The UK’s most trusted Instagram influencer is a 24 year old from Guernsey who made his name playing FIFA on YouTube.
Harry Lewis, also known as @wroetoshaw on Instagram has emerged top of a new ranking of the UK’s most followed influencers based on how trusted they are.
The study by advertising specialists N.Rich analysed the engagement rates of the UK’s top 20 most followed influencers by comparing their regular posts with their sponsored content and calculating the average likes of each. It was found that on average regular posts did at least twice as well as sponsored ones.

Harry Lewis, a member of the YouTube group Sidemen, known for its content on various challenges, sketches and video game commentaries, is one of only two influencers in the top 20 who does better on sponsored posts than regular content. He has the eighth most followers on Instagram with 4.2 million, and receives an average of 500,982 likes per sponsored post, ahead of the 494,941 average likes he gets for regular content.

This makes his engagement rate for ads 11.92% against 11.79% for regular content. These figures put him above the most followed influencers on the list, with more average likes for his sponsored posts as well as higher overall ad engagement.

In position two of most trusted Instagram influencers is Essex based “cleanfluencer” Sophie Hinchcliffe. Her Instagram account @mrshinchhome has 4.1 million followers, putting her tenth for overall followers. Unlike Lewis her engagement drops for ads in comparison to regular posts

She has an average of 183,274 likes for ads, and 482,823 likes on average for regular content. This makes her engagement rate for ads 4.47% against 11.76% for regular content, earning her the title of second most trusted influencer on Instagram.

The trend of lower engagement on sponsored content is reflected throughout the majority of the top 20.

Receiving the third highest engagement rate for ads is singer and television personality Stacey Solomon, also from Essex. Her Instagram @staceysolomon has 4.6 million followers placing her in spot six for overall followers.

She gets an average of 683,571 likes on regular posts and 166,967 for sponsored posts, or roughly a third of the likes for the latter. Her engagement rate for regular posts is 14.86%, the highest in the top 20 for regular posts. However, for sponsored posts she drops down to an engagement rate of 3.62% to claim third place of most trusted influencers.

The UK’s most followed Instagram influencer is Zoe Sugg, yet she only places ninth for trustworthiness. She posts lifestyle, fashion and beauty content her Instagram @zoesugg, and has amassed 9.3 million followers. The engagement rate for all her posts is 5.52% but stands at just 1.25% for sponsored content.

The least successful with audience engagement out of the most followed influencers, is television presenter Holly Willoughby. With an engagement rate of just 0.33% for ads and 0.59% for regular content she has the lowest figures in each category. This is despite having a high follower count with 7.3 million followers, or position three for followers.

Commenting on the study a spokesperson for N.Rich said, “It appears that those who did well on advertising engagement such as Harry Lewis and Sophie Hinchcliffe, craft sponsored posts that have some things in common. They are usually videos and they do not post sponsored content regularly, preferring to let regular content dominate their accounts. In addition, posts which give followers the chance to win something are an effective way to overcome the natural drop in engagement that the ad hashtag usually induces.”

The study was conducted by N.Rich, which offers a rich array of intent data and ad inventory that enable marketers to drive awareness and lead generation effectively.