Looking for the key statistics, trends and data for influencer marketing? Should this be part of your marketing strategy? Even with inflation, war, de-globalization and other macroeconomic challenges, spends on Influencer marketing is projected to grow.
In this guide, we’ll explore why influencer marketing remains strong amidst a looming recession, what are key factors for marketers to consider when exploring influencer marketing, what are the trending platforms for influencer marketing, and everything you need to know to win in Influencer marketing.
Table of Contents
- What is Influencer Marketing
- How much is being spent on Influencer Marketing?
- What platform is most used by Influencers and marketers?
- How is TikTok driving influencer marketing spends
- How do Influencers get paid
- The recovery of Travel industry and influencer marketing
- Brand Sponsorships are still the main source of Influencer marketing spends
- How Apple’s privacy policy is boosting influencer marketing trends
- Brands use creators for ad creatives
- Challenges with influencer marketing
- How effective is Influencer Marketing?
- Best practices in influencer marketing
- Influencer Marketing Platform Market Size (2017 to 2027)
- How much marketing is spent on Influencer marketing by agencies
- How many influencers do brands work with?
- Gen Z follows influencers and other experts more than other age groups
- Categories Influencers are in on Instagram
- Topics and categories on Instagram with the most follower growth
- Average Price Per Post for Instagram Influencers
- Earned media value from Instagram Influencer Posts
- Instagram Influencer Engagement Rates
- How many followers do Instagram influencers have?
- YouTube influencer engagement rate
- Most popular categories for YouTube influencers.
- Average cost per post for YouTube Influencer
- Engagement Rate of TikTok Influencers
- Distribution of TikTok Influencers by number of followers
- Conclusion
What is Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy where a influencer, representation or a influential group of people promotes a promote or service through channels like social media. This content is typically seen as “user-generated content” (UGC). Influencers may be paid through cash or noncash payment, such as free products or trips. Influencers are sometimes known as creators. In this article, we will use these two terms interchangeably but they mean the same thing.
How much is being spent on Influencer Marketing?
US marketers is projected to spend $5 billion USD on influencer marketing in 2022. Growth is driven by increased spending from existing brands that already use influencer marketing, and new brands trying influencer marketing. In 2022, 74.5% of marketers from companies with over 100 employees will work with influencers. Even though there are plans to reduce marketing budgets overall, influencer marketing’s spends seem to still increase.
Influencer marketing spend is projected to grow 23.4% and 15.9% YoY in 2023 and 2024. The total projected revenue by 2024 for influencer marketing spend would be $7.14 billion (vs $4.99 billion in 2022). You may find the detailed breakdown of the projections below.
| Year | Influencer marketing spending | % change |
| 2019 | $2.42 | 26.40% |
| 2020 | $2.90 | 20.00% |
| 2021 | $3.90 | 34.70% |
| 2022 | $4.99 | 27.80% |
| 2023 | $6.16 | 23.40% |
| 2024 | $7.14 | 15.90% |
What platform is most used by Influencers and marketers?
Instagram is still the most used platform for influencer marketing following by TikTok – Leading other social platforms by a more than 1.46 billion in 2022. However, the fastest growing channel for Influencer marketing is TikTok in 2022. Instagram is the home to a large number of creators. It offers a wide selection of content formats, most of which allows shoppable moments. Features such as Instagram shopping further ensures that marketers continue to spend their budget on Instagram, especially for lower-funnel activities.
Influencer marketing is traditionally used to generate awareness for a product/service (top of funnel). However, they are now being utilized for mid and lower funnel campaigns as well. Instagram’s lower funnel shopping capabilities ties in nicely to this trend, giving them the largest influencer marketing spends.
