100+ Influencer Marketing Statistics For 2026 (Industry Data)

Want to learn more about the state of influencer marketing this year? 

We’ve updated our roundup of influencer marketing statistics with up-to-date facts and figures pulled from the latest industry reports and surveys.

Below, you’ll find a ton of eye-opening stats that reveal more about influencers, the brands that work with them, and the marketing strategies and trends that are shaping the industry.

General influencer marketing statistics

Let’s kick things off by looking at some general influencer marketing statistics that tell us more about the size and growth of the industry this year:

• The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach a market size of $17.4 billion this year
• That represents a 14.47% year-over-year growth. The market size was $15.2 billion in 2022.
• By 2025, the market is expected to reach $22.2 billion

Source: Collabstr

• The market for influencer marketing software platforms is expected to grow to $223.7 million this year.

Source: Statista²

• There were around 18,900 companies globally that offer influencer marketing services in 2021
• That’s 75% more than there were in 2019

Source: Statista¹

Influencer marketing usage statistics

How many companies are investing in influencer marketing? And what are the top use cases for influencer campaigns? Here’s what the statistics say:

• 80% of surveyed businesses will dedicate part of their budget to influencer marketing this year
• That’s 3% more than last year when 77% of businesses had a dedicated influencer marketing budget…
• …and more than twice as many as in 2017, when only 37% had a dedicated influencer marketing budget

• 45% of surveyed brands run influencer campaigns to drive user-generated content (UGC) creation. This makes it the top influencer marketing objective this year.
• 29% of surveyed brands use influencer marketing to generate sales
• 26% of surveyed brands use influence marketing to boost brand awareness

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

Is influencer marketing still effective?

According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s latest industry report:

• 83% of marketing professionals think influencer marketing is still effective
• That’s down slightly compared to last year when 90% said it was effective

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

To build on that point, here are some statistics that highlight the ways in which influencer marketing can be effective and the benefits it offers:

• 61% of consumers say they trust recommendations from influencers as much as their family…
• …whereas only 38% say they trust recommendations from brands

Source: ProfitBlitz

• 80% of consumers have bought something recommended by an influencer 

Source: Rakuten

• Around 82% of surveyed companies say influencer marketing generates better customers than other types of marketing

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

• Healthcare companies can increase their target audience reach by 18x through influencer marketing…
• And generate 4.9x as many engagements. This makes healthcare the industry that can benefit most from influencer marketing.
• Companies in the accommodation niche also increase their reach by 18x through influencer marketing, on average…
• …and generate 4.2 as many engagements.

Source: Emplifi

Influencer marketing is also effective at generating content for brands to use elsewhere in their marketing and sales efforts:

• 63% of companies repurpose their influencer content on their branded social media accounts
• 56% of companies repurpose their influencer content in paid ad campaigns.
• 50% of companies repurpose their influencer content for website/product pages
• 43% of companies repurpose their influencer content in their email campaigns
• 9% of companies repurpose their influencer content in out-of-home activations (e.g. billboards)

Source: Aspire

How much do brands spend on influencer marketing?

Multiple companies have conducted surveys and reports looking at how much brands spend on influencer marketing, with varying results. So the answer to this question varies depending on what source you look at.

According to data from Aspire:

• The average brand spends 25% of its marketing budget on influencer marketing

Source: Aspire

In a different report, Influencer Marketing Hub also asked survey participants what percentage of their marketing budgets they devoted to influencer marketing, and found that:

• 23% of companies plan to spend >40% of their budget on influencer marketing this year (That’s 5% more than last year)
• 18% of companies plan to spend 20-30% of their budget on influencer marketing
• 25% of companies plan to spend 10-20% of their budget on influencer marketing
• 20% of companies plan to spend <10% of their budget on influencer marketing

The same survey also asked how much brands spend annually in actual figures (rather than as a percentage of their total budget) and found that:

• 43% of companies spend <$10k on influencer marketing
• 22% of companies spend $10-50k on influencer marketing
• 14% of companies spend $50-100k on influencer marketing
• 11% of companies spend $500k on influencer marketing

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

Creator IQ also looked at how much brands spend on influencer marketing annually. According to their latest report:

• 52% of brands spend >2k on influencer marketing 
• 12% of brands spend $50-100k on influencer marketing
• 7% of brands spend $100-200k on influencer marketing

Source: Creator IQ & Tribe Dynamics

Here are some more statistics pulled from different studies that break down the costs of influencer marketing even further:

• Brands spend $257 per influencer collaboration, on average

Source: Collabstr

• Brands spend $49,594 per influencer marketing campaign, on average…
• …and $2,075 per creator per campaign.

Source: Aspire

• 20% of brands employ 6+ influencer marketers
• 35% of brands employ between 3 and 5 dedicated influencer marketers
• 45% of brands employ between 0 and 2 influencer marketers

Source: Creator IQ & Tribe Dynamics

• 67% of brands have plans to increase their influencer marketing spending this year
• 15% of brands plan to keep their budget the same this year
• 7% of brands plan to decrease their budget this year
• 11% of brands don’t know how their budget will change this year

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

How do brands pay influencers?

Next, let’s look at some statistics that reveal how brands are paying for their influencer collaborations this year.

