The Power of Influencer Marketing: Influencer Marketing Statistics

For a better idea of the impact that influencer marketing has, here’s a breakdown of some eye-opening influencer marketing statistics.

These days, it’s impossible to deny the power of social media. Popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram each have more than one billion active users.

Some of those users are influencers — people that build loyal, engaged audiences for their content on the platform. Brands use influencer marketing to tap into those audiences and promote their products and services.

For a better idea of the impact that influencer marketing has, here’s a breakdown of some eye-opening influencer marketing statistics.

How Effective Is Influencer Marketing?

The idea behind influencer marketing is simple. Brands collaborate with influencers to try and impact customers’ decision-making processes. But still, people often ask questions like “is influencer marketing actually effective?” and “do influencers actually help sell products?”

Influencer marketing statistics show that the answer is “yes” on both counts.

Around 80% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective. A higher percentage of marketers (89%) say influencer marketing can work as well (or even better) than other marketing efforts.

This enthusiasm for influencer marketing is reflected in the way brand marketers are allocating their budgets. More than 75% of marketers planned to dedicate funds to influencer marketing in 2022.  

Influencer Marketing Statistics

Influencer Marketing Statistics 2021

In 2021, the entire influencer marketing industry was worth more than $13 billion. Compare that figure to 2016, when the global market size of the industry was only $1.7 billion.

Influencer marketing platforms raised over $800 million in fundraising in 2021, a clear sign that the industry is attracting a lot of positive attention.  

E-commerce brands dominate the landscape of Influencer Marketing in E-Commerce, with 54% of companies leveraging influencer marketing strategies being e-commerce businesses.

Brands are choosing to devote parts of their budget to influencer marketing to take advantage of the opportunities it provides. But who are these brands working with?

On Instagram and YouTube in 2021, the most popular influencers for influencer marketing campaigns were micro influencers. On TikTok, though, marketers preferred influencers with larger audiences — between 100,000 and 500,000 followers. Overall, 77% of marketers are interested in working with micro influencers.  

Instagram was the platform brands chose most often for influencer marketing campaigns in 2021.

In the early days of influencer marketing, it was common for brands to offer influencers free products or services in exchange for a shoutout on their page. In 2021, however, more brands offered influencers money to post sponsored content. Now, there’s a roughly even split between monetary payment and free products for sponsored posts.

Influencer Marketing Statistics 2022

The influencer marketing industry is growing rapidly. In 2022, it was worth more than $15 billion worldwide. That’s up around $2 billion from the year before — approximately a 15% annual growth rate.  

Brands plan to increase their spending on influencer marketing even more in 2023. By now, the majority of marketers have used influencer marketing efforts at least once. Only 7% of marketers have never used influencer marketing.

It’s safe to say that the answer to the question “are influencers still relevant in 2022?” is yes, at least from a marketing perspective.

Much like in 2021, the most popular social media platform for influencer marketing in 2022 was Instagram. That doesn’t mean influencer marketing campaigns are only happening on Instagram, though.

By 2020, the average person had more than 8 different social media accounts. Brands recognize that their target audiences are on various social media accounts, so cross-channel influencer marketing campaigns rose significantly in 2022.

Read our article on Influencer Marketing Statistics in 2023 for our predictions for the upcoming year.

Influencer Marketing Return on Investment (ROI) Statistics

Marketers are set to spend over $4 billion on influencer marketing in 2022 in the US alone. They will expect a strong return on that investment — will they get it?

Ideally, every marketing campaign would produce a strong return on investment (ROI). But what kind of ROI does the average influencer marketing campaign produce?

On average, businesses are making $5.20 for every dollar they spend on influencer marketing efforts. Based on these numbers, if you spend $1,000 each month on influencer marketing, you can expect to get over $5,000 in orders as a result.

Keep in mind, though, that your ROI is highly dependent on the kind of influencer marketing campaign you run and the influencers you choose to partner with.