According to eMarketer, Influencer marketing spends on TikTok will exceed Facebook in 2022 and YouTube in 2024. There were more marketers who use TikTok for influencer marketing than YouTube in 2021, but it’ll take three more years for spending to catch up. This is due to the high cost of working with a YouTube influencer.
| Platform | Average Spending (Billions) |
| $2.23 | |
| YouTube | $0.95 |
| TikTok | $0.77 |
| $0.74 | |
| Total | $4.99 |
Influencer Marketing Spending, by Platform, 2022 (billions )
Many marketers still consider TikTok as an experimental platform. Social media is moving at a pace where marketers are struggling to keep up. Brands are still not committing to a consistent TikTok strategy even though it’s clear that users are growing faster on that platform.
| Year | YouTube | TikTok | ||
| 2019 | 43.10% | 25.20% | 20.80% | 2.30% |
| 2020 | 43.60% | 23.70% | 19.30% | 5.40% |
| 2021 | 45.00% | 21.00% | 16.50% | 10.20% |
| 2022 | 44.70% | 19.00% | 14.80% | 15.50% |
| 2023 | 44.60% | 13.60% | 17.70% | 17.10% |
| 2024 | 44.50% | 13.30% | 17.20% | 18.50% |
How is TikTok driving influencer marketing spends
Creators are at the core of TikTok’s advertising strategies. Marketers will spend nearly two times more on TikTok influencer marketing by 2024, compared to 2022. A projected amount of $1.32 billion will be spent on TikTok influencer marketing. That is almost ten times higher than 2020 spends. TikTok is building on this growth by focusing on capabilities such as Creator Marketplace and the TikTok Creative Exchange to help brands connect with TikTok influencers.
| Year | TikTok influencer marketing spending | % change | % of total influencer marketing spending |
| 2019 | $0.06 | 2.30% | |
| 2020 | $0.16 | 179.70% | 5.40% |
| 2021 | $0.40 | 156.50% | 10.20% |
| 2022 | $0.78 | 94.60% | 15.50% |
| 2023 | $1.05 | 35.50% | 17.10% |
| 2024 | $1.32 | 25.80% | 18.50% |
More TikTok creators have large followings compared to other platforms
TikTok was traditionally known for micro small influencers in niche categories. They were not taken seriously as a place for commerce until now. TikTok creators have now gathered followings that could exceed other social platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Marketers are starting to realize the potential of leveraging these creators’ following instead of building viral content on their own, which is a huge challenge.
According to Socialblade, lmost 39,000+ account on TikTok have more than 1 million followers (vs 33,000+ on YouTube and 23,000+ on Instagram).
Influencer marketing on TikTok is cheaper than other platforms
Rates on TikTok tend to be cheaper than other platforms as the demand is still lagging behind the supply. TikTok will grow by 26% in 2026, from 2022. This shows a continued strong supply of users. As more marketers start to jump on to TikTok, it will boost the total influencer marketing spends and also increase the rates on TikTok.
What brands pay influencers the most?
How much are creators making on average from brand partnerships on social platforms? Based on an analysis of over 850 influencers by Glewee, here’s a breakdown of influencer earnings on each brand channel:
- Youtube: Influencers earn $425 per video, $250 per product shoutout, and $200 per link in description on average.
- Instagram: Creators earn $225 per feed post, $175 per Instagram reel, and $100 per story.
- Facebook: Creators earn an average of $175 per feed post, and $100 per story.
- TikTok: Influencers earn an average of $175 per feed post.
- Twitter: Creators earn an average of $175 per quote tweet, $100 per tweet, and $100 per retweet.
How do Influencers get paid
There are two typical ways influencers get paid:
- Cash based agreement
- Non-cash agreement
Cash based agreements is the most common way where an influencer gets paid by a company or brand for promoting their brand/service. This could come in the form of a fixed, pre-agreed rate or by commissions or through a mix of both.
Non-cash agreements could be gifts, products, exclusive discounts, and swags. These are less common and many influencers no longer entertain such offers. Some influencers might prefer this route to avoid taxes from cash-based compensation.
The recovery of Travel industry and influencer marketing
While the ongoing virus and inflation is causing some headwinds for the travel industry, it is now back to at least the pre-pandemic levels. The number of travel bookers will rise to 120.0 million in 2022 (vs 90.3 million in 2020).
