Anyone with a giant platform on social media gets the title of an influencer, whether they agree or not. By definition, it’s someone with influence.
And so, influencer marketing is a part of social media marketing. Influencers use subtle and sometimes blatant methods to promote a product or service. They have celebrity status in front of their fans. Endorsements from them can lead to increased purchase and brand visibility.
In return, influencers either receive upfront payment or a part of the commission, bringing it closer to affiliate marketing in some regards. The influencer marketing statistics for 2023 will help you understand how to incorporate influencer promotions into your strategy, budgeting, etc.
Influencer Marketing Key Statistics for 2023-2024
Source: HubSpot
4 out of 10 marketers agree influencers bring in more sales. In total, 91% of marketers believe influencer marketing brings in results in the form of brand positioning, sales, and awareness. 82% of marketers plan on setting aside a budget for influencer marketing.
80% of marketers work with smaller influencers over celebrities and famous content creators. However, the 2023 Social Media Marketing report from HubSpot counts all influencers with followers under 100K as small.
Only 16% of marketers contact celebrity influencers with over 1 million followers. The budget seems to be the number 1 factor when choosing influencers, with 44% working with small influencers because they are less expensive.
Another 44% prefer smaller influencers because they are more collaborative, while 41% do so to tap into a small-knit community of followers, banking on better engagement.
- 41% of marketers prefer smaller creators as they are open to feedback.
- 37% predict higher engagement with smaller influencers.
- 35% of marketers choose smaller influencers as their followers trust them over larger creators.
Marketers’ preference for influencers comes from their ability to influence consumer’s decisions. In a three-month time period, 21% of social media users from the age of 18 to 54 have purchased something because an influencer recommended the product.
If we break it down by age, 32% of Gen Z, 31% of Millenials, and 18% of Gen X purchased a product trusting an influencer’s recommendation.
31% of social media users find influencers discover new products via influencers they follow. 43% of Gen Z use influencer recommendation as their primary channel for product discovery.
The US has the biggest share of influencers, with 49% of Instagram influencers’ posts coming from the US. However, when it comes to the consumption of influencer content, Brazil and China are at the top.
Up until 2019, China was the biggest consumer of influencer marketing. This switched in 2021, with Brazil taking the number 1 spot as an active influencer consumer. China’s consumption rate dropped to 35% compared to other countries, with India and Mexico behind at 31% and 28% respectively.
- 55 million urban Indians were active influencer consumers in 2022.
- US takes up a mere 13% when it comes to following influencer content.
- Italy and South Korea are in the 5th and 6th spots.
61% of consumers respond the most to relatable influencers. 43% find subject matter influencers appealing. Only 11% found influencers with a celebrity persona appealing, dropping significantly from 22% in 2020.
While consumers trust influencers due to the belief they are more genuine about their product recommendations over celebrities and brand reviews, 1 in 4 social media users still follow virtual influencers.
This is an odd contrast, as virtual influencers are clearly run by brands, making them untrustworthy as they should find the brand. Even so, virtual influencers appear to be the biggest change marketers have to prepare for.
Influencer Marketing Market Size 2023-2024
Source: Statista
The global influencer marketing market size is estimated at $21.1 billion in 2023. This is $4.7 billion more than in 2022 at $16.4 billion. The influencer marketing growth points toward a whopping CAGR of 28.66% if we rely on these numbers.
Even in India, the influencer market industry value was at 12 billion Indian rupees in 2022. The projected compound annual growth rate for the next 5 years is at 25%. It’s expected the total market size for influencer marketing will be at 28 billion rupees by 2026.
When we look at China, we see even bigger numbers with the influencer marketing industry valued at 100 billion yuan in 2021. According to projections, it would skyrocket to 7 trillion yuan in 2025.
Note: These numbers are both in each country’s respective currencies and can go way lower when converted to US dollars.
The Grand View Research finds the influencer marketing platform market size to be at $2.8 billion in the U.S. in 2021. The CAGR from 2022 to 2030 is projected at 29.3%.
Source: Grand View Research
According to a report from Insider Intelligence, influencer marketing spending in 2023 amounted to $6.16 billion in the US alone. This marks a 23.4% increase from 2022, when the spending equaled $4.99 billion.
Source: Insider Intelligence
For the year 2024, the current projection points to spending of $7.14 billion. This indicates the US industry will spend 15.9% less on influencer marketing in the coming year.
While 2024 would be the year with the largest spending on influencers, the spending growth is highest from 2020 to 2021. The US industry spent $3.90 billion in 2021, as opposed to $2.90 billion in 2020. This means the industry spending grew by 34.7% in the time period.
