Australian Instagram influencers continue to be affected by fraud with 43% impacted last year, according to AI analytics platform HypeAuditor.
This figure was a 2.15% decrease from 2022, marking the third year in a row the number has decreased.
HypeAuditor co-founder and CEO Alexander Frolov said the trend indicated Instagram was becoming more effective in its fight against fraud, alongside growing awareness among influencers that fraudulent methods of promotion don’t work in the long term.
“Influencer marketing is increasingly being recognised for its value as an essential part of brand marketing," Frolov said. "The steady decline in the percentage of influencers impacted by fraud is no stranger to this.
“Thanks to greater awareness among content creators and steps taken by social media platforms to mitigate this phenomenon, marketers can feel more confident about the success of their influencer marketing strategies.
“However, despite this good news, marketers need to continue to be vigilant of the impact of fraud, particularly when partnering with mega and celebrity influencers.”
The influencers most impacted by fraud were mega creators, with over one million followers, and macro names with between 500,000 and one million followers.
While some influencers are victims of fraud themselves, others perform fraudulent actions that violate Instagram guidelines and use ‘gray hat’ techniques.
Among the most popular ‘gray hat’ tricks are buying followers, buying likes and comments, buying stories views, and comments pods.
The findings come one month after the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission released a report claiming 96% of fashion influencers are making "concerning posts".