- The Micro Version – Quick Facts
- Do Influencers Really Influence Sales?
- Younger People Are More Likely to Be Influenced to Buy by Social Media
- Are Men or Women Likelier to Make Social Media Powered Buying Decisions?
- Influencer Marketing Market Size
- Influencer Marketing Demand Growth
- Fake Follower Statistics – How Big a Problem is it?
- What Next for Influencer Marketing?
It has become common practice to see our favorite influencers promoting products on social media they suggest will improve our life. Maybe you have even seen your favorite influencer promote a product and then gone out and bought it ourselves. 80% of us have.
It’s this very real influence that social media personalities and celebrities have on our buying habits that led to a phenomenal increase in paid partnerships between social stars and brands and the rise of the ever growing influencer marketing industry.
But just how big a deal is influencer marketing in 2024? We’ve surveyed 2,000 people , analysed buying habits and crunched the numbers to bring you 2024’s influencer marketing statistics.
The Micro Version – Quick Facts
Only here for the short form content? Here’s our quickfire influencer marketing facts:
- 17% of people have made a purchase from a brand after seeing someone endorsing a product on social media
- Almost one third of people aged between 16 and 34 have made a purchase after seeing someone sharing a product endorsement on social media
- Over a quarter of people aged between 16 and 34 have made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity product endorsement on social
- The Influencer Marketing market was worth an estimated $16.4 billion in 2022
- Forecasts suggest the market will grow to $143 billion by 2030
Do Influencers Really Influence Sales?
A great place to start from when trying to understand influencer marketing is to understand the influence that celebrities and creators have on consumer buying habits and purchasing decisions.
So we surveyed 2,000 people aged 16 and over in the UK between 4th and 6th January 2022. We wanted to understand what influences them to make purchases.
We asked:
- Which of the following, if any, have you ever done? (Tick all that apply):
- Made a purchase after seeing an advertisement online
- Made a purchase from a brand after seeing the brand’s content on social media
- Made a purchase from a brand after seeing someone on social media endorsing a product
- Made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity endorsing a product
- None of the above
Here’s what people told us:
| Which of the following, if any, have you ever done? | |
| Response | % of People Who Gave This Response |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing an advertisement online | 40.35% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing the brand’s content on social media | 26.90% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing someone on social media endorsing a product | 17.60% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity endorsing a product | 14.10% |
| None of the above | 34.80% |
So what we can see is that:
- 17.6% of the UK population has made a purchase after seeing someone endorsing a product on social media
- Over a quarter of people (26.9%) have made a purchase after seeing the brand’s own content on social
But, as you might expect, this is very much something influenced by age and, to a lesser extent, gender as well.
So we segmented our survey data to look at responses by age and gender and outline the numbers below.
Younger People Are More Likely to Be Influenced to Buy by Social Media
When we segment the data into age groups, this is what we see:
| Response | 16 – 24 year olds | 25 – 34 | 35 – 44 | 45 – 54 | 55+ |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing an advertisement online | 40.89% | 44.02% | 44.82% | 38.51% | 37.45% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing the brand’s content on social media | 41.78% | 41.98% | 32.32% | 26.87% | 13.52% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing someone on social media endorsing a product | 31.11% | 30.90% | 24.09% | 12.84% | 7.02% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity endorsing a product | 28.89% | 24.78% | 18.90% | 10.15% | 4.68% |
| None of the above | 14.22% | 13.70% | 26.83% | 35.52% | 53.32% |
On the whole, younger people are ultimately much more likely to make purchases after being exposed to any sort of online ad or content about a product.
While over half (53.32%) of over 55s say they have never made a purchase after seeing an online ad or social endorsement of a product (those who answered “none of the above”) this figure drops to just 14.2% and 13.70% for those aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 34 respectively.
But when it comes to influencer marketing, what these statistics really show is that younger people are making buying decisions following social media exposure to endorsements.
