%201.png)
A few years ago, models and celebrities dominated billboards and TV commercials, driving the success of major advertising campaigns. Think of memorable ads like the Dumb Ways to Die metro campaign or Red Bull Gives You Wings series. While traditional stars once ruled the marketing world, now there’s a wider panorama.
Influencers on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are now the face of marketing, allowing brands to increase their ROI, brand awareness and to create authentic connections with their consumers. Whether it's a nano influencer promoting a local brand or a high-profile content creator landing national deals, influencer marketing has become a $24 billion industry.
In this article, we’ll explore why brands are increasingly turning to influencer marketing, and the different ways you can secure valuable partnerships, highlighting key metrics like engagement rates and audience demographics.
An influencer is an individual with the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position or relationship with their audience. Unlike celebrations, influencers are everyday people who have built credibility and loyal following within a specific niche, typically through social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
There are 5 different types of influencers:
Besides their reach in terms of followers, they mostly differ due to their brand appeal. Nano and micro influencers don’t have a massive reach but do have high engagement rates.
A survey by the Influencer Marketing Hub, revealed that 85% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing. Let’s explore the main benefits that brands gain when collaborating with influencers:
In terms of advertising, the main difference between celebrities and influencers is relatability. Influencers are often seen as peers rather than unattainable figures. In fact, 61% of customers say they trust social media influencers to recommend products due to their genuine and unbiased posts.
When we see someone we relate more to, telling us about how a product is great for them we automatically think that that product is good for us too. So, as an influencer one of the main advantages you provide brands is in terms of building brand credibility and trust.
Influencers, especially those who have a niche audience, provide the exact type of audience brands want. For example, if a sportswear brand wants to promote their new line, the best way to find potential customers is through fitness influencers.
That’s exactly what brands like Lululemon and GymShark do; collaborate with fitness influencers who wear their brand to the gym or while playing their favorite sports.
Influencer marketing brings a great return of investment to brands (when done right). According to recent stats businesses earn $5.78 for each dollar spent on influencers, with some earning as much as $18.
The best platforms for this are Instagram and TikTok.
One of the standout strengths of influencers is how they can create diverse, tailored content that resonates with their specific audience while aligning with a brand’s objectives. Traditional advertising is more of a one-size-fits-all, while in influencer marketing you can create unique, high quality content across various platforms, ensuring that it feels authentic and engaging to different segments of your audience.
As an influencer, your role is to ensure you have a deep understanding of the type of content that fits better for each platform. For example Instagram is more of the visual appeal through high-quality images and storytelling through reels or stories, YouTube focuses more on long-form and in-depth content, while TikTok thrives on short, bite-sized videos with high entertainment value.
User Generated Content is highly effective when it comes to advertising. According to a study, 85% of customers believe that UGC has a greater influence than brand-produced content.
UGC plays on consumer behavior as customers often see others using and enjoying a product, reinforcing the idea that the product is worth purchasing.
The power of influencers lies in their ability to promote brands without being overly promotional. Rather than selling products directly, they seamlessly incorporate them into their daily routines and lifestyles, making campaigns feel more authentic and relatable.
As an influencer, you offer brands more than just your audience or key metrics (although those are important). You help them tell their story in a fun, engaging, and—most importantly—relatable way, something celebrities or traditional advertising often can’t achieve.
Influencers help brands by introducing new products and services, shaping trends, and influencing purchasing decisions. In some cases, you can even impact product development through direct feedback!
A great example is Golloria, a beauty influencer with over 2.7 million followers who focuses on makeup for dark skin tones. She reviews brands that claim to be "inclusive," testing their products and giving her honest opinion. One notable instance was when she reviewed Rhode’s blush and described it as "sinister ash."
Rhode, owned by Hailey Bieber, took her feedback seriously, with Hailey reaching out to Golloria and even releasing not one but two new blushes that addressed Golloria’s critique into being a more inclusive brand.
What would make brands choose you over another influencer? Let’s go over the main aspects that brands take into consideration when considering influencer partnerships.
Brands focus on influencers whose personal brand and content naturally align with their products and services. This is key because it ensures that the influencer’s audience is already interested in the type of product being promoted.
For example a vegan makeup brand has more chances of succeeding by working with beauty influencers that are also vegan rather than working with a regular influencer.
The more authentic the partnership feels, the more likely the influencer’s followers will engage with and trust the promoted product.
For example, Bower Collective is a natural home & personal care brand that focuses on sustainability. They work with influencers who promote the same values. In one of their recent campaigns, they partner with Sandra who is a Vegan influencer that promotes sustainability and a green lifestyle through her content.
At first glance, it seems that the number of followers is a key metric, however nowadays marketers are sharing a preference of working with micro influencers. The main reason is that micro influencers are engagement rate powerhouses.
