30+ Influencer Marketing Statistics: Key Data You Shouldn’t Ignore [2025]

Over half of the young shoppers trust influencers when it comes to what to buy. Including things like what cereal tastes better or what concealer suits oily skin more.

And 70% of businesses earn $2 for every $1 spent on influencer pushes.

If this information surprised you, buckle up because we have more influencer marketing statistics in this guide that could optimize your marketing spend.

What you pick up from this will surely change the way you run your marketing campaigns.

So don’t ring up Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just yet—at least not until you finish this guide.

Key takeaways

• Influencer content is more authentic and persuasive than brand content. 46.7% of marketers find influencer pushes more effective than brand content.
• Gen Z is the age group most influenced by influencers.
• Facebook is the least popular social platform among Gen Z, with only 3% saying it’s their preferred platform.
• The older an internet user, the less trust they have with influencers.
• Nanoinfluencers have the highest engagement rates among the various follower sizes.
• Women are more likely to purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation than men are.
• 83% of influencers would be willing to work for just free products (this does NOT suggest that it’s the preferred method, though).
• Giving free products as influencer compensation increased 5x from 2022 to last year.
• 49.6% of influencer payments are through a percentage of the sales, despite only 4% of influencers preferring this.
• Around half of internet users worldwide use ad-blocking.

General influencer marketing performance statistics

More than 3/4ths of marketers reported testing influencer content at some point against branded content.

• Of those that are testing, 46.7% reported that influencer content outperformed their brand content.
• Only 14.29% reported that influencer content performed worse than their branded content.
• The rest 39.01% said branded content and influencer content performed the same for them.

Why so? May be due to influencer content being more genuine, authentic, and less “salesy,” blending well with organic social media content. 

It is interesting to note that Consumers trust influencers more than brands

According to data, 69% of consumers are likely to trust input and recommendations from their social circle and influencers over that of a brand. Marketers keep a note of this info!

Hootsuite reports that an average consumer goods brand’s engagement rate is 2.6% on TikTok.

TikTok microinfluencers, on the other hand, have an average engagement rate of 8.38%, according to Upfluence.

That’s more than 3x the engagement!

Take, for instance, that micro influencers only have an average engagement rate of 3.45% on Instagram, as opposed to 8.38% on TikTok.

• Last year, nearly 60% of social media users in the US bought a product after seeing an influencer use it.
• Additionally, a study by Morning Consult showed that 14% of all US adults learn about products from influencers.
• That’s 40% more than those who said they learned about products from social media ads.

How has influencer marketing changed in the last two years?

1. It is quite surprising to note that overall influencer marketing spending seemed to decline in the last few years.
2. Influencer marketing spending reached over $34 billion in 2023, despite the projection of only $21.1 billion.
3. And last year, however, it was projected to only reach a value of $28 billion. 

Influencer marketing spending statistics

While total influencer spending decreased by a decent chunk, a report by Influencer Marketing Hub gathered that 59.4% of brands intended to increase their marketing budget last year, with only 9.3% saying they were planning to decrease the budget.

Furthermore, brands that would allocate more than 40% of their marketing budget to influencer-driven campaigns increased by 5.22% last year.

In 2023, 43% of brands spent <$10k on influencers.

For last year, that figure was at 47.4%.

46% of marketers spent between $10k and $500k on influencer pushes for 2023.

This number was lower last year, at only 38.1%.

Influencer marketing growth by platform

YouTube seemed to hit a ceiling. The number of YouTube users (not necessarily influencers) in 2023 was at 2.68 billion. Last year, that number had a minuscule jump to 2.7 billion—a 0.74% increase.

TikTok had nearly 1.6 billion users in 2023, and that number is now at nearly 1.8 billion from last year. That’s an increase of 2 million users from 2023 to 2024.

85% of brands believe influencer marketing to be effective, a tiny jump from 2023’s 83%.

The same report also states that nearly 86% of brands planned to dedicate a budget for influencer marketing, an improvement from 2023’s 82%.

