Influencer Marketing In 2024: Trends And Predictions

Influencers remain a hot topic on social media, so expect to keep seeing more sponsored posts flood your feeds this year. Moreover, industry experts believe that 2024 is the year when, finally, influencer marketing will become its own media channel.

As the market continues to evolve and grow, you must stay on top of any changes and novelties to stay ahead of the curve and fierce competitors. Ready to learn what the future holds for influencer marketing? Without further ado, here are the biggest and brightest influencer marketing trends awaiting us in 2024.

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Instagram–Not TikTok–is the Top influencer Platform of 2024

You might be surprised to learn that Instagram is predicted to be the biggest influencer platform in 2024, with around 67% of the world’s top influencers currently using it. Instagram was also the most downloaded app of 2023, beating out TikTok for the first time in three years. Though TikTok experienced massive growth from 2020 to 2023, the social media channel still falls behind both Instagram and YouTube when it comes to influencer marketing.

In recent weeks, TikTok has notably faced challenges when it comes to music licensing, with Universal Music Group pulling its songs from the app due to conflict over licensing agreements. Still, the app is incredibly popular for influencers hoping to start a large, rapid following. TikTok influencers are proficient in shooting and editing videos that are both engaging and creative, and as a consequence, TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the platform.

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TikTok’s algorithm allows for user accounts with a relatively low following to go viral overnight and amass millions of views on their video content. This provides a considerable opportunity for TikTok influencers to bring virality to certain brands.

Due to TikTok’s rapid user growth, especially with Gen Zers and difficult-to-reach millennials and the potential to go viral overnight, we do expect TikTok to continue to rise in popularity with more brands lining up to take advantage of it through avenues like TikTok Shop.

To stay ahead of the trend and master influencer marketing on TikTok, there are a couple of crucial tips to keep in mind and incorporate into your marketing strategy:

• Because almost half of TikTok users are between 18-24 years old, and 60% of them are female, make sure to align your target demographics with TikTok to reach the right audience; 
• This social media platform is all about trends, and new ones develop daily. That’s why one of the most effective ways for your brand to get attention is to move quickly on emerging trends. Regularly scroll through the “for you” and “discover” pages, so you can jump on a brilliant idea and use it to kick off your influencer campaign;

TikTok will forever remain all about short-form videos meaning that you have a small window of time to capture users’ attention and showcase your brand. Make sure to look for influencers who are brilliant storytellers and know how to utilize text, titles, videos, and sound to draw interest from the second the video content starts.

Increased Long-Term Partnerships With Creators Over One-Offs

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Back when influencer marketing took off, most brands were collaborating with influencers on a campaign-per-campaign basis. However, this started shifting in the past few years and while a lot of brands are already working with long-term partnerships, expect to see more of them moving in this direction in 2024.

Organizations will finally start recognizing the value of developing lasting relationships with influencers, who are a good fit for their brand. Long-term partnerships come with several advantages, including:

• These long-lasting collaborations can save organizations precious time because they won’t need to search and vet new influencers for each new campaign;
• They create more trust and authenticity because influencers who endorse a brand over time will be seen as genuine by their followers;   
• Long-term partnerships produce a steadier flow of content when compared to one-time collaborations. 

The key to this influencer marketing strategy lies in carefully measuring how individual influencers perform in your campaigns and sticking with the ones who produce standout content and results. Another fast-emerging form of long-term partnerships is forming exclusive ambassadorships with influencers you don’t want to lose to your competitors.

Higher Demand For Transparency 

While influencer marketing continues to grow, transparency will be more rigorously enforced in 2024 and beyond. Over the years, legislative bodies like the Committee of Advertising Practice, the Competition and Markets Authority, and the Advertising Standards Authority have clarified numerous guidelines and policies on appropriately disclosing sponsored content. Despite that, they’re worried that not all influencers follow the general regulations.

As a matter of fact, the Competition and Markets Authority lately launched a probe into Instagram. They investigated the social media platform for not defending its users from being advertised to. Consequently, Instagram committed to implementing new tools in 2024 that will demand influencers to verify whether they’ve been incentivized to promote a product or a service.

Additionally, Instagram committed to developing new algorithms to discern if posts contain advertorial content. It’s safe to say that brands can anticipate seeing more transparency enforcements like this on all social media platforms.

To stay ahead of this trend, be sure to get acquainted with your country’s marketing standards and regulations. As a rule, the key to revealing sponsorships properly is for influencers to add the word “ad” to their content.

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Data and AI Will Drive Decision Making

In 2024, organizations will rely less on vanity metrics like followers and likes. Instead, they’ll use more in-depth data and AI to make better decisions about their influencer campaigns, from selection to optimization.

This trend will make influencer marketing platforms more important than ever, and smart organizations will turn to such platforms to gain data-driven insights about audience demographics, performance analysis, and more. Data and AI can help organizations select the right influencers and optimize their budgets.

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The Rise of Social Commerce

Another way brands will capitalize on influencer marketing is through social commerce on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Influential creators can showcase products and even enable direct shopping through features like the aforementioned TikTok Shop. Their commerce teams can track sales directly influenced by creators.

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Brands Will Invest More In Podcast Advertising + Turn To The New Concept Of Influencer Houses

Another way brands will capitalize on the ever-changing world of influencer marketing is by investing in podcast advertising because influential podcasters commonly develop a strong bond with their audience and build a community of invested listeners. 

The wealth of podcast content has turned more than 88 million Americans into active podcast listeners, with the number of listeners surpassing 160 million in 2023.

The concept of “influencer houses” increased in popularity in 2020 among TikTok and Instagram influencers, following famous YouTuber Jake Paul’s Team 10 mansion started back in 2017.

The Covid-19 restrictions made these kinds of collaborations where influencers group together and co-create content in the same house even more appealing, making them a somewhat similar form of influencer marketing to podcasts.

With influencer houses’ ability to amplify influencers’ creative power and social reach, they deserve the full attention of marketers who look to leverage their brands’ presence on social media in 2024.

In Conclusion

Influencer marketing is a highly flexible marketing category that will definitely be different in 2024. As you can tell, how it will change mainly depends on consumers and their preferences, companies and their marketing strategies, governmental bodies and regulations, data science, and the new emerging platforms that organizations will utilize to showcase products and services to target audiences.

And yes, the ongoing pandemic will definitely play its role. However, the projections say that influencer marketing will survive for at least a decade, so roll up your sleeves and get the most out of it before your fierce competitors do.