High engagement rates—such as likes, comments, shares, and story interactions—indicate a more loyal and attentive audience. For instance, an influencer with 50,000 followers but a 10% engagement rate can be more valuable than one with 500,000 followers and a 1% engagement rate.
Images published by micro-influencers gain 20% ROI, which is 7% more than macro influencers.
The reason is simple: an engaged audience is more likely to take action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or sharing a post. Additionally, influencers with high engagement are often seen as more authentic, with followers who trust their recommendations.
Tip: To calculate your engagement rate you can use the following formula (Total Engagement / Total Followers) × 100
For a campaign to be successful, an influencer’s audience must overlap with the brand’s target demographic.
Brands analyze data on the influencer’s audience, including age, gender, location, interests, and purchasing behavior, to ensure it aligns with their ideal customer profile.
For example, a luxury skincare brand targeting women aged 30-45 would not benefit from partnering with an influencer whose audience consists mainly of teenagers. Many brands use tools to analyze this data, ensuring that the influencer’s followers are the right fit in terms of demographics and psychographics, thus increasing the likelihood of campaign success.
Even if you’re just starting out as an influencer, you need to prove to brands that you take it seriously.
Brands look for influencers whose content is not only visually appealing but also well-produced, in line with current trends, and reflects the influencer’s unique personality.
However, quality isn’t limited to aesthetics; it also includes how authentic and engaging the content feels. Brands want influencers who can tell a compelling story and integrate products naturally into their content, maintaining the trust of their audience.
Additionally, influencers who post regularly and maintain consistent messaging are more likely to have a loyal, engaged audience, making them more appealing to brands for long-term partnerships.
As an influencer there are different ways that you can collaborate with brands. These are the most common ones.
Most brands before setting a fixed fee with you are interested in seeing how your audience will react to their product. For this, they start with a product gifting strategy that consists in sending you free products, without asking for anything in exchange, but hoping that you will share their experiences and promote products to your followers.
In this type of collaboration, you are paid to create content (whether it’s posts, videos or stories) that feature a brand’s product. The content typically aligns with your style, and brands expect it to feel authentic while showcasing their product.
The pricing depends mostly on the influencers size as well as the platform. See the table below for reference:
If you have a good synergy with the brand and have delivered the desired results, you can be a great candidate to become a brand ambassador. This role consists in regularly promoting the brand’s products, often becoming its public face and building ongoing trust with their audience.
Affiliate marketing is often a low-rise strategy that brands use to collab with influencers. In this case you earn a commission for driving sales using unique affiliate links. For example, every time your followers make a purchase using your link, influencers receive a percentage of this sale.
Most influencers in their bio link often have an influencer storefront which allows them to add all these different products. You can join programs like Amazon or Target, or also influencer storefronts like Creator Hero where you have a selection of brands you can work with gaining from 20% to 50% commission.
You can also work with brands through giveaways and contests. All you have to do is encourage followers to engage by liking, commenting or sharing the content for a chance to win. This boosts engagement and increases brand awareness.
As we’ve seen, influencer marketing has become a powerful tool for brands to connect with their target audience in authentic and engaging ways. These are 3 examples of top brands that have embraced this strategy, creating partnerships with influencers to drive awareness, boost sales and foster loyalty.
Sephora has long been at the forefront of influencer marketing, especially in the beauty industry. The company’s Sephora Squad program is one of the most well-known influencer initiatives, bringing together a diverse group of beauty enthusiasts, content creators, and makeup artists.
Influencers in the Sephora Squad receive early access to new products, personalized coaching, and opportunities to create content featuring Sephora's vast range of cosmetics and skincare. Additionally, influencers can join Sephora’s affiliate program, which allows them to gain benefits like 5-10% of commission, exclusive deals and resources.
Nike is known for making collabs with athletes and fitness influencers to solidify its brand as a leader in sports and activewear.
From major partnerships with professional athletes like LeBron James and Serena Williams to micro-influencers who promote fitness and wellness, Nike strategically taps into various influencer tiers to reach different segments of their audience.
Nike’s campaigns often focus on inspiring personal stories, performance-based content, and product demonstrations, which help build a strong emotional connection with consumers. Their #JustDoIt campaign, for example, became a viral success, fueled in part by influencer endorsements.
Additionally, like Sephora, Nike also offers an affiliate program that allows creators to earn up to 15% of commission.
Coca-Cola has a long history of partnering with influencers and celebrities to enhance its global brand presence.
Whether it's collaborating with well-known figures like musicians, actors, and athletes, or collaborating with micro-influencers to engage niche audiences, Coca-Cola consistently uses influencer marketing to spread its message of happiness and positivity.
As an influencer you have the power to engage audiences through authentic content, whether you specialize in beauty, fitness, tech or lifestyle. By alining with the right brands - those whose values, content matches with yours you can build credible and drive engagement campaigns. This collaboration offers a mutually beneficial partnership, where you get to monetize your content and brands tap into new, engage audiences with a personal touch.
