According to the results of a survey conducted in October 2023 among communications specialist worldwide, people between 17 and 19 years-old were targeted with influencer marketing by 30 percent of respondents. The most targeted age group was the 20-29-year-old consumers, targeted by 82 percent of influencer marketing professionals.

In 2019 an analysis of more than three million Instagram #ad posts was done, to determine, among others, the demographics of influencers. According to the findings, 31 percent of influencers creating sponsored posts on Instagram, were between the ages of 18 and 24.

During a survey carried out among consumers in the United States in March 2022, 75 percent of respondents aged between 18 and 24 said they followed at least one virtual influencer, while 67 percent of respondents aged both 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 said they did so as well. An increase in consumer age went hand in hand with a decrease in the share of those following virtual influencers, with only 26 percent of consumers aged 55 and older doing so.

During a 2022 survey, it was revealed that more than three-quarters of Brazilian influencers were women. Over two-thirds of respondents were 26 to 37 years of age. Roughly 60 percent were from the state of São Paulo.

In 2021, 69.7 percent of U.S. marketers in companies larger than 100 employees were expected to use influencers for marketing purposes. On the global level, the influencer marketing market was valued at 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

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.

Over the course of 2019 an analysis of more than three million Instagram #ad posts was done, to determine, among others, the demographics of influencers. According to the findings, 84 percent of influencers creating sponsored posts on Instagram were women.

As of November 2023, TikTok was the influencer platform in the United States that catered to the most beauty influencer followers - over *** million. In the United Kingdom both Instagram and YouTube had the same amount of beauty influencer followers - *** thousands. Meanwhile, in Brazil, YouTube was the leading beauty influencer platform, with over *** thousand followers for the category.

According to the findings of a study examining the state of influencer marketing on Instagram, **** percent of influencers on the platform were focused on romantic relationships, making it the most popular category among global Instagram influencers in 2024. Entertainment was the second most popular category covered by Instagram influencers that year, with a share of *** percent. A candidate for the ultimate social network: Instagram Launched in 2010, Instagram ranked third among the most popular social networks worldwide as of February 2025, with roughly *********** monthly active users. Only Facebook, YouTube had more users than Instagram. As of April 2024, after Instagram's own account, the account with the most followers on Instagram was that of world-famous football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who had roughly *** million followers. He was followed by superstar Lionel Messi, who led the Argentina national team at the World Cup in 2022, with *** million followers. A major competitor: TikTok TikTok's short-form video hack has gained massive traction in recent years. Its rapidly growing influencer base has put social media celebrities on a pedestal. Unlike the starry top five on Instagram, the most followed person on TikTok was Khaby Lame - a lifestyle influencer with nearly *** million followers as of January 2025. A former competitive dancer, Charli D'Amelio, and influencer, MrBeast, followed with ***** million and ***** million followers, respectively.

In 2024, nearly ** percent of marketers in the United States used Instagram for influencer marketing. During the same period, around ** percent also turned to YouTube. By 2025, more than half of U.S. marketers are expected to incorporate YouTube into their influencer marketing strategies. TikTok, which had been adopted by ** percent of marketers in 2021, saw its usage rise to approximately ** percent by 2024.

During a 2024 survey, 86 percent of respondents from India and Indonesia stated they believed social media influencers were a useful source of information on travel topics. In Germany, the share stood at 46 percent.

According to a study completed in early 2024, the microblogging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was by far the most used social network by news influencers in the United States, as up to 85 percent of them regularly posted on the platform. Meta-owned Instagram, Facebook, and Threads were also popular among news influencers, and they ranked second, fourth, and fifth, in terms of usage by this demographic. Social networks such as Gab and BitChute were less popular, attracting only four percent and less than one percent of news influencers, respectively.

According to a global survey conducted among marketers in January 2023, 28 percent of responding social media marketers stated that keeping up with social media trends was one of the top challenges of influencer marketing. The cost of working with influencers came second with 26 percent of respondents listing it as a leading challenge.

In 2023, almost eight out of 10 Instagram influencers in Brazil had between one thousand and 10 thousand followers on that social media platform, thus being considered nano-influencers. Macro-influencers (with between half a million and one million followers) and mega-influencers or celebrities (with over a million followers) accounted each for around 0.2 percent of the total. The distribution of Instagram influencers in Latin America by following size was similar.

During a global 2024 survey carried out among PR agencies, marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals, 37.6 percent of respondents stated that their organizations worked with up to 10 influencers, whereas 14.7 percent said they worked with over a thousand influencers.

In 2024, approximately nine billion U.S. dollars were spent on influencer marketing in the United States. This figure increased from the previous year, when spending reached seven billion dollars. Further growth is anticipated to reach over 10 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.

As of June 2023, more than half of the Instagram influencer audience in the United Arab Emirates were male users. Meanwhile, the female audience of Instagram influencers accounted for 41.5 percent in the country.

 United Arab Emirates, socially influenced

The share of the population with access to mobile internet in the United Arab Emirates was 95.85 percent in 2022, ranking second on mobile internet penetration rate globally. Three out of four internet users in the country claimed to follow some type of social media influencer as of July 2021, therefore topping the world ranking in this regard. When it comes to gender, the social media landscape is dominated by young male users; for example, Meta’s ad audience in the United Arab Emirates  had a high age concentration between 18 and 34 as of January 2023. Reflective of audience needs and demographics, more than half of the country's Instagram influencers are young men targeting their young male followers.

 Preferred social media platforms and trends

Users ranked WhatsApp first and Instagram second as their favorite platforms in 2022. A slightly different picture emerges regarding the number of creators with more than ten million followers, also known as supernova creators. The social media platform distribution of the supernova creators in the United Arab Emirates indicates a general creator concentration on video content platforms like TikTok and YouTube, which together hosted 17 such creators as of September 2022.

Favorable demographics and fruitful digital initiatives by the government combined with the new reality the pandemic imposed, among others, facilitated the United Arab Emirates’ high rate of online consumers who shop from social media networks platforms. This has resulted in an 86 percent social e-commerce adoption rate in 2022.

During a 2024 survey carried out in 17 countries worldwide, 60 percent of respondents stated that they believed that influencers were a useful source of information on travel topics. Roughly one in three said the same about political influencers.

According to a study of Instagram (IG) influencer engagement rates (ER) worldwide, nano influencers have been seeing the highest popularity compared to other tier profiles. Influencers who had between *** and *** thousand followers had an engagement rate of **** percent in 2024. On average, the ER for all studied IG influencers stood at **** percent in the same year.

Average influencer fraud rates (ER) worldwide had decreased gradually since 2019. The fraud rate was about 63 percent in 2019, only to drop to 45 percent four years later, in 2022 and then raised back again in 2023, to 49.19 percent on average. The influencer fraud rates are based on buying followers, likes and comments, stories views, and comment pods.