What will influencer marketing look like in 2025? Expert forecasts + new data

A few years ago I deleted my Instagram account (after finding that I spent 4+ hours a day for the app).

And while I proudly stated this decision, I have act Create a new account recently so that I can check in four of my favorite influencers.

This is correct: I didn’t create a new account so that I could keep up with my college bests or siblings.

I have one so that I could see what my favorite influencers are doing (and how to buy their tips on the latest clothing/beauty products).

That is the power of the influencer marketing. Influencers feel like friends. We watch how you marry, go through separations, start new careers, will be released, travel to distant places and fight with their best friends.

And if you work with a brand, we are more ready to buy.

Here I sat down with four experts in the influencer room – – – Imani EllisThe founder of the creative collective and culture; Olamide OweeThe founder and CEO of topicals; Shannae Ingleton SmithThe founder and CEO of Kensington Gray; Justine’s camera rollLifestyle and beauty influencer – to learn their tips for creating powerful influencer marketing in 2025 (also where the future leads).

We also have data from more than 1,100 social media marketers about how you implemented influencer marketing in your own companies.

Table of contents

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a strategy that leads leading creators of content and/or niche content in order to sharpen the brand awareness, increase traffic and market the products or services of a company. This cooperation between brands and creators enables companies to expand their reach in their buyers.

Influencer marketing often includes the use of channels such as social media, blogs, columns, digital and print advertisements and television. Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly popular with companies because traditional advertising has become less effective for lines and customers.

If you need help in creating an influencer marketing strategy, in panic -I covered it.

Influencer marketing works because it uses tactics such as word of word of mouth and social evidence that are now critical aspects of everyone Successful marketing strategy.

Customers trust their colleagues, friends and people who admire more than the companies that sell the products and services they buy and use.

Types of influencers

Next, let’s immerse yourself in the different types of influencers before we get involved with expert tips for creating a powerful influencer marketing strategy.

1. Brand Influencer

A brand influencer has a followers in a niche with which they regularly deal with. For this reason, you have the authority to influence your purchase decisions.

The important types of branded inflowers are:

• Micro-influencer
• Celebrity -Influencer
• Blog -Influencer
• Social media influencer
• Main property manager.

I will define every guy while we continue.

For example, JustineAn influencer for lifestyle, beauty and skin care with 195,000 followers on Instagram, worked with Mac Cosmetics to advertise their products. Justine Tags #macambassador about the contributions in which you present Mac products with her own snack bars.

2. Brand ambassador

A company hires a brand ambassador to work under contract to achieve specific goals: increase in brand awareness and increase in conversions and sales.

The contract of a brand ambassador is usually in the long term of several months to years. During this time, they represent the brand and their lifestyle and know deeply about the company’s products or services.

You don’t necessarily have to be an influencer before you become an ambassador.

For example, The brand ambassador program from Quest Nutrition Requires all interested people to apply for their program.

Quest is looking for individuals who embody their brand, positive product spokesmen, create social media posts to promote their products and to live the quest lifestyle.

Anyone who fits their criteria can apply and have the potential to be accepted. Applicants are not obliged to have a very successful YouTube account, thousands of followers on Instagram or a popular blog to become a brand ambassador.

3. Micro-influencer

Micro-influencers have a relatively modest followers of thousands or tens of thousands of people.

You create relevant content for your audience and communicate with you via social media platforms, blogs, other written publications, websites and forums.

Due to the size of their followers and the type of content they create, micro-influencers usually have high commitment rates.

A smaller audience enables micro-influencers to connect with the people who follow their channel regularly (compared to a celebrity with millions of fans).

This makes them appealing to work for companies who want to build personal relationships between their target group.

The Hubpot blogger and content manufacturer Erica Santiago tells me that this is not surprising.

“I’m not an influencer, but I’m a smaller content manufacturer with over 7.5,000 followers on various platforms,” ​​she says. “Basically, I created my own close -meshed community of people who want to keep pace with my work and my life.”