Of note, the valuation only includes cash payments made to influencers to promote a product or service, be it on their platform or for user-generated content (UGC). It does not take into account gifts and trips made instead of monetary compensation.
In reality, a significant portion of influencer marketing occurs in exchange for free products, trips, and expensive restaurant trips free of cost. Basically, the influencer gets to keep or try the product or service they’re promoting.
The Statista report is also different, estimating the US spending on influencer marketing to be at $3.7 billion in 2021.
Influencer Marketing Industry Stats 2023-2024
According to a study, increasing the influencer spending budget even by 1% results in an engagement increase of 0.5%. If brands factor in these insights, the influencer marketing industry’s blooming is inevitable.
77% of marketers had set aside a budget for influencers in 2022. This jumped to 82% in 2023. The numbers are more impressive when you account for only 37% of marketers budgeted for influencers in 2017.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub survey, 67% of brands also plan on increasing their budget for influencers in 2023. 15% would stick to the same budget as 2022 and 11% are undecided about the budget.
About 7% of brands are considering lowering their influencer marketing budget. Considering 43% of marketers and brands spend less than $10,000 per year on influencers, increasing or decreasing the budget isn’t bringing a big change in their pocket.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Only 11% of brands have spent more than $500K on influencers in a year. It is likely this is also the portion working with influencers who have over 1 million followers.
22% of brands spend $10k to $50k on influencers. 14% spend about $50k to $100k.
Even though brands spend a minimum amount on influencers, they work with over 10 influencers in a year, creating a large campaign. 21% of brands work with 10 to 50 influencers. 16% of brands work with 50 to 100 influencers.
A small, but significant portion work with over 1000 influencers in a year.
To track down these influencers, 55% of marketers depend on social media. 47% ask an agency to find an influencer for them, while 44% rely on some sort of online platform.
Social Media Influencer Statistics 2023-2024
3.8 million posts on Instagram in 2021 were brand-sponsored, with the #ad hashtag on the post. According to the HubSpot survey, Instagram is the most used social media platform for influencers, with 72% of marketers working with them there.
30% of marketers consider Instagram as the platform which yields the highest ROI. 32% also claim it provides them with easier access to influencers.
The second most preferred platform after Instagram is TikTok at 61%. 58% work with influencers on YouTube and 57% work with Facebook influencers.
20% of marketers believe YouTube and Facebook have the biggest ROI when working with influencers. TikTok is at last, with only 14% claiming the ROI is high.
81% of marketers believe the face of most companies would be influencers and creators. 47% have increased their investment based on this prediction, while 41% is happy to stay at the previous budget.
41% of influencers collaborating with marketers on social media are in the fashion industry. 40% are lifestyle vloggers, 37% are into fitness and health, 34% into food, and 33% intro travel. Lifestyle, food, and travel often overlap as niches for these influencers.
33% of influencers create family content.
27% of marketers planned to work with influencers on Instagram in 2023. 19% prefer Facebook influencers, 18% go on YouTube, and 15% will increase their efforts on TikTok. LinkedIn and Twitter are also getting attention from marketers and influencers at 6% and 5%.
Source: HubSpot
The power social media influencers have is obvious when you focus on countries like China. The common term for influencer there is Key opinion leaders (KOL). The name proves how much China prefers celebrity endorsements or KOL approval before buying a product.
According to a Rakuten Insights survey, Chinese consumers particularly trust fashion and beauty product advice from KOL marketers. 55% purchased a clothing item based on the opinion of an influencer. Cosmetics were the second most bought item, while 1/3rd bought electrical items.
It’s expected Chinese consumers will spend $131 billion on fashion and beauty products by 2027. A key influencer in these buying decisions would be KOL marketers.
In a 2022 survey, it was revealed 67% of Chinese consumers buy an influencer-endorsed product because they want to mimic the lifestyle of the influencer.
And this is the biggest appeal of influencers for consumers. They are normal people living a slightly better life, which seems achievable to consumers.
Instagram Influencer Stats for 2023-2024
According to trendsHERO, there are more than 64 million Instagram influencers in the world in 2023. Over 34.4K are celebrity influencers, with over 1 million followers.
Nano influencers are the largest in number, with 58.2 million of them. This means more than 91.07% of Instagram influencers are nano influencers. They have about 1k to 10k followers.
8.04% of Instagram influencers are micro-influencers, with 5.1 million accounts in the space. Those with 10k to 100k followers are considered micro influencers.
Macro influencers are the lowest number with 500k of them. They have about 100k to 1 million followers, making up about 0.83%. This indicates jumping from 100k to 1 million is tougher than growing followers from 10k to 100k.
90% of influencers have Instagram as their primary platform. Comparatively, 66% use TikTok and 34% use Facebook.
