Influencer Marketing Trends 2023: What Brands and Influencers Should Know

Influencer marketing spending in the United States is predicted to hit a record $7.14 billion in 2024, making it a necessary tool for brands. What makes the tactic so vital? With the right influencer outreach, these highly credible content creators can sway buying decisions, brand preferences, and loyalties — regardless of their follower count. Factor in that even lesser-known influencers, such as those representing niche interests, are often incredibly affordable, and you’ve found the potential for an impressive return on your investment. But keeping up with new influencer marketing trends in 2023 is hard enough for brands with deep pockets and dedicated researchers. So, how are small and mid-size marketing teams expected to keep up with current and emerging influencer trends? 

We’ve highlighted more than a dozen trends to help you capitalize on important marketing strategies and get the ball rolling. 

Influencer marketing trends 2023 

1. Video content

Video continues to capture audiences’ attention, and the top platforms are eagerly investing in ways to help influencers and brands make money off the format. Social video is expected to make up 41.5% of all video ad spend this year. 

With 23% of consumers turning to YouTube to start their online shopping journey, followed by Facebook (21%), Instagram (18%), and TikTok (17%), competition is heading up. 

If your campaigns have relied on text and imagery up until this point, it’s time to embrace video.

2. Micro-influencers 

Savvy small and mid-size brands know that partnering with celebs and mega-influencers with millions of followers isn’t just expensive; it may not even be impactful. 

By shifting their attention to smaller content creators, such as micro-influencers with 10K to 50K followers, brands can earn engagement from these loyal audiences. A U.S. survey found that while brands spend 22% of their influencer budget with micro-influencers, that number is expected to increase to almost 30% by 2024. 

3. Niche influencers

Like micro-influencers, niche influencers — those who cater to a particular segment of the audience — are growing. With the right target audience and low-cost partnerships, niche influencers are already reported to claim 11.4% of brands’ total influencer marketing spend in the U.S. this year. But that share is expected to jump to 14.0% by 2024.

4. Sustainability

From slow fashion and eco-friendly packaging, the ideals of today’s young content creators are helping to sway influencer marketing trends in 2023 and beyond. Beyond just increasing awareness about the impact shoppers’ choices have on the environment, Millennials and Gen Z influencers are helping to shift values among their peers and even putting pressure on brands to change their practices.

5. De-influencing

Among the top emerging influencer marketing trends is de-influencing, the practice of creating content that humbles some of the hype among popular products or services.

With messaging discouraging consumers from purchasing ineffective, indulgent, or generally unimpressive items, these de-influencers often aim only to promote products that align with their progressive values. 

6. UGC creators

Over the past few years, user-generated content (UGC) has played a big role in consumers’ purchasing decisions, thanks to its perceived authenticity. 

But brands are skipping the organic process and heading straight to influencers to create UGC-inspired content. It’s a win-win for brands and influencers, as the former pays actual fans to develop (and disclose) a traditionally effective form of content, while the latter benefits even micro-influencers who don’t meet the usual threshold for follower counts.

7. Pay transparency

As more women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) serve as influencers on social media, content creators have begun calling for better pay transparency in the industry. 

However, influencers are banding together in online communities and collaborative platforms to share their experiences around pay, negotiations and even particular brands. 

What does that mean for marketers? Ensure you’ve got a plan in place to fairly compensate influencers rather than discriminating based on gender, age, race, sexuality, or even inexperience negotiating. 

8. Live shopping partnerships

Inspired by the success of live shopping in China and regions of Southeast Asia, live shopping partnerships are becoming one of the most talked about influencer trends of 2023.

TikTok Shop, for example, is already seeing influencer brand deals sell directly to consumers through live streams in which the viewer simply taps the pinned product or uses the shopping basket icon to make a purchase.

With the influencer serving as a host for in-platform or live-shopping, brands are elevating the role of content creator to co-salesperson.

9. On-platform SEO

On-platform SEO is crucial for influencer brand deals because it improves your visibility in search results. 

To get a leg up in overcrowded digital landscapes, you can identify keywords and phrases that your target audience uses to search for information, as well as alt-text, subtitles, closed captions, and photo captions. 

It’s a growing trend as more brands look for ways to expand their influencer marketing campaign reach. You’ll start seeing the results when you review influencer analytics if you provide your research and insights to your partnering content creators.

10. Older creators

Affectionately called “granfluencers,” content creators over 50 (with or without grandchildren) are brushing off ageism and taking social media and influencer marketing by storm.

Using pro-aging content and often combining both humor and wisdom, this group is primarily made up of Gen Xers and Boomers who know their way around a smartphone and social media. 

11. Socially conscious influencing

With social media dominated by younger, more socially conscious consumers, it makes sense that so, too, would the influencers marketing to them also reflect back such values.

By using their influencer for good, these content creators are playing a role in molding the attitudes and behaviors of their followers. 

Beyond sustainability, these advocates speak out on causes ranging from voter rights and mental health to LGBTQ+ rights and police brutality against people of color. If your brand’s values align, you’ll probably reach a shared audience among their followers.

12. AI 

Nearly all the in-person influencer events of 2023 — from international conventions to regional conferences — broached the subject of artificial intelligence and its role in influencer marketing. 

With new AI-powered tools that allow creators to capitalize on everything from image creation and messaging to photo captions and translation, the technology is one of the fastest-growing game-changers in the industry.

13. Custom music

Copyright infringement is quickly becoming a concern among influencers, who resort to using only trending sounds and songs on TikTok or royalty-free tracks from Instagram’s library.

But custom music is finding its voice (or instrument), too, with marketing companies even going so far as to offer brands and influencers the opportunity to purchase custom music. Whether your content would benefit from vocals, instrumentals, or even choreography, you may want to consider investing in unique audio that you can use long-term without fearing copyright issues.

Now that you’re up to speed on some of the biggest influencer marketing trends for 2023, it’s time to put them to use in finding creators, developing content, and ensuring it gets seen on social.