She explains: “Because my supporter is smaller, it is much easier and less overwhelming to like your comments or to respond to your comments, to re -publish your content when it is relevant for my platform or share important information with you.”

Santiago says that their interactions with their followers helped her to build a commitment and trust with them.

“I’m not an influencer here either – so I usually don’t make product recommendations,” she says. “But when I tell you that I enjoy television or comic series, you will normally trust my judgment. I have seen people who bought comics just because I made a review on my channel.”

For example Aly Gray (13.6K followers on Instagram) So Aly can wear and promote her clothes with her smaller but highly loyal and committed audience.

In addition to sharing fashion looks and tips with your followers, you are also supporters of disabilities and often share what it is like to be deaf.

4. Celebrity Influencer

Celebrity influencers are famous people with large supporters – usually millions – known in many industries. They are generally recognized and therefore have the potential to influence their target group very successfully.

Even if your target group does not overlap with all the fans of your celebrity influencer, it is a powerful form of social evidence to promote and/or use it.

Since celebrities are so well known, they are effective in reaching several target groups across different channels.

However, I should tell you something interesting about prominent influencers: According to HubSpot research, most marketers find more success with micro-influencers than celebrity influencers, and only 20% of the marketers currently work in 2025 with mega or celebrity influencers.

So if you don’t want to exploit a lot of money to get celebrities to advertise for your brand (and to trust me … there is a lot of money), do not feel under pressure.

5. Key opinion leaders

Consolation ladder (Kols) are high -ranking experts on a special topic in a certain area. For example, a KOL could specialize in the Make -up application, the Paleo Lifestyle or Bikram Yoga.

A KOL is an excellent option if your company wants to attract viewers in a special area.

Because of their specialist knowledge on a specific topic, Kols are trustworthy participants in their industries and have supporters of people who are also invested in these topics.

Ready to get started? Let us check how to create your own strong influencer marketing strategy – as well as tips from the experts.

Platform strategy: Where should you concentrate?

Before you immerse yourself in the result of a successful influencer strategy, it is important to consider Where You should run your campaigns.

The four most popular platforms for influencer marketing in 2025 are:

• Instagram (26%)
• YouTube (24%)
• TIKTOK (15%)
• LinkedIn (5%)

It is the key to determine which platforms are most popular with your audience. This also helps you to identify the right influencers because you want influencers that create the content especially for the platform of your choice.

Smith also refers to an often overlooked platform that should consider brands: “The platform I think is underestimated that I am into the depths of the depths of me is Reddit. Reddit drives a lot of traffic, not only for brands, but for the content of the creators … These forums can be a source of underground information that you can lead to an authentic answer to a brand. “

For the Reddit strategy you advise you: “If there is a topic in relation to the solution that your product or service offers, you can start a topic and talk about this specific topic in a real, authentic way. If you contribute to this conversation by providing your brand or service as a solution, this is a great way to notice from a brand perspective.”

Influencer marketing challenges

In order to create a strong strategy, it is just as important to know the challenges against which you may be measuring.

Fortunately, I covered them. In our 2025 research, these top challenges were found among the more than 1,100 surveyed:

1. Find and check the right influencers (37%)
2. Measurement of the ROI (34%)
3. Build creative strategies (28%)
4. Keep pace with algorithm changes (28%)
5. Manage costs (27%)

These challenges are worth taking into account if you read tips on creating effective influencer marketing strategy for our experts. Hopefully our expert instructions will help you to stay away from these pitfalls.

How to create effective influencer marketing strategy, according to experts

Here you can find out how you create a strategy that not only looks good on paper, but actually moves the needle.

1. Find out what “win” looks like (spoiler: they are not just a vanity metrics).

Diving into the influencer marketing without clear goals is like trying to bake a cake without a prescription – chaotic, expensive and probably disappointing.

Think of your goals in terms of intelligent goals. There are three factors in the development of intelligent influencer marketing goals: to reachPresent relevanceAnd resonance. These will help you concentrate your goals on the various aspects of the influencer marketing.

Be careful: a good influencer strategy must Start with a clearly defined goal.

