore the key differences, pros, and cons of both, helping you determine which option aligns best with your brand's goals.
We typically segment influencers, among other factors, based on their size, which is determined by their number of followers.
Influencer classification according to size can be as follows:
All influencer types offer unique benefits for brands. Choosing the right ones for your campaign depends on your goals, target audience, and budget, among other factors. Explore first the main differences between micro and macro influencers—representing smaller versus larger influencers—to gain a foundational understanding of these two popular classifications.
Nano influencers are “small influencers” with audiences ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. While this may seem like a small number, they are often chosen for brand partnerships due to the specific benefits they can offer compared to larger accounts.
In fact, a recent research from Influencer Marketing Hub shows that 63% of marketers prefer working with nano-influencers. That represents a 7% growth from 2023, as brands increasingly focus on that category.
A nano influencer’s social media account may not be entirely focused on one theme or topic. Instead, their expertise might blend with their lifestyle, as they often use the account to share personal aspects of their lives. As a result, their feed may appear less refined.
For example, micro-influencer @justbeingkatherine primarily focuses on Home Decor content, but she also shares posts about topics like Maternity, Faith, and Fashion. This versatility has allowed her to collaborate with brands such as Walmart and other clothing and kids' brands, which she promotes on her Amazon store.
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Micro-influencers are also categorized as small influencers within the broader influencer segmentation, but their communities are larger than those of nano-influencers, typically ranging from 10k to 100k followers. This difference in follower count brings some variations between them.
Micro-influencers tend to focus their content on a specific area of interest, positioning themselves as experts in that niche. For example, micro-influencer @hungry_hungry_hanley, with 37K followers, is a foodie influencer who shares content about food and restaurants across Washington, D.C., where she is based.
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Nano and Micro influencers have some benefits in common, compared to macro-influencers, or larger accounts in general.
Small accounts with fewer followers can connect more deeply and genuinely with their audience. Their content is perceived as authentic, often resulting in higher engagement since the sponsored content may seem more organic.
While nano and micro influencers have a smaller audience compared to other influencer types, this audience can be extremely engaged and loyal. Their followers may see them as experts in their field and therefore trust their recommendations.
This gives them greater power to influence opinions and behavior, which is one of the main objectives we seek when working with influencers—to leverage their powerful voices to introduce our products and brand.
Therefore, these types of influencers can typically achieve higher engagement rates. Influencer marketing statistics in 2024 show that micro-influencers on Instagram achieve engagement rates that are up to seven times higher than those of mega-influencers or celebrities.
Nano-influencers, in particular, see engagement rates averaging 4.39%. This makes them quite effective for brand partnerships, in spite of their limited reach.
You can use our free Instagram engagement rate calculator to determine a micro or nano influencer’s engagement rate and access other valuable analytics.
An influencer’s credibility largely depends on the composition of their audience, specifically how many of their followers are real people versus fake followers or bots.
Both nano and micro influencers, in general can typically have fewer fake followers, resulting in a smaller but more active audience.
In contrast, macro or mega influencers tend to have a higher number of fake followers who don't interact with their content and merely inflate their follower count. This can also reduce their engagement rate, as a portion of their followers don’t interact with their posts.
A smaller audience typically means that followers are concentrated within a specific niche, whether by demographics or interests. On the other hand, macro influencers often have a wide range of followers across different categories, age groups, and locations.
For example, a retail clothing brand with a store in a small town might benefit from working with nano or even micro influencers in that town to target a local community.
Danielle Wiley explains this at Forbes: “By capitalizing on geo-targeted influencer campaigns, brands can connect with specific communities through local influencers, who have a deep understanding of regional preferences and trends”.
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Similarly, a brand offering a niche product, such as temporary eyebrows for people with alopecia, might find it helpful to partner with an influencer who personally experiences this and shares their journey on social media.
Another example could be a skincare brand that sells products to combat signs of aging while it also has a specific line for acne treatment.
In this case, the brand might choose to work with a mix of larger influencers who share diverse content about lifestyle, fashion, or beauty. However, partnering with a nano or micro influencer who shares mostly about their acne journey could be particularly beneficial to promote that specific line or collection.
