The Inflated Influencer - Part 1: How fake followers deceive brands and consumers

A startling revelation from the influencer marketing platform KlugKlug the other day uncovers a sobering reality: nearly two-thirds of Instagram profiles in India are plagued by over 60 per cent fake or spurious followers. This eye-opening discovery casts a shadow over the authenticity and trustworthiness of social media in an age where follower counts often equate to influence and income. As brands and consumers struggle to navigate this intricate landscape, the integrity of online personas is under intense scrutiny like never before. Welcome to the deceptive world of manufactured popularity, where the pursuit of digital fame may be far more fabricated than we ever imagined!

And fake follower farming is widespread, with India being the largest supplier and buyer. This trend, particularly prevalent in beauty and fashion, leads to significant financial losses for brands. The cost of buying fake followers ranges from Rs 8 to Rs 50 per 1,000 followers. Brands lose 30-50% of their investment due to fake followers, impacting the Rs 1,800 crore industry. Legitimate influencers also suffer as brands prefer working with top creators, hindering new talent. Agencies and brands use engagement rates and comments to spot fake followers, while Instagram improves spam detection. Despite challenges, awareness among brands and audiences is growing, promising a more transparent influencer marketing ecosystem.

India is a fertile ground for fake engagement in influencer marketing. Certain influencers and agencies boost engagement artificially, by means of purchasing fake followers and likes, engaging in Instagram ‘podding’, and employing call center-like structures to generate engagement. In this two-part series, Adgully seeks to find out the challenges faced by brands in combating fake engagement and the ways to deal with the same.

The factory of fakes!

The prevalence of fake influencers underscores the need for a more transparent and accountable influencer marketing.

Fake influencers can severely impact a brand’s reputation and marketing ROI. To effectively deal with this issue, brands should implement a multi-faceted approach.

As the popularity of influencer marketing has surged, so too has the incentive for certain individuals to seek shortcuts or exploit loopholes in pursuit of greater visibility and opportunities for collaboration, says Sreeram Reddy Vanga, CEO & Co-Founder, Kofluence.

“According to a study conducted by Statista, more than 49% of influencers globally are involved in follower fraud. These influencers resort to using bots and fake followers to create an illusion of popularity. With the inflated engagement and audience generated by these bots, it has become increasingly difficult for marketers to find the right social match, as it is challenging to identify the appropriate influencer manually. It is essential for brands to connect with authentic and reliable content creators, a goal that we accomplish at Kofluence through AI-powered matchmaking. Our approach involves analyzing extensive data to determine brand and influencer affinity, identifying any irregularities in influencer profiles that may signal fraudulent behaviour. Additionally, influencer transparency is pivotal in the influencer marketing ecosystem, as it ensures audiences have comprehensive information about sponsored content. This transparency enables consumers to access genuine brand material and make well-informed purchasing decisions,” Vanga adds.

He further says that brands can combat the prevalence of fake social influencers by conducting thorough due diligence, which includes assessing engagement rates, profile insights, follower demographics, and content authenticity. “To optimize their processes, brands should consider collaborating with reputable influencer marketing platforms that undertake the due diligence process on their behalf, emphasizing transparency and cultivating reliable influencer communities within their networks. Through the establishment of clear guidelines and the implementation of vigilant monitoring mechanisms, brands can better discern and evade fraudulent influencers, thereby preserving their reputation and elevating the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives,” he adds.

Ajay Kulkarni, Director of Growth at BARCODE Entertainment, outlines effective methods for brands to combat fake followers:

• Thorough vetting: Before collaborating with influencers, conduct in-depth research to confirm their authenticity. Analyze engagement metrics, content quality, and alignment with brand values to ensure credibility.
• Utilize verification tools: In the market, there are numerous tools on offer to provide insights into real followers and authenticity scores. At Barcode, we offer Campaygn, a tool developed by global experts. Campaygn is designed to deliver trusted influencer information, aiding in the evaluation of credibility. With features to verify follower demographics, engagement rates, and authenticity, Campaygn empowers brands to make well-informed decisions.

Brands can always prevent partnering up with such influencers, says Rubeena Singh, Country Manager India and MENA, AnyMind Group. “We at AnyMind Group ensure our client brands associate with properly vetted creators who offer meaningful and genuine audience engagement. Our in-house proprietary tech platform, AnyTag, provides comprehensive creator audience insights, including audience credibility and fake followers percentage. We ensure that we run similar thorough checks of all the creators that we are proposing to our clients," she adds.

In the influencer segment, dealing with fake influencers can be a major headache for brands, opines Raghav Bagai, Co-founder of SW Network. “This can tarnish a brand’s reputation and also waste marketing budgets. To tackle this hazard, we have created a vetting protocol. Instead of just looking at the follower count, we dive deep into engagement rates, audience demographics, and the authenticity and relatability of content. Aditionally, implementing strict contractual agreements with clear performance metrics and monitoring tools can help weed out fake profiles and ensure a fruitful influencer partnership. We can also have specific tools where we can analyse the creator’s profile and check for any kind of fake activity on the profile,” he adds.

(Tomorrow: Part 2 of this report will cover metrics or qualities brands should prioritize when identifying effective influencers for their campaigns. The report will also explore how brands can avoid falling victim to inflated follower numbers and ensure they are partnering with genuine influencers.)