As the founder of cultureecon and the creative collective, Imani Ellis, explains: “The first thing we ask all of our brand partners is. What does a victory look like? Because this will inform our strategy for you. “

An influencer marketing strategy will look drastically different if your goal is brand awareness of registrations.

Olamide Owee, founder and CEO of topicals, told me that they are not only concerned with income in terms of influencer marketing.

Instead, “our goals are also cultural effects. We do a lot of work that may feel unnecessary or not connected to a beauty brand because we do not try to build up a beauty brand. We try to build a brand that is the focus of culture. “

Do you need help with finding what your goals are? According to our report from Social Media Trends 2025, the top goals for influencer marketing are:

• Increasing sales/sales (42%)
• Increased brand awareness (38%)
• Improvement of brand reputation (29%)
• Creation of leads (27%)
• Increased commitment (26%)

Finally, Elli’s marketer encourages to plan her campaign, taking into account the end: “So that you are not frustrated in the middle of the campaign that you don’t get what you wanted.”

2. Define your campaign audience.

Your campaign audience will be a subset of your buyer personality, but can be depending on:

• Goals
• platform
• The audience of an influencer

For example, a marketer of a SaaS company for project management for a specific Instagram influencer could address a sub -group of its B2B buyer -Creative Agency Team Leads.

If Ellis thinks about the strategy of the audience, he also suggests to look beyond the individual influencers to entire communities: “If you can use a community, you can see it as Vehicle for influencer marketingPresent Instead of the traditional one-person approach.“

For example, let’s assume that you sell a protein powder. Instead of targeting a fitness influencer, you can choose to identify keys Communities That would react well to your product: like runclubs or reddit-sub threads.

Owee agrees with this approach, which is based on the community.

She said to me: “About a month ago we brought about 20 influencers to Switzerland as part of a larger skiing event called” Soft Life Ski “. We treated every single person on this trip like an influencer, regardless of whether we brought them as an influencer or not.”

The creation of this sense of community among its most loyal customers is probably a much more powerful step into the increase in brand loyalty than to pay some well -known influencers to advertise their brand.

3. Set your budget and determine your influencer type.

Her budget depends on your goals, the audience and your CEO, as your CEO actually believes in this whole “influencer -ding”.

For example, if you are a startup with a low budget, you may be able to work with a few micro-influencers instead of a macroinfluencer. If you are a medium-sized company with more resources, you can decide to achieve a celebrity influencer or to work with a KOL that is highly regarded in your industry.

Our 2025 research shows that most companies play the field with different influencer types:

• Micro-Influencer (10k-99K supporter): The crowd favorite in 67% of the marketers
• Macroinfluencer (100k-1m trailer): Close second place at 60%
• Mega-Influencer (1m+ followers): Only 20% go to this route because it is not always better to prove that it is not always better

Owee uses a micro-influencer approach for topicals: “We recently started working with a group of boys who came on our radar because they made content above us.

In addition, she points out: “Micro-influencers cut the sound in a way that some larger influencers cannot do because it contains a little saturation in their audience.”

4. Choose your influencer.

As soon as you know what kind of influencer you want, it is time for the funny part – actually to find. It’s like dating, but with brand partnerships (and hopefully fewer ghosts).

Ellis has the right idea: “Find the creator you believe in.” This should be someone whose work you really admire, not just someone with decent followers and the willingness to work with brands.

And then – let her do her thing.

“I found that if brands allow the Creator to do what he can best work,” explains Ellis. “The audience is getting smarter … You know when the Creator had control and you know when the creator doesn’t.

A creator that I follow – corporate natalie – recently worked with the AI ​​presentation manufacturer Gamma. The partnership worked well because Gamma allowed Natalie to concentrate on what it can best: to create satirical, humorous content through corporate life.

When checking influencers, our 2025 research shows the marketers the most:

• Engagement rate (52%) – Do people actually pay attention to the attentive?
• Content quality (51%) – does your things look good?
• Aesthetics and branding (45%) – Do you fit your mood?
• Succession number (44%) – size is important, but not as much as you think
• Value orientation (43%) – do you match what you stand for?
• Industry competence (43%) – do you actually know your things?

