These online personalities are raking in big bucks.

Somya Gupta, an Instagram celebrity with over 500,000 followers at the age of 21, earns almost Rs200,000 each month from advertising for over 50 brands including Calvin Klein, Loreal, Lakme, Garnier, Maybelline and One Plus. Fashion blogger Aashna Shroff earns between Rs5 lakh and Rs10 lakh monthly just from her Instagram posts.

Nano-influencers, whose follower counts are in the low thousands, are another breed of online celebrity that is sought-after because when they market a product to their small audience, the recommendation almost seems like it came from a friend. And these people also don’t encash huge cheques. Often, they’ll advertise in exchange for free products or experiences—the most preferred method of payment among Indian firms.

Despite the apparent promise of social media marketing, brands are taking things slowly.

Slow and steady

Players in the ecosystem are still conservative because this mode of advertising is still nascent. On average, over two-thirds of branding companies spend $50,000 on influencer campaigns per year per brand.

The biggest roadblock is that brands are still struggling with figuring out the return on investment from influencer marketing–the top concern listed by 46% of brand experts. The flooding of fake followers across these platforms make it hard to assess the real impact of influencers.

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