Influencer Marketing Statistics 2026: Spend, ROI & Myths
US advertisers spent $37 billion on creators in 2025, up 26% in a year, and the IAB projects $44 billion in 2026. Two of the field’s most quoted numbers don’t say what they’re used to say. The “$5.78 return for every $1” began as an estimate of earned media value, not revenue, and the “92% of consumers trust influencers” figure is a 2012 Nielsen number about recommendations from people you know. The survey behind it never asked about influencers. Here are the influencer marketing statistics worth knowing in 2026, each sourced inline with the year noted.
The “$5.78 for every $1” return was never revenue
“Average earned media value per $1 spent has increased to $5.78” is how Influencer Marketing Hub first published the number, in its 2020 benchmark report (Influencer Marketing Hub, archived, 2020). Earned media value estimates what the same exposure would have cost to buy as advertising. It does not count sales.
The same site now writes that “influencer marketing ROI sits comfortably at $5.78 for every dollar spent” (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026). Somewhere between the two pages, a media value estimate became a return on investment.
79% of enterprise marketers struggle to measure influencer ROI, in a Linqia survey of more than 200 enterprise marketers cited on that same page (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026).
”$6.50 for every $1” came from a 2015 poll of 125 marketers
“Businesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing” traces to Tomoson, an influencer marketplace, which surveyed 125 marketers online between March 10 and 16, 2015 (Tomoson, archived, 2015). The answers were self-reported, and the page gives no method for the average.
The same poll found 70% of businesses earning $2 or more per $1, and the top 13% earning $20 or more (Tomoson, 2015).
It was a different era of influencer marketing. Marketers in that poll named blogs the most effective platform (37%), followed by Facebook (25%), while YouTube, Instagram and Twitter each drew 5 to 6% (Tomoson, 2015). TikTok did not exist.
”92% of consumers trust influencers” is about friends and family
92% of consumers trust “recommendations from people I know”, in Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising survey of more than 28,000 internet users in 56 countries, run in 2011 and published in 2012 (Nielsen, 2012). Influencers were not on the list of sources it asked about.
70% trusted consumer opinions posted online, and only 36% trusted ads on social networks (Nielsen, 2012). The nearest category to influencer content in the survey ranked near the bottom.
Creator ad spend reached $37 billion in 2025
US creator economy ad spend grew from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $29.5 billion in 2024, and to a projected $37 billion in 2025, a 26% increase that the IAB says is about four times the 5.7% growth of the media industry overall (IAB Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, 2025). Its April 2026 revenue report confirms the $37 billion and projects $44 billion in 2026 (IAB, 2026).
48% of ad spenders consider creators a “must buy,” ranking behind only social media and paid search (IAB, 2025).
Brand awareness is the top goal for creator campaigns (43%), followed by reaching new audiences (41%), building reputation and trust (35%) and driving online sales (32%) (IAB, 2025). 40% of buyers rank overall ROI as their top KPI.
A third of brands say finding the right creators is their biggest hurdle (IAB, 2025). Creator reputation (58%) and audience alignment (56%) are the most common selection criteria.
Nearly three in four creator ad buyers use AI or plan to within a year, mostly for content editing (49%), creator briefs (46%) and content personalization (45%) rather than replacing creators (IAB, 2025).
Brands plan big increases and expect fast payback
72.2% of brands expect their influencer budgets to rise by 50% or more, in Influencer Marketing Hub’s survey of more than 600 respondents for its 2026 benchmark report (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026). The report itself cautions that “intent does not guarantee execution.”
65.9% expect payback within a month, and 48.4% within two weeks (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026).
66.3% run their influencer programs entirely in-house (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026).
Brand awareness is the most common KPI, chosen by 55.1%. For measurement, 45.9% use promo or discount codes, 26.0% affiliate links and 25.0% native shop features (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026).
TikTok is the most selected platform for investment, at 31%, with every other platform between roughly 8% and 15% (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026). Only 10.56% of respondents are not using AI in their influencer work. Platform audiences are covered in social media statistics.
Smaller creators get more engagement per follower
Instagram nano-influencers (1,000 to 10,000 followers) have a median engagement rate of 1.79%, against 0.33% to 0.35% for macro and mega influencers (HypeAuditor State of Influencer Marketing, 2026).
On TikTok, nano-influencers lead at 11.6%, micro-influencers (10,000 to 50,000 followers) follow at 9.3%, and macro and mega creators sit at 6.8% (HypeAuditor, 2026). The median across all TikTok creators is 11.2%.
Scale still wins on raw numbers: mega-influencers get a median of 3,213 likes per TikTok video, against 38 for nano creators (HypeAuditor, 2026).
Most creators don’t earn a living from it
Goldman Sachs projects the creator economy to grow from $250 billion to $480 billion by 2027 (Goldman Sachs Research, 2023). It expects the world’s 50 million creators to grow 10 to 20% a year.
Brand deals make up about 70% of creator revenue, and only about 4% of creators are professionals earning more than $100,000 a year (Goldman Sachs, 2023).
One in five Americans gets news from influencers
About one in five US adults regularly gets news from influencers on social media, rising to 37% of adults under 30, in a survey of 10,658 adults (Pew Research Center, 2024).
63% of news influencers are men, and 77% have no affiliation or background with a news organization (Pew Research Center, 2024). Pew identified 2,058 news influencers, people with at least 100,000 followers who regularly post about news.
Buying fake followers is now a federal violation
Since October 21, 2024, it has been illegal in the US to buy or sell fake indicators of social media influence, such as bot followers or purchased views, when the buyer or seller knew or should have known they were fake and they misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose (Federal Trade Commission rule, 16 CFR 465.8, 2024). The same rule bans fake reviews and buying positive or negative reviews.
Running creator outreach without a spreadsheet
Two-thirds of brands run influencer programs in-house, and a third say finding the right creators is the hardest part. Much of the rest is inbox work: pitching creators, chasing replies, booking calls and keeping track of who agreed to what. Carly handles that from your own inbox: it sends outreach and follow-ups until creators reply, books calls on your calendar, and keeps each creator’s status in its built-in CRM so the shortlist doesn’t live in a spreadsheet. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so the same workflows can pull in briefs, contracts and campaign tracking from the tools you already use. Where creator spend fits in the wider ad market is in advertising statistics.
FAQ
What is the average ROI of influencer marketing? No reliable average exists. The widely quoted $5.78 per $1 was published as earned media value, not revenue (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2020), and the $6.50 figure comes from a 2015 poll of 125 marketers (Tomoson, 2015). 79% of enterprise marketers say they struggle to measure influencer ROI at all.
How much do brands spend on influencer and creator marketing? US creator economy ad spend reached a projected $37 billion in 2025, up 26%, and is projected to reach $44 billion in 2026 (IAB, 2025 and 2026).
Do micro-influencers get better engagement than big influencers? Yes, per follower. On Instagram, nano-influencers have a median engagement rate of 1.79% against about 0.33% to 0.35% for macro and mega accounts; on TikTok it is 11.6% for nano against 6.8% for macro and mega (HypeAuditor, 2026).
Is it illegal to buy followers? In the US, yes, for commercial purposes. An FTC rule effective October 21, 2024 bans buying or selling fake followers, views and other indicators of social media influence that the buyer or seller knew or should have known were fake (FTC, 2024).
Related: Social Media Statistics · Advertising Statistics · Marketing Statistics · Content Marketing Statistics · AI Marketing Statistics · Online Review Statistics
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