“Quality of the content” and “commitment” are the two most important factors that take the marketers into account when assessing an influencer.

Note that the number of successors is fifth behind the agreement with corporate values ​​and branding.

Ask the following questions if you consider someone for a campaign:

• Does this influencer and your lifestyle fit my brand image?
• Did you work with one of my competitors?
• Who is the current audience of this influencer?
• Is my target group active on the platform/channel, mainly used by this influencer?
• Does the work with this influencer make sense for my budget?
• Has this influencer already used my products or services? Are you a customer?
• Does this person have a personality I want to work with?
• What will this influencer expect from our brand?

5. Create your message – but let the influencer lead.

You have found your influencer soul mate – congratulations! Now it’s time to find out what you will actually say about your brand.

Work with your team to develop campaign messages, but remember: You have set you for your voice, not for your ability to read a script.

Justine, an influencer for lifestyle, beauty and skin care, divides their perspective on effective influencer messages: “Success for me is about real effects – to cultivate a relationship with my audience that goes beyond trendy sounds and likes.

This authenticity builds credibility in both the audience and with brands.

As Justine notes: “I think this combination brought me confidence with my community while I am still attractive for brands.”

Make sure that you share your brand guidelines in detail about your branded voices, marking lines and language, with your influencers so that you can stand in the fire with your content.

Remember whether influencers are posting or 100 times about your product or service, you still represent your brand and business. Make sure you have the tools to do this exactly.

But you are not afraid to have the influencer taken the lead in a campaign.

Shannae Ingleton Smith, founder and CEO of the Content Creator -Agency Kensington Gray, emphasizes the importance of creative freedom: “It is important for brands, creators to enable creators – to allow them to do what they have hired, which is what is associated with their audience.

Smith adds: “The audience loses and the brand does not get what they are looking for. Although it can feel riskily, it is really important to give the creator full creative freedom.”

6. Set expectations.

Finally, check your expectations of you and all expectations you have. Remember that your chosen influencer may have worked with other brands in front of yours – which means that you may already do your processes for business.

In addition, their expectations differ depending on the type of influence they are. For example, a micro-influencer will have different expectations of how they communicate with it compared to celebrity. A micro-influencer can speak to you directly while a celebrity can share an agent on your name.

You would like to ensure that these expectations are written, agreed and signed by you and the influencer – you can organize all this information about an influencer contract. This helps you to avoid problems and inconsistencies in the street.

To get the ball rolling, you will find some examples of the review expectations here:

• How this influencer is paid or rewarded (money, swag, discounts, voucher codes, etc.)
• How long will you work together
• How you and the influencer will communicate with each other
• All other contractual conditions required for your specific company to check

7. Familiarize yourself with FTC guidelines.

Yes, there are guidelines and you have to follow you for your brand, reputation and legality. The Federal Trade Commission has regulations to prevent problems such as incorrect advertising and fraud.

And believe me when I say you don’t want your brand on the bad side of the FTC.

One rule is that influencers cannot hide their “material connections” in a brand that support them. It must also be clear if content is an advertisement compared to a real contribution.

For example, if an influencer finds a perfume that he likes and decides to talk about it on his platform, it may not be a complaint if he has no deal with this brand.

However, if the brand pays the influencer to discuss and support your perfume, the influencer must indicate that the content is an advertisement. That is why some influencers use “#ad” in their articles.

Click here to learn more about it FTC guidelines.

8. Pay your influencer.

Influencers do not work free of charge. You have to discuss the compensation early so that you can both stand on the same side if you decide to get ahead.

If you are a small company with little or no influencer budget, there are still ways to work with influencers. You can offer:

• Swag (such as clothing, accessories or product samples)
• Access to exclusive events as a VIP
• Free products and/or services
• Access to discount codes and vouchers

Just note that it can limit your options if you cannot pay influencers in actual money. At the end of the day they try to make a living.