Travel marketing has rebounded and influencer marketing is a core part of this industry.
According to YouGov, Travel influencers were the 4th most popular type of creators. Almost 11% of adults worldwide say they follow Travel influencers. They were only behind food creators (16%), Celebrities (12%), and health creators (12%). Travel influencers are just as widely followed as fashion, beauty, music, and lifestyle creators.
The above trends are major contributors to the resilience of spending on influencers.
Brand Sponsorships are still the main source of Influencer marketing spends
Monetization tools from platforms like tipping and subscriptions are a smaller portion compared to brand sponsorships. Only 18.6% of creators have reported to receive more than $2,500 from funding pools like TikTok’s creator fund, YouTube shorts fund, and Monetization tools on Facebook/Instagram. In fact, 81.4% of creators received less than $2,500 from these creator funds. The funding from platforms are underwhelming to say the least.
| Received funding | % of creators |
| Yes | 27% |
| No | 73% |
| Amount of funds received | % of creators |
| $0-$250 | 18.60% |
| $250-500 | 29.70% |
| $500-1,000 | 17.80% |
| $1,000-2,500 | 15.30% |
| $2,500-5,000 | 9.30% |
| $5,000+ | 9.30% |
Brand sponsorships and partnerships remain the main revenue source due to the low revenue contribution from the creator funds. These funds are meant to be incentives and not as a revenue replacement from brands. Moreover, platforms tend to focus on niches and subsets of creators when it comes to these incentive programs. There will criteria attached to each of the funds – Like the Instagram NFT program – where only a subset of creators can benefit from it.
How Apple’s privacy policy is boosting influencer marketing trends
Apple’s new privacy policy requires all apps to ask for explicit permission from users to track and use their data. Essentially, it gives a user the option to opt-out from the start (Which many users will). It’s no longer an automated opt-in, where users are unaware they are sharing their data.
This greatly impacts targeting and measurements on platforms like Facebook which relies heavy on this tracking. Facebook has attributed up to 10 billion in revenue losses due to this changes.
However, this AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) does not apply to organic content. This means some marketers will shift their budget from directly spending on platform for ads, to creators’ who provide will promote the brand through their organic content/outreach.
Influencer marketing is not a replacement for the lack of tracking in advertising though. But it will help certain marketers while the advertising industry decides on a new standard of privacy.
Brands use creators for ad creatives
With a weaken targeting capability and tracking, it’s more important to stand-out and be more relevant through creatives. Brand continue to turn to creators for ad creatives because it tends to be less disruptive. They don’t interrupt the experience like how a well-polished ad might.
Brands are also moving towards creator-led creatives because most are shot simply with a smartphone – It’s quicker, cheaper and easier to produce.
Challenges with influencer marketing
While the power of influencer marketing is strong, they don’t come without their own challenges. Here are some old, long-term challenges and new struggles in influencer marketing.
Measurement issues in Influencer marketing
What can’t be measured can’t be justified and improved. This would appear like a cost center in front of a CFO. This is one of the biggest pain points in influencer marketing. There’s a lack of standardized metrics for measuring influencer marketing impact. And marketers struggle to show ROI. Measurements also differ between platforms, industries and content formats. This makes is hard to use a benchmark to justify spends as well. In a tough economic conditions, programs that don’t contribute to revenue, and underperforming, or can’t be measured usually gets cut.
However, there is no denying the reach, engagement, and influence that these creators command. Users also prefer following other users/personalities rather than a brand. Case in point, Elon Musk’s twitter has 109.6 million followers (10/23/22) while Tesla’s twitter page only has 17.6 million followers. Common sense would show that businesses should continue to invest in influencer marketing. Common sense isn’t common in many C-suite board meetings though (Which is how big companies fall, but that requires another article on it’s own).
How effective is Influencer Marketing?
According to Mediakix, previously a leading influencer marketing agency, they found that 80% of marketers found influencer marketing effective.
Only 5% of marketer said influencer marketing was ineffective and 15% was neutral. No marketer mention that it was ineffective.
