Optimising the Effect of Influencer Marketing: Exploring Consumers’ Interaction with Different Influencer Types on Instagram

Influencer types vary, with some more influential than others depending upon the industry context. Whilst some studies have explored the criteria of individual influencer types to engage consumer relationships, there is limited research which provides insights into sources of influence and impact for consumer brand engagement across a range of influencer types within the fashion retail industry. This chapter builds on the existing literature providing innovative insights by utilising the Source Credibility Theory to better understand what makes one influencer type more credible than another in their social media marketing campaigns for fashion brands. Ten semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of female millennial fashion consumers on Instagram to examine preferred influencers based on the 5 influencer types depicted in Campbell and Farrell (Business Horizons 63:469–479, 2020) framework. An engagement rate equation was first applied to fashion influencers’ Instagram posts to ascertain engagement rates for different influencer types. The interviews show that female millennials choose to follow influencers based on a number of the Source Credibility Theory constructs, with attractiveness, (likeability and reliability), as the most important construct, closely followed by expertise and trustworthiness. An interesting managerial implication is that whilst celebrity influencers have high follower counts and have been influential in traditional marketing advertising campaigns, their lack of online interaction with their followers means that engagement rates amongst consumers are lower—whilst in comparison, macro influencers, those with 100 k–1million followers, cost less to commission, and are much more impactful within the industry due to their higher engagement rates. Monitoring the source of credibility amongst different influencer types on social media platforms allows practitioners to expand their reach and positioning in the market more effectively.