Do you work with influencers to promote your brand? Here is the important list of 30+ influencer marketing statistics for the year 2023.
In this era of technology driven innovation; every individual, more or less, comes across some form of social media and handles its user interface. Like it or hate it but everyone in The Gen z is a user of the social media system.
Brand popularity is a big thing going on the internet. 48% of the world’s population is currently active on the net through various social media engagement platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Twitch. Believe it or not but the fact is; the active user segment does not only follow their loved ones or their acquaintances on social media but brand following is also a big part of their following list. Around 54% of users follow their favored and treasured brands while browsing their social media handles across different platforms to make buying a more enjoyable and a hassle free experience.
Getting to the nex bit; the promotions of these brands highly depend on the Influencers- people with large social media following. Influencers play a key role in helping customers make the buying decisions. Influencers often collaborate with the brands to attract new customers towards their products and services.
As we look to 2023, many brands might be wondering if influencer marketing is the right thing to do for their business? To help you with this decision, we share 30+ influencer marketing statistics, including the costs, platform engagement, and ROI you can expect from various influencer marketing activities and channels. With these stats, you’ll be able to create a more informed marketing strategy.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers–individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche.
For every influencer’s public post the Ecommerce brands and platforms can give away products, pay for sponsored endorsements, or collaborate on a big creative project.
According to the data; it can be said that around 61% of the consumers trust the influencer recommendations and make buying decisions based on their suggestions. Whereas, more than 38% consumers trust branded social media content uploaded by the companies (which is often considered as biased). Understanding the target market and target audience is a key step in a brand’s journey; hence identifying and collaborating with the influencers your target market follows, can give the brand a great amount of boost and help raise brand awareness to witness positive impacts for overall business.
The Influencer Marketing Landscape
Let’s take a good look at the current Influencer Marketing Landscape, now that we have understood the concept of Influencer Marketing.
Influencer Marketing Industry estimated to Reach $16.5B In the year 2022
Influencer Marketing is very lucrative. The market has only seen itself grow in the past few years. This Year, the market is projected to expand to a whopping $ 16.5 billion industry.
This growth is marked by the increasing popularity of short video social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. The effect of the global pandemic on consumers has catalyzed social media consumption, and the optimization of data collection, which marketers use for social media ads.
Influencer Marketing has created a strong impact on the market functioning nowadays. Brands have seen a higher percentage of users when they have collaborated with influencers for marketing purposes. The number of companies and service providers that support this industry have also risen. Influencer marketing related companies grew 26% in 2021 to 18,900 providers worldwide.
Data shows that more than half of the brands working with influencers have ecommerce stores. Not only does this demonstrate the rise of ecommerce businesses, it also suggests that ecommerce businesses are particularly well-suited to the influencer marketing model. Around 50.7% of the brands have collaborated and are working with the influencer run ecommerce stores to carry out their business and help them promote their brand and products.
The types of Influencers
Influencers act as potential partners with whom you may collaborate to advertise your brand and product. But how to choose the right type of influencer to market your products and brands is very important. Without the right knowledge about the contents of the influencer spectrum; one can find it to be a tedious task to select the right type of influencer for their brand.
To make the job easier and to give the brands an insight on this topic, we have divided the types of influencers into five categories to help you understand this concept better-
- Nano Influencers- Followers between 1,000 and 5,000
- Micro Infuencers- Followers between 5,000 and 20,000
- Power/ Mid-Tier- Followers between 20,000 and 100,000
- Mega Influencers- Followers between 100,000 and 1 Million
- Celebrities- More than 1 Million Followers
Micro Influencers will play the bigger part in Brand Conversations
According to Forbes, the brand conversations will see a major role played by the Micro- Influencers and they will be the bigger part in the overall B2B conversation and will stand at an important post when it comes to advertising services and solutions for businesses.
Influencers ranging in the 10k to 100k followers offers the best combination of Engagement and Reach
According to a research done by Mediakix; it is believed that influencers ranging in the 10k to 100k follower range are mostly the mid-tier influencers and brands should sharply focus on them for influencer marketing purposes. Celebrities with huge following often have low engagement which will not result in profit for the brands.