71% of marketers also mentioned that the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other marketing sources. Only 6% of marketers disagree that influencer marketing drives good quality prospects.
Additionally, 89% of marketers mention that they’re seeing ROI from their influencer marketing programs. Only 11% of marketers say that influencer marketing is performing worse than other channels. In our opinion, ROI is subjective. Every marketer measures their success differently. And with measurement issues due to new privacy updates like Apple’s ATT, it will be even harder to attribute success to any marketing campaigns.
Best practices in influencer marketing
With the rapid changes in the influencer marketing space, what exactly should you focus on today and beyond? Here’s a list of best practices you should adopt to maximize returns from your influencer marketing efforts.
- Commit to budget at least $3,000 to $5,000 per month on TikTok to experiment. Prices are still low and it’s a great time to test it if you are new. Existing marketers should review their current investments and double down if results are positive.
- Focus on Instagram reels – Instagram is prioritizing reels now as they try to catch-up with TikTok. Marketers should gear their content to this format to ensure maximum reach.
- When dealing with YouTube creators, ensure that you get them to transform their long-form videos into YouTube shorts as well. You can easily do this with YouTube’s new convertor tool.
- Add shoppable branded content – Creators and marketers should add shopping tags or clear call to actions in their social media posts (Organic and Paid).
- Ensure creators are disclosing the paid partnerships on their posts.
- Explore creator licensing This gives brands access to boost the creator’s posts. Brands will be able to leverage on the creator’s audience data, and use creatives from the creator’s account. Brands will benefit from more organic-looking content, higher engagement, and more targeted audiences.
- Measure the results of your influencer marketing. Set respective goals for awareness, consideration and conversion phases.
Influencer Marketing Platform Market Size (2017 to 2027)
In 2022, it is expected for the influencer marketing platform market size to be valued at 202 million. By 2027, the projected market size will exceed 338 million dollars. Influencer market platform refers to platform and tools that helps clients connect with influencers, manage influencer campaigns, search and discovery of influencer/clients, relationship management, analytics and reporting.
| Influencer marketing platform market size worldwide from 2017 to 2027 | US Dollars |
| 2019 | 148.04 |
| 2020* | 164.12 |
| 2021* | 181.94 |
| 2022* | 201.70 |
| 2023* | 223.70 |
| 2024* | 247.89 |
| 2025* | 274.81 |
| 2026* | 304.65 |
| 2027* | 337.74 |
How much marketing is spent on Influencer marketing by agencies
Based on Statista, 39 percent of digital and PR agencies allocated 10 to 20 percent of marketing budget to influencer marketing. It’s interesting to see that 5% of PR/Digital agencies spent more than half of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.
How many influencers do brands work with?
Statista reported that the majority of brands (54%) work with 0 to 10 influencers. 24% of brands work with 10-50 influencers, while 22% of brands work with more than 50 influencers.
| Number of influencers brands worked with worldwide | % of brands |
| 0-10 | 54% |
| 10-50 | 24% |
| 50-100 | 14% |
| 100-1000 | 5% |
| 1000+ | 3% |
Gen Z follows influencers and other experts more than other age groups
Gen Z represents the future buyers of the world. It is important to understand what influences their buying decision and how they do they discover new products and services. 28% of Gen Z respondents reported following influencers and experts, which is the highest compared to Millennials, Gen X and Boomers.
| Age Group | Brands you purchase from/are considering purchasing from | Influencers or other experts |
| Gen Z (16-23) | 33% | 28% |
| Millennials (24-37) | 36% | 23% |
| Gen X (38-56) | 31% | 16% |
| Boomers (57-64) | 22% | 9% |
Categories Influencers are in on Instagram
According to Statista, 13.80% of influencers focus on Lifestyle topic/category, which is the largest category on Instagram. Beauty (8.56%), Music (8.27%), Photography (6.64%), Family (6.20%), Humor & fun (4.91%), Shows (4.24%, Modeling (3.93%), Cinema (3.81%), Fitness & gym (3.27%) make up the top 10 categories Instagram influencers are in.
