If you’ve ever been convinced to try a product after seeing an influencer you love post about it on social media, whether on Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn, you’ll know just how powerful influencer marketing can be. Influencers, while not particularly new, are only now proving just how impactful they can be in driving brand awareness, engagement, and yes—even revenue. See how valuable influencers can be in growing your online presence with these 26 influencer marketing statistics pointing to their marketing impact.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing Statistics
Scroll through any social media app today, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t find at least five influencers promoting a brand, whether a general one or in a specific niche. The reason is simple: they’re effective. With social media being the powerhouse it is, influencers are probably your greatest asset in forming the authentic connections you sorely need with online audiences.
The statistics on influencer marketing below illustrate how influencers can benefit your small business marketing.
1. Influencers have an average engagement rate of 2.53%
This likely comes as no surprise, but influencer posts have an average engagement rate of 2.53%. While that doesn’t seem much, considering that the average engagement rate for any regular social media post is just at 1%, anything above that is already above standard. A reason for this is that in a digital landscape saturated with brands and ads, audiences prefer seeing and trusting real people more than ever.
2. Nano-influencers get 2.95% more engagement than macro-influencers
Perhaps even more surprising than the stat above is that influencers with fewer than 10,000 followers—aka nano-influencers—have a 2.95% higher engagement rate than bigger ones with over 200,000 followers (aka macro-influencers). This is because influencers with smaller followings often mean tighter circles and therefore more intimate connections with their followers.
Did you know? Influencers aren’t all just big names with millions of followers to their handle. There are multiple tiers of influencers depending on their follower count:
- Mega-influencers have over 1 million followers
- Macro-influencers have between 500,000 and 1 million followers
- Mid-tier influencers have between 50,000 and 500,000 followers
- Micro-influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers
- Nano-influencers have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers
Sometimes, the most effective influencers for your brand aren’t the ones with millions of followers, but the smaller-scale ones, with just a few thousand. They often have closer, more intimate connections with their followers. Learn more about influencers and how to leverage them.
3. 32% of marketers find influencers most effective for driving engagement
If you’re looking for ways to increase audience engagement with your brand, influencers are one of your best bets. In a 2022 survey, 32% of marketers found influencers most effective for increasing audience engagement. This was consistent across the globe, from Australia to North America.
Aside from engagement, influencers are also effective at driving social media traffic (19%) and lifting brand metrics (11%). Altogether, these influencer marketing stats point to its helpfulness in encouraging interactions from social media users, as well as improving brand affinity.
4. Influencers can increase conversion rates by 3× more
It’s no secret that partnering with an influencer can instantly bring you to new audiences. But influencers can also drive conversions, even by up to three times more, according to studies.
Picture this: you have items left in your cart that you’re still on the fence about checking out. You open TikTok and see an influencer you follow posting a discount code for that same brand. The discount code expires in 24 hours, so you immediately use it to buy that item you were eyeing. Limited-time offers like these are not particularly new in marketing, yet they’re one of the best ways to fully leverage influencers for more than just brand exposure and engagement.
5. Influencer content can decrease cost per acquisition by 30%
If you use content marketing to generate leads, you’re not alone. Content marketing can increase your topic authority and capture new leads. However, recent influencer marketing data show that you can boost this even further by leveraging influencers to create your content instead of doing so in-house. In fact, leveraging influencers to create content can even decrease your cost per acquisition (CPA) by 30 percent.
In retrospect, it’s still the same principle at work. Customers tend to trust influencers more than brands and therefore naturally gravitate to their content more. All it takes is finding influencers who match your brand and topic.
6. Over 44% of audiences have high trust in influencers
One of the biggest reasons influencer marketing is so effective is trust. Followers implicitly trust the influencers they follow more than brands, for the simple reason that people trust other people more than a faceless entity. In fact, according to a 2023 survey, over 44% of audiences said they had “high trust” in influencers. Meanwhile, less than 16% said they didn’t trust them at all.
This is important because trust is an important factor in any marketing strategy. It’s what converts casual viewers into customers and customers into loyal fans.
7. 84.8% of brands find influencer marketing effective
If you’re still doubting whether or not to include influencer marketing in your social media strategy, take it from the experts who’ve tried it and seen overwhelmingly positive results. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, 84.8% of brands who’ve leveraged influencer campaigns in the past believe it to be an overall effective strategy. It’s an increase from just 80% who believed so in 2017.
And this trend isn’t looking to stop anytime soon, with social media increasingly becoming our primary form of communication, and new players even joining in every few months (remember Threads and BeReal?). If there’s anything these influencer marketing stats prove, it’s that for as long as social media is relevant, so will influencers as a way for brands to reach consumers.
