Today, beauty is on an upward trajectory across all categories. While the criteria by which our survey respondents evaluate influencers do not precisely match their differing goals, there is some clear correlation. This result is up slightly from last year. Sure, some industries, such as tourism and airlines, initially had to retrench dramatically, but many others adjusted their models to survive in the Covid (and post-COVID) world. As a result, it's become a leading marketing strategy in 2023. For the second year, however, we notice that there are more male Instagram users than females in (almost) all older age groups. Marketers are working with significantly fewer influencers than three years ago. 44. Other popular uses of the influencer platforms include campaign automation and reporting (45%), influencer payments (36%), conversion attribution (30%), fraud and fake follower analysis (27%), and paid amplification (18%). Maybe this is because of the inherently passive nature of YouTube compared to TikTok you can easily view YouTube videos like a traditional television but you almost feel compelled to engage when watching TikTok videos. However, after a quiet 2021, Instagram once again took the engagement lead on its platform in 2022, with 327K mentions, 86K influencers, and an estimated reach of 1.8 billion. 19% believed YouTube Shorts would deliver the best ROI, alongside a few SnapChat disciples, with 6% opting for SnapChat Spotlights. The remaining 17.7% take their influencer marketing spending from their PR Department's funds. It is advisable for brands to use available tools to ensure influencer authenticity when searching for suitable influencers. 53% of our respondents believe that influencer marketing is definitely a scalable tactic in their marketing ecosystem, and a further 39% think it is somewhat of a scalable tactic. However, one thing to be aware of is that the Influencer Marketing Hub now caters better to eCommerce. Were looking forward to seeing influencers refine their offerings and take advantage of the growing respect afforded to them by both platforms and brands alike. While more brands are willing to pay influencers for their marketing services, 41.6% is still a relatively low percentage, much less than half. As a result, the percentage of influencer accounts impacted by fraud fell across the board. Larger YouTube channels have higher engagement rates than smaller channels. 29% chose PayPal (down from 34% last year), 28% paid by wire transfer (18% last year), 25% said they paid manually (24% last year), and 17% a third-party payment service, e.g., Wise (24% last year). Influencer Marketing Hub Influencer Marketing The State of Influencer Marketing 2022: Benchmark Report. Connect with like-minded founders and marketers to share advice on maximizing growth, retention, and sales. For example, HubSpot reports that 82% of their respondents used content marketing in 2021, up from 70% in 2020. In most cases, movement is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. A marginally higher 72% of our survey respondents claimed that they ran their influencer campaigns in-house, with the remaining 28% opting to use agencies or managed services for their influencer marketing. The State Of Influencer Marketing: Top Insights For 2022 - Forbes Technically, channels with 100K-1M followers have the highest engagement rate, but huge YouTube influencers (1M+ followers) aren't far behind. 42.3% believe that you should gauge a campaign by the conversions/sales that result. Maintaining a competitive edge and capturing the attention of your target audience As more influencers gravitate toward New York City, the Big Apple is fast becoming the We have only looked at influencer platforms and agencies in the past. Some of the platforms to receive investor cash and confidence were: Grin's funding included $110M in a round led by Lone Pine Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut, that will allow the company to access markets in the United Kingdom and Australia. This year, however, things are looking more clear-cut although those who consider finding appropriate influencers to be of medium difficulty are still the largest category (45% down from 63% in 2022), with 37% declaring finding influencers to be easy, that just leaves 18% who considered finding appropriate influencers to be very difficult. Possibly more brands engaging in influencer marketing have made increased sales the goal of their campaign, and fewer targeting brand awareness. Get access to first-party influencer data from Aspires official partnerships with TikTok, Meta & Pinterest. Last year, almost 54% of such brands ran eCommerce stores. Nearly two years in, influencer marketing is stronger than ever; brands are projected to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing during 2022. Join our Slack community of Influencer Marketers to share advice on campaignstrategy, growth and sales. In the UK, complaints to the ASA on this subject also remain high. And there is even some renewed life in the more Covid-affected industries. The answers to this question this year are markedly different from those in 2022. A headline-making issue in past years was influencers acting in a way deemed inappropriate by the brands they represent. Much of this increase in content must be created and delivered by influencers on behalf of brands. From the inception of the IMH Benchmark Report in 2017 until last year Instagram was the network of choice for influencer marketing campaigns. This webinar dives into industry trends and how to get the piece of the ecommerce pie through digital. The general satisfaction felt by firms that have engaged in influencer marketing seems to flow through to their future planning. 