- Over 41% of those aged between 16 and 34 have made a purchase after seeing a brand’s own content on social
- Over 30% of both age groups have also made a purchase after seeing someone on social media endorsing a product. That’s almost a third of this age group having its purchasing decisions influenced to the point of parting with cash by seeing social media endorsements
Celebrity status can influence both of these age groups too much more than older age groups. We found:
- 28.89% of those aged 16 to 24 have made a purchase after seeing a celebrity endorsement of a product on social media
- The figure is high for 25 to 34s as well at 24.78%
The over 55s, however, aren’t so easily swayed by social media influencers and celebrities:
- Just 1 in 20 (4.68%) of over 55s have made a purchase after seeing a celebrity endorsement on social media
- Slightly more (7%) have made a purchase after seeing someone share a product endorsement on social
- Over a third (37%) have made a purchase after seeing an ad online, however
- On the other hand, however, our statistics show that younger people are likelier to make purchasing decisions based on influencers and celebrities than they are from online ads.
So while influencer marketing is certainly a channel with some real potential for reaching a younger demographic of consumers, if you’re targeting over 55s with your product or service, more traditional advertising methods may yield more promising results. It’s not likely you’ll be converting that demographic with a celebrity Tiktok endorsement.
Are Men or Women Likelier to Make Social Media Powered Buying Decisions?
The variation in responses by age group was really significant. We also saw variation in responses based on gender and while these aren’t as sizable differences, there certainly were some.
| Response | Women | Men |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing an advertisement online | 41.91% | 38.74% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing the brand’s content on social media | 27.71% | 26.06% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing someone on social media endorsing a product | 17.46% | 17.75% |
| Made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity endorsing a product | 12.72% | 15.52% |
| None of the above | 38.36% | 31.14% |
Responses were remarkably similar when men and women were asked about having made a purchase after seeing a brand’s own content or someone on social media sharing content.
However, we saw more variation in the number of men and women who say they’ve made a purchase from a brand after seeing a celebrity endorsing a product.
- 12.72% of women say they’ve been influenced to make a purchase having seen a celebrity product endorsement on social media
- This figure rises to 15.52% of men
So men are more likely to be influenced by celebrities on social media to buy a product.
Influencer Marketing Market Size
The influencer marketing industry was valued at over $10 billion in 2021 according to this report.
The same report forecasts that the market size will grow to an astronomical $143 billion by 2030.
Influencer Marketing Demand Growth
An excellent way to get into the psyche of a population is to have a look at what they’re Googling. We took a look at Google data globally (using kwfinder.com) to analyse demand for influencer marketing services.
We looked at the estimated number of searches per month in Google over time for keywords such as:
- Influencer marketing agency
- Influencer marketing services
We then looked at searches over the same period of time for SEO and PPC agency searches to assess trends.
Here’s what we found:
| Month | Global Searches for “Influencer Marketing Agency” in Google | “SEO Agency” | “PPC Agency” |
| January 2018 | 4400 | 27100 | 4400 |
| February 2018 | 2900 | 40500 | 2900 |
| March 2018 | 3600 | 22200 | 3600 |
| April 2018 | 2900 | 12100 | 2900 |
| May 2018 | 2900 | 12100 | 3600 |
| June 2018 | 2900 | 12100 | 2900 |
| July 2018 | 3600 | 14800 | 3600 |
| August 2018 | 3600 | 18100 | 4400 |
| September 2018 | 3600 | 14800 | 3600 |
| October 2018 | 4400 | 18100 | 3600 |
| November 2018 | 3600 | 14800 | 3600 |
| December 2018 | 2900 | 14800 | 3600 |
| January 2019 | 5400 | 14800 | 4400 |
| February 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| March 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| April 2019 | 4400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| May 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| June 2019 | 4400 | 22200 | 4400 |
| July 2019 | 5400 | 27100 | 5400 |
| August 2019 | 6600 | 22200 | 5400 |
| September 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 4400 |
