Influencer marketing surpassed $29 billion in 2022: report

Consider the marketing industry influenced.

Influencer marketing spend increased 21.5% in 2022 to $29 billion and is expected to go up 17% this year, reaching $34 billion, a report from media research firm PQ Media found.

The majority of that spend—about 76%—came from the US market, but PQ expects that share to shrink closer to 68% by 2027 as influencer marketing gains traction worldwide. India was the second-fastest-growing market in 2022, followed by Japan. PQ Media uses “proprietary econometric methodology” to forecast industry growth.

Small but mighty: PQ found that the recent surge in influencer spend was driven by factors like an increase in time spent on social media by millennials and Gen Z, as well as an increase in the number of influencers, a majority of them nanoinfluencers with fewer than 10,000 followers.

According to the report, microinfluencers were the fastest-growing category within the sector last year, up 30.5% from the year before compared to macroinfluencers at 27.7%. Microinfluencers are typically defined as those who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.

You’re either in(fluenced) or you’re out: Some of the other factors driving the “consistent double-digit growth” of influencer marketing last year and this year, according to PQ, include:

• Metric focus shifting away from “likes” to more results-focused data, such click-throughs.
• Influencer marketing’s gaining legitimacy via things like college courses on the subject and industry conference programming.
• Content becoming “more authentic and creative,” which can help boost engagement.

Building trust: “Fast forward to 2023, and the term ‘word-of-mouth marketing’ is rarely used anymore, as it has been replaced by ‘influencer marketing,’” PQ’s CEO and founder Patrick Quinn said in a statement. “If executed well, influencer marketing is an invaluable piece of successful omnichannel campaigns because it helps brands improve their social media reputation with high-quality content and, ultimately, grow sales.”