As social media becomes a more integrated part of our lives, influencer marketinghas exploded. People are turning to their favorite Instagram models, Twitter personalities and YouTube stars for advice and recommendations on purchasing decisions.

These influencers are trusted by millions of consumers, and marketers are paying attention. It turns out 86% of them used influencer marketing since last year, and budgets for influencer marketing are skyrocketing.

Social media has given normal people an opportunity to build their own brand through stimulating content and engagement. These new influencers are more relatable than traditional celebrities. Since more people are joining social media networks every day, companies have begun to realize they can leverage these platforms for marketing.

Interest in influencer marketing has only raised, which means a lot of research has been conducted which has produced interesting statistics. So let’s take a look at some of the most eye-popping results of these studies. Here are 20 influencer marketing stats that will surprise you.

It’s extremely difficult for brands to build the same level of trust influencers possess, but thanks to influencer marketing that trust is transmitted to your brand. So much so that 4 in 10 millennial subscribers say their favorite influencer understand them better than their friends

Another effect of influencer marketing is that brands don’t have to waste resources promoting themselves, and instead use influencers to speak on their behalf and deliver the message they want people to here and trust.

This statistic should be important to any brand that either has women as their primary target audience or within their scope of ideal customers.

It seems if you want to reach more women and get them to buy your product or service, you need to be present on social media and aware of the influencers that they are interested in. And this behavior is growing as 45% of women claim to be more active on social media that they were just 2 years ago.

When it comes to influencer marketing, over half of women made purchases due to influencer posts with Facebook and Instagram being the preferred platforms. The key to engaging this cohort through influencers is to be genuine and inspirational.

This statistic demonstrates the growing importance of social media influences for brands to connect with their audiences. Not only do 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations but 40% had purchased something after seeing it on Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

If consumers feel confident about an influencer’s recommendation, they are more likely to make a purchase. Brands are able to piggyback on the trust of influencers.

The word of a celebrity isn’t as valuable as it used to be. Not only do customers have a hard time trusting brands, but also traditional celebrities seem to have lost the influence they once had.

Influencers have the power to forge strong ties with fans and experience a more engaged audience gaining 3 times as many views, twice as many actions and 12 times as many comments compared to videos from traditional celebrities.

It seems these days’ consumers trust social media influencers and their peers above anybody else. Power has shifted to social media influencers.

With 59% of marketers planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets, this area of marketing is becoming the fastest growing channel for brands beating organic search, paid search and email marketing.

According to a Tomson study, businesses earn $6.50 for each dollar spent on influencers with the top 13% earning $20 or even more. That’s a significant return on investment considering that over half of marketers also consider the customers they acquire through this route as better prospects.

In terms fo influencer channels, blogs and Facebook are cited as the most effective platforms.

More brands are hopping on the influencer marketing train. It’s becoming more important than ever to build relationships with influencers who resonate with your brand and to create campaigns, which are aligned with the values of an influencer’s followers.

In addition, 22% of marketers say influencer marketing is the most cost-effective method of obtaining new customers.

Fashion and beauty are industries that rely heavily on influencer marketing as organic growth for brands has become more challenging without advertising and amplification.

In this sector,  57% of companies now use influencers as part of their marketing mix while 21% are planning to add this to their strategy in the coming year.

Many brands now use influencers to great success such as Lush using Grav3yardgirl and  Nicole Guerriero gaining thousands of views on YouTube. However, while many fashion and beauty brands are keen on using influencers, many want to ensure that a brand affinity exists in order to drive success.

More brands and marketers are coming to realize the incredible results that influence marketing can produce. This impact is resulting in an increase in spend with  67% of marketers planning to increase their budgets in the next 12 months particularly on Instagram.

Not only is spend increasing to help boost brand awareness, reach new audiences and improve brand advocacy, but it’s fast becoming the key channel for many marketers.