| October 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| November 2019 | 5400 | 22200 | 4400 |
| December 2019 | 4400 | 22200 | 4400 |
| January 2020 | 5400 | 27100 | 5400 |
| February 2020 | 4400 | 27100 | 3600 |
| March 2020 | 4400 | 22200 | 4400 |
| April 2020 | 5400 | 22200 | 5400 |
| May 2020 | 6600 | 33100 | 6600 |
| June 2020 | 5400 | 27100 | 6600 |
| July 2020 | 5400 | 33100 | 5400 |
| August 2020 | 5400 | 33100 | 5400 |
| September 2020 | 5400 | 33100 | 5400 |
| October 2020 | 6600 | 33100 | 3600 |
| November 2020 | 6600 | 27100 | 1000 |
| December 2020 | 8100 | 33100 | 1000 |
| January 2021 | 9900 | 27100 | 2900 |
| February 2021 | 8100 | 27100 | 1900 |
| March 2021 | 14800 | 33100 | 2900 |
| April 2021 | 9900 | 33100 | 1900 |
| May 2021 | 9900 | 33100 | 2400 |
| June 2021 | 8100 | 33100 | 2400 |
| July 2021 | 8100 | 33100 | 2900 |
| August 2021 | 6600 | 27100 | 1900 |
| September 2021 | 8100 | 27100 | 1600 |
| October 2021 | 8100 | 27100 | 1900 |
| November 2021 | 9900 | 27100 | 1600 |
| December 2021 | 18100 | 33100 | 3600 |
| January 2022 | 14800 | 40500 | 5400 |
| February 2022 | 18100 | 33100 | 6600 |
| March 2022 | 9900 | 40500 | 4400 |
| April 2022 | 8100 | 40500 | 2400 |
| May 2022 | 8100 | 40500 | 2400 |
| June 2022 | 8100 | 49500 | 5400 |
| July 2022 | 9900 | 40500 | 3600 |
| August 2022 | 9900 | 49500 | 5400 |
| September 2022 | 9900 | 40500 | 5400 |
| October 2022 | 9900 | 40500 | 2400 |
| November 2022 | 9900 | 40500 | 2900 |
| December 2022 | 8100 | 33100 | 2900 |
| January 2023 | 18100 | 49500 | 3600 |
| February 2023 | 14800 | 40500 | 3600 |
| March 2023 | 14800 | 49500 | 3600 |
| April 2023 | 14800 | 40500 | 3600 |
| May 2023 | 18100 | 40500 | 2900 |
| June 2023 | 22200 | 22200 | 1900 |
| July 2023 | 14800 | 27100 | 2900 |
| August 2023 | 14800 | 33100 | 4400 |
| September 2023 | 18100 | 40500 | 4400 |
| October 2023 | 18100 | 49500 | 4400 |
| November 2023 | 14800 | 49500 | 6600 |
| December 2023 | 14800 | 49500 | 6600 |
| January 2024 | 18100 | 49500
|
6600 |
Comparing January 2018 with January 2022 we can see a growth of 236% in global monthly searches for “influencer marketing agency.”
Comparing this same timeframe, searches for “SEO agency” also rose, though more modestly (49% growth) and searches for “PPC agency” rose by 22%.
So while there is significantly more demand for SEO agencies, at present, than for influencer marketing agencies, the gap is closing.
Fake Follower Statistics – How Big a Problem is it?
A common worry of those investing marketing budget into influencer marketing is how authentic the following of influencers really is.
It’s easy to buy fake followers across any and all social media platforms. But how big is the issue?
There are plenty of tools out there that claim to let you audit an influencer’s following and give you an idea as to how high a proportion of it might be fake.
But how many people are actively looking to buy fake followers?
We looked at searches in Google (using kwfinder.com again) to look at how many people are potentially trying to bolster their followings using inauthentic means. We added up all searches for each month of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to give us annual search volumes.
Here’s the numbers:
| Month | Searches for “buy Instagram followers” (Global) | “Buy Tiktok followers” | “Buy Twitter followers” |
| 2018 | 1,860,000 | 4,100 | 293,900 |
| 2019 | 2,088,000 | 55,100 | 245,900 |
| 2020 | 2,322,000 | 233,500 | 264,700 |
| 2021 | 2,064,000 | 307,800 | 282,700 |
| 2022 | 2,026,000 | 461,000 | 346,000 |
In 2022, there were an estimated 2,026,000 searches in Google globally for “buy instagram followers.” This represents a 9% increase on 2018’s figure but a drop against 2020’s figure.
Tiktok has been something of an emerging platform in recent years. In 2018, there were just 4,100 searches for “buy tiktok followers,” but in 2022 that figure was 461000 and it’s still growing month to month.
People looking to buy Twitter followers are on the rise too, with more than 300,000 searches in Google globally in 2022 for “buy twitter followers.”
So with so many searches for fake followers and so many services offering them for mere pennies, those looking to work with influencers certainly should be aware of this as a potential issue.
What Next for Influencer Marketing?
With new social media platforms always around the corner and younger demographics engaging increasingly with video centric social, it looks highly unlikely that influencer marketing is going anywhere anytime soon.
The forecasted increase in market value over the coming 7 years make this a really exciting prospect for both brands and aspiring social media influencers alike.