Influencer Marketing Engagement Stats to look for in the new year
It is clearly visible that Influencer Marketing has an edge in promoting your brand if you use it in the right sense. It includes engagement that is an important point that brands need to keep in mind. The trends in the influencer engagement segment often remain the same over a short period of time. So brands can analyze the data from previous years and can know what to expect from influencer marketing in the year 2022.
A general pattern can be observed when looking at the instagram accounts. Influencers with higher following often have low engagement rates and influencers with mid range following can have a high engagement rate. This is true that the influencer engagement rate is different for every platform with Instagram having the highest engagement rate of 4.84% followed by Youtube having an overall engagement rate of 4.064% for accounts with followers ranging in 1k and 5k.
Demographics Impacted by Influencers
Many people of various age groups are active across different social media platforms. But the number of active users on social media differs by generation and age range.
Gen Z is most influenced by social media influencers
The current generation is most influenced by social media. Influencer marketing works best with Gen Z(Ages 16 and 23) as they are well aware and acquainted with the ways of Social media.
But it gets tougher as you go for the older audiences. Their connection with the social media platforms is not well established. The percentage of people following social media influencers decreases with age. Just 23% Of Millenials, 16% of Gen X, and 9% of Boomers follow influencers on social media.
It’s not completely out of the picture if you consider getting the Boomers and the tougher crowds. All you have to do is to target the right strategy and improvise your marketing campaign that attracts them both at an intellectual and emotional level.
The best method to understand how your mix of audience is going to be, is to survey and research how your brands and products impact and affect them. Getting good knowledge on buying patterns and buying behaviors will enable you to target your market effectively and efficiently by allowing you to select the right type of influencer for influencer marketing strategy.
More than 50% of consumers in the age range of 18-24 have their first contact with social media each day on their smartphones.
Around 57% of young audiences ranging from ages 18 to 24 use social media for a major part of their days. They get all sorts of infotainment from news to info-related pieces right from the social media platforms. This figure changes as we go up in the age range. The percentage drops to 29% of people aged 35 who use social media platforms for infotainment purposes.
Platform-specific influencer marketing statistics
Influencers are available across different types of social media platforms. Their popularity, follower count, and average engagement rate differ from platform to platform—as do the number of users who buy products sponsored by influencers.
Instagram is Still a Viable Avenue for Users to Find New Products and Services.
There is no doubt that Instagram is one of the most influential social media platforms that is available to us today. It is an integral part of the social media ecosystem. Around 79% of the marketers consider Instagram as an important tool to boost up their marketing campaigns. It’s no wonder that even in 2022, it’s still a worthwhile source of leads. Instagram has a global reach and is a versatile platform with 83% of its users turning to it to find new brands and products each day. 87% of the people take actions after seeing the posts with product information on Instagram. like clicking links, following the brand pages or making a purchase.
Almost all the Brands use Instagram for Influencer Marketing
Instagram is an influencer hub for brands as the major influencer crowd is found on this social media platform. The percentage of brands that consider instagram an integral part of their business and brand promotion have now increased from 68% in 2020 to 79% in 2022; this is a significant increase.
Other Social Media platforms play a significant role in Influencer marketing just as Instagram does.
It is still true that Instagram is a user favorite when it comes to influencer marketing but over the years other brands have played a role in promoting the concept of influencer marketing too.
Facebook Usage for Influencer Marketing has increased from 7% to 50%. TikTok remained relatively steady increasing to 46% from 45% and YouTube also saw an increase to 44%, up from 36% in 2020.
Despite its declining popularity, Facebook still appears at the top of the list of influencer marketing platforms. Because, despite its declining performance, it’s still the largest social network in the world.
Not only that, but ecommerce brands have access to a whole host of features that make it easy to collaborate with the outer side of traditional posts. For example, you could:
- Partner with an influencer to host a live stream
- Pay to amplify an influencer’s Facebook endorsement with other users
- Create Facebook Stories that appear at the top of a users’ Facebook feed.