As an industry, influencer marketing has expanded exponentially over the past two years. Worth just $2 billion in 2017, the industry is set to reach  $10 billion by 2020 as the industry witnesses more growth and becomes a more effective marketplace.

This growth means more widespread use in marketing and will require marketers to evolve strategies in the way campaigns are measured, create analytics to scale campaigns and look at how to manage relationships between brands and influencers.

About  three-quarters of consumers trust opinions they find on social media, including those from friends, families, and influencers, to help them make the right decision about buying a product or service.

This creates huge opportunities for marketers in the promotion of products (sponsored or not) to reach new audiences and influence key cohorts such as millennials and Gen Z.

What this means is brands are undergoing a transition in the ways they spend their marketing budgets. Expensive and inefficient ad buys, such as those found in newspapers and magazines, are giving way to influencer marketing.

The return on investment in influencer marketing is far outpacing any traditional medium.

More and more internet users are removing traditional ads from their online experience. In the U.S. ad-blocking usage is 40% on laptops and 15% on mobile as consumers are tired of being hammered with pop-ups and banners.

But influencers are now filling the gap. People aren’t blocking videos from their favorite social media celebrities; in fact, they’re eating up every word they say. Advertising power is shifting to real people and influencers.

Spending on influencers has gone up over the past few years, and it’s only going to increase.

Many budgets for influencer marketing are on the rise with marketers expected to invest an average of $25,000-$50,000 in multifaceted campaigns, which is in line with many external marketing budgets of small-to-medium sized companies.

It seems Twitter influencers do, as a matter of fact, have the ability to impact the purchasing decisions of followers. On the platform, influencers are now rivaling friends in terms of building trust with 49% of Twitter users saying they relied on influencers compared to 56% listening to friends.

Engaging in marketing campaigns with influencers over Twitter clearly has the potential to drive up sales for goods and services.

We already mentioned 73% of marketers have a budget set aside for influencer marketing, but as of right now just 67% are actively engaging with and have a relationship with influencers. They’re getting ahead of the curve and striking marketing deals to borrow their trust.

Now is the time to jump in and get involved in influencer marketing. It’s time to do your research and find influencers who might have the trust and dedication of your target audience.

With about two billion monthly users across the world, Facebook is the most influential social media channel with 19% of purchasing decisions being influenced by the platform.

Other social media networks are catching up to the giant, but Facebook remains on top. It’s important to stay active on Facebook and engage with influencers for marketing purposes.

While Facebook is still the alpha dog, YouTube is right behind with 18% marketing influence. The platform has made celebrities and influencers of regular people, and fame is open to all age groups and demographics.

There’s something for everybody on YouTube, and marketers are taking notice by putting more money into influencer marketing on the platform.

This changes the meaning of comparison shopping. According to research, 3% of consumers would consider buying a product in-store if promoted by a celebrity compared to 60% for an influencer.

Not only is the influence greater, but over half of customers are consulting blogs and social media on their mobiles prior to shopping highlighting the importance of easy to find information and posts (social and blogs) to reveal a product’s reputation.

Part of influencer marketing research means discovering which social media networks are most suitable for promoting your brand and where your target audience can be found.

According to Twitter influencers created a 5.2x increase in purchase intent when users were exposed to brand and influencer tweets compared to 2.7x when just shown brand tweets.

Influencer marketing campaigns should not be a one-and-done proposition but are a valuable strategy in a marketer’s toolkit. with nearly three-quarters of marketing professionals citing them as good for business.

If you can partner with them and create a long-term relationship, making them ambassadors of your brand, the message they portray comes across as more trusted instead of promotional. It helps to boost your brand’s credibility if you’re seen as trusted by an influencer.

It’s better late than never when it comes to developing an influencer marketing campaign. A good way to start would be to reach out to some of your industry’s top influencers and show off your great product or service. Otherwise, do research on some of the big-time social media influencers and find out which ones have your target audience as a significant portion of their following and go from there.

Either way, understanding how to use influencer marketing to its true potential will help to drive brand awareness, leads and revenue.

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