How big is the influencer market?

Research highlights: The influencer market is expected to hit $24 billion by 2024. Even though it's still growing, the pace has slowed down a bit, with a 13.74% increase in 2024, showing that the market is becoming more stable.

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How big is the influencer market?

•  By the end of 2024, the influencer market is expected to hit $24 billion

• From 2016 to 2024, the market skyrocketed from $1.7 billion to $24 billion

• The biggest growth spurt happened in 2017 when the market shot up by 76.47%, going from $1.7 billion to $3 billion

• Recently, the growth has slowed down a bit, dropping from a 49.23% increase in 2020 to 13.74% in 2024

• In terms of actual dollars, the market added $14.3 billion from 2020 to 2024, compared to $8 billion from 2016 to 2020, showing bigger dollar gains even though the growth rate has slowed

• The market almost doubled between 2019 and 2021, jumping from $6.5 billion to $13.8 billion

• The slowest growth year in this data is 2024, with a 13.74% increase, suggesting the industry might be leveling off

What percent of marketing team's budgets are spent on influencer marketing?

•  About 26.10% of marketers put less than 10% of their marketing budget into influencer marketing, making it the most common choice

• Almost the same number, 26%, spend more than 40% of their budget on influencer marketing

• Together, 48.5% of marketers use less than 20% of their budget for influencer marketing, which suggests many businesses see it as an extra strategy

• Only 11.50% of marketers spend between 30-40% of their budget on influencer marketing

• On the flip side, 41.8% of marketers dedicate 20% or more of their budget to influencer marketing, showing that many businesses consider it a key strategy

• Marketers are almost evenly split between spending a small amount (<10%) or a large amount (>40%) of their budget on influencer marketing

• The biggest budget focus is at the extremes, with 52.10% of marketers either spending less than 10% or more than 40%

How much is spent on social media advertising?

•  By 2029, spending on social media ads is expected to hit $345.73 billion, which is a 6.9% bump from 2028

• Over the decade from 2019 to 2029, spending on these ads is set to jump by 254.57%, going from $97.50 billion to $345.73 billion

• The biggest growth spurt happened in 2021, with a 36.27% increase, likely because businesses were boosting their digital advertising after the pandemic

• Each year, the increase in ad spending has been getting smaller, from 11.78% in 2023 to a projected 6.9% in 2029

• Between 2020 and 2022, ad spending went up by 42.74% overall, highlighting a big shift towards social media marketing during and after the pandemic

• The biggest jump in dollar terms happened from 2020 to 2021, with ad spending rising by $48.15 billion

• In 2025, spending on ads is expected to go over $250 billion, which is more than double what was spent in 2019 ($97.50 billion)

Sources

•  Global influencer market size 2024

• Influencer share of marketing budgets 2024

• Global social media ad spend 2019-2029

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