 "What part of Insta influencers' followers are fake? Answer will shock you")
Influencer marketing in India, valued at over Rs 1,800 crore, is grappling with a major challenge posed by fake follower fraud, affecting legitimate creators and brands alike.
An analysis by influencer marketing platform KlugKlug revealed that nearly two out of three (58.5 per cent) Instagram profiles in India have spurious or fake followers exceeding 60 per cent.
"This alarming trend is especially prevalent in the beauty and fashion industry, with influencers resorting to deceptive practices, potentially causing significant financial losses for brands investing in influencer marketing campaigns," Kalyan Kumar, co-founder of Klug Klug India, told Moneycontrol.
Out of the eight million audited profiles, only 2.48 million exhibited credible and high-quality followers, the platform stated.
India: A hub for fake followers
India currently leads in both supplying and buying fake followers, noted Kumar. "A lot of the fake follower farming is happening in India, then Brazil and Indonesia. Suppliers of fake followers are largely from Russia and Turkey," he said.
"A lot of the fake follower buying is happening in the Middle East as well. The UAE has 40-50 per cent incidence of fake followers among the top influencers, just like India. In Indonesia, 19 per cent of followers are dubious on Instagram, which is 59 per cent in India, as Indonesia sells more fake followers than it buys," he added.
The cost of buying fake followers can range from Rs 8 to Rs 50 per 1,000 followers on Instagram, Kumar highlighted.
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As the industry grows, more categories of influencers in India are buying fake followers. "Micro and nano influencers have started buying fake followers, as brands and agencies often choose influencers based on their following," Kumar said.
Influencers are categorised into five types based on their social media following. Nano influencers are those with 100 to 10,000 followers, while micro influencers command a following of 10,000 to 100,000. Macro and mega influencers have a following of 100,000 to 1 million and over 1 million, respectively.
Sahil Chopra, founder and CEO of iCubesWire, an ad tech platform, highlighted the challenges for brands in identifying genuine influencers due to the prevalence of fake followers.
"In India, fake followers and bots are widespread, making it challenging for brands to identify and partner with truly influential content creators for their influencer marketing campaigns. This situation adds extra complexity and cost to the process," Chopra said.
According to Kumar, brands lose 30-50 per cent of their investment on every campaign due to fake followers. He cited an example where out of 11,000 female profiles tagging the brand Sugar Cosmetics, only 3,000 had a credible following.
If today a brand picks 100 influencers, at least 30 of them are not going to be worth their money," Kumar said.
Out of India's Rs 1,800 crore influencer marketing industry, at least 25 per cent, which amounts to over Rs 400 crore, has been wasted, he added.
"For brands, it's akin to investing in gold and receiving less than the expected value, as they allocate resources to partnerships that promise extensive reach but lack genuine engagement," said Ramya Ramachandran, CEO & Founder of Whoppl, an influencer marketing platform.
The rise of fake followers
The rise of influencer marketing has led to an increase in influencers who invest in followers and fake bots to rapidly grow their audience, resulting in lower engagement rates. This trend complicates efforts to accurately measure the true impact and return on investment (ROI) of influencer campaigns.
While fake followers are being purchased by influencers of all types and sizes, a smaller fraction of larger influencers also engage in "engagement buying," where they buy comments and likes.
"Big creators who monetise their content can afford to purchase likes and comments, as these metrics must be consistently high for each post, unlike with fake followers," said Kumar, adding, "Moreover, they do this to demonstrate higher engagement to brands. Many brands we've encountered are unaware that influencers can buy fake likes and comments."
Legitimate influencers are also facing challenges due to this trend. "Despite many legitimate creators being available, brands tend to work with the top 500 creators who are often overused. This poses a challenge for new creators trying to enter the industry," said Kumar.
"Why should an influencer with one million followers, 70 per cent of whom are fake, be preferred over a creator with half a million legitimate followers?" he asked.
Increased vigilance among brands and agencies
Despite the prevalence of fake followers plaguing the influencer industry, brands and influencer marketing agencies are now more vigilant, keeping an eye out for certain red flags.
Shivam Agarwal, co-founder of Kromium, an influencer marketing firm, highlighted the importance of engagement rates: "If someone has 100,000 followers but doesn't receive even 10,000 views, we know they are not worth investing in. We follow specific benchmarking practices to ensure we avoid collaborating with influencers who have a high number of fake followers. For example, we do not work with creators below a 2-3 per cent engagement rate. Analysing comments also helps us gauge the genuineness of their following."
Viraj Sheth, co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform Monk Entertainment, noted that agencies are adept at identifying profiles with bot followers. He mentioned that while celebrities with over 10 million followers may have a high percentage of fake followers, the impact is minimal due to their large following.
"These accounts (big influencer accounts) have 100,000-200,000 likes on average, and because of this, brands don't evaluate how many fake followers potentially are there and whether or not they should be paying the amount they are. What they (brands) are evaluating is how many likes and comments they are getting, on average," he added.
Kumar expects the prevalence of fake followers among bigger influencers to decrease, attributing this change to heightened awareness among brands.
He added, "Awareness has increased, and today, even audiences can spot a bot. If a micro-creator with 20,000 followers purchases 50,000 bots, the ratio will be off, and the creator will face scrutiny. This growing awareness among brands and audiences is beneficial for the influencer marketing ecosystem."