Influencer marketing to exceed $30 billion in 2023; India second fastest growing market in 2022

Influencer marketing spend increased 21.5 percent in 2022 to $29 billion and is expected to go up 17 percent this year, reaching $34 billion, a report from media research firm PQ Media revealed. India was the second-fastest-growing market in 2022, followed by Japan.

The majority of that spend—about 76 percent—came from the US market, but PQ Media expects that share to shrink closer to 68 percent by 2027 as influencer marketing gains traction worldwide.

The report 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 percent from the year before compared to macroinfluencers at 27.7 percent. Microinfluencers are typically defined as those who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.

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.