• 41.6% of brands pay influencers through monetary compensation (i.e. real money)
• 29.5% of brands pay influencers with free products
• 17.7% of brands pay influencers through discounts on their products
• 11.2% of brands pay influencers through entries into giveaways

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

While less than half of all brands still don’t pay influencers real money, the number that does is up significantly compared to last year.

And that’s good news for influencers because Emplifi’s survey of influencers found that:

• Cash is the #1 preferred payment by influencers
• Gift cards are the second most popular preferred payment type
• Free products are the third most popular preferred payment type
• Discounts are the fourth most popular preferred payment type
• Credit/content exposure is the fifth most popular preferred payment type

Source: Emplifi

Influencer Marketing Hub’s report also looked at the ways in which brands structure their payments to influencers, and found that:

• 53% pay influencers a percentage of sales
• 21% pay influencers based on the product level
• 19.6% pay influencers a flat rate for each partnership
• 6.9% offer tiered payment incentives

In terms of payment channels, the report found that:

• 29% of brands pay influencers through PayPal
• 28% of brands pay influencers via wire transfer
• 25% of brands pay influencers with manual payments 
• 17% of brands pay influencers via other third-party payment services

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub¹

How much do influencers charge?

Here’s what the data tells us about how much influencers charge on different platforms:

• YouTube influencers ask for $791 per collaboration, on average. This is more than any other platform.
• TikTok influencers ask for $460 per collaboration, on average.
• User-generated content (UGC) creators ask for $396 per collaboration, on average.
• Instagram influencers ask for $363 per collaboration, on average.

Note: UGC creators don’t share posts to a specific platform; they just provide the content.

The above statistics reveal the initial average asking price for collaborations, but the asking price is usually different from the amount influencers end up charging at the end of negotiations:

• Brands end up paying $418 to YouTube influencers per collaboration, on average
• Brands end up paying $203 to TikTok influencers per collaboration, on average
• Brands end up paying $227 to UGC influencers per collaboration, on average
• Brands end up paying $183 to Instagram influencers per collaboration, on average

Aside from by platform, the average price influencers charge also varies by niche. These are the top 10 most lucrative influencer niches, per Collabstr:

• Lifestyle influencers charge $994 per collaboration
• Fashion influencers charge $912 per collaboration
• Beauty influencers charge $860 per collaboration
• Travel influencers charge $939 per collaboration
• Model influencers charge $864 per collaboration
• Health & fitness influencers charge $979 per collaboration
• Comedy & entertainment influencers charge $968 per collaboration
• Food & drink influencers charge $918 per collaboration
• Music & dance influencers charge $850 per collaboration
• Art & photography influencers charge $818 per collaboration

Source: Collabstr

Here are a few more stats about how much influencers earn:

• 26% of influencers earn less than $500/month through content creation
• 15% of influencers earn over $5,000/month through content creation
• 83% of influencers will work with brands for free products if they like the brand or it’s a high-value product

Source: Aspire & Creator IQ & Tribe Dynamics

Influencer statistics

Next, let’s look at some statistics specifically about influencers:

• 77% of influencers are female, on average across platforms
• 79% of Instagram influencers are female.
• The average influencer monetizes two social platforms

Source: Collabstr

• 81% of influencers work solo
• 10% of influencers outsource some of their tasks
• 7% of influencers work with other freelancers
• 2% of influencers work with full-time employees

Source: Creator IQ & Tribe Dynamics

• 47% of influencers refer to themselves as ‘creators’
• 8% refer to themselves as ‘influencers’
• 45% use both the above terms interchangeably

Source: Creator IQ & Tribe Dynamics

• Nano-influencers (<10k followers) share sponsored posts 67% more often than mega-influencers (100k+ followers)
• Instagram influencers share around 7% of sponsored content compared to 93% of organic content
• Mega-influencers (100k+ followers) share 27% more video content than those with less than 50k followers

Source: Emplifi

Influencer marketing around the world

Next, let’s look at how popular influencer marketing is around the world.

According to Collabstr, the top 10 countries for influencer marketing (in ranked order), are:

1. USA
2. Canada
3. UK 
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. Mexico
7. France
8. Spain
9. Netherlands
10. Italy

Source: Collabstr

And the top 10 cities with the most influencers in North America (in ranked order), are:

1. Los Angeles, US
2. New York, US
3. Toronto, Canada
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Atlanta, US
6. Miami, US
7. Chicago, US
8. Houston, US
9. Dallas, US
10. Orlando, US

Source: Collabstr

• 82% of influencer marketing spend goes to influencers in the US
• 8% of influencer marketing spend goes to influencers in Canada
• 5% of influencer marketing spend goes to influencers in Australia
• 5% of influencer marketing spend goes to influencers in the UK

Source: Collabstr

What is the most popular influencer niche?

Collabstr looked at all the influencers on its marketplace and found that Lifestyle was the most popular niche that influencers operated in.

Here are the rest of the top 10 influencer niches in order of popularity, according to their data:

1. Lifestyle
2. Fashion
3. Beauty
4. Travel
5. Model
6. Health and fitness
7. Comedy and entertainment
8. Food and drink
9. Music and dance
10. Art and photography

Source: Collabstr

Discrimination in influencer marketing

Do influencers experience discrimination? Here’s what the statistics say:

• 58.3% of influencers say they’ve experienced discrimination
• 41.7% of influencers said they haven’t experienced discrimination