20 Surprising Influencer Marketing Statistics

A few years ago, marketing campaigns limited themselves to featuring celebrities and well-known internet personalities. However, today, almost anyone with an online presence has the potential to become a social media influencer. Content by social media influencers can reach the target very easily, especially if the target audience is young.

Influencers build trust among their following, especially by being relatable. Since influencers seem like peers or friends, many people are quick to follow social media influencers.

Digital marketing services too, have been making the most of influencer marketing, reaching target audiences through influencers. If you are a digital marketing agency thinking of adding influencer marketing to your services or a company considering influencer marketing to promote your brand, these statistics are sure to surprise you.

1. Marketers spend between $25,000 and $50,000 on influencer marketing campaigns and there was a 1500% increase for Google searches for influencer marketing in the past three years.
2. An influencer marketing campaign can earn $6.50 for every dollar, so if you are a digital marketing company, venture into influencer marketing before it’s too late. Beauty brands have a return of investment of $11 for every dollar spent.
3. 71% of marketers believe that influencer partnerships are good for business. A digital marketing company thus has a lot to benefit from by creating long-term relationships with influencers. In 2018, out of the marketers that used influencer marketing, 81% said it was effective.
4. Influencer marketing is a fast-growing online customer acquisition method, with 22% of marketers saying it’s the most cost-effective way of attracting new customers.
5. 67% of marketers are actively engaging and already have a relationship with influencers, so if you are looking to expand your digital marketing services, invest in influencer marketing. Last year, 58% of brands improved brand awareness.
6. 86% of women use social media for purchasing advice and over half of women said they made purchases due to influencer posts.
7. A total of 74% of people say they trust social networks to guide their purchasing decisions. Consumer behavior on social media shows that 78% of users that complained to a brand on Twitter expected a response within an hour.
8. 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations and 40% had made a purchase after seeing it on Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. Seven in 10 hashtags on Instagram were branded.
9. 40% of Twitter users have made a purchase based on a tweet and Twitter users had almost as much trust in influencers as they did in friends.
10. Twitter influencers created a 5.2 increase in purchase intent when users were exposed to brand or influencer tweets, while there was only a 2.7 increase when shown brand tweets only.
11. 19% of purchasing decisions were influenced by Facebook, which produced 25% of web traffic.
12. However, YouTube is slowly catching up and recorded 18% marketing influence. As for user growth, Instagram is at the top with a 50% user growth. In 2017, 93% of influencers used Instagram for marketing.
13. 70% of teenagers trust influencers more than celebrities, with 4 in 10 millennial subscribers saying their favorite influencer understood them better than their friends.
14. Six in 10 teenagers followed influencer advice over advice from celebrities and emotional attachment to YouTubers was seven times more than other celebrities.
15. 57% of fashion and beauty companies engage in influencer marketing and 21% are planning to add it to their strategy next year.
16. It is expected that the influencer marketing industry will hit $10 billion by 2020. It was worth just $2 billion in 2017.
17. 67% of marketers are planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets in the next 12 months, which means that brands and companies are recognizing the importance and potential of influencer marketing.
18. The return on investment in influencer marketing has surpassed traditional mediums. 76% of marketers said return on investment was their primary concern, while 74% said sales conversions were their top goal.
19. Ad-blocks are used by 40% of customers on laptops and 15% on mobile devices. Any digital marketing agency will thus see how influencer marketing is becoming more popular than traditional advertising.
20. 60% of consumers would buy a product at a store if it is promoted by an influencer while only 3% would do the same if the product was promoted by a celebrity.