Five Charts to Justify Your 2023 Investment in Influencer Marketing

The #influencer economy is booming. Spanning a wide range of platforms—Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, Pinterest, to name just a few—the influencer-related marketing industry?ballooned to $16.4 billion in 2022. It is projected to grow even more in 2023. The number of influencer marketing-related platforms is growing too, up 26% as recently as 2021, with more and more services fighting for influencer content—and consumer attention. Each has its own focus, and its own hold on users’ attention and spending habits.

To see if this exponential growth in the influencer economy is grounded in #consumer trends, BCG surveyed more than 1,000 US consumers regarding their media usage and purchase behavior. We bubbled up and summarized our findings into five charts that support the new prominence of #influencermarketing today.

What Media Channels Do Consumers Use the Most?

Any discussion on influencer marketing trends needs to start with the primary communication channel: #socialmedia.?Our research found that social media was the most used channel, beating out TV, radio, and even web surfing. When looking at the breakdown by age, it’s not surprising that younger users are most active on social media—99% of respondents under 35—but social media usage remains high even for older demographics. This supports prevailing thoughts that a majority of marketing investment should be going to social media related strategies.

Is Social Media Actually Influential?

Naysayers of social media will say that content is fleeting and attention spans for any given piece of content is lower relative to other media channels like TV.?However, when we asked consumers which channels influenced their most recent purchases, social media was cited the most.?This was consistent when looking more granularly at specific product categories.

We took this one step further and asked consumers who cited social media, how much social media influenced their recent purchases relative to other channels.?The response was clear: 91% said social media had more or the same influence as other channels.?As seen in the previous question, while there was some differentiation across product categories, the findings were overall consistently supportive of social media.

What’s the Driving Force Behind Social Media Influence?

Next, we wanted to understand the driving force behind influence on social media.?We broke down the sources of content into two basic buckets: friends & family vs. non-friends & non-family.?Non-friends/family could include brands, celebrities, cooks, or any content provider that is not personally known—this category could be broadly considered "influencers."

We asked consumers roughly what percentage of content they saw on social media came from friends/family vs. non-friends/family. We found that 73% of user accounts were reported to have over 50% of content coming from non-friends/family.?But not all social media channels are equal—Facebook has a higher share of friends/family content relative to other social media platforms.?Nevertheless, this data supports the idea that social media has evolved from its roots of checking in on loved ones and acquaintances (and for viewing countless vacation pictures), to a vehicle for exploring passions, furthering interests, and gaining new perspectives from outside of one’s immediate circles.

Are Influencers Actually "Influential"?

Finally, to understand how "influential" influencers actually are, we asked consumers who cited using social media: how helpful recommendations are from non-friends/family? 81% said they were at least somewhat helpful and only 19% said they were not helpful.

These trends are more striking for younger demographics.?49% of consumers under 35 listed product recommendations from non-friends/family social media posts to be trustworthy (4th most trustworthy out of 16 channels) vs. those aged 45 and up who ranked these same posts as less trustworthy (14th out of 16 channels).

In Closing: What Does This Mean for My Marketing Strategy?

The conditions are set for influencer marketing to continue to thrive—and to grow even further. These conditions will become even more favorable as younger consumers become the demographic with the majority of purchasing power.?However, our experience is that #marketers have difficulty…

• … identifying the appropriate mix of influencers to achieve cost-efficient scale.
• … crafting influencer-authentic activations to drive word-of-mouth and participation.
• … curating relationships with hundreds of influencers and managing their content.
• … connecting influencer performance with business results i.e., sales and brand equity.
• … structuring the right operating model to coordinate internal and agency resources.

Knowing that the conditions to support influencer marketing are here, it will be important for marketers to invest the time, money, and resources into developing the right long-term strategy.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ray Yu is a Partner and Managing Director based in Atlanta. Brian Nadres is a Partner and Associate Director based in Boston. Greg McRoskey is a Partner and Associate Director based in Los Angeles. Romain Faracci is a Consultant based in New York. Alexandra Murray is a Lead Knowledge Analyst based in Chicago. Sam Falcone is a Senior Knowledge Analyst based in Chicago.