Even if they only have 5 to 50k followers, and their reach isn’t extensive, they can guarantee access to an audience interested in the topic and likely to find the products beneficial.
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Nano and Micro influencers are much cheaper than macro or mega-influencers. Typically, the larger the account (meaning their audience size), the more expensive to work with.
Since they haven't yet built a large community, they are most probably willing to collaborate with brands in exchange for just gifting or affiliate deals, rather than charging a fixed fee. This makes them an excellent option for brands with limited budgets for influencer marketing.
How much can nano and micro-influencers charge per post? This depends on several factors such as follower count (for example, rates can differ significantly between two micro-influencers with 20K versus 90K followers), engagement rate, industry or niche, and the platform they are most active on, as costs vary across social media channels. Let’s take a general look at rates for both categories on each platform:
Based on these averages, micro-influencer rates are approximately 1000%-1500% higher than nano-influencer rates across platforms, depending on the platform and content type.
Find more about Influencer Pricing in 2024 on our Comprehensive Guide, such as Influencer Rates by Type and Platforms.
Some of the disadvantages of working with the smaller groups of influencers include:
The content will reach a relatively small community compared to mega or macro-influencers, who can access larger and more diverse audiences.
Metrics such as the number of impressions and top-of-funnel indicators like awareness may therefore be lower or less impressive when working with smaller accounts.
This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on your campaign goals, target audience, and the product you are promoting. Whether the product is related to a broad industry or a more specific niche will determine how beneficial this characteristic is for your campaign.
Nano and micro influencers are not public figures with significant recognition or a well-established reputation. As a result, their recommendations might not carry as much weight as those from macro-influencers.
Smaller influencers typically do not have managers or talent agents to assist with their brand partnerships. Consequently, they handle communication and content production themselves, which can sometimes lead to less professional quality in both content and communication throughout the campaign.
Additionally, to achieve the same reach as macro-influencers, you may need to work with several nano or micro influencers simultaneously. The more influencers you manage, the more work is required on your end.
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Even though, in general terms, the pros and cons of nano and micro-influencers can be grouped together, there are some distinctions we can make between them regarding each of these aspects.
Like nano-influencers, micro-influencers create genuine and deep connections with their audiences, making their content feel more authentic and organic compared to macro-influencers or larger accounts. They are also perceived by their followers as experts in a specific category or topic.
However, unlike nano-influencers, micro-influencers have a much larger audience, sometimes reaching up to 100k followers. This broader reach provides brands with a significantly wider audience, leading to a higher number of impressions and accounts reached. As a result, brands can leverage the authenticity of micro-influencers, one of their main benefits, while also targeting a much wider audience.
Therefore, if you wish to work with small influencers mainly due to authenticity and their capacity to connect with their audiences in a relatable way, but at the same time, you wish to try to increase brand awareness, micro-influencers might be a better option. Brands seeking for both conversion and visibility or wide social media exposure tend to partner with micro-influencers.
Both nano and micro-influencers tend to have high engagement rates, as their communities are quite loyal to them.
However, according to Aspire’s benchmark report, nano-influencers get the highest engagement across all platforms, with an average engagement rate of 4.4%, while the average ER may be a little bit lower for micro-influencers, ranging from 2 to 3%.
For instance, Fashion nano-influencer @styledbyportia partners with several clothing brands for affiliate commission deals, which are listed in her bio. Although her reach is relatively small (2.3K followers), she receives over 500 engagements per post, resulting in an engagement rate of over 23%, demonstrating significant interaction with her content.
Fake followers are inactive or fake social media accounts, such as bots, that are usually created to mass-follow other social media profiles for money. This is a growing business in social media marketing and a risk for brands that can invest in influencers for their large audiences when these could be mostly unreal people.
It is normal that all accounts have some fake followers, but the average amount of fake followers is around 20 to 25%. You can use our Free Fake Follower Scanner Tool to check the amount of fake followers an influencer has.
Since micro-influencers have more followers, they tend to have a larger amount of fake followers than nano-influencers, which can reduce their engagement rate and just inflate their follower count.
