Mega, macro, micro and nano – as if there were not enough confusing terms and abbreviations within the field of influencer marketing, we now have to learn how to manage different definitions of influencers as well. But as a matter of fact, knowing what sets the different types of influencers apart and how they can help you achieve your goals might be the key to a successful influencer marketing campaign. But don’t worry – we got your back and will help you sort out the concepts.

There are more things that separates influencers in the four different categories (mega, macro, micro och nano) than only the amount of followers. Influencer marketing has gone from companies having a desire to work with the biggest profiles with millions of followers towards companies being willing to work with influencers with considerably less followers than that. 

Why? One of the reason is that smaller influencers have a better and closer relationship with their followers. The main purpose of influencer marketing is influencing, and it’s much easier to influence someone you are or feel close to. If the followers feel closely connected with the influencer and as friends of theirs, and if the influencer has high credibility in the subject, the collaboration is likely to be successful. 

So what separates the different categories? 

Mega

Mega-influencers are those with over 1M followers. In this category we usually finds ”real” celebrities with a scattered base of followers in terms of interests and demography. They are most often famous, rather than influential. These profiles are very expensive to work with, but on the plus side they will reach out to way more people than just your desired target audience. 

Mega-influencers don’t have “real converting influencer power” due to the fact that their followers are so diverse demographically and psychographically. Companies who can benefit from working with mega-influencers are those striving to promote products that appeal to the masses, through top of the funnel marketing campaigns. If you have a specific message to a specific audience it will be more beneficial for you to work with influencers from the other categories. 

Macro

Macro-influencers have followers between 100K-1M. In this category we often find influencers that are famous just because they are influencers and famous online. They have built their follower base for many years and have been very successful at it. So, a big advantage of working with them are that they are experiences content-creators that know their audience very well. Macro-influencers have a much closer relationship with their followers than mega-influencer and they are aware of what works for them and what their followers like and dislike. Trust them when they tell you what will work and what will not and, if possible, give them creative freedom in their content creation. 

Macro-influencers in general have been in the business for a long time and those who follow them know them very well. This means that the followers most likely remember which collaborations they have done before and what companies/products/values they have talked about, even if it was years ago. Since they have been in the business for a long time, there is a chance that macro-influencers have already been working with your competitors, or promoted products that are not in line with your brand. Be aware about this and be meticulous with your research. 

Micro

Influencers with 10K-100K followers are called micro-influencers. These are usually niched to a specific subject and have followers who follow them just because they are talking about beauty, workout or tattoos. Their passion for their subject gives them high credibility and they tend to have very loyal followers who they also have a close relationship to. For a follower it’s usually easier to relate to an influencer in this size compared to a mega- or macro-influencer. Two other pros with working with micro-influencers are that they have better prices and in general higher engagement (however, this does not apply to every case but in general micro-influencers have higher engagement than macro- and mega-influencers). 

Nano

Nano-influencers have less than 10K followers. This group has become more and more important for companies during the last years. Similar to the benefits of working with micro-influencers, this group has even higher engagement and even better price. Many of these influencers also do unpaid collaborations, allowing companies without big budgets to include influencer marketing in their marketing strategy as well. Nano-influencers haven’t done that many collaborations before, if any, which can be both advantageous and problematic. The upside of this is that nano-influencers probably haven’t worked with your competitors or other brands that not are in line with your brand. If you find a professional influencer in this size they will also most likely aim to create high-quality content and deliver results that you will be satisfied with. The downside of working with nano-influencers that are inexperienced with collaborations is that it might will require more hands on work and more instructions, and the risk of misunderstandings is bigger. Another con with these influencers are that they can’t use all Instagrams features (swipe up) which means you can’t drive traffic in an effective way solely through IG-stories. 

Still not sure of what sets the different categories apart and which type of influencers your should use to best succeed with your campaign? Reach out to us and we are more than happy to help!