Brazil has the highest number of Instagram influencers in the world at 5.4 million. The US, India, and Russia host 4.7 million, 2.3 million, and 1.6 million Instagram influencers.
As such, over 50k Instagram content creators in India fall into the micro-influencer tier, with a follower count of 10k to 50k. 22 thousands of Instagram influencers in India are nano-influencers. Nano influencers are also the group with the highest engagement rate at 5% worldwide.
If we break it down for the USA, 7.1k are celebrity Instagram influencers. 75.3k are macro influencers, 540k are micro-influencers, and 4 million are nano influencers.
Brazil, which has the highest number of Instagram influencers has 4.7 million influencers in the nano group. 600k Instagram influencers in Brazil are micro-influencers, 48.5k are macro influencers, and 3.1k are celebrity influencers.
14.32% of Instagram influencers are lifestyle influencers. 8.5% create music, 7.63% beauty content, and 5.74% focus on family content. It’s interesting influencer marketing ROI statistics show lifestyle and beauty influencers have the most ROI, even though there are more music creators than beauty content creators.
As such, Instagram marketers trust the power of influencers enough to allocate 69% of their budget to influencer marketing.
Influencer Marketing ROI Statistics 2023-2024
Source: Convince & Convert
Brands get an ROI of $5.20 for every $1 they spend on influencers. If the brand has an influence of its own, it benefits even more from influencer marketing, receiving $20 for every $1 spent.
So, how much do they actually have to spend on influencers?
Nano influencers charge anywhere from $20 to $100 per post. Micro-influencers demand $35 to $450 for a post. Those falling into the middle of the micro and macro influencer group can ask for $150 to $2500 for a post.
Then, we have macro influencers, who charge $250 to $7000, and celebrity influencers who ask for over $1200 upfront.
Every penny spent is worth it, as influencer marketing has 11 times the ROI of banner ads. In fact, 51% of marketers say influencer marketing has brought them better customers. According to a Mediakix report, 60% of marketers also believe influencer marketing is more effective than brand content.
This makes the ROI from influencer marketing higher than several traditional and online marketing channels.
Micro-Influencer Statistics 2023-2024
Source: Keller Fay Survey
47.3% of all influencers fall in the micro-influencer group. Only 0.65% of influencers in the world are macro, nano, and celebrity influencers. From 2020 to 2021, micro influencer share increased by 2%, dominating 91% of the market now instead of 89%.
Marketers prefer micro-influencers because they generate 60% more engagement than macro-influencers. This is why 90% of marketers want to work with micro-influencers. 44% of marketers particularly work with micro-influencers because they cost less.
Markets usually go for micro-influencers with 2 to 3% engagement rate, as expert claims this is the ideal number. The engagement rate of an average micro-influencer on Instagram is 3.86%.
On YouTube, the engagement rate is 1.64% and it is 17.96% on TikTok. Yes, micro-influencers find the highest success on TikTok.
If a micro-influencer posts an image, the average conversion rate is 20% on average.
Even more interesting is the 82% of the consumer base who will follow a recommendation from a micro-influencer over a macro-influencer.
As influencers start posting about brands on their own accord rather than collaborating from the start, 15% of micro-influencers find a brand through the recommendation of their friends and family. In turn, 53% of product recommended by micro-influencers is discussed at work.
Final Thoughts
You won’t get the most ROI from a one-time collaboration with an influencer. You would also end up paying more to an influencer for a single post.
Instead, fostering a long-term relationship with creators can reduce cost per post while increasing ROI. At present, 54% of people from ages 13 to 26 wish to become influencers.
Not only are there more and more people trusting influencers, but the number of influencer marketers is also growing every year. It’s because while it can be a full-time job for some, many can do it for side income or even for fun.
What we know for certain is you have to incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy, especially for social media marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is influencer marketing effective?
Influencers generate $5.20 for every $1 spent on them. And this is merely the amount confirmed from purchases made after a recommendation.
Influencers bring light to a brand by simply mentioning the product to their customers, resulting in brand awareness which is almost impossible to measure. So, yes, influencer marketing is effective.
2. How much is the influencer marketing industry worth?
The valuation of the influencer marketing industry in 2023 is 21.1 billion. According to predictions, the CAGR is 30.2% from 2023 to 2029. In other words, the worth of the influencer marketing industry in 2029 would be $82.74 billion.
3. How many influencers are there?
According to a report from the Influencer Marketing Hub, over 50 million people in the world consider themselves influencers. However, 64 million influencers are on Instagram alone and it is the most used platform, it is safe to assume there are over 80 million influencers in the world.
Of course, there is a disparity between people who consider themselves influencers and who the world thinks of as influencers, leading to under-reported numbers.