Influencer Endorsement

Influencer Endorsement

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

A recommendation delivered by a social media creator whom the audience sees as an ordinary, relatable person.

What it is

In two experiments with 131 and 446 participants, Schouten and colleagues found that people identified more with influencer endorsers than celebrity endorsers, felt more similar to them and trusted them more, and that similarity, wishful identification and trust helped explain stronger advertising results. Lou and Yuan linked the informative value of content and the influencer's trustworthiness, attractiveness and similarity to trust in branded posts, and that trust to brand awareness and purchase intention.

In effect

The article on why influencers sell uses it as the label for the route from resemblance and credibility, through trust, to purchase intention. Cascio Rizzo and colleagues found that intense wording raised engagement for smaller influencers and lowered it for larger ones, through perceived trustworthiness.

What it does not say

The experiments used short exposures to posts for a few product types. They do not show that every influencer sells, or measure sales over time.

Sources

  1. Schouten, A., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2020). Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit. International Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 258-281.
  2. Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58-73.
  3. Cascio Rizzo, G. L., Villarroel Ordenes, F., Pozharliev, R., De Angelis, M., & Costabile, M. (2024). How high-arousal language shapes micro- versus macro-influencers' impact. Journal of Marketing, 88(4), 107-128.
  4. Hudders, L., De Jans, S., & De Veirman, M. (2021). The commercialization of social media stars: a literature review and conceptual framework on the strategic use of social media influencers. International Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 327-375.