An ever-increasing number of companies are shifting greater portions of their marketing budgets to influencer marketing. Recently released figures show that the value of the industry has more than doubled since 2019, growing from $6.5 billion to $13.8 billion in only three years.

From Instagram’s industry-shaking video-first strategy shift, to the gradual emergence from lockdown, 2021 has been a transformative year for influencer marketing. But there’s no time to dwell on the past. In this blog post, we get to the bottom of the biggest question on everyone’s lips right now: What does influencer marketing have in store for 2022?

What are the influencer marketing trends for 2022?

1. Data-driven influencer marketing

To keep pace with the rapid development of the influencer marketing industry, a data-driven approach to the channel is increasingly important – otherwise you risk throwing money down the drain.

It will come as no surprise that the more money brands invest in influencer marketing, the more important the ROI becomes, and quantifiable data is just as integral here as it is in any other channel to both achieve higher returns and to track the returns you do get.

To give you an idea of how much brands are investing in the channel today, almost 4 out of 10 say they invest between 10-20% of their marketing budget into influencer marketing, and 1 in 10 brands say they invest more than 40%.

Influencer marketing budget

Data-driven influencer marketing gives you greater efficiency and generally higher returns. At Cure Media, you’ll find data woven into every aspect of our approach to influencer marketing, from beginning to end but, perhaps most importantly, in the middle while activations are still running.

Data is invaluable to us when it comes to consulting with brands on the KPIs they need and identifying the influencer accounts that will help them achieve them, but it’s also something we rely heavily on to track performance and optimise campaigns on a continuous basis. While not as common in the industry, with many influencer campaigns still aesthetically focused and brand-centric, our data-informed approach has been refined over our many years in the industry and continues to be one of our most powerful weapons, enabling us to combine brand and performance marketing within a singular channel.

Learn about the value of having a data-driven influencer marketing strategy from our Co-founder, Kristian Melå.