Influencer marketing statistics to know in 2022

The influencer marketing industry set to be worth $22 billion by 2025. That’s big money.

What's more, 93% of marketers say they've used influencer marketing in their campaigns. For ecommere, this is a golden opportunity to start working with influencers and creators. They’ll help promote your brand and sell your products. 🛒

But what type of influencer should you use? And what channel will work best? Check out this round-up of influencer marketing statistics to get you started.

Influencer marketing stats: key takeaways

• Over half of brands who work with influencers run ecommerce stores
• Micro-influencers are best for ROI
• TikTok micro-influencers get the best engagement rate
• Instagram is still the most popular choice for influencer campaigns
• Long-term influencer collaborations are best for strengthening your brand

Let’s get into the full list of influencer marketing statistics. 👇

Why influencer marketing is important

Wondering if influencer marketing is worth adding to your digital marketing mix? Here are some stats to make you think twice.

Brands using influencers attribute 32% of sales to social commerce

Influencer marketing is a great way to increase product awareness and conversions. A State of Influencer Marketing report by Aspire found that an increasing number of brands are selling through social commerce. And 32% of brands are using influencers to help sell products directly through social platforms. Turns out influencers are increasingly becoming a part of the buyer journey. They’re involved from the moment a consumer discovers a product on social, right through to the moment they decide to buy. It’s a sure-fire way to influence your audience’s purchase decisions.

Source: Aspire's 'State of Influencer Marketing Report', 2022

50.7% of brands who work with influencers run ecommerce stores

The majority of brands working with influencers are ecommerce or have an online store. And that makes sense when sales continue to be attributed to social commerce.

If 50.7% of brands working with influencers have ecommerce stores, chances are your competitors are already doing it. Time to jump on that influencer bandwagon!

Source: The Social Shepard, 2022

Nearly 72% of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers on social media

Knowing your target audience is super important. If you’re after Gen Z and Millennials, influencer marketing should be a top priority. That’s because 72% of the audience who follow influencers say this is where they often learn about new products and services.

Source: Morning Consult

Brands get $4.87 for every $1 spent on influencer campaigns

That’s right! According to HypeAudit’s report, you can get - on average - $4.87/£4.21 for every $1/86p you spend with an influencer. So for that $500 post with your micro-influencer, you could see a wallet-tingling $2435 in return.

Just take Kettle + Fire, a health and wellness brand that used influencer marketing to increase sales. They worked with content creators who posted beautiful, high-quality photos of Kettle + Fire’s bone broth on Instagram. They then used those images along with the influencer recommendations in a Facebook ad campaign.

The results: for every $1 spent on ads, they got $4 in revenue return. 🙌

Source: Hype Audit, 2021

TikTok influencer marketing statistics

TikTok micro-influencers have 17.96% engagement rate

Out of all the influencer types, micro-influencers get the most engagement, according to a survey by Upfluence. And, TikTok influencers are trumping other social media platforms like Instagram and Youtube. Here’s a breakdown of the engagement percentages for TikTok.

Micro-influencers (10k-1000K followers) - 17.96%
Mid (100k-500k followers) - 6.6%
Macro (500k-1m followers) - 6.2%
Mega (1m+ followers) - 4.96%

However, Instagram is still the most popular channel for influencer marketing. 👀(Keep scrollin’ to find out more).

Source: Upfluence, April 2022

24% of marketers think TikTok is effective for their business goals

In 2020, 3% of marketers thought TikTok was an effective platform for their business goals. In 2021 that shot up to 24%. A whopping 700% increase.

What’s more, the impressions and views that just one TikTok video can get are mind-boggling (just take a look at the example below). Combine that with an influencer campaign, and that’s a lot of eyeballs on your brand (and a ton of potential customers).

Take men’s skincare brand, Bulldog, as an example. Although they don’t actually have a TikTok account, they were still able to use the TikTok ‘creator’ program to build brand awareness in Germany with a series of hilarious shaving mishaps and mistake videos. All you need to do is search for the hashtag: #IchRasiereDich - translated to ‘I shave you’ - and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

The result: 29.8 million impressions and a 5%-10% increase in sales. Kerching! 🤑

Source: Hootsuite, 2022

Instagram influencer marketing stats

Influencer costs per Instagram post

Taking a look at your influencer marketing budgets? Here’s a breakdown of the different types of influencers you can hire, along with their cost per Instagram post in 2022:

Nano (1k-10k followers)
$10-$100

Micro

$100-$500

Mid

$500-$5k

Macro

$5-$100k

Mega

$10k

Note: These are rough averages and the price of influencer content will vary from person-to-person.

Source: Andrew Macarthy, 2022

Mico-influencers get 3.86% engagement on Instagram

Just like TikTok, micro-influencers get the highest engagement rate out of any influencer category on Instagram. Here’s a breakdown:

Micro-influencers - 3.86%
Mid - 1.62%
Macro - 1.36%
Mega - 1.21%

Source: Upfluence

79% of brands use Instagram to run influencer marketing campaigns

Interestingly, brands still prefer to work with social media influencers on Instagram over TikTok - despite the engagement rates. In 2021, Influencer Marketing Hub found that 79% of brands who use influencer marketing were using IG.

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022

39% of influencer posts on Instagram are image based

Despite video content being popular amongst consumers (especially those on TikTok), Aspire found that image-based posts are being created by influencers the most. The second most-posted format is video/stories at 23%.

