The global influencer marketing market size has more than tripled since 2020. In 2025, the market was estimated to reach a record of approximately 33 billion U.S. dollars. What is influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves product placements and endorsements from online creators. In today’s competitive marketing landscape, brands are collaborating with influencers more firmly than ever, as partnerships with well-known creators can open the door to large potential audiences. In 2024, influencer marketing spending in the United States was forecast to reach an all-time high of 7.1 billion U.S. dollars. Seeing that internet stars can boost brand visibility, drive engagement, and impact purchasing decisions for millions of users, it comes as no surprise that spending on influencer cooperation is expected to pick up even more speed in the future. Top influencer marketing platforms Marketers can choose from an ever-expanding list of social media platforms to bridge the gap between brands and consumers. According to a recent survey, Instagram remains the most popular platform for influencer marketing in the United States, and in 2025, the global Instagram influencer market size was estimated to surpass 22 billion dollars for the first time. Apart from the photo-sharing app, video-based platforms such as TikTok have become popular among brands and marketers. In the first half of 2024, the most successful brands earned over half a billion U.S. dollars in earned media value (EMV) with their TikTok influencer marketing campaigns.

This chart depicts the rising influencers on YouTube in the beauty industry in Italy as of June 2020, ranked by average video views. According to data, the channels of MissPenny09 and Sonia Flower82 reached both six thousand views for every published video, on average.

This chart depicts the engagement per post of leading Instagram influencers with less than 100 thousand followers in the entertainment industry in Italy as of January 2019. Matteo Bruno ranked first with over **** thousand likes and comments out of the published posts.

Instagram’s most popular post

              As of April 2024, the most popular post on Instagram was Lionel Messi and his teammates after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, posted by the account @leomessi. Messi's post, which racked up over 61 million likes within a day, knocked off the reigning post, which was 'Photo of an Egg'. Originally posted in January 2021, 'Photo of an Egg' surpassed the world’s most popular Instagram post at that time, which was a photo by Kylie Jenner’s daughter totaling 18 million likes.
              After several cryptic posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself to be a part of a mental health campaign aimed at the pressures of social media use.

              Instagram’s most popular accounts

              As of April 2024, the official Instagram account @instagram had the most followers of any account on the platform, with 672 million followers. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) was the most followed individual with 628 million followers, while Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) was the most followed woman on the platform with 429 million. Additionally, Inter Miami CF striker Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had a total of 502 million. Celebrities such as The Rock, Kylie Jenner, and Ariana Grande all had over 380 million followers each.

              Instagram influencers

              In the United States, the leading content category of Instagram influencers was lifestyle, with 15.25 percent of influencers creating lifestyle content in 2021. Music ranked in second place with 10.96 percent, followed by family with 8.24 percent. Having a large audience can be very lucrative: Instagram influencers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with over 90,000 followers made around 1,221 US dollars per post.

              Instagram around the globe

              Instagram’s worldwide popularity continues to grow, and India is the leading country in terms of number of users, with over 362.9 million users as of January 2024. The United States had 169.65 million Instagram users and Brazil had 134.6 million users. The social media platform was also very popular in Indonesia and Turkey, with 100.9 and 57.1, respectively. As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social network in the world, behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.

IntroductionThe rise of social media has transformed fashion influencers into key players in shaping consumer attitudes and behavior, especially among Generation Z. However, the psychological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between influencer perception and consumer purchase behavior remain underexplored, particularly in emerging markets like Indonesia. This study investigates how attitudes toward fashion influencers affect purchase behavior, mediated by brand attitude and purchase intention.MethodsGrounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study examines the influence of perceived credibility, influencer expertise, and perceived behavioral control on consumers' attitudes toward fashion influencers. Data were collected through an online questionnaire distributed to 290 Indonesian women, with 251 valid responses analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS 4.0.ResultsAll hypothesized relationships were supported. Perceived credibility had the strongest effect on attitude toward influencers, followed by perceived behavioral control and influencer expertise. Attitude toward influencers significantly influenced brand attitude and purchase intention. Brand attitude also served as a strong mediator between influencer attitude and purchase intention. Finally, purchase intention had a strong and direct impact on actual purchase behavior.DiscussionThe findings highlight the pivotal role of influencer credibility and brand attitude in shaping purchase outcomes. The near-complete transfer of positive sentiment from influencer to brand emphasizes the influencer's dual function as both a communicator and co-creator of brand value. These insights extend TPB and offer actionable guidance for marketers targeting Gen Z consumers through digital platforms.