2021: Diverse Knowledge for a Sustainable Future. This last figure is half last year's percentage, but back to how things were in earlier years. This suggests that brands benefit from having more platforms and other influencer discovery tools available than ever (as well as influencer agencies for those wishing to outsource the entire process). This is up on last year's 80% and remember that these figures are cumulative. This year, however, things changed considerably. Unfortunately, they were also learning to live with the economic consequences of Covid, with supply chain disruptions, a chronic shortage of key workers, and creeping inflation threatening to unsettle the global economy. Despite this, a massive 72% of influencer marketing relationships are campaign-based, with only 28% "always on.". Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Also, like Instagram, there are more older TikTok male users (albeit still a very small percentage overall) than female users. 39% of our respondents considered themselves brands (or brand representatives). In reality, payment methods depend very much on the location of the influencers. As a result, it is estimated that the value of social commerce sales will reach $958 billion in 2022, potentially reaching $2.9 trillion by 2026. These include influencer discovery, influencer marketplaces, eCommerce tools, and product/gifting tools. Well send you a helpful letter once a week. Marketers have a great opportunity to use this entire suite of new features and develop more creative influencer partnerships to help them reach more followers, get more engagement and connect with new audiences. If they are based in a different country from where you operate, PayPal or something like Wise is much easier than a wire transfer or a manual transaction. Creator and influencer marketing appear to be more important than ever for connecting brands with their target customers. Physical feature discrimination (21.75%) followed this, then racial discrimination (13.29%), political discrimination (9.06%), and sexual discrimination (8.16%). This is the first year that we have included manual payments in this question. It is still highly popular, but this year only 50.8% of brands go to Instagram when they decide to participate in influencer marketing, dropping it down to second place. In some cases, influencer marketing may bring new customers to the brand, but the additional spending may be less than the cost of running the campaign. Co-founder and CEO ofSocialPubli, an award-winninginfluencer marketing platformwith 200,000+ opt-in influencersacross35 countries. reports that 82% of their respondents used content marketing in 2021, up from 70% in 2020. also found that almost half (49%) of marketing teams allocate between 30% and 50% of their budget to content. No wonder more brands are wanting involvement there. However, many firms now use tools (whether in-house or from third parties) to facilitate the process. A further 3% worked with more than 1,000 influencers. Key Influencer Marketing Statistics to Drive Your Strategy in 2023. The general satisfaction felt by firms that have engaged in influencer marketing seems to flow through to their future planning. Cameo (the personalized video shout-out app) who garnered more than $166 million in total funding for a $1 billion valuation. We have seen a general reduction in engagement over the last few years, however, particularly for large accounts. Every so often, mainstream media highlights influencer fraud. ASPIRE Prize 2021 | APEC Well, this year YouTube improve on this, coming in eighth place. This is no great surprise when you consider which influencers are the best known to most people. Male Millennials make up almost a fifth of all YouTube viewers, more than double their female counterparts. 97% of the owners say that they get the money for influencer marketing from their marketing budget. Social commerce has particularly taken off in China, where nearly one in two internet users purchased from social networks in 2021. Brands find that influencers they have worked for on previous campaigns are more genuine. Twitters drop in importance for influencer marketing is notable. This is because some customers are more lucrative for a business than others they buy high-margin products and add-ons. Surprisingly, Facebook jumped in popularity as an influencer marketing channel last year, with 50% of brands working with Facebook influencers, although this fell back to 42.1% this year. Payments based on product level (4%) and tiered incentives (4%) were less common. Furthermore, this is expected to jump a further 19% to $16.4 billion in 2022. Let's start at the beginning, what is the definition of influencer marketing? 31% work at marketing agencies (including those specializing in influencer marketing), and 3% are PR agencies. that many of the tools we group as "platforms" offer an ever-increasing variety of services to their customers. Also, when you consider Instagram's core audience of 25-34 females, it is hardly surprising that beauty influencers would be popular on the platform. Hire Aspires in-house team to professionally manage influencer programs of any size. We expect the new additions to social commerce functionality will create new opportunities for brand sponsorship and an increased number of sponsored posts for shoppable products. The State of Fashion: Beauty. 