Cost of the Influencers
Social Media platforms usually come with added monetary benefits. Influencers gain their primary or secondary source of income from social media. But how much should you have up your cuff when partnering with an influencer for sponsored posts? Well we have got you covered there!
Nano Influencers charge between $31 to $315per social media post
Nano influencers are the influencers with the following that is around 5000. These types of Influencers show the highest engagement rates and brands benefit from them at reasonable rates.
The good news is that nano influencers demand the lowest rates per sponsored post. Expect to pay:
- $100 for an Instagram Post
- $114 for an Instagram video
- $43 for an Instagram story
- $31 for a Facebook post
Across the board, YouTubers seem to charge the highest fees. Nano influencers reportedly demand $315 per sponsored video.
Micro Influencers charge between $73 to $318 per social media post
Micro Influencers are the influencers with 5000 to 30000 followers. They charge around-
- $172 for an Instagram post
- $219 for an Instagram video
- $73 for an Instagram story
- $318 for a Facebook post
- $908 for a YouTube video
If this is the type of influencer you’re working with, test the waters with a sponsored Instagram Story. It’s the cheapest way to judge whether an influencer’s audience is a good fit for you—especially if the influencer shares their Story statistics post-collaboration.
Power influencers charge between $210 and $775 per social media post
Influencers with 30,000 to 500,000 followers demand higher fees because they have a wider pool of potential customers for brands to tap into. They typically earn:
- $507 for an Instagram post
- $775 for an Instagram video
- $210 for an Instagram story
- $243 for a Facebook post
- $782 for a YouTube video
Celebrities charge between $2,085 and $3,318 per social media post
Defined as those with more than 500,000 followers, celebrity influencers earn the most for sponsored content. eMarketer gave conservative estimates of:
- $2,085 for an Instagram post
- $3,318 for an Instagram video
- $721 for an Instagram story
- $2,400 for a Facebook post
- $3,857 for a YouTube video
Celebrities often demand a higher rate for promotions of brands. It has been witnessed that they also have lower engagement rates. All these points must be considered when collaborating with a celebrity influencer.
The ROI of Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is a tool for every brand with all kinds of budget sizes. A brand just has to perfectly match its demand with the social media platform influencer supply
“Influencer marketing at its Core is about Developing Real Relationships to Ultimately Champion Your Influencers to Market with You.”
- Amanda Maksymiw
A brand must keep certain statistics in mind when considering the option of Influencer Marketing’s ROI.
Brands believe ROI from Influencer Marketing is comparable to or better than Other Marketing Channels
In the research conducted by BigCommerce Influencer marketing Survey, around 89% of the respondents do believe that ROI provided Influencer Marketing is way better than other forms of marketing channels.
“Influencer Marketing ROI blows online advertising out of the water. However, using influencers to solely drive awareness is as cost effective as Paula Deen Fitness Camp. The key to effective use of Influencers is their ability to cause behavior”
-Jay Baer
70% of the Marketers Measure the ROI from their Influencer Marketing Campaigns
Marketers in the Influencer Marketing Segment measure their ROI from their Influencer Marketing Campaigns. In recent years the figure has risen to 70% of the marketers doing so. This simply means that 30% of the firms do not measure their ROI and their success from the Influencer Marketing Campaigns. As an influencer; it must be kept in mind that the brands should use your performance as the stats to measure their ROI. This is a very important step to ensure that the compensation that will be received is fair and deserving.
28.1% of Brands that run Campaigns In-House say that Measuring ROI and Campaign Results is the Most Significant Challenge for them.
The percentage has risen up from 23.5% last year. Brands also indicated problems with finding influencers for their campaigns (27.4%), managing contracts and deadlines for campaigns (14%, down from 2020’s 21%), processing payments to influencers (8.3%), and bandwidth or time restraints (13.3%), up from last years 9.5%.
