We're not totally sure who invented sliced bread, but we did happen to stumble across this amazing TikTok account called Cottage Loaves—an expert at all things sourdough bread. 

After relishing in the amazing art that is loaf-making it spawned a bigger question about influencer marketing—a question that most digital marketing professionals are probably asking themselves right now. 

‍Why should I try influencer marketing? 

While we could sit here and give you a million personal reasons why (pssst, we work with influencers every single day) we thought it would be more compelling to drop 17 influencer marketing statistics that will blow that big brain right out the top of your dome. 

So without further ado, go ahead and dive into these key influencer marketing statistics.

1. The influencer marketing industry is expected to grow to $16.4 billion in 2022—a 30% increase from 2021. ‍

Any good marketer knows that a 30% jump is always a strong indicator that you're moving in the right direction. When you start seeing those double-digits, it's clear that something big is happening!

In influencer marketing, this 30% jump tells us that brands across all industries are investing more time, energy, and effort into partnering with influencers to create compelling content that they can share across their social media channels. And as influencer marketing budgets increase, you can only expect influencer marketing to continue to grow in a positive feedback loop.

‍2. Social commerce will reach $958 billion in 2022, with influencer marketing leading the charge. ‍

Not familiar with the term social commerce? 

It's simple: selling products and services through social media platforms. This could be TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest—pretty much any channel that allows you to share content with an audience.

This type of buying is ever-increasing with data showing that more and more consumers are leaning on social media for guidance when it comes to purchases. Before we know it, the social media channels we know and love, might just also become our favorite online shopping stores. 

And guess who's going to represent those online stores? You guessed it, influencers! Score another win for influencer marketing.

3. 68% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budget in 2022. 

It's obvious that influencer marketing is growing at a rapid pace, but never did people think that it would catapult to the top of every brand's priority over the last two years.

Between the global pandemic and a massive shift in internet consumers (thanks to Gen Z) the days of traditional advertisements are dwindling in the shadows of creator content that can drive higher conversions at a lower initial cost. We expect influencer marketing budgets to only continue to grow from here.

4. Brands are making $5.78 for every $1 invested in influencer marketing. ‍

This may be one of the most impressive influencer marketing statistics that we know. You hear the term ROI thrown around every marketing manager's office regularly, but how often do you hear someone say, “that campaign had fantastic ROI, worth every penny we spent”? 

Chances are not many. 

Influencer marketing has some of the best ROI in the modern marketing game, flexing almost a 5x return compared to other marketing practices like traditional ad spending. The message from this influencer marketing statistic is clear: stop throwing your money away to meta-whatever and start using it where it will benefit you the most—on influencers!

(As a quick aside, we can't guarantee that all influencer marketing spend will always get 5.78x return. We are talking about an average here. Nevertheless, if you are patient enough to dial in your influencer marketing strategy, you will see an influencer marketing ROI higher you'll like—a lot.)

‍5. There's been a 465% increase in the search term “influencer marketing” on Google alone since 2016.‍

Speaking of promising influencer marketing statistics, give that stat above another read. 

‍A 465% increase!

It appears that everyone and their mother is asking about influencer marketing. What is it? How does influencer marketing work? What influencer marketing goals should I set? How do I set an influencer marketing strategy? What should my influencer marketing budget be? What the hell is a micro-influencer? 

All of these are questions that marketers like yourself are asking on a daily basis which tells us that this industry isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and Google has some serious evidence to back that up. 

‍6. 60% of marketers say that influencer-generated content performs higher than branded content. ‍

If you were wondering how successful these influencer marketing campaigns are, there are plenty of marketing experts who will reinforce how well it works. 

Matter of fact, most of the experts surveyed in this influencer marketing benchmark report said that their influencer-generated content performed significantly better than the branded content.

Moral of the story: it's ok to promote on other channels besides your own and influencers are the perfect candidates to do it. 

‍7. Over the course of 2021, there was a 30% increase in influencer agencies, platforms, and services. ‍

As the popularity of influencer marketing continues to rise, so does all the accompanying work that supports it, including other influencer agencies, platforms, and services. During the last year, over 18.9k firms offered specialized services in influencer marketing to brands and businesses.

As competition increases, it's clear that everyone is trying to get their slice of the influencer marketing cake.

