Instagram has begun hiding ‘likes’ for select users worldwide, expanding a test that could determine whether or not they will be permanently hidden from public view. Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri said the experiment will help improve the mental health of users, while some influencers and celebrities have argued that it may reduce engagement and make it harder to attract brands. But some marketers see this test as an opportunity to move away from such vanity metrics, particularly as audience measurement becomes more sophisticated.
“The hiding or removal of likes shouldn’t negatively impact how brands work with influencers in developing successful content,” said Dave McNulty, vice president of marketing at vodka brand Stoli. “Successful content is a result of brands building real relationships with credible influencers and giving them the creative license to be authentic with their audience.”
Should Instagram move to hide likes permanently, individual users will still be able to see who liked their content. Brands can work with third-party vendors to gain direct access to their influencer partners’ metrics—including likes, impressions and reach—as long as the vendor is part of Instagram’s API partnership program.
While the immediate concern is that removing likes from public view will deter users from participating in vanity metrics, there are other ways to measure influencer campaigns beyond likes, said Daniel Schotland, COO of influencer marketing platform Linqia.
“Likes make up the majority of engagement numbers, so we do see the likelihood of an engagement rate decrease due to the removal of likes. However, we think this forced change will be good for the industry,” he said. “It will help encourage marketers to look at metrics beyond the like, such as brand and sales lift data.”
Ryan Detert, CEO and co-founder of the tech platform Influential, shared similar sentiments, adding that he tends to focus on attention metrics, which analyze how users engage with content. Metrics like video completion rates and whether a video was viewed with sound on become more important than the number of comments and likes alone, he said.
“We're seeing that high amounts of likes don't necessarily have high attention metrics, because people are auto-liking and keep on going,” said Detert. “The correlation between likes and attention is not there, and the correlation between likes and sales isn’t there, either.”
Instagram continues to be the top platform for influencer marketing in the US, according to January 2019 polling from influencer agency Mediakix. Nearly 80% of US marketers said that Instagram posts were among the most effective formats for influencer content.