Influencer marketing has rapidly grown into a massive industry since its fitful beginnings in 2009. Spending on influencer marketing has skyrocketed nearly 500% in just six years since this post on the keys to make it in B2B influencer marketing.

Among the reasons why are that consumers are 50% more likely to trust influencer recommendations than brand-produced content. 60% of marketers acknowledge that influencer-created content drives more engagement than branded social media posts. And the ROI of influencer marketing is an eye-popping 11X greater than banner ads.

Consequently, investors poured more than $1.3 billion into the creator economy in 2021, and that commitment continues to grow.

Those are just a few of the findings from The Ultimate Influencer Marketing Report: Influencer Marketing Performance, Trends, and Predictions for 2022-2023, recently published by the team at BuzzGuru.

This 66-page report provides an impressively in-depth look at everything influencer marketing from high-level statistics to the top platforms, influencers, and brands. Though it’s mainly focused on consumer influencer marketing, B2B marketers can take away ideas and insights from the report as well.

Here are six more fascinating facts and findings from the BuzzGuru report. (Disclosure: yes, I’m a BuzzGuru affiliate. But this report really is fascinating, and I’d share these findings  regardless. :-))

The influencer marketing industry has grown at average annual rate of 46.9% over the past seven years.

Among the reasons cited for this growth by BuzzGuru are the increasing number of Internet users and time spent online; the growth in online shopping; the expanding influence of social media; and the corresponding shift of brand advertising and marketing budgets from broadcast to digital.

In addition, per McKinsey, “Brands tap into influencer marketing because it works for them, consumers, and influencers alike.” It’s cost-effective for brands; engaging to consumers; and lucrative for online content creators.

93% of marketers have used influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing is now a standard component of campaigns, though still more so for consumer brands than in B2B, due to the differences between B2B and B2C influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing budget spend is expected to reach nearly $6.2 billion in the U.S. in 2023, up 23.4% year over year.

Brands see influencer marketing as one of their most effective promotion channels.

An astonishing 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is “effective” or “very effective.” Just 5% call it “ineffective.”

In addition, nearly half (48%) report that the ROI of influencer marketing is “better” or “much better” than other channels. Another 41% call the ROI “comparable.”

Consumers trust influencers.

71% of survey respondents “agree” or “strongly agree” that the quality of website traffic driven by influencers is better than that from other sources.

Why? A big part of the reason is trust. Per the report, “92% of consumers trust an influencer more than any old-school straightforward advertisement or celebrity endorsement that looks more traditional.”

Most brands prefer to work with microinfluencers.

More than three-quarters (77%) of brands say they most prefer to work with microinfluencers, those with 10,000-100,000 followers. They are seen as more engaging to marketers and more approachable to consumers than mega-influencers (those with more than a million followers) or celebrities.

Despite the well-publicized risks, TikTok revenue is soaring.

TikTok’s ad revenue is projected to grow nearly 20X over a five-year period, from just $1.4 billion in 2020 to $23.6 billion by 2024.

That’s a whole lot of money (and data) to help support the Chinese Communist government’s AI and censorship efforts.

It also collects an inordinate amount of personal data from users. Per MakeUseOf.com:

TikTok can actively watch what you write in messages to friends, even if you never hit the send button. It also requests access to your phone’s model, screen resolution, current OS, phone number, email address, location, keystroke patterns, and even contact lists. None of that seems important if you just want to watch 15-second clips.”

And it allows third-party trackers to collect your data. As CNBC points out, “With third-party trackers, it’s essentially impossible to know who’s tracking your data or what information they’re collecting.”

Yet somehow, according the the BuzzGuru report, TikTok now has more than one billion global monthly active users worldwide—almost 13% of all people on earth, excluding China (which has its own version of TikTok) and India (where the app is banned).

Download the report to get the full story.

Anyway, there’s a lot more in this extensive study, from the most popular platforms for influencer marketing and overlap of social media audiences to details about Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch plus the top influencers and top brands using influencer marketing by industry. Download the Ultimate Influencer Marketing Report from BuzzGuru to get all of the details.

 

 

 

The post Six Fascinating Findings About Influencer Marketing in 2023 appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog | Webbiquity.