In 2024, approximately *****billion U.S. dollars were spent on influencer marketing in the United States. This figure increased from the previous year, when spending reached ******billion dollars. Further growth is anticipated to reach over ***billion by the end of 2025. Benefits of influencer marketing Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and effective forms of social media marketing. By partnering up with well-known internet personalities, brands can leverage their massive audience reach and promote products and services to a wealth of potential customers. Apart from increasing visibility and driving engagement, influencer cooperation can also boost revenues for companies of all sizes, as recommendations from social media stars have come to impact shopping behavior for millions of online users worldwide. In line with overall spending growth on this channel, the global market size of influencer marketing platforms is also growing by double digits. What is the most popular platform for influencer marketing? Influencers bridge the gap between brands and consumers in terms of engagement and interaction, but which platform is best suited for collaboration? According to a recent survey, Instagram remains the most popular platform for influencer marketing worldwide. Content creators have long embraced the app for its various photo- and video-sharing features. Seeing that the platform now also has an inherent shopping tab, it comes as no surprise that marketers are planning to increase influencer endorsement on Instagram in the future. Video-based platforms such as TikTok are also becoming increasingly relevant because of their massive reach, particularly among Gen Z internet users.

Cristiano Ronaldo has one of the most popular Instagram accounts as of April 2024.

              The Portuguese footballer is the most-followed person on the photo sharing app platform with 628 million followers. Instagram's own account was ranked first with roughly 672 million followers.

              How popular is Instagram?

              Instagram is a photo-sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and edit them with filters. The platform allows users to post and share their images online and directly with their friends and followers on the social network. The cross-platform app reached one billion monthly active users in mid-2018. In 2020, there were over 114 million Instagram users in the United States and experts project this figure to surpass 127 million users in 2023.

              Who uses Instagram?

              Instagram audiences are predominantly young – recent data states that almost 60 percent of U.S. Instagram users are aged 34 years or younger. Fall 2020 data reveals that Instagram is also one of the most popular social media for teens and one of the social networks with the biggest reach among teens in the United States.

              Celebrity influencers on Instagram
              Many celebrities and athletes are brand spokespeople and generate additional income with social media advertising and sponsored content. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo ranked first again, as the average media value of one of his Instagram posts was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

The top ten models and their hyperparameters based on coherence scores.

The estimated value of the influencer marketing industry in India was ** billion Indian rupees in 2024. This was a ** percent increase over the previous year, and the market was expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of ** percent until 2026. The industry's market value was further estimated to amount to over *** billion Indian rupees by 2027. Influencer impact In India, influencers have become a vital channel for businesses, forging authentic connections with audiences through relatable content. They play a crucial role in influencing consumer purchase decisions and product research. The influencer marketing industry has witnessed widespread adoption across sectors, with the personal care vertical leading with a ** percent market share in 2022. Other key sectors like food, fashion, jewelry, and mobile/electronics have also embraced influencers to strengthen brand messages and connect with their target audiences. Modes of influence Short-form video platforms were the most preferred choice for content creation, given their raging popularity among users and creators alike. These platforms offer influencers a medium to share concise and impactful messages with their followers. Additionally, the practice of live-streaming was a widely followed trend, facilitating real-time interactions with audiences. This led major e-commerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart to release a live commerce feature on their platforms.

As of April 2025, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years, and 29.5 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16.3 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 413.85 million and 171.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat had 460 million daily active users.