In addition, some influencers and makers in products or equity can be paid as a red flag. So be ready to negotiate and ensure that the influencer gets added value from the collaboration.

If it is helpful, you will find some quick statistics here: Drift Kings Media blog research showed that marketers usually pay between $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 for nano, microinfluencer and macroinfluencer.

In addition, almost 50% of the marketing teams that invest in influencer marketing have between $ 100,000 and $ 500,000. With 46% of companies plan to increase their investment marketing investments in 2025, the competition for first -class makers continues to grow.

9. Measure your campaign results.

Finally, you would like to measure your influencer marketing strategy results. In this way you determine the level of success you have with the help of the influencer to reach your audience.

The good news? Our 2025 research results show that 85% of marketers indicate influencer marketing as effective (40.2% “very effective” and 44.8% “somewhat effective”).

In addition, 76% of the marketers indicate that influencer marketing provides better ROI than other marketing channels.

The metrics that are actually important:

• Engagement (43.8%) – Do people actually interact with the content?
• Sales/sales (42.8%) – Has anyone bought something?
• Impressions/views (39.7%) – How many eye apples saw that?
• Brand awareness (34.0%) – Do people start to know who you are?
• Leads (26.3%) – did someone raise his hand and said “tell me more”?

Here is what is to be followed:

• Engagement: All likes, shares, comments, retweets, mentions, DMS and reposts. Waited the people basically enough to do something?
• To reach: How many people saw the content of your influencer about your brand? It is like counting heads at a concert, but digital.
• Brand awareness: Do people catch that they exist? You can list this through direct traffic, social commitment, social affairs and measure surveys (quantitative and qualitative approach).
• Clicks: Did people actually click on their website, your registration picture or the giveaway that you run?
• Conversations: The sacred grail – did people actually do what they wanted? Calculate this by sharing conversions by the entire visitors.
• ROI: The ultimate question – was that worth it? Share your return through your investment costs.
• Trailer growth: Do you pursue more people because of this partnership?

Drift Kings Media’s social tool can help you to get specific data from various platforms such as range and interactions. Your respective social platforms may also have integrated analysis tools such as X Analytics and Instagram insights.

Do you still need inspiration for your influencer marketing strategy? Let’s take a look at three successful strategies that are implemented by large companies.

Examples of influencer marketing

1. Gentle Monster X Bratz Cooperation

The Gentle Monster X Bratz Collaboration is a powerful example of how brands can merge nostalgia with fashion in order to promote bullets – and sales – through influencer marketing. This campaign combines the gentle monster of the brand with the legendary Bratz dolls and uses the millennial and gen z Love for Throwback Culture. By distributing the product via a wide network of influencers on Instagram and Tiktok, the campaign creates a flood of authentic content that bridge the border between the playful and aspiration.

A particularly creative execution came from Micro-Influencer @Miraalmomaniwhich received both life-size sunglasses and a Bratz doll version of itself. Your Instagram role is a seamless mix of product decorations and storytelling that has worked in a way that feels personally. It is effective because it makes product placement into a mini experience-a one that can visually enjoy your audience and at the same time triggers the kind of nostalgic excitement that takes the campaign together.

2. Kerrygolds influencer brand trip

Tarte Cosmetics, Revolve and Airbnb are just a few brands that have used influencer trips. And maybe the most surprising: Kerrygold butter.

Kerrygold Recently invited creator On a general paid trip to Ireland with experiences that range from helicopter trips to culinary workshops. Her goal was not only to promote your product: it was to present the rich Irish culture and history behind it.

What this campaign really works is the Ripple effect that goes beyond the invited influencers. The trip created a wave of reaction contents of manufacturers and supporters who felt a serious case of Fomo. “A butter brand trip? … Why wasn’t I there?” Kerrygold, who founded his luxury experience in real values ​​(family breeding, Irish legacy, bonus ingredients), earned not only commitment, but also admiration.

3. Bumble and Amelia Dimoldenberg

The Bumble and Amelia Dimoldenberg Partnership are a strong example of the right influencer marketing.