If you’re collecting lots of influencer content for your IG - whether to post on your brand profile or Instagram Stories - you can organise everything in Dash. Get people to upload for your approval, sort through different images, and publish via Hootsuite or deploy to your marketing channels. Easy.

Source: Aspire's 'State of Influencer Marketing Report', 2022

80% of Instagram users have over 1000 followers

Forgetting influencers for a moment, if we look at the number of followers that most IG users have, that's a lot of potential brand exposure. If your customers share your content, it'll likely reach a lot more accounts than you might expect. 👀

Source: Mention 

Facebook influencer marketing stats

Facebook Ads can reach 2.08 billion people

Facebook is buzzing with ads. You don’t need a stat to see this, just head to your feed and you won’t be able to get away from them. Facebook ads have the potential to reach 2.08 billion people. 🤯 Combine that with some influencer marketing ads (as seen in the example earlier on in this post) and you’re onto a winner. 🏆

Want some FB ad inspo? Check out our article all about creating Facebook Ads (and how to create some 🔥graphics for your campaigns).

Source: Hootsuite, March 2022

43% of marketers say Facebook is important to their influencer campaigns

Clearly Facebook isn’t as popular as Instagram. However, 43% isn’t a bad number. If you’re running influencer campaigns on this channel, perhaps consider combining with Facebook Ads to do some super-targeting. 💡

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, August 2022

51% of FB users watch in-feed videos

Wondering what content to post on Facebook? Video is definitely going to be your best bet. With 51% of Facebook users watching in-feed video content over any other content (like FB Live, FB Watch) you’ll have a good chance of reaching a broad audience.

Source: Sprout Social, March 2022

YouTube influencer marketing stats

Micro-influencers get 1.63% engagement on YouTube

Micro-influencers get the best engagement rate on Youtube with 1.63%:

• Micro-influencers - 1.63%
• Mid - 0.43%
• Macro - 0.44%
• Mega - 0.37%

Source: Upfluence, April 2022

6 out of 10 YouTube users would rather get product advice from their favourite creator

When it comes to YouTube, the OG of video content, it’s clear what the people want. They want authentic content from real people. 70% of Gen Z subscribers (people under the age of 25) relate to their favourite YouTube stars over traditional celebrities. And, perhaps worryingly, 4 out of 10 millennials think creators understand them better than their friends!

For ecommerce brands, this is a fantastic channel to launch your influencer marketing campaigns. According to a Google study, 6 out of 10 YouTube subscribers would rather follow advice on what to buy from their favourite creator (note: ‘creator’ and ‘influencer’ often get used synonymously) over their favourite TV celebrity. What’s more, 68% of marketers say video has a better return on investment than Google Ads.

Sources: Think with Google and Biteable

Brand collaborations with YouTube creators are 4x more effective at driving brand awareness

A 2017 study found that creators are 4x more effective at increasing brand familiarity than celebrities. This is great news for small brands who don’t want to fork out for celebrity endorsement. 🙌

Source: Think with Google, 2017

62% of Gen Z users say a YouTube influencer made them more likely to buy a product than an ad on social media

A whopping 63% of Gen Z are more likely to buy a product shown to them by a YouTube influencer over an ad on social. This stat speaks for itself and should give you a good idea of where to spend your social budget. Better hit that subscribe button, my friends!

Source: Statistica, 2020

Running your influencer marketing campaign

So what about actually launching that influencer campaign you’ve been thinking about? Check out these stats to see what other brands are up to.

71% of influencer marketing campaigns are run in-house

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 71% of brands say they run their campaigns in-house. In fact, it seems increasingly important that influencer marketers are learning best practices. Whether that’s how to manage influencer relationships, or understanding the legal aspects of the influencer marketing industry, it’s a skill that more and more marketers are finding valuable.

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, March 2022

68% of influencers appreciate working with the same brands

Talking of influencer relationships, 68% of influencers prefer working with the same brands. These long-term collaborations mean your influencer partners can become true brand ambassadors. This will increase your brand’s transparency and strengthen loyalty between you and your followers. 💪

Source: Stella.io, 2022

Reporting on your influencer marketing campaigns

Engagement and clicks are key performance indicators

A report by Linquia found that engagement and clicks are the most popular indicators for brands measuring the success of influencer campaigns. Clicks speak for themselves, but engagement can be measured by the number of comments, shares and reactions to a post.

Finding out the sales attributed to an influencer marketing campaign is a little tricker, but not impossible. Here are some tips:

Promotional codes - set up a promotion with your influencer. They can add a discount code in their post which is unique to them. You’ll know instantly whether a new customer has come from your campaign or not.

Trackable links - Set up a landing page that your influencers can link to in their posts. Add a UTM link to your URL and you’ll be able to use Google Analytics to track how many people come from the post back to your product page.

Source: Smart Insights, 2018

Beware of fake followers

When reporting on your influencer marketing campaigns, it’s important to take into consideration the number of fake follower engagements your influencer may receive. The bigger the influencer you work with (like mega-influencers), the bigger the fake follower count. It’s something to think about when you’re estimating engagement.

What’s more, a report by Sortlist found that out of 40 brands analysed, they had an average of 25% suspicious accounts following them. 👀 This is likely to increase when running influencer campaigns - so be on the lookout!

Source: Sortlist, March 2022

Influencer brief template

If you’re ready to start working with influencers, make sure to download our influencer brief template to help you kickstart your campaigns. 🙌

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Influencer brief template

Kick-start your own influencer campaign with this free template. Set expectations, outline your campaign and away you go!

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And, if you need somewhere to store your influencer content, you can try Dash for free for 14 days. ✨