Influencer content audience by age group and platform

• Generation Z prefers TikTok and gaming.
• With 49% of Gen Z respondents saying that they follow creators who post gaming content. ‘Comedy,’ ‘Music,’ and ‘Food,’ come at a close 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively.
• Morning Consult shows that a whopping 81% of US Gen Z (12–27) follow influencers.
• Gen Z’s choice social media is TikTok, with a decent 35% saying that it’s their preferred platform. YouTube is a close second at 32%.

71% of millennials (28–43) share that they follow influencers.

Interestingly, the choice of social platform for millennials is spread evenly between TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Adding to this, Gen Z is 8 times more likely than baby boomers to trust products and services from an influencer. 48% of Gen Z trust products from influencers.

Gen Z is also the hardest group to market to through Facebook. 20% of millennials have a preference for Facebook compared to Gen Z’s 3%

YouTube is the preferred platform for millennials, with 25% saying they follow influencers there. Instagram is a close 2nd at 23%.

Boomers (60–78) are the least influenced and swayed by influencers among the four generations we’ve listed.

Only 24% of boomers report following influencers.

And only a meager 6% of boomers say they trust products advertised by influencers.

Influencer marketing gender demographics

55% of male respondents in the US follow influencers, while the female percentage is 57%.

40% of male respondents said that their preferred social platform was YouTube.

But of those women who follow influencers, TikTok takes the biggest preference slice at 32%. YouTube lags behind at 21%.

Data from Opeepl showed that the female Gen Z have a noticeable margin over their male counterparts when it comes to Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram.

Women are 280% more likely to use Pinterest than their male counterparts, 27% more likely with TikTok, and 20% with Instagram.

Furthermore, women are 22% more likely to consume travel content than men.

As for consumer behavior, women are more likely to make a purchase off an influencer’s recommendation. 6 out of 10 of those who said they’d purchase based on an influencer’s words are female.

Influencers follower size and engagement rates

Upfluence defines a nano influencer as having between 0 and 10k influencers. They report the following (and staggering) engagement rates:

• 35.19% for Instagram
• 142.69% for TikTok
• 16.65% for X
• 5.43% for YouTube

They report the following average engagement rates:

• 3.45% for Instagram
• 8.38% for TikTok
• 8.57% for X
• 5.19% for YouTube

Mega influencers have over 500k followers. Their engagement rates are as follows:

• 1.93% for Instagram
• 4.56% for TikTok
• 2.12% for X
• 2.82% for YouTube

Which type of influencers are preferred by the brands?

Did you know that creators are mostly millennials and Gen X (35% and 41%, respectively)?

And among these, nano influencers are also the most preferred influencers brands want to work with.

• 44% of brands prefer to work with nano influencers,
• 25.7% with micro-influencers (10k–100k followers),
• 17.4% for macro-influencers (100k–1m followers), and
• And only 12.9% for mega influencers (>1m).

Brands also prefer reliability and familiarity.

As 63.2% of brands say they worked with the same influencers they had previously worked with. 36.8% say they worked with different ones from those they previously partnered with.

To supplement this data, Aspire reports that 52% of brands are working on long-term campaigns with their influencers, not just one-off campaigns.

Aspire reports that 83% of influencers would be willing to work for just free products.

Of those who said they’ll accept free products as payment, 34.94% said they’ll do it if they love the product, and 65.06% said they’ll do it if the product value is high.

Also, this 83% statistic said they’re willing but do NOT necessarily prefer it.

96% of influencers prefer a flat rate, while the other 4% prefer performance-based payment . 

But that’s what the influencers say.

What do brands prefer?

Only 40.8% of brands prefer monetary compensation.

While 59.1% prefer non-monetary compensation. 

Free products as payment increased 5x in the last two years from 2022 to 2024.

In 2022, giving free products accounted for 4% of influencer marketing compensation.

This figure ballooned to 19% just last year.

Influencer marketing ROI statistics

For non-affiliate campaigns, there’s no direct way to measure the ROI of your influencer push other than to place a monetary value on your marketing metrics.

i.e., how do you convert 10,000 views in USD?