| Distribution of Instagram influencers worldwide in 2021, by category and topics | Percentage of Influencers |
| Lifestyle | 13.80% |
| Beauty | 8.56% |
| Music | 8.27% |
| Photography | 6.64% |
| Family | 6.20% |
| Humor & fun & happiness | 4.91% |
| Shows | 4.24% |
| Modeling | 3.93% |
| Cinema & actors/actresses | 3.81% |
| Fitness & gym | 3.27% |
Topics and categories on Instagram with the most follower growth
The most popular topic on Instagram with the fastest follower growth for Influencers is Music (+632% year over year). Humor and happiness (579%), Literature & Journalism (340%), Cinema (200%), and Travel (137%) make up the top 5 topics in the world.
| Most popular Instagram influencer topics worldwide in 2020, based on average annual growth of followers | Follower Growth in Percentage |
| Music | 632% |
| Humor & fun & happiness | 579% |
| Literature & journalism | 340% |
| Cinema & actros/actresses | 200% |
| Travel | 137% |
Average Price Per Post for Instagram Influencers
Mega-influencers (with more than 1M) charge an average minimum price of $1,118 per post. Macro-influencers with followers from 100k – 1M charge a minimum price of $165 to a maximum price of $1,804 per post. Nano-influencers, with followers of 1k -5k, charge from $10 to $41 per post.
| Average price per post of Instagram influencers worldwide, by number of followers | Average Minimum Price | Average Maximum Price |
| Nano-influencers (1K-5K) | $10 | $41 |
| Micro-influencers (5K-20K) | $15 | $85 |
| Mid-influencers (20K-100K) | $33 | $296 |
| Macro-influencers (100K-1M) | $165 | $1,804 |
| Mega-influencers (over 1M) | $1,118 |
Earned media value from Instagram Influencer Posts
Earned media value refers to the monetary amount a brand gains from an influencer’s post/content. It assigns a calculatable value from the engagement of the influencer’s partnership content with brands.
| Average earned media value (EMV) of Instagram influencer posts worldwide in 2020, by number of followers (in U.S. dollars) | Average minimum EMV | Average maximum EMV |
| 1,000 to 5,000 | $9 | $75 |
| 5,000 to 20,000 | $35 | $223 |
| 20,000 to 100,000 | $128 | $657 |
| 100,000 to 1,000,000 | $1,155 | $4,311 |
| 1,000,000 and above | $5,133 |
Instagram Influencer Engagement Rates
Instagram influencers with less than 15,000 followers normally see an average of 3.86% engagement rate on each post. Engagement rates starts to decrease as the follower count increases. The engagement rates of 15,000 to 50,000 followers (2.39%), 50,000-100,000 followers (1.87%), 100,000-500,000 (1.62%), 500,000-1,000,000 (1.36%), >1,000,000 (1.21%) amounts to an average of 2.05% engagement rate (baseline) across each Instagram influencer post.
| Instagram influencers’ follower count | Engagement Rates |
| <15,000 | 3.86% |
| 15,000-50,000 | 2.39% |
| 50,000-100,000 | 1.87% |
| 100,00-500,000 | 1.62% |
| 500,000-1,000,000 | 1.36% |
| >1,000,000 | 1.21% |
How many followers do Instagram influencers have?
44.13% of Instagram influencers have 5,000-20,000 followers. The second most popular group are the nano-influencers (1,000-5,000 followers) with 27.86% of influencers being in this category. Influencers with 20,000-100,000 followers account for 22.73% of influencers, and celebrities with more than 1M followers make up 0.34% of influencers.