Influencer Marketing Challenges
Influencer Marketing has its own perks. But it does come with its own disadvantages as well. If not done properly, then Influencer Marketing can result in losses. There are certain key points associated with the concept of Influencer Marketing. As the landscape is ever changing and marketers are facing some challenges that are worth keeping in mind; let’s check a few of them-
Marketers and the Brands are concerned about Influencer Fraud
Brands are always afraid of Influencer Fraud. The system of Influencers does not provide a strong foundation and can be a fraudulent network. Fortunately, we now have tons of tools that can help detect fraudulent influencer activity and reduce the effects of influencer fraud.
Brands Struggle to Find Appropriate Influencers
Around 22% of brands struggle to find appropriate influencers as the Influencer marketing space has grown more competitive. 56% of the brands rate the task of finding influencers as of ‘medium difficulty’. 22% rank it as ‘difficult’. Moving ahead with the latest Influencer Benchmark Report Survey; around 22% consider this task as ‘easy’. Finding an influencer that’s a good match for your brand is going to be tough for your in-house team to do alone, so it might be worth outsourcing the job to influencer agencies. These agencies can streamline the process for you and assist you in finding the best creators for the job.
Marketers rate ROI as the Number 1 Challenge
Around 78% marketers still struggle to effectively measure the ROI of Influencer campaigns, according to a study from Mediakix. Accurately calculating the EMV can be considered a complicated affair but most of the marketers now consider Earned Media Value to be the best measure of success.
10% of Instagram accounts are Bots(Fake accounts)
Instagram Social media platform comes with a lot of advantages for the brand who are willing to invest in the Influencer Marketing campaigns but the fact is that not all the influencer accounts on this platform are considered ‘real’. Many of these bot accounts follow creator accounts, to make it look like they have more ‘real’ followers than they actually do. Some influencers even buy fake followers from shady websites to inauthentically increase their follower count.
As a brand, you must avoid working with these kinds of influencer imposters. The primary reason being that the bot accounts aren’t going to convert to sales. The challenge for marketers is spotting these fake followers and inauthentic engagement.
The best way to do so is to carefully consider any influencer you want to work with. Do they seem to have organic following? What kind of content are they publishing? Do their followers seem to be engaging with their posts as expected? These are the kinds of questions a brand should be considering and researching about these accounts thoroughly.
Influencer Marketing in 2022 and Beyond
The impact of Influencer Marketing is great. This concept has benefitted both the brands and the influencer segment by a substantial rate. This is a whole new sector for business that we have seen emerging in recent years. With the upcoming years; influencer marketing will only get stronger as more and more brands will be heavily relying on it to run their marketing campaigns.
Marketers will increase their spending on influencers by 2023
Keeping the success of the influencer marketing concept, we can say that the brands will only increase their investment in this marketing channel. By the next year, Influencer marketing expenditure is projected to reach $4.6 Billion in the US alone. In the current financial year, the expenditure is expected to grow to $4.14 Billion, compared to 2021’s $3.69 Billion.
Brands Intend to dedicate a Significant Budget to Influencer Marketing in 2022
The brands that have now allotted separate budgets for the content marketing have increased from 4% in 2020 to 59% in 2022. Hubspot reports show that 70% of brands use influencer marketing; though this number seems a bit low at the moment; there is a strong possibility that this figure just means that many brands have not separated their marketing budget into different segments or types of marketing channels yet.
Influencer Marketing Stats – Let’s Sum It Up!!!
After getting insight on this article and understanding the concept of Influencer Marketing, we can very well say that this is the future of the marketing channels. To boost up the sales; many brands will collaborate with the new influencer market to see high-profile social media users with potential to meaningfully impact your operations towards the positive side.
These statistics will help many brands make the right decisions with informed decision making skills. All the major questions like what type of influencer to collaborate with, what channel to select on a primary basis, and what ROI should they expect from Influencer Marketing; can be answered with these statistics
SMMILE TEAM
Smmile is a Digital Marketing Agency in Singapore with over 10 years of experience in the industry.