This also impacts influencer’s credibility, as this metric analyzes the composition of the influencer’s audience based on how many of their followers are real people, suspicious accounts or fake followers.
Knowing this is crucial to make sure that you'll be reaching real accounts through the influencer which may interact with your content, and therefore to avoid wasting your budget.
For example, let's compare a micro-influencer and a macro-influencer in the Healthy Lifestyle category based on credibility, fake followers, and engagement.The micro-influencer @macros_with_megs has 42K followers, with 32% fake followers (60% credibility), which isn't bad but results in an average engagement rate of 1.31%.
On the other hand, the nano-influencer @clubnourished has a very low percentage of fake followers—10.4%—resulting in high credibility (87%) and a significantly higher engagement rate of 12%.
Despite both micro and nano influencers being the most affordable groups within the influencer categorization, nano influencers are by far the cheapest to work with.
Since they have significantly fewer followers, they are often willing to collaborate with brands in exchange for free products (gifting). In some cases, they may ask for an affiliate commission, but it's rare for them to request fixed payments. Or if they do, these will be lower than the fees requested by micro-influencers. This will also vary across social media platforms, but a fixed fee for a nano influencer can be lower than $200.
Micro influencers, on the other hand, particularly those with more than 50k followers, tend to have higher demands, such as affiliate commissions or payments ranging from $50 to $1,000 per post.
Therefore, if you have a very limited budget for influencers or wish to start at a slower pace, you might consider working with several nano-influencers through gifting campaigns to see how it goes.
However, micro-influencers costs are still low compared to mid-tier influencers. This means that both types of influencers are cost-effective overall.
Additionally, based on our experience, both nano and micro influencers are generally open to affiliate partnerships, which means they may agree to collaborate without fixed payments. However, the success of securing influencers for affiliate deals largely depends on your negotiation skills.
How you communicate and negotiate with influencers will significantly impact your ability to secure effective deals. If you’re not yet experienced in this area, you can use our free negotiation templates and tailor them to your campaign.
Also, keep in mind that the cost of these partnerships can vary depending on the deliverables and platform. For instance, YouTube is typically more expensive than Instagram.
Measuring and maximizing ROI in influencer marketing is crucial for all marketers, as it helps in making data-driven decisions to achieve the highest possible return on investment.
ROI (Return on Investment) is a key metric that assesses the profitability and effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns by comparing the overall revenue generated to the costs incurred.
There are various factors that impact ROI, such as: increased brand awareness, engagement rate, sales and the cost of the influencer, meaning how much they charge for the collaboration.
Negotiating better deals with reduced rates, which happens mostly with nano-influencers, can significantly boost your ROI. However, this also heavily depends on the influencer's performance, particularly the engagement they generate and the conversions they drive.
Recent research highlights that while both nano and micro-influencers deliver strong ROI, nano-influencers usually result in a higher ROI. This is due to several reasons:
On the other hand, micro-influencers generally offer a balance between engagement and broader reach. While their engagement rates might be slightly lower than those of nano-influencers, they still maintain authenticity while reaching a larger audience. This makes them valuable for campaigns looking to achieve both engagement and visibility. In terms of ROI, micro-influencers often deliver good results, although at a slightly higher cost.
Overall, while nano-influencers can offer a higher ROI in terms of engagement and conversion, choosing between nano- and micro-influencers largely depends on your campaign’s goals: if you wish to focus on engagement and authenticity, nano-influencers are the way to go. However, if you need a combination of reach and interaction, micro-influencers may be the better option.
Nano influencers typically have less refined feeds and more raw, unpolished content, which comes across as more spontaneous and less commercial.
As a result, their sponsored posts often appear more organic and can be perceived as user-generated content (UGC). This authenticity helps build trust, as their followers view the promotional content as a genuine experience or suggestion.
In addition, their bio descriptions are typically more vague or less defined, often lacking links to websites, storefronts, or other affiliate deals and brand partnerships. This can make their followers feel closer to them, as they don't come across as public figures or as if they're trying to sell something.
