Female creators and UGC content dominate the influencer marketing industry, new report finds

Despite calls for de-influencing and digital detoxes, the social media hamster wheel shows no signs of slowing. For creators who make their money online, that's a good thing, and insights from influencer marketing marketplace Collabstr shed light on how the creator economy could continue to provide job security for creatives in the years to come.

In its annual influencer marketing report, Collabstr analyzed data from 35,000 brands and 80,000 influencers, most of which are based in the United States. See the most interesting tidbits below.

The influencer marketing market size may reach $19.8 billion in 2024

The influencer marketing market size is expected to reach $19.8 billion in 2024, which is 13 percent larger than its $17.4 billion in 2023. That growth aligns with predictions that the market will grow 133 percent between the years 2020 and 2025, with the global creator economy estimated to balloon from $127.65 billion in 2023 to $528.39 billion in 2030.

Female creators still dominate the industry, making up 70 percent of Collabstr's 80,000 influencer profiles. The remaining 30 percent of profiles identify as male, though it is unclear if Collabstr provides options for creators who do not identify as either male or female.

Instagram and TikTok are still influencer favorites

TikTok may generate trends and set tongues wagging, but Instagram still holds its own when it comes to making creators money. Each platform makes up 42 percent of paid collaborations on Collabstr, with YouTube holding a surprisingly lousy 2 percent share.

User-generated content (UGC) is king

User-generated content is ads made by normies. Brands will send their products to a creator, and that creator will film a video that sounds a bit like a testimonial. The brand will then use that video on their own platforms as a way to market their product. It works because it looks like a "real" person is vouching for the product, as opposed to a brand shilling for it themselves.

More than 50 percent of the creator profiles that Collabstr analyzed were open to offering user-generated content services for brands in 2023, a 93 percent increase from 2022. But there is now a market for creators who only make UGC content and don't have followers or a personal brand. Allied Market Research reported in May 2023 that the market size of UGC content, which was valued at $4.7 billion in 2022, is projected to reach $71.3 billion by 2032.