8. Every $1 spent on influencer marketing brings in $6.50 in return
Finally, influencers are also effective at fulfilling your bottom line. There’s even a number for it: studies have found that every $1 spent in influencer marketing brings in $6.50 in revenue. That means, when done right, influencer marketing can have up to 6.5× return on investment or ROI.
The key to getting influencer marketing right is a well-thought-out strategy. It’s not a simple matter of choosing an influencer and asking them to post a photo of your product. You’ll need to clearly define your objectives and how influencers can authentically contribute to your strategies—both to your brand and to their followers.
One of the biggest social media mistakes businesses make is choosing influencers who don’t align with their brand. Influencer marketing thrives on authenticity, and if your brand doesn’t feel an organic match with your influencer, their followers will notice—which can ultimately backfire against your brand.
Take the time to find the right influencers that seamlessly fit your brand identity, and trust them to create the content they know their followers will love.
Influencer Marketing Stats: Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, are two of the largest social media platforms in the world. Even the most digitally detached consumer will likely be at least on Facebook. Meanwhile, Instagram has steadily built its reputation as a social commerce giant and as the platform of choice for all things lifestyle and other visual-forward content.
Below, we’ll explore statistics about influencer marketing specifically on these two social media titans and how you can get the best out of them.
9. Instagram is the #1 influencer platform for brands in 2024
When you think “influencer,” your mind probably automatically goes to Instagram—and it’s no wonder. Over the past decade, Instagram has often been the go-to for brand collaborations, especially in the retail or lifestyle space, like fashion, makeup, or home decor. And the majority of brands agree, with 90% choosing Instagram as their influencer platform of choice in 2024.
So if you think Instagram is the best match for your business, then by all means, go ahead. However, Instagram is only particularly effective if you have a visually oriented business, as it’s a visual-first platform, which is why niches like beauty and lifestyle have found much success on it. But if you do go with Instagram, remember that competition can be a lot tougher.
10. Nano-influencers have the highest engagement rate on Instagram at 2.19%
If you do focus on Instagram in your influencer strategy, you might have more luck with small-scale influencers instead of mega-influencers with millions of followers. In 2023, nano-influencers on Instagram had an average engagement rate of 2.19%, higher than the overall average of 1.85 percent.
So if your primary objective is to get people to engage with your brand and product, opt for nano- or micro-influencers instead, as they often have stronger connections with their followers.
11. Gen Zers and millennials make up over 62% of Instagram users
To nobody’s surprise, Instagram is where you’ll find most (more than 62%) Gen Zers and millennials, aka adults aged 18 to 34. It’s where you’ll have the highest chance of reaching them in some way, compared with Gen Xers and baby boomers, who only make up less than half of the Instagram crowd. In fact, the older the generation, the less likely they’ll be on Instagram.
12. Facebook influencers have the highest cost per engagement at $15.30 CPE
Cost per engagement (CPE) is the average cost you’ll pay an influencer for each engagement their post gets, whether a like, comment, share, or link click. Every platform has its own cost per engagement, but studies show that Facebook has, somewhat surprisingly, the highest of all at $15.30 per engagement. In comparison, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube all have a CPE of less than $1.
It’s unclear why Facebook has a significantly higher CPE than other social media platforms. But a possible explanation is that it’s simply too populated—both in audience and content. With so many brands making so much noise, standing out is all the more difficult. It’s also why I don’t generally recommend Facebook influencer marketing for getting engagements or conversions. Instead, use it to gain brand awareness.
13. 53% of people use Facebook primarily to follow brands
Here’s one of the more optimistic Facebook influencer marketing statistics: 53% of Facebook users say their main purpose with the platform is to keep up to date with brands (although their main purpose is still for connecting with friends and family).
This is also significant for another reason: it signals to social media, especially Facebook’s, increasing role as an ecommerce search engine. While most people still use Facebook for connecting with friends and family, a growing number are using it for brand research. So is it still worth getting on Facebook? The answer is yes. Making a Facebook page for your business can still get you thousands of eyeballs—even if you don’t leverage influencer marketing.
TikTok Influencer Marketing Statistics
You probably know TikTok as the “it” social media platform of the moment, especially for today’s youngest spending power: Gen Z. TikTok is also well-associated with authenticity. Many users use it to post unfiltered snapshots of their daily lives in 30-second (or less) videos, bringing a new level of social media intimacy unreached by TikTok’s predecessors. This unprecedented success has prompted Instagram and YouTube to launch their own versions, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, in response.
So it’s only natural that brands want to leverage TikTok to connect with audiences in authentic ways. Aside from influencers, UGC (aka user-generated content) marketing offers a similar way to reach audiences on the platform. The statistics of influencer marketing below are proof of TikTok as a steadily growing force in influencer marketing.