2022 Aspire Design Awards Winners. The State of Influencer Marketing 2022 - Aspire 54% of them stated that they had worked with 0-10 influencers. To get the piece of the ecommerce pie, its crucial for brands to build digital communities led by influencers who can build a buzz online, provide social proof, and drive conversions. With platforms push for in-app shopping, influencers are becoming the entire marketing funnel. My company has worked with brands on sponsored LinkedIn campaigns for the past several years and the requests we receive continue to increase, especially as B2B companies look to build credibility and relevance with their consumers. We have observed elsewhere in this Benchmark Report how TikTok has now become the platform of choice for influencer marketing. Time will tell. However, very little has changed this year, with the comparative percentages remaining almost identical. We have regularly seen that businesses have a variety of objectives when they create influencer marketing campaigns. It is somewhat surprising that 30% of firms don't measure their ROI. More than 50 million people globally now consider themselves content creators, and the market size has grown to well over $104 billion. For example, 44% of the respondents tap into YouTube for their campaigns (36% last year), 23% Twitter (15% last year), 20% LinkedIn - presumably those involved with B2B companies (16% last year), 11% Twitch (8% last year) and a further 7% spread across the less popular or more specialist social networks (6% last year). Although Zaras Instagram numbers were smaller than last year, they will be loving the 182K Instagram mentions they received in 2022. Were looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming event! When you are searching for influencers to promote your brands, you will want to focus on those influencers who are followed by the type of people most likely to be interested in your products or services. While some people claim blogging is dead, the reality is very different. There was an increase in engagement near the start of Covid in 2020, with more people having time on their hands than the previous year. Aspire on LinkedIn: [Free Webinar] The State of Influencer Marketing 2022 According to a global survey carried out in 2022, the main way that marketers and industry professionals measured the success of their influencer . Get Ready! Once they complete one campaign, they plan, organize, and schedule another one. This ties in with those who worked with influencers to generate sales for their partner businesses. We have noticed a more global response to this years survey. We have seen more brands cultivating long-term relationships with influencers in recent times. This year, as we showed above, engagement levels picked up for the smaller accounts, meaning that TikTok now exhibits the normal distribution pattern again. You may read the odd horror story in the media, but that is the exception to the rule. 36.7% of our respondents claim their influencer campaign aims to increase sales (up from 33.6%). Despite this year's survey sample size being smaller than last year's, it is still a comprehensive study. This year, a new suggestion was attribution and tracking, which 6% of our respondents considered most valuable when partnering with influencers. This section highlights statistics that emphasize the types of people most likely to use social media. Now 68% of marketers want to leverage the platform in 2021. This is because people only have limited time to engage. Initial suspicions about AI and automation have dramatically lessened over the last few years. These relative newcomers are happy to receive payment in kind rather than cash. We predict that 2022 will be a year when partnerships between brands and influencers are stronger, more diverse and more purposeful than ever. TikTok suffered backlash worldwide over concerns about its close ties with the Chinese government, resulting in the Indian government banning the short video app in 2020. Some people believe you can automate virtually everything from influencer selection to influencer payment. Despite two-thirds of firms feeling worried about influencer fraud, the number of firms who have experienced it is much smaller. This increase could result from firms increasing marketing to combat the effects of the current global financial crisis. Esports fans are loyal, and enthusiasts stay engaged for hours at a time. As the data indicates, it is still a problem for some influencers, however. If you want to reach 13-24-year-old females it is where you should focus your marketing. This slight increase could result from firms increasing marketing back to pre-Covid levels. 62% of those surveyed identify as part of the B2C sector, with the remaining 38% running B2B campaigns. Aspire uses a dual process to build its database of influencers. The big drop, however, was in Health and Fitness (6.8%). 