In 2023, Instagram influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers accounted for 76.86 percent of influencer accounts worldwide. The second most popular group was that of micro-influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 subscribers, accounting for 18.23 percent of all influencers. Mid-tier influencers with 50,000 to 500,000 followers represented 4.56 percent of the total, while mega-influencers and celebrities with more than one million subscribers accounted for 0.16 percent.

During a survey conducted among marketers in the United States and released in July 2023, 58.2 percent of respondents said they were planning to use Instagram Reels for influencer marketing purposes in 2024, while 54 percent said they planned to use TikTok.

In 2023, Instagram influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers had the highest engagement rates, amounting to 2.19 percent. The rate was lowest for mid-tier influencers with 50,000 to 500,000 followers. Lifestyle, beauty, and music were the most popular topics for Instagram influencers that year.

According to the findings of a study examining the state of influencer marketing on Instagram, 8.35 percent of influencers on the platform were focused on the beauty topics, making it the third most popular category among global Instagram influencers in 2023. Lifestyle was the most popular category covered by Instagram influencers that year, with a share of 13.73 percent.

A candidate for the ultimate social network: Instagram

Launched in 2010, Instagram ranked fourth among the most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2023, with roughly two billion monthly active users. Only Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp had more users than Instagram. As of July 2023, after Instagram's own account, the account with the most followers on Instagram was that of world-famous football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who had almost 600 million followers. He was followed by superstar Lionel Messi, who led the Argentina national team at the World Cup in 2022, with 477 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 162 million followers as of August 2023. A former competitive dancer, Charli D'Amelio, and singer, Bella Poarch, followed the Italian influencer with 151.1 million and 92.8 million followers, respectively.

In the first half of 2024, nano-influencers (with between one thousand and 10 thousand followers) on Instagram in Sweden had an average engagement rate of 3.41 percent. Creators with the largest following of over one million had rates of 1.4. The regional average was just below that of nono-influencers, with 3.16 percent.

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.

During a study of engagement rates on Instagram influencer accounts in the United States, it was found that influencers with a profile size of between one and five thousand followers were projected to have the highest engagement rate throughout 2022, at 4.6 percent. This marked a slight decrease from the average 2021 nano-influencer engagement rate of 4.6 percent.

In the first half of 2024, nano-influencers (with between one thousand and 10 thousand followers) on Instagram in Norway had an average engagement rate of 3.57 percent. Creators with the largest following of over one million had rates of 1.19. The regional average was just below that of nono-influencers, with 3.31 percent.

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 one to ten thousand followers had tan engagement rate of 2.19 percent in 2023. On average the ER for all studied IG influencers stood at 1.85 percent in the same year.

In the first half of 2024, nano-influencers (with between one thousand and 10 thousand followers) on Instagram in Denmark had an average engagement rate of 2.75 percent. Creators with the largest following of over one million had rates of 1.37. The regional average was just below that of nono-influencers, with 2.67 percent.

Instagram ranked as the most-used influencer marketing platform used among marketers in the United States in 2021. Nearly 68 percent of marketers adopted Instagram for influencer campaigns. Facebook followed, being used by 52 percent of marketers as an influencer marketing platform, while TikTok came in third with 42 percent. TikTok surpassed YouTube as an influencer marketing platform in 2021 and was expected to rise further over the years - going from 36 percent of marketers using it in 2020 to 54.9 percent in 2025.

Just over percent of Australian influencers on Instagram were categorized as lifestyle influencers in 2024. This category was the largest category segment, followed by music and beauty with and eight percent and five percent share respectively.  Influencing e-commerce Apart from promoting their own brand image, popular influencers have the opportunity to cash in on their social media success by partnering with brands and promoting products to their followers. Hence, it is no coincidence that the leading influencer profile categories tend to mirror the top social commerce brand categories. Of all the social media platforms, Australia’s most valuable social commerce platform is Facebook, attracting more than 70 percent of social shoppers. Instagram came in second with almost 50 percent of social shoppers making purchases through the photo-sharing platform.

  Australians more comfortable with ‘traditional’ e-commerce While the social commerce category has seen significant growth in 2020, this level of growth is unlikely to be maintained. Just over half of Australians do not want their financial information linked with their social media account and cite a lack of trust in the format for making digital purchases. Nevertheless, social media remains a powerful and cost-effective advertising tool for businesses and consumers regularly use it to discover new products and make purchases either online or in physical stores.

As of June 2023, the primary audience of Instagram influencers in UAE were users between 26 and 32 years old, accounting for 37.11 percent. This was followed by users aged between 19 and 25 years old, with a share of 28.19 percent.

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.

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.

This statistic presents the distribution of Instagram posts by influencers worldwide as of December 2018, by content type. According to the findings, 86.44 percent of Instagram posts made by influencers were photos, while in comparison only 13.56 percent of the content was video.

In 2021, there were 3.8 million posts tagged with #ad on Instagram worldwide. This constitutes an increase of roughly 27 percent from the value of three million reported a year earlier.

The average minimum price per post of Instagram mega-influencers with more than one million followers worldwide was 1,210 U.S. dollars in 2023. The average minimum price per post of macro-influencers with 500,000 to one million followers was 370 U.S. dollars, while the average maximum price was 5,000 U.S. dollars.

According to the findings of a study on the state of Instagram influencer marketing, the influencers with the lowest rates of growth anomalies in 2019 were those who had over one million followers. Within this group 9.57 percent of accounts exhibited growth anomalies. The group of influencers with the highest rates of growth anomalies were those that had a follower base between five and 20 thousand, where more than 38 percent of accounts grew too quickly, indicating the use of inauthentic methods to increase follower numbers.

The highest engagement rate of posts of Instagram influencers in Russia was recorded for accounts of nano-influencers with one to five thousand followers, exceeding three percent. To compare, the ER of mid-tier influencers with 20 to 100 thousand subscribers was recorded at roughly 0.8 percent.