Marketers prefer to calculate influencer marketing ROI using reach.

After that, it’s the engagement metric followed by conversions.

54.3% of brands calculate ROI using views, reach, and impressions.

This metric refers to purely reach—how many people saw the piece of content?

So measuring ROI using this metric means buying exposure for your brand.

An effective formula for projecting sales growth is using Cost Per Reach (CPR).

23.5% of brands prefer to calculate ROI with engagement.

This doesn’t just measure pure reach—it assesses which of those reached felt engaged with the brand.

Lastly, 22.1% of brands measure influencer marketing ROI with sales and conversions.

FAQs

What is the success rate of influencer marketing?

We can say the success rate of influencer marketing is at least 85% since that’s the number of brands that think influencer marketing is effective.

What is the average ROI of influencer marketing?

The average ROI of influencer marketing, using reach as a metric, is $0.015 per user reached. The actual number could be different, however, depending on factors such as influencer following size and your target demographic.

What is a good engagement rate for influencer marketing?

A good engagement rate for influencer marketing would be anything above 3.45%. That’s because, using Instagram and micro-influencers as a basis, the average influencer engagement rate is 3.45%.

What is the most common measure of influencer marketing success?

The most common measure of influencer marketing success is reach. Influencer Marketing Hub shares that more than half of brands calculate their influencer marketing ROI that way.

Do Gen Z trust influencers?

Yes, Gen Z trusts influencers, and by a huge margin from the other age groups. 81% of Gen Z follow influencers, and 48% of Gen Z trust products from influencers.

Conclusion

Considering the sheer amount of industries, business types, and company sizes, loads of variables play into getting an ‘average’ figure. So much so that the ‘average’ may be an overgeneralization.

Our statistics above provide an excellent overview of the current business landscape and how influencer marketing evolved.

Sources

1. Pew Research Center. For shopping, phones are common and influencers have become a factor – especially for young adults.
2. Tomson. The Power of Influencer Marketing: A Comprehensive Study https://www.tomoson.com/blog/influencer-marketing-study/
3. Linqia. The State of Influencer Marketing 2023 Linqia-2023-State-of-Influencer-Marketing-Report.pdf
4. Matter. Consumers Seek Influencers Who Keep It Real
5. Hootsuite. Average engagement rates for 12 industries [September 2024]
6. Upfluence. Average engagement rate on TikTok for influencer marketing
7. Upfluence Average engagement rate on Instagram for influencer marketing
8. Statista. Influencer marketing spending worldwide and in the United States in 2022 and 2023
9. Influencer Marketing Hub. The State of Influencer Marketing 2024
10. Trendhero. How Many Influencers are There in 2023
11. Storybox. There Are 127 Million Influencers on Social Media (2024)
12. Global Media Insight. YouTube Statistics 2024 (demographics, users by country, & more)
13. SEO.ai. How many users on TikTok? Statistics & Facts (2025)
14. Business of Apps. TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)
15. Morning Consult Report: How to Succeed at Influencer Marketing in 2024
16. Statista U.S. consumers buying a product after influencer post by gender 2024
17. YouGov Beyond the feed: US social media report 2024
18. Hubspot Free Download: The Business of Creators Report
19. Hubspot. Authenticity Over Ads: The Power of Letting Creators Be Creators
20. Matter Matter 2023 Influencer Survey
21. Opeepl. Gen Z Social Media Trends: How Males and Females Differ in Platforms and Influencer Impact
22. Grin TikTok and YouTube Engagement Rate Calculator
23. Upfluence Average engagement rate on YouTube for influencer marketing
24. Upfluence Average engagement rate on X (Twitter) for influencer marketing
25. Dash. Influencer marketing statistics to know in 2024
26. Aspire. State of Influencer Marketing 2023
27. The Motherhood. Paying Influencers: What Works and What Doesn’t
28. GWI. Ad-blocking: Consumer Behaviors and Motivations Behind the Trend
29. Statista. Share of adults using ad blockers and anti-tracking services worldwide as of January 2024, by device