If you compare the average ROI of influencer marketing campaigns to traditional forms of advertising like TV ads, influencer marketing often comes out on top. In fact, 60% of marketers agree that influencer marketing offers a higher ROI than traditional advertising.  

Impact of Influencer Marketing On Consumer Behavior

The reason that influencer marketing can produce such strong returns on investment is that influencers connect directly with their audiences.

49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations when making purchasing decisions. An incredible 82% of people trust the opinions that influencers, friends, and family share online.  

That means that sponsored posts from influencers in your brand’s niche have the potential to drive sales and boost revenue for your company.

How Many Influencers Are There?

People throw around the idea that there are more and more influencers starting out every day, but how many people are influencers on social media right now?

Data shows that across popular platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, there are more than 50 million influencers worldwide.  

Though there are influencers from all over the world, United States-based influencers receive the most brand deals. The majority of influencers creating sponsored posts are women.  

How Many Followers Do Influencers Have?

Many people picture someone with millions and millions of followers when they hear the word “influencer.” Some influencers do have millions of followers, but there are also influencers with much smaller audiences.

Of all the influencers out there, close to 50% are micro influencers with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. Nano influencers (those with less than 1,000 followers) make up about 20% of all influencers, and mid-tier influencers make up another quarter.

In other words, there’s a lot of variety in how many followers influencers have. You can find influencers with small but devoted audiences and mega influencers with more followers than some traditional celebrities.

How Much Do Influencer Marketing Campaigns Cost?

If you’re interested in using an influencer marketing campaign to promote your brand, you probably want to know how much it will cost.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to give a concrete estimate of what your budget for your influencer marketing campaign should be.

Influencers can charge a wide variety of prices based on things like their follower count, engagement rate, and the type of content that brands request.  

For example, a sponsored Instagram post by an influencer could cost as little as $10, but it could also run you up to $10,000 or more. Instagram influencers have a lot of freedom to charge higher rates for posts depending on the number of followers they have.

Keep in mind that prices in one niche can be much higher or lower than prices in another niche.

Influencers by Category

There are influencers for every niche and specialty you can imagine.

Construction? There are influencers specializing in drywall and building. Classic toys? There are influencers showing off their collections and breaking down the must-know facts. Truly, there is no limit to the number of niches in which influencers can build an audience.

That said, some categories have more influencers than others.

The lifestyle industry has the highest overall percentage of influencers — 13.8% of all influencers. The beauty industry is second with 8.56%, followed by the music industry with 8.27%.

New influencer categories also pop up often, each with its own unique name. Pet influencers (petfluencers) are gaining popularity, as are skincare influencers (skinfluencers) and financial influencers (finfluencers).

It’s increasingly common for influencers to blur the boundaries between categories. Popular beauty influencers, for example, often share food and travel-related content, too.

Who Is Most Impacted By Influencer Marketing?

Creating a successful influencer marketing campaign is all about understanding who your target audience is.

If the target audience for your brand is Baby Boomers, an influencer marketing campaign might not be as effective as other types of marketing campaigns. Only 9% of Boomers follow social media influencers and only 22% follow brands on social media.

By contrast, 28% of Gen Z (ages 16 to 23) follow influencers and 33% of them follow brands they like. These stats make Gen Z the most likely to respond to influencer marketing efforts, followed by Millennials (ages 24 to 37) and Gen X (ages 38 to 56).

That doesn’t mean influencer marketing campaigns targeting Boomers can’t work, though. One popular fashion blogger, Moon Lin, is 93 years old and has close to 100,000 followers. Older generations are using social media more than ever.

Harness The Power Of Influencer Marketing

All these influencer marketing statistics show the potential benefits influencer marketing has for brands like yours.

If you are interested in exploring influencer marketing but don’t know where to start, partnrUP can help. As a top influencer management platform, partnrUP makes running successful influencer campaigns a breeze. We find the perfect niche influencers for your brand and then help you manage those relationships. Don’t hesitate to Book a Discovery Call with partnrUP today with any questions you may have. We would love to hear from you.

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