It's been said that most people can't tell the difference between influencer posts and advertisements.
A study conducted by Open Influence explains how people who frequent social media websites actually view influencer advertisements. It shows that about 514 adult Americans who visit social media websites were asked questions that could help marketers strategize.
When these adults were asked which social media websites they frequented the most, the following percentages were provided:
Facebook-73.7 percent
Instagram-38.1 percent
YouTube- 32.5 percent
As you can see, Facebook was a clear front runner.
When these same adults were asked to distinguish which hashtags indicated that the poster was paid to make their posts, they could not answer the question. The people in the study, were given the chance to pick from hashtags #ad, #partner, #paid and #collab.
They were also allowed to pick the hashtag #none of the above, which was the top answer. The next popular answer was #ad. It received 32.9% of the responses. In addition, the people in the study were allowed to pick as many answers as they wanted. But it was proven that the average consumer really doesn't understand that most influencer posts are ads.
This really isn't a good thing, especially as far as the FTC is concerned. Understand that marketers are required to to specify when they are advertising to consumers. But on the other hand, most consumers don't share this same concern. They are constantly exposed to advertisements and don't care if influencer posts are ads. As a matter of fact, 71 percent don't care if a celebrity gets paid for making posts.
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