But if you want to work with the best of the best, we know a team of marketing maniacs who crush every influencer marketing campaign. 

‍8. Micro-influencers have a 20% higher conversion rate than macro-influencers.

‍Influencer marketing comes in all shapes and sizes, but one that has taken hold of the industry is the micro-influencer. Micro-influencers (less than 500,000 followers) are some of the most powerful creators on the internet. 

With a 60% higher engagement rate than traditional macro-influencers, these folks tout a highly-engaged audience that actually listens to what they have to say and often acts upon it.

‍9.  66% of brands recognize the high quality of customers that come from influencer marketing campaigns. ‍

It's one thing to have a bunch of people on your social media platforms who never buy anything from your brand—those are called followers. While they're great, they don't pay the bills.

On the other hand, when you work with an influencer on a marketing campaign, the people that come as a result are not just other followers, they are fans, and fans fork over their hard-earned cash for things that they like, especially when the person who recommended it is their favorite TikTok influencer. When you run successful influencer campaigns, it's easy to transfer that fan loyalty to brand loyalty. Meaning the customers you acquire via influencer marketing have a higher chance of repeating.

‍10. 53% of women made purchases due to influencer posts.‍

Since we brought up the topic of conversions, we thought you might want to take note that females lean heavily into social media when it comes to making a purchasing decision.

Not only do they use social media platforms to help inform themselves about the product or services they are interested in, but they also take it one step further by following an influencer that focuses on that industry or niche, hoping they can provide an even better perspective on the product. 

‍11. 38% of consumers are more inclined to trust brands that effectively embrace diversity in their advertising.‍

Every brand has room for improvement when it comes to diversity and inclusiveness. 

As culture continues to push the understanding and acceptance of all people, consumers are looking toward brands that promote diversity and encourage inclusivity in their influencer marketing efforts across the board.

That includes partnering with a diverse group of social media influencers from different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, social classes, and more to deliver content that is for everyone.

12. 79% of brands leveraging influencer marketing did so on Instagram. ‍

There's no denying that Instagram is still one of the most dominant social media platforms in the game and as such, brands are continuing to push influencer campaigns through that channel.

The difference now is that instead of brands focusing on creating content for their native channels, brands are looking toward influencers for content with the hopes of combining the two audiences together by allowing the creator to feature its product on the influencer's channel. 

‍13. 65% of the top-performing Instagram posts feature products.‍

Since we are talking about Instagram, it is important to note that now more than ever, this platform is heavily focused on paid content. Yes, organic content on your brand's Instagram will still work but don't be surprised if you see a drop in engagement and followers over the next few months. 

To alleviate this issue, brands are working with Instagram influencers to develop organic content for their own channels that features the products and services that the brand offers. This gives the brand new opportunities to touch their target audience without having to fork over loads of cash and hope that the Instagram algorithm favors them. 

‍14. TikTok has the highest social media engagement rates per post. ‍

We couldn't leave out our favorite social media platform from this list—TikTok. TikTok is the new kid on the block looking to show that they can play with the big dogs in the influencer marketing industry, and so far, they're doing the best of all. 

Currently, Tiktok has the highest social media engagement across all social media platforms per post. So let it be known, that if you're a brand looking to leverage influencer marketing, TikTok might just be the perfect place for you to deploy your influencer marketing budget. 

‍15. 46% of brands using influencer marketing did so on TikTok. ‍

This is one of our favorite influencer marketing statistics—because we plan on pushing the number even higher. While TikTok is still new to the social media ecosystem, it is seeing rapid growth. Between the 8 users joining TikTok every second and the 850 minutes spent every month on the platform by users, it's obvious that brands who are using the social media platform to share influencer marketing content are seeing success. 

‍16. 8 new users join TikTok every second.‍

If you want to talk about rapid growth, just look at how many people have joined TikTok since the start of the pandemic. The numbers don't lie, TikTok is taking the world by storm and snatching up all the attention of Gen Z, flaunting an impressive 37.3 million users compared to 33.3 on Instagram.

17. 30% of Gen Z buyers prefer using TikTok for product research. ‍

Speaking of Gen Z, they absolutely love using TikTok to find out more about a product or service they are interested in. Whether it be beauty products, clothes, food, or even software, they want to get the opinions of others before they buy.

If you're looking to capture the eyes of these users, it looks like TikTok is going to be the place to make it happen.