Influencer Marketing Effectiveness vs Traditional Advertising: An ROI Comparison for D2C Brands

Author(s)	Ms. Aditi Kadam
Country	India
Abstract	Direct-to-consumer brands increasingly depend on measurable marketing because customer-acquisition costs, digital competition and fragmented attention can quickly reduce profitability. Influencer marketing provides access to established creator communities, while traditional advertising offers scale and controlled placement. This paper compares the potential effectiveness of the two approaches using return on investment, customer acquisition cost, engagement, conversion, attribution and repeat purchase as key measures. It argues that engagement alone is insufficient for evaluating influencer effectiveness. A primary campaign-level dataset can compare spending, attributable revenue, contribution margin and customer lifetime value. The paper also examines micro-influencers, affiliate tracking and AI-enabled attribution. It concludes that influencer marketing may be particularly valuable where trust and niche relevance drive purchase decisions, while traditional advertising remains useful for large-scale awareness. The strongest strategy for D2C brands is likely to combine channels and optimize based on customer economics rather than vanity metrics.
Keywords	influencer marketing; traditional advertising; D2C; ROI; customer acquisition; marketing analytics; AI
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-09-05

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