14. 89% of creators plan to leverage TikTok the most in 2024
That’s more than any other social media platform, including Instagram—brands’ top pick for influencers. TikTok’s uniqueness as a platform is simply hard to beat, with 89% of creators preferring it over other platforms for sharing content, including similar iterations like Instagram Reels. At least for the near future, the original short-form video-sharing app still reigns supreme. And if you’ve ever fallen into a TikTok rabbit hole of niche content, it’s not hard to see why.
15. TikTok influencers have an average engagement rate of 10.1%
Here’s another reason to consider TikTok in your influencer marketing strategy: in 2023, TikTok influencers and creators had an average engagement rate of 10.1%. That’s across all niches and follower counts. So to the question of whether short-form videos are an effective content type, the answer is a resounding yes. That’s especially so for “lo-fi” content, aka unpolished, spontaneous content like “get ready with me” or “day in the life” videos.
16. 55% of users say TikTok creators help them feel closer to a brand
If you need any more proof of TikTok’s knack for authenticity and brand affinity, 55% of TikTok users say influencers on the platform help them feel closer to a brand. That’s significant because while influencers in the past primarily helped brands get in front of new audiences, TikTok creators can go even further and encourage customer loyalty to your brand—a significant part of any content marketing strategy.
YouTube Influencer Marketing Stats
You can’t talk about influencer marketing without mentioning the launchpad of them all, YouTube. It’s easy to forget, but YouTube was one of the earliest platforms for content creators to partner with brands to promote their products and services. After all, it’s where product reviews, unboxing videos, and vlogs were born, aka what we know today as influencer marketing strategies.
And with video still one of the most effective content formats, YouTube is still a creator and influencer giant—and a significant marketing opportunity for brands. The statistics below show just how much.
17. YouTube is the #2 most visited website in the world
Today, YouTube is far more than just a video-sharing platform. In the decade and a half since its creation, YouTube’s growth has been nothing short of atmospheric, launching everything from music careers to the creator economy. It’s grown so much that it’s now the second most visited website in the world, just after Google and above Facebook.
While there’s no questioning YouTube’s popularity, this is also significant because it signals that audiences today treat YouTube as a secondary search engine to Google, in turn signaling video’s growing power as a credible source of information.
What does that mean for your small business? That incorporating YouTube into your content strategy is more important than ever. More than that, create meaningful, informative videos relevant to your audience’s needs and wants. And, partner with creators who can make them effectively.
18. YouTubers have an average engagement rate of 49.5%
That’s according to 2023 data from Aspire, and it’s the highest engagement rate out of any social media platform by far—including TikTok, which comes in second. It’s also solid proof that video remains the most engaging content format online, whether short- or long-form, both of which YouTube has plenty of.
What makes YouTube particularly different, however, is that its longer videos give creators more time to go into detail about the products and services they’re promoting, much more than static images or even short-form videos. Not only are these more informative, they also connect with audiences more meaningfully.
Creators vs influencers: There’s not much difference between creators and influencers, but their key distinction is in their follower count. Influencers tend to have larger follower counts and thus a larger “scope of influence,” while creators can be any user posting content on their social media account, no matter their follower size.
Creators also tend to have a more creative slant and might post things like art and photography, while influencers are simply people with a large social following. It’s why celebrities can be influencers and not creators, while creators can still be influencers.
19. Nearly 52% of people watch educational or informative videos on YouTube regularly
People aren’t just coming on to YouTube for entertainment (although that’s still their number one purpose). An increasing number are going on YouTube for educational or informational purposes. According to a 2024 survey, nearly 52% of YouTube users between the ages of 16 and 64 say they use YouTube to watch educational or how-to videos once a week.
These informational videos can be anything from learning a new language to finding out how to fix a leaky faucet. The point is, with YouTube being a video platform, informational content is a natural fit. Understanding a complex concept is far easier through videos than through written blogs.
20. 23.4% of users watch influencer vlogs on YouTube once a week
While a good number of people use YouTube to learn new things, 23.4% say they use it to catch up with their favorite vloggers and influencers. This means nearly a quarter of YouTube’s audience go on the platform regularly for the sole purpose of catching up with the people they follow—regardless of what content they publish. Whether they post a new product review or a regular weekly vlog, their audience is there.
In other words, YouTube influencer marketing provides plenty of opportunities for fostering customer engagement and loyalty—especially if you work with creators long-term. With the right management and strategy, you can win over their fan base to your brand.
How Brands and Influencers Work with Each Other
Influencer marketing is all about forming good relationships. And no, not just between influencers and their followers. For your influencer strategy to work, you’ll need to find good influencers and form good relationships with them. Below are statistics that cover how brands and influencers work with each other.