| Instagram Influencers’ follower count | Percentage of influencers with this follower count |
| 1,000 to 5,000 | 27.86% |
| 5,000 to 20,000 | 44.13% |
| 20,000 to 100,000 | 22.73% |
| 100,000 to 1,000,000 | 4.96% |
| 1,000,000 and above | 0.34% |
YouTube influencer engagement rate
YouTube influencers with less than 15,000 follower tend to see a higher baseline of engagement rate – 1.63%. The next highest engagement rate baseline would be 0.51% with YouTube Influencers with followers of 15,000-50,000. On average, the engagement rate across all YouTube influencer is 0.61%.
| YouTube influencer’s follower count | Engagement rate |
| <15,000 | 1.63% |
| 15,000-50,000 | 0.51% |
| 50,000-100,000 | 0.46% |
| 100,00-50,000 | 0.43% |
| 500,000-1,000,000 | 0.44% |
| >1,000,000 | 0.37% |
Most popular categories for YouTube influencers.
19.55% of YouTube influencers are posting videos in the Music and Dance category, making it the most popular. The next most popular categories are Animation (9.19%), Video Games (7.72%), Humor (7.09%), Design and art (6.88%), Daily vlogs (5.47%), Science and technology (4.63), Movies (4.43%), DIY (3.94%).
| Topic and Categories on YouTube | Percentage of Influencers |
| Music and dance | 19.55 |
| Animation | 9.19 |
| Video games | 7.72 |
| Humor | 7.09 |
| Design and art | 6.88 |
| Daily Vlogs | 6.29 |
| News and politics | 5.47 |
| Science and technology | 4.63 |
| Movies | 4.43 |
| DIY | 3.94 |
Average cost per post for YouTube Influencer
Mega-Influencers on YouTube with over 1M charge a minimum of $7,332 per post on YouTube. The next highest would be influencers with 100k-1M followers ($1,306 to $4,061), mid-influencers with 20k-100k followers ($389 to $1859), Micro-influencers with 5k-20k followers ($168 to $1,240), and nano-influencers with 1k-5k followers ($60 to $793).
| Influencers based on the number of followers | Average minimum price | Average maximum price |
| Nano-influencers (1K-5K) | $60 | $793 |
| Micro-influencers (5K-20K) | $168 | $1,240 |
| Mid-influencers (20K-100k) | $389 | $1,859 |
| Macro-influencers (100k-1M) | $1,306 | $4,061 |
| Mega-influencers (over 1M) | $7,332 |
Engagement Rate of TikTok Influencers
Mega-influencers (over 1M followers) have the highest engagement rate of 13.70%, followed by Micro-influencers (5k-20k followers) with 13.33% engagement rate, Macro-influencers (100k-1M followers) at 13.09% engagement rate, Mid-influencers (20k-100k) at 12.93% engagement rate, and Nano-influencers (1k-5k)- at 12.43% engagement rate.
| Types of TikTok Influencers based on Number of followers | Engagement Rate |
| Nano-influencers (1K-5K) | 12.43% |
| Micro-influencers (5k-20K) | 13.33% |
| Mid-influencers (20K-100K) | 12.93% |
| Macro-influencers (100K-1M) | 13.09% |
| Mega-influencers (over 1M) | 13.70% |
Distribution of TikTok Influencers by number of followers
According to Statista, 50.51% of TikTok influencer have about 1,000 to 5,000 followers on TikTok. 29.93% of influencers were reported to have 5,000 to 20,000 followers, making it the second largest group. And 15.20% of TikTok Influencers command 20,000 to 100,000 followers.
| Number of Follower on TikTok | Percentage of TikTok Influencers |
| 1,000 to 5,000 | 50.51 |
| 5,000 to 20,000 | 29.93 |
| 20,000 to 100,000 | 15.20 |
| 100,000 to 1,000,000 | 4.12 |
| 1,000,000 and above | 0.24 |
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is still small ($7B Spending) compared to the entire Digital Marketing ad ecosystem ($293.34). However, it is still growing even with a recurring pandemic and a likely recession, showing it’s resilience. Influencer marketing allows marketers to authentically reach out to large sets of audiences immediately, instead of building from scratch. Moreover, as Social media platforms continues to enhance features for influencers, we’ll continue to see more budgets shift into influencer marketing.
