A singular idea for the digital business: Pairing advertisers with the right influencers

By Vince Chong

SMU Office of Research – With millions of influencers spanning the globe, on the back of incessant social media proliferation, it makes perfect sense for businesses to harness the power of influencer marketing. 

While the idea seemed obvious, matching companies and advertisers to the right influencers was easier said than done, due to the sheer amount of diverse content and numbers of followers – ranging from thousands to millions – that such creators command. 

Enter Influencer Management Systems (IMSs), which are increasingly popular matchmaking tools that let companies swiftly pick relevant influencers to promote their business and products. 

But what of their impact on content? In one of the world’s first such research, SMU Assistant Professor of Marketing Yu Qi dived into the empirical effects of IMSs to see just how that has panned out. 

This culminated in her research paper More than Match-makers? How Influencer Management Systems Affect Content Volume and Diversity, which she co-authored with colleague and SMU Associate Professor of Marketing Ernst Osinga.

Before IMSs there was no easy way for companies to “identify, select, and monitor influencers,” as her research set out. Take video game producers, for example, she said. 

“Before IMSs, a game producer’s email inbox would be flooded by requests from influencers wanting free samples to test and review,” Professor Yu told the Office of Research.

“So there would be hundreds of emails and no way to screen through all of them to see which influencers carry the right weight and fit.”

“This is anecdotal evidence but it shows just how tedious it was.”

There is little doubt that IMSs have helped businesses enormously, and as Professor Yu’s research noted, online retailers like Shopify have developed their own matchmaking solutions, as have social media entities YouTube and Meta, with YouTube BrandConnect and Creator Marketplace, respectively.

Her report was presented in 2024 at the ISMS Marketing Science Conference, and Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Business Analytics. These are among the most prestigious meetings of marketing scientists, where experts gather to exchange cutting-edge ideas and latest findings.

IMSs a “double-edged sword” 

Professor Yu based her research on the gaming industry, an online sector where influencer marketing exudes great sway in consumer purchase decisions. Specifically, the paper looked at the introduction of an IMS by Steam, one of the largest digital distribution platforms for video games, and its effects on influencer content.

As it explained, this involved creating a dataset of 150,000 YouTube videos from the top 1,000 gaming YouTube channels, across a two-year period encompassing one year before and one year after the introduction of Steam’s IMS.

Among the detailed findings was that content relating to Steam games - that is, those covered by the IMS - was shaped by both demand- and supply-side factors. In this context, advertisers represent demand for influencer marketing, while influencers supply the content. 

In comparison, creator content on non-Steam games was shaped purely by influencers themselves.

Influencers, particularly the larger ones, the research found, “significantly” raised their volume of content creation following the introduction of the IMS. This suggested that Steam’s IMS targeted influencers with bigger followings. 

“On average, influencers produce 0.410 additional videos per month, with a 16.67-minute increase in total video duration and an expansion of 2,020 spoken words across their content,” the report noted.

“Notably, larger influencers exhibited a more pronounced increase in content creation, likely because IMS ranks influencers based on their follower base, thereby enhancing larger influencers’ visibility and attracting more collaboration opportunities.”

Influencers for Steam-related content also appeared to gravitate towards popular genres of games and “producing more homogeneous content with each genre, likely reflecting advertiser preference and market demand.” 

In contrast, smaller influencers, each with a following of roughly 10,000, tended to expand content on indie games, which suggested “an assortative matching process where advertisers target influencers whose content aligns closely with specific market segments.”

Also, the content profiles of influencers appeared more similar on Steam following the introduction of the IMS, while non-Steam profiles reflected greater diversity.

IMSs in this case are like a “double-edged sword in that while it leads to an increase in content volume, the opposite applies to diversity of creation,” Professor Yu said. As her report noted, “there are indications of reduced content quality, measured by information richness” for Steam-related content. 

On the bright side however, the academic also observed influencers who are not conforming to the pattern.

“These influencers strategically avoid a particular niche, say racing games, if they find out that there’s an oversupply of content on them on YouTube,” she explained.

“So there seems to exist some self-correction that prevents the ecosystem from growing less diverse over time.” 

Also, the research saw engagement metrics improve across both Steam and non-Steam content, which means IMSs do not yet appear to affect how audiences perceive content. The “alignment between influencer and advertisers resonated positively with their audiences,” the report said.

Rise of smaller influencers

Over the past five to 10 years, Professor Yu has seen an emergence of micro influencers, each with a following of a few thousand, across social media in general. This contrasts with the greater influence of mega creators previously. 

Where IMSs are concerned, she said, this is one area that requires monitoring for the picture to gain clarity down the road.

“I think we have to ask at what point do we see more and more smaller influencers [emerging in social media],” Professor Yu said.

“Plus, the attention spans of audiences are very limited so there has to be a limit [to how far influencers can affect social media]. Right now, I don’t think this limit has [been reached] but we should keep an eye on it.”

Should platforms like Steam look to preserve content creativity, she continued, they could tweak their IMSs to draw marketing for popular games not just from mega influencers but niche ones as well. 

“This is partly why we did the research, to provide another form of perspective and present choices,” she said. 

Going forward, Professor Yu admitted she is spoilt for choice in terms of research topics given the surfeit of digital content in the ether. On the flip side, developments happen so quickly in her field of study that metaphorically, she cannot afford to blink. 

“We have to constantly talk to practitioners in the industry, go to conferences, and basically just keep up all the time with what’s out there,” she said.

“But it’s vibrant and exciting. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”