21. Brands spend 29% of their marketing budget on influencers
According to a 2024 study, most brands allocate about 29% of their marketing budget to influencer marketing. And if that sounds like a sizable number, it’s set to increase. 69% of the brands also plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2024.
So there’s no question that influencer marketing isn’t slowing down. On the contrary, expect it to keep growing over the next few years. That’s primarily because it’s remained so effective for every stage of the sales funnel, from growing your brand awareness to even fostering customer loyalty. It also feels more authentic, especially in a highly saturated digital world with ads on just about every screen.
22. 93% of creators are willing to work with brands for free products
While many brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets, a surprising 93% of creators are willing to work with brands in exchange for free products. But there’s a caveat: they’re only willing to work with them if the products are high quality or they love the brand.
Again, good relationships with influencers are a key factor. When working with influencers, treating them as a long-term investment is ultimately more rewarding than a one-off strategy. With a long-term partnership, their followers become more closely acquainted with your brand. That’s also why selecting the best influencers for your brand is so important.
23. Nearly 50% of brands pay influencers at a flat rate
For monetary compensation, 49.6% of brands still prefer paying influencers a flat rate. This means you pay influencers a set number per post, say $200 per TikTok video. However, with brand-influencer partnerships becoming more long-term, brands are exploring alternative ways to pay influencers.
For example, affiliate marketing, a subgenre of influencer marketing, pays affiliates a commission for every sale. Meanwhile, some brands pay different prices for their products, and some offer tiered incentives. Whichever payment structure you choose, communicate it clearly with your influencers.
24. Over 76% of brands run influencer campaigns in-house
Not only are brands running more influencer campaigns, but they’re increasingly comfortable running them on their own. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, 76.2% of brands manage their influencer campaigns entirely in-house, without partnering with an external influencer management agency.
The good news is that many influencer management platforms make the process much easier, even if you have minimal experience with influencer management. Platforms like Later.com and Sprout Social have tools that source, manage, and pay influencers.
If you’re completely new to influencer marketing and are looking for the best platform to help you, I recommend Later Influence. It connects you with over 10 million influencers to find the right ones for your brand and allows you to collaborate with them and track their results—all in one platform, which is also easy to navigate. If you plan to invest in influencer marketing in the long term, it’s one of the best tools to take with you.
25. Over 54% of brands measure influencer marketing success through impressions
While influencer marketing has proven effective for multiple marketing objectives, most brands still find it most adept at increasing views and impressions. In a recent survey, over 54% of brands said their foremost marker of success in influencer marketing was increasing their views and impressions.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that impressions are your only success metric. You can also measure your ROI from every campaign and the number of link clicks you get. Moreover, before launching any influencer campaign, clearly outline your objectives and targets beforehand.
26. 37.6% of brands work with no more than 10 influencers
More isn’t always more in marketing. On the contrary, with influencers, brands prefer working with a select few. According to a survey, 37.6% of businesses work with no more than 10 influencers to promote their brand. Less than 15% of brands work with more than 100 influencers.
However, it’s not all so straightforward. Some major factors that play into that are cost, the type of influencers you’re working with (nano- vs mega-influencers), and your niche and industry. More than how many influencers you partner with, what’s more important is to select the best ones to represent your brand and meet your objectives.
Frequently Asked Questions
While there is no defined “success rate” for influencer marketing, influencers have proven to have an average engagement rate of 2.53%, which is significantly higher than the average of 1 percent. Moreover, studies have found that influencer marketing can bring up to 6.5× ROI and can decrease CPA by 30%.
Influencer marketing has an average ROI of $6.50 for every $1 spent, meaning it can bring up to 6.5 times your investment in revenue. However, this also varies depending on how you strategize your campaign, your niche, the length and frequency of your campaigns, the platforms you run them on, and the tier of influencers you work with. In general, video-centric platforms like YouTube and TikTok bring the highest ROI among other social platforms.
Yes. Influencer marketing statistics suggest that it’s grown even more effective in recent years, with average engagement rates of up to 2.53% and returns of up to 6.5× your investment. Influencer marketing can also increase conversions (up to three times more) and create more meaningful connections with audiences, leading to brand loyalty. In all, influencers act as a more authentic and trustworthy source for audiences, which they can bring to brands.
Bottom Line
If you’re still on the fence about incorporating influencers into your marketing strategy, the statistics above prove how effective it can be. In 2024 and beyond, audiences are looking for more authentic and meaningful experiences online—and they’re increasingly finding them through influencers and creators. If the influencer marketing statistics above are any indication, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue.