By focusing on Dimoldenberg’s quirky, related persona – absolutely from “Chicken Shop Date” – fiddling with a younger, culturally committed audience in a way that feels more authentic and entertaining than advertising.

The campaign combines humor with a high -quality creative direction and strengthens the Bumble brand as confident, modern and accessible. This underlines the value of the selection of influencers, whose sound and audience naturally agree with their message and invest in content that feels like culture, not only for marketing.

How the influencer marketing will change in 2025 (expert forecasts)

After all, I asked some of our experts: What will change at the influencer marketing in the next few years?

Here is what you had to say.

1. Influencer marketer are no longer the heroes – they are the leaders.

When Imani Ellis was asked about predictions for the future of influencer marketing, he did not miss a beat: “The death of the diva“, she told me with a grin.

“The princess of the people who Emma ChamberlainsThe Monet McMichael… the people who say: “I’m not the hero, I am the guide” – that is the future of the influencer marketing. “

A few years ago I followed Selena Gomez feverishly for all tips for fashion, make -up and lifestyle. And it’s not that I still don’t love Selena. But now I follow with the same interest of a mother from Texas who talks about shops that she finds at Target (Hi ,, Jen reed!).

Here the influencer marketing is directed: in a more authentic direction, in which the supporters take care of everyday influencers more than the mega-celebrity.

2. Ai will strengthen the edition of the creator.

AI has – and continues to change the way we work as a marketer.

And the same applies to creators.

As Smith puts it, “the AI ​​makes people’s lives much easier. The speed in which people can pump out content has shot up. Now we are in a situation in which we have to ask ourselves: Is that ai-generated? Was used in every step to formulate this concept, the creation of this content or to write this statement? “

She refers to brands like Skims as an example of a company that already implemented content of A-generated content in its social media ads. For Smith this is the direction in which we all led.

“The output will increase,” she admits – but for Smith it does not mean that the quality is reduced. She sees creators who use AI for administrative tasks and free them to do more of what they are best.

“If you are really creative, ai will only be the superpower that you don’t replace.”

3. We will switch from the audience to community.

“There was a time when we only watched (as an audience) and we would think If I can buy these yoga pants, I will be like this person“Ellis explained.

“And now I’m curious that we move into a room in which we are in It’s less about the yoga pants and more about how they feel about themselves. “

We have become active participants in our influencer relationships. We dm you, we ask for advice, we comment on our own opinions and perspectives.

In this way we have also opened up to an entire community of like -minded people. It is no longer just a disposable discussion between an influencer and its supporters. It is now an opportunity to connect with each other.

4. One -time contributions develop to recurring formats.

Oowe is more likely to predict a future shift towards recurring content than on traditional unique, unique contributions.

“We saw a pretty great success with ‘Man on the Straße’,” she says and points to the People Gallery As a good example of this – a digital fashion platform founded by Maurice Kamara, which shows Street Style through spontaneous interviews and outfit collapse.

As another example, she tells me “Faded in any way“A short film that is inspired by the cult classic” Belly “, but with the best -selling product from Topical in the center as a product that is so good that it sells itself.

“It was a fun project and underlines creativity in terms of storytelling and the way in which trade and film are actually closely connected,” says Owee.

“The recurring content format and an influencer fast as if they are actors. “

5. The democratization of brand experiences.

After all, all the creators I spoke to stopped the same point: The future of influencer marketing will shift from worthwhile influencers to recognize everyday customers.

A trend that I can leave fully behind.

As Owee puts it, “Customers are not so interested in watching rich and famous people on expensive trips. You are more interested in seeing community members, customers, everyday people while traveling. While influencer trips are interesting, the strategy must develop and change. “

She adds: “This idea of ​​making an influencer experience more accessible to everyday people is what I see for the influencer marketing.”

Conclusion? Influencer marketing in 2025 will not only look different – it will be feel different. We act brilliant perfection against real connection, passive scrolling for active community and exclusive experience for integrative.

The future belongs to creators who appear as real people, not polished personas.

And honestly? It’s time.