25 Shocking Influencer Marketing Stats for 2020

It’s not a fleeting trend or a popular content marketing gimmick — influencer marketing is real, and it’s growing year over year.

There are several reasons why — the biggest one of which is the advent of social media.

TechCrunch reported that as of June 2018, Instagram had 1 billion monthly active users. 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35, and 500 million of them use the platform every single day.

That’s right, every single day.

In addition, Facebook has 2.4 billion monthly active users, and 5 billion Youtube videos are watched every day.

And do you know what that adds up to? Countless chances to connect with your target audience and increase brand awareness in new, engaging, and entertaining ways.

So How Did Influencer Marketing Start?

Influencers have been around forever. Back in the day, if you found a product you loved, you recommended it to a friend through word of mouth.

And a recommendation from a trusted friend can be more persuasive than any ad or commercial. Traditional advertisements are powerful, but word of mouth is even more so. Twitter users spend 24% more time engaging with an ad if its an influencer tweet, for instance.

Influencer marketing, as we know it today, evolved in the mid-2000s as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter came to be. Now, according to Google, young people are 70% less likely to be influenced by a traditional celebrity than they are a YouTube star.

Newer social media networks like Snapchat and Twitch are impacting influencer marketing strategies as well. 90% of teenagers and 75% of millennials up to 34 years old use Snapchat. And 4 in 10 of them buy influencer endorsed goods and services.

These social media platforms, along with Instagram, make it incredibly easy to connect with both friends and strangers alike. As more and more people started living their lives online, bloggers, vloggers, and other content producers realized that there was money in reviewing and recommending products.

To find out how marketers and consumers think about the power of influencers, we analyzed the data from the biggest surveys, studies, and reports on influencer marketing.

We found some pretty interesting stats that show how powerful this type of digital marketing is.

Ready to hear the surprising results?

Check out these 25 shocking influencer marketing statistics for 2020.

What Marketers Have to Say

Marketing experts have embraced the social media culture of influencers and followers. From Coca Cola to Microsoft to Buick, just about every major brand you can think of has some sort of influencer campaign going.

It’s amazing to see what marketing experts are saying about how influencers are affecting their business.

• The influencer marketing industry will reach between $5 and $10 billion by 2022¹
• 93% of marketers use social media influencers¹
• Approximately 70% of marketers use influencers for content promotion and product launches¹
• 84% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is successful¹
• 36% of marketers use micro-influencers³
• 30% of marketers use high-tier influencers and celebrities
• Micro-influencers have seven times more engagement with followers than those with large followings¹
• 39% of marketers increased their influencer marketing budgets in 2019²
• 54% of marketers plan to spend over $250,000 on influencer marketing in 2019²
• Only 34% of marketers manage their influencer campaigns in house²
• 89% of marketers use engagement to measure the success of campaigns²
• 63% of marketers use clicks and conversions to measure the success of influencer marketing campaigns²
• 68% of marketers say Instagram is the most important social media platform for their campaigns²
• 57% of marketers say influencer content outperforms their own brand content²
• 35% of marketers say influencer marketing has the best return on investment¹
• 87% of marketers want influencers to publish their own original content¹

(1. SocialPubli 2019 Influencer Marketing Report, 2. Linqia’s The State of Influencer Marketing 2019 Survey, and 3. Rakuten’s 2019 Influencer Marketing Global Survey.)

What Consumers Have to Say About Influencer Marketing

So what do consumers think about influencer marketing programs?

Where do they find their influencers?

How often do influencer recommendations actually encourage them to make a purchase or check out a new brand?

Internet users look to the influencers they trust as their go-to source for new info and product recommendations. And they’re making a lot of purchases based on what they have to say.

These 2020 influencer marketing stats prove that consumers are loving it.

• 65% of people discover a new brand or product through an influencer at least once a week (24% say they find one daily!)
• 87% of shoppers were inspired by an influencer to make a purchase
• 56% of women that follow influencers follow beauty influencers, followed by entertainers, celebrity influencers, and fashion influencers
• 54% of men that follow influencers follow gaming influencers, followed by tech influencers and entertainers
• 70% of women prefer Instagram influencers
• 64% of men prefer YouTube as their influencing platform,
• 53% of people find new influencers through social media recommendations
• 74% of consumers say they would spend up to $629 on a product recommended by an influencer
• 31% of consumers recommend an influencer to friends and family at least once a week

(source: Rakuten’s 2019 Influencer Marketing Global Survey)

So What Does it All Mean?

In short, it means that influencer marketing is an essential part of most company’s advertising budgets.

People love social media, especially people under the age of 35. Influencer marketing allows new and established brands a way to reach that younger demographic.

And let’s not forget why influencer marketing works in the first place.

It’s the ultimate win-win. Brands love it because it’s a way to attract new customers. Influencers love it because they get paid.

As long as there’s money to be made with influencing, brands will continue to make influencer marketing a part of their ad budget. Influencers will continue to create sponsored posts as they simultaneously try to become their own brands.

It certainly seems as though there’s no end in sight.