A D2C snack brand recently encountered a fake nano influencer during its search for cost-effective marketing. The founder revealed, “As we scaled, we sought budget-friendly food vloggers, but the profile was fake, a costly lesson that made us more cautious.” With influencer marketing integral to brand strategies, smaller companies are increasingly vulnerable to fraudulent activity due to bots and inflated metrics. Experts like Amarpreet Singh emphasize the shift from vanity metrics to authentic engagement measures, such as cost per engagement and audience overlap. Brands are adopting tools like the ‘View Quality Index’ to assess meaningful interactions and prioritize long-term creator partnerships for fraud mitigation. Dabur India utilizes third-party audits and analytics to detect anomalies, focusing on engagement rates and cost-effective spending metrics. AI-driven authenticity checks are becoming essential for brands to filter out fake followers, ensuring campaigns effectively reach real audiences, according to Sagar Pushp, CEO of ClanConnect.
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