Influencer activations have been losing ground among brands, with influencer marketing dropping 19 percentage points in the media mix of advertisers from 2023 to 2024. Despite this devaluation, influencers' return on investment (ROI) is the only one with a growth trend, with double-digit percentage increases year over year. The conclusions are part of the study conducted by martech Uncover.
The research evaluated 11 brands from different sectors, each with at least one Marketing Mix Modeling (predictive modeling for marketing data optimization) model, from January 2022 to May 2024. The results range from the low strategic clarity of advertisers with influencer marketing to the underutilization of influencers by brands.
There is a lack of strategy in actions with influencers…
The survey found that half of the advertisers engage in influencer marketing, but only 4% of the media budget of those who do is allocated to this type of activation. It is even more striking that 70% of advertisers do not define a specific funnel strategy for influencer marketing actions. Among those who perform activations with a defined goal, awareness appears first, followed by conversion.
…There is room to invest more in influence
In addition to having a small share of the media budget, influencer marketing is executed below the level needed to generate meaningful returns. The analysis indicates that advertisers should invest 23% more in this type of strategy, which brings to digital a power comparable to the ad stock (measurement of the time it takes for media to take effect) of offline media.
The long-term effect of influencer marketing, including, is higher and more sustained than that of offline media, with a decline only starting from the fourth week after the media broadcast. The peak of influencer ad stock is mainly concentrated in the second week after airing.
The return on investment from influencers is the only one with a growth trend, with double-digit percentage increases year over year. From 2023 to 2024, the growth of influence ROI was 51%; from 2022 to 2023, it increased by 68%. Investing in influencers, however, has been declining year after year, leading to the loss of the opportunity to leverage the efficiency of the media mix.