2. The report takes an in-depth look at the influencer marketing industry and summarizes the thoughts of more than 2000 marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals regarding the current state of influencer marketing. For example, 77% of our respondents indicated that they would be dedicating a budget to influencer marketing in 2022. Disney also made it into the top 10 brands on TikTok, as did CBS News. Average engagement overall now stands at 2.05%, down from 2.18% in 2021. Indeed, there was a danger that influencer fraud could stop the still-nascent industry in its tracks. Is it losing its luster? You often tune into YouTube videos in much the same way as you do traditional TV. We asked those respondents engaged in influencer marketing how many influencers they had worked with over the last year. Well send you a helpful letter once a week. We asked our influencers whether they feel they have ever been discriminated against (as an influencer) on any social platform. In one way, however, TikTok has become more normal. Yet, most brands still think in terms of influencer marketing campaigns. Interestingly many of these percentages are lower than in 2022, but the 26% selecting Other is significantly higher. These include payments made by cash on delivery (COD), money orders, bank transfers, and even email money transfers in some locations like Canada. 2021 was a big year for ecommerce but 2022 is projected to be even bigger. Watch Now 2021 was a big year for ecommerce but 2022 is projected to be even bigger. The audience on esports platforms is more diverse than you might expect, and esports influencers also have a commanding presence across platforms beyond Twitch. Investors recognized the success of influencer marketing and the demand for quality tools and invested heavily in some of the newer influencer software platforms. Most businesses balance their marketing budget across a wide range of media to reach the greatest possible relevant audience. Traditionally, the most significant challenge was finding influencers to participate in their campaigns, but last year it dropped into second place. It is highly likely that many respondents who selected Other in 2022, have been more precise in 2023s survey. However, a sizable percentage of other brands (42%) structured their influencer marketing payments more like affiliate marketing payments by paying a percentage of any sales made as a result of the influencer marketing. At SocialPubli, weve already seen an increase in client requests for TikTok influencer partnerships from clients who are normally very loyal to their Instagram partnerships. A sizable 71% of them admitted to having upped the amount of content they produced. In the past, firms found influencer marketing challenging because they lacked the tools to facilitate the process organic influencer marketing can be very hit-and-miss, making it frustrating for brands trying to meet their goals. 62% of those surveyed identify as part of the B2C sector (down from 70% in 2021), with the remaining 38% running B2B campaigns (up from 30%). Do I qualify? Previously, those giving free samples outnumbered those paying cash to influencers. Clearly, many firms now realize the insatiable demand for online content and have increased their content marketing accordingly, year after year. This question is somewhat different from what we included in last year's report, where we simply asked firms whether they used influencers for affiliate campaigns (59% said they did). As the data here indicate, it is still a problem for many influencers. However, as we saw above, 77% of our respondents' firms intend to include some influencer marketing in their mix. Clearly, eCommerce is increasing in popularity for all types of businesses. Save time and generate higher ROI campaigns with hand-picked creators from Aspire experts. Most influencer marketing partnerships work and are a win-win situation for all parties. From a mere $1.7 billion at the time of this site's beginning in 2016, influencer marketing grew to have an estimated market size of $16.4 billion in 2022. As a result, businesses had to upgrade their websites to cope with increased demand. We merged the remaining 35% as Other, representing a wide range of occupations and sectors. As a result of these conflicting statistics, we now have many respondents (63%) describing the difficulty of finding appropriate influencers with whom to work in their industry as being "medium.". The social media network where each influencer has gained the most fame impacts this clearly, you want to work with popular people on the same social networks where your potential customers spend their time. Those brands that opt to work with mega-influencers and celebrities spend more than brands that work alongside micro- or nano-influencers. Hire Aspires in-house team to professionally manage influencer programs of any size. ASPIRE 2022 | Registration For this report, we consider "influencers impacted by fraud" to be Instagram accounts with over 1000 followers with growth anomalies or inauthentic engagement (comments and likes from bots, giveaway comments, comments from Pods, etc.) Brands of all sizes engage in influencer marketing. You may opt-out by. The percentages using the other social channels have increased slightly compared to last year. By sending a Notice of Penalty Offenses, the agency placed the companies on notice they could incur significant civil penaltiesup to $43,792 per violationif they use endorsements in ways that run counter to prior FTC administrative cases. Aspire - Influencer Marketing for High-Growth eCommerce Brands