While this authenticity can indeed enhance trust, it can also be a disadvantage for brands working with nano influencers, as they may be less experienced with sponsored posts and less knowledgeable about what type of content performs well with platform algorithms.
For example, @rachel___house is a yoga trainer and coach who shares inspiring content about yoga alongside glimpses of her personal life. While the quality of her content may appear somewhat raw and less polished, created with minimal production, this authenticity is well-received by her audience. As a result, she enjoys an engagement rate of nearly 10%.
Micro-influencers generally have more experience and have collaborated extensively with brands, giving them a deeper understanding of social media marketing.
As a result, their posts and overall feed tend to look more professional and organized. They often engage in more strategic planning for content creation and posting. Their content is usually of higher quality and is often focused on one or two areas of interest that align with their personal lives, enhancing engagement with their audience.
Consequently, micro-influencers can provide brands with high-quality UGC that can be repurposed for the brand’s own social media channels.
For instance, @thebalancedwhisk (55K followers) is a food blogger who primarily shares healthy sweets and easy recipes, along with content about her fitness journey and motherhood.
Her feed is visually appealing, and her recipe videos are both professional and engaging. Additionally, her captions are concise yet engaging, utilizing hashtags, links, and other resources to connect with her audience.
Both micro and macro influencers, compared to larger accounts, are generally more flexible and receptive to feedback and brand demands. Because they engage with fewer brands and are still growing their businesses, they often put more effort into content creation and are willing to adjust to meet brand expectations.
However, nano-influencers tend to be even more open to collaboration. They usually have more time to dedicate to brand partnerships and have significant potential for growth alongside the brand, which can lead to long-term relationships. This can be very cost-effective, as partnering with a rising star who remains loyal can benefit both parties as the influencer's audience grows.
On the downside, nano-influencers may have less experience with sponsored posts, which means brands might need to invest additional time in guiding them on aspects such as legal considerations, administrative matters and content guidelines.
Additionally, one advantage of working with influencers is the potential for whitelisting. This involves promoting content created by influencers directly through their social media handles rather than through the brand's account, making the content appear more organic and potentially increasing engagement.
To enable whitelisting, influencers must grant brands access to their accounts, which requires setting up a Meta Business Manager, a Facebook page, and a professional Instagram account.
Nano-influencers may not have these setups, making the process more complicated. While micro-influencers might also sometimes lack these setups, they are somewhat more likely to have them, especially as their follower count increases.
If you’ve decided to work with either nano or micro influencers, the next step is finding the right ones for your brand. While you can search manually through your social media followers or use keywords on platform search functions, the easiest, most time-efficient, and effective method is to use an influencer search tool.
Several influencer management software options, such as Influencer Hero, offer extensive databases of influencers. These tools allow you to search for micro and nano influencers (as well as every other type) using advanced filters like audience demographics, engagement rates, keywords or topics, lookalikes, and more. This approach not only provides you with a comprehensive list of potential influencers based on your criteria but also offers detailed analytics, which can be crucial for vetting them.
You can also find listicles of the top 10 micro and nano influencers across various categories, such as Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle, as well as platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, in Influencer Hero’s Influencer Discovery section.
As we’ve seen, both nano and micro influencers offer unique benefits for brands and have distinct qualities that make them suitable for different times or types of campaigns.
In general, both types of influencers provide authenticity and a genuine connection with their audiences, unlike larger influencers who may frequently feature ads on their feeds. This often results in higher engagement rates and greater credibility, with loyal audiences actively interacting with their content.
The primary difference between nano and micro influencers is their follower count. Macro influencers have significantly more followers, offering brands a broader reach. Therefore, brands aiming for brand awareness might prioritize micro over nano influencers.
However, it’s important to understand that selecting the right influencers for your campaign also depends on other key factors, such as your campaign objectives, target audience (which varies based on your product or service), and budget. Nano influencers, for example, are generally more affordable than micro influencers.
Considering all these factors will help you choose the right influencers or the optimal combination of influencer types. Working with a mix of influencers can help achieve various goals, such as increased engagement and enhanced brand awareness, simultaneously.
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