Before the relatively recent explosion of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, celebrity advertising was considered to be the main path towards reaching and influencing potential customers. If your brand or business was attempting to market sports apparel, for example, reaching out to certain NBA stars with an aggressive advertising campaign was probably the best way to influence your potential customers and convince them of the value of your product.

Micro influencers have emerged in almost every major industry, from fashion and makeup “experts” with massive numbers of Instagram accounts following every piece of advice they offer, to travel bloggers who offer detailed advice on the best places to travel on a budget. While micro influencers certainly add another facet to the world of publicity and advertising, their emergence certainly does not mean that celebrity influencers are a thing of the past.

On the contrary, celebrity influencers have also taken advantage of the platforms offered by social media to diversify the types of products that they advertise. While micro influencers will usually have followers ranging from anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 people, celebrity influencers will obviously garner much more attention.

Below, we take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of both micro influencers and celebrity influencers for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to launch a successful advertising campaign. We then offer a few guidelines on which type of campaign might be best for your own particular business or brand.

Pros and Cons of Micro Influencers

Pros

• Micro influencers are usually a cheaper option for your advertising campaign. Of course, it is possible to get a spontaneous mention of your product or brand from a celebrity who received a product you sent to the through their agent. However, if you are thinking of offering payment for a social media mention of your product or brand, celebrities and their agents will almost always have a higher price tag.

• Celebrity influencers often times have more engaged followers who actively participate in their social media feeds. If you are one of the millions of people who follow Kim Kardashian on Twitter, chances are that you aren’t completely engrossed in every detail of every tweet that she shares. If you follow a micro influencer who specializes in identifying the latest trends in women´s footwear, however, there is a better chance that your attention level will be higher when following the suggestions and recommendations that he or she makes though their social media posts.

• Micro influencers also allow you to better target a specific audience or type of customer, whereas some celebrities will have a larger and broader appeal. Micro influencers are almost always connected to a specific market niche which makes it easier to identify a micro influencer that would be beneficial to your advertising campaign. It is worth mentioning, however, that several celebrities also are identified with certain market niches.

Cons

• Micro influencers have a much smaller following and will thus reduce the market reach of any advertising campaign.

• Working with several micro-influencers will probably require greater management skills as you will have to work with various micro-influencers at the same time to be able to have the impact you are hoping to have.

• Micro-influencers lack the authority voice that celebrities often bring to the table. Because of the weight of pop culture in our society, people do tend to put increased value on celebrity endorsements.

• You will most likely have less control over the output of the social media post as micro influencers will most likely want to maintain more control over the type of social media post that they share.

• With an advertising campaign focused on micro influencers, it can be hard to determine your actual return on investment.

Pros and Cons of Celebrity Influencers

Pros

• Working with celebrity influencers will most likely position your brand or company in front of millions of prospective clients or customers. This will obviously get you much more exposure.

• Celebrities bring credibility. Celebs greatly influence consumer buying habits, and when a celebrity is seen using a product, it often gives that product more credibility in the consumers eyes.

• Lastly, it is relatively easy to determine your return on investment with celebrity influencers because you will be able to closely monitor the number of views and likes and subsequently follow the numbers.

Cons

• Obviously hiring a celebrity will be more expensive than hiring a micro-influencer. With that being said, there are many levels of celebrity, from your Kim Kardashians to your up-and-coming artists who rising on the charts. This means you can still hire some celebrities very affordably, while the bigger celebrities will of course be out of most businesses price range.

• Another potential disadvantage is that it can be a bit harder to contact the celebrities for a social media marketing campaign. As celebrities are virtually bombarded with hundreds of marketing offers, you will have to know how to work through their representatives.

• There is always a small risk that a celebrity influencer campaign might come across as unauthentic. Getting Vin Diesel to endorse a line of baby clothing that you are taking to market will probably be seen by your potential clients as an unsuccessful marketing ploy. You will want to carefully choose a celebrity who identifies with your brand or product to make their social media mention come across as legitimate and genuine.

So, which type of campaign is right for you?

Like almost all aspects of running a successful business, choosing between micro influencers and celebrity influencers will largely depend on where your business is at, what your immediate and long terms goals are, and the advertising budget your company or brand operates on.

If you feel like you have an absolutely fantastic and innovative product or brand that could capture a large share of the market with the right exposure, celebrity influencers might be the best option for you. They will position your brand or product in front of millions of people almost overnight and allow your brand to take off from the outset. To get the most out of your sizeable investment, do your homework to make sure that there is a good fit between the celebrity´s personality, ideals, etc. and your brand.

Obviously, you need to have the budget (and the bravery) to invest a sizeable chunk of change in a onetime advertising campaign. You will also need to have the organizational capability to capitalize on that sudden moment of market exposure. If your company or brand doesn’t have a solid plan for taking advantage of your moment in the limelight and pushing your product forward, the money spent on celebrity influencers could end up going wasted.

For brands or businesses who are focused on a slower, more measured and lengthier advertising campaign, micro influencers might be a better option as they will allow you to spread your budget over a longer period and more specifically target potential customers. Micro influencer advertising strategies will allow you to slowly but surely gain market exposure as you attempt to carve out a name for yourself in an otherwise competitive market.

Both celebrity and micro influencers are great resources to help any business or brand run a successful marketing campaign. Knowing the pros and cons of each type of influencer and clearly determining the goals and ambitions of your business or brand will help you choose which option is right for you.