Social media encourages people to both create and share content.
When creators’ content gets ample engagement from the community, it’s a rewarding experience. It inspires them to consistently create content that resonates with their audience. Over time, these creators are seen as influencers when they grow their community with followers and subscribers.
Influencers create and distribute content online, attracting engagement from people who view their craft. Recognizing their influence, brands partner with these individuals to promote products — this strategy is known as influencer marketing. Through this approach, influencers feature products in their content, whether by endorsing or reviewing them. Many brands use influencer marketing platforms to discover and manage influences while analyzing your campaigns.
Influencer marketing helps you reach the audience you’re targeting precisely. Whenever an influencer endorses a product, it feels like a recommendation from a friend. The influencer’s credibility is automatically transferred to the product or service, often leading to increased sales.
General influencer marketing statistics
Below are some highlights of influencer marketing. Review these statistics to learn how brands are keeping up with the trends.
- Brands typically earn $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, with some returns reaching up to $18 in earned media value. Around 2,000 campaigns were observed and evaluated to arrive at this number.
- Influencer-generated posts perform better than branded content, according to 60% of marketers.
- Influencer marketing is gaining traction in B2B sectors, with nearly 40% of B2B marketers planning to increase their use of influencers. It has performed well for B2C e-commerce brands, inspiring B2B companies to cash in and achieve success.
- The global influencer marketing platform market was valued at $15.2 billion in 2022. It’s expected to grow to $17.4 billion in 2023 and surpass $22 billion by 2025.
- Engagement with nano-influencers (those with 1K–10K followers) increased from 49.26% to 55.61%. Meanwhile, the use of mega-influencers (with over 1M followers) dropped from 12.50% to 9.09% between 2023 and 2024. This shift suggests brands are favoring more authentic, niche connections over mass reach.
85%
of marketers believe that influencer marketing will be effective in 2024, and they intend to dedicate a budget for it. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing spending in 2024.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
- 89% of marketers say the return on investment (ROI) from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels.
- 53% of women make purchases after seeing influencer posts. 26% of men are willing to spend $500 or more on products promoted by influencers they trust.
Growth and investments in influencer marketing
Big companies like Coca-Cola are moving a large portion of their ad budgets to social media influencers. For example, Fanta’s recent campaign used only TikTok, skipping traditional TV entirely. This shift highlights the growing importance of understanding and using influencer strategies to stay competitive.
- This year, 69% of marketers plan to spend the most on Instagram for influencer marketing. That’s over six times more than on YouTube, which only 11% of marketers chose as their top channel.
- Experts predict marketers will spend nearly $24 billion on influencer marketing in 2024.
- Brand collaborations remain the top source of income for influencers. Between 3.2 million and 37.8 million influencers exist worldwide on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
17%
of companies now spend more than half of their marketing budget on influencers.
Source: SendPulse
- Only 40.8% of brands provide influencers monetary compensation. Instead, 30.8% offer free products, 18.9% provide discounts, and 9.4% compensate with giveaways. However, as the industry matures, influencers expect to be paid for their work rather than accepting free products.
- Only 67% of brands measure the ROI from their influencer campaigns, often because they lack the time or knowledge to do it effectively.
Influencer marketing challenges
Many influencers pitch products or services in their content to get paid. However, not everyone discloses whether their content is sponsored. This creates a lack of transparency and might lead to legal problems.
- A report by the European Commission found that 80% of influencers do not disclose paid content. Although 97% of influencers share posts with commercial content, only 20% consistently label it as advertising.
76%
of influencer marketing campaigns are run in-house in 2024. Despite this, 57% of in-house teams still use third-party platforms to help manage their campaigns.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
- One in three brands (34%) struggle to select the right influencers for their campaigns. Although this is an improvement from 75% in 2020, it remains a significant challenge.
- Nearly 3 in 10 marketing teams (28%) need help to keep up with social media trends. Staying updated is crucial, as trends change rapidly.
- Nearly half (49%) of marketing professionals believe brand safety can occasionally be a concern in influencer marketing. About 30% think it’s always a concern, while 21% feel confident they’ve found influencers who align well with their brand’s values.
Consumer behavior toward influencers on social media
Social media plays a phenomenal role in the lives of modern buyers. It makes and breaks trends when it comes to fashion, electronics, or any other consumer product or service. This happens due to the changing preferences of people inspired by creators they trust.
Take a look at these statistics and understand how customers’ trust and behavior change based on social trends crafted by influencers.
- About 46% of Gen Z (ages 18 to 27) prefer using social media over search engines to research brands. Meanwhile, 35% of Millennials (ages 28 to 43) also favor social media for brand research.
70%
of consumers follow more than ten influencers on social media. This highlights the impact content creators have on shaping consumer choices and trends.
Source: GRIN
- Over 90% of brands now market their products and services on social media.
- More than 90% of consumers engage with influencers on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat on a weekly basis.
- User-generated content (UGC) on social media is driving purchases both online and in stores. 76% of consumers have bought a product after seeing it in a social media post.
- About 60% of consumers distrust influencers who don’t disclose their partnerships. Transparency is key to maintaining consumer trust.
Encourage influencers to maintain transparency
While adopting influencer marketing strategies, ensure the influencer you’re collaborating with transparently shows the content as an advertisement or a sponsored post. It helps you establish more credibility and trust with the viewer. The trust will allow them to convert easily, helping you increase sales numbers.
Excited to kickstart an influencer marketing program in your business? Try the influencer marketing platforms for free to find and manage influencers while analyzing their campaigns.
Edited by Monishka Agrawal
