Influencer Marketing Trends for 2023

The prevalence of social media and our reliance on the Internet gave rise to influencer marketing, the concept of leveraging an individual’s audience to advertise our products. Despite being far from a new idea, influencer marketing continues to be an increasingly popular means of reaching the target audience.

The catch?

It’s not as easy as finding an influencer and giving them a product or service to endorse. Even influencers have to follow trends to ensure their message isn’t lost and their attempts at advertising don’t fall on disengaged ears. It’s the same pitfall every advertiser deals with, though there is more nuance to understanding the trends that influencers have to follow.

2023 promises to be a significant year for social media influencers, especially if the projected Influencer Marketing Market Size growth of 14.5% holds true. Driving that projected growth are the influencer trends expected to take off in 2023 and drive user engagement.

While trends fluctuate and can be difficult to pinpoint without some margin of error, there are a few key trends that are likely to elevate influencer marketing in the coming months. Before diving too much into those individual trends, though, it’s worth knowing the markets they’re dominating and where advertisers can expect their money to land.

Where Are Influencers Distributing Content

There are several social media spaces that influencers can use to distribute their content. The primary platforms for general social media networking include Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, but there are two platforms that influencers clearly flock to and trust when it comes to pushing their content.

Per the 2023 influencer marketing report, TikTok has edged ahead as the leading platform for influencer marketing. Its interactive format and complex algorithm tailors primarily to the viewer’s interests and watch trends, ensuring that less content is wasted on a disengaged audience.

Instagram followed TikTok closely as it remains largely visual-based than most of the other social media networks. The mix of general image or video-based content and short-form Reels provide a variety of ways to reach an intended audience.

The two platforms go hand-in-hand as offering the most visual platforms, which really have shaped several of the trends to watch out for in 2023.

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Why Influencer Marketing?

Before getting too much into the “what” of influencer marketing, let’s look at why advertisers are pushing so much to work with these individuals. While influencers offer an opportunity for advertisers to connect better with their community through a consumer-facing creator, iOS 14 has actually pushed the need for influencer marketing.

The latest iPhone operating system allows consumers to opt out of having their data tracked, which is crucial to standard advertising methods. Once-effective options like Facebook and Twitter ads are losing their efficacy as users who opt out of data tracking can no longer be targeted.

Influencers, however, are impervious to this. Their content is organically seen by their followers and found by viewers with similar interests. As advertisers lose the means to distribute ads via collected data, they’ll need to rely more on the organic reach of influencers.

The quality of creative assets, such as the ones you see in Facebook ads, are also more important than ever. Since ads targeting is not what it once was due to the lack of data being harvested by platforms, brands must rely more on putting out quality ad creatives. Influencers and UGC creators are an excellent asset when it comes to outsourcing the creation of engaging ad creatives.

Influencer Trends to Pay Attention to in 2023

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what trends will catch and which will flitter away into social media obscurity, but based on the trajectory of current platforms, it’s safe to assume that the following influencer trends are worth keeping an eye on for 2023.

Utilizing Micro-Influencers

The whole point of an influencer is that they reach a generally larger audience. Micro-influencers are the same concept, just on a slightly smaller scale. With a following of fewer than 50,000 people, micro-influencers present advertisers with the ability to reach a smaller audience more organically, which means less money wasted on data-based ads not reaching their target audience.

By using micro-influencers, advertisers can work with more content creators at once without stretching their advertising budget too thin. And since the reach on short-video platforms like TikTok is more organic, that money is better spent and more likely to reach receptive viewers with an interest in the product or service.

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A Focus on User-Generated Content

There was a time when advertisers gathered around long tables and tossed ideas about their next big commercial. While that’s still a possible scenario–though gathering in a Zoom call is more likely these days–the influx of influencer marketing has resulted in a greater reliance on user-generated content.

In the context of influencer marketing, user-generated content refers to something like a video created by the influencer at the behest of the advertiser. It may be very direct and obvious or a little more subtle, but it’s always presented as if the influencer uses the product or service and has first-hand experience with it.

An example of this is a beauty influencer sharing a short video using one product and briefly discussing its merits. For the most part, user-generated content can be pinpointed as there’s typically a slightly inorganic feel to them.

Influencer Marketing in 2023

As with any year, 2023 will bring challenges for advertisers looking to participate in influencer marketing. One of the biggest roadblocks is the fact that there is a limited number of influencers that fit within a company’s niche. The shift to micro-influencers will alleviate this a little, but there’s bound to be competition among advertisers trying to secure influencers.

With average spends on TikTok and Instagram ranging from $360 to $460 for collaborations, the organic reach that influencers provide is well worth advertisers considering making a move.