Influencer Advertising To Gulp $27.5 Billion Ad Spend In 2022
THOUGH a relatively new genre, there are indications that the growing popularity of influencer marketing, as a means of brand promotion may continue for a long time come, and ultimately result in fortunes for marketers in the field.
Not a few analysts believe that one significant change social media has brought to the marketing communications space, in recent years, is the birth of this particular type of marketing, and the resultant marketing budget it has been able to attract, globally, over the years.
While it is an obvious fact that influence marketing is mainly restricted to specific industries, that has not, however, diminished its growing influence, as evidenced in the figure in the newly-released StockApps.com report, putting the figure to be spent, globally, on influence marketing in 2022, alone to a whopping $27.5 billion.
The long-term preference influencer marketing is likely to enjoy as a means of promotion is also seen in the forecast of the growth of up to $51billion, which this type of marketing might garner, in 2027.
According to the report, influencers have become an essential part of the digital advertising/marketing industry. It further stated that while the influencer industry still remains nascent, and highly unregulated, that has, however, not stopped brands from spending tons of money on influencers.
Interestingly, while brands are expected to spend $27.51 billion on influencer advertising this year, only $6.04 billion was spent on influencer advertising in 2017; hence the influencer advertising industry has grown by approximately 355 per cent during the last five years.
“During the next five years, the spending is expected to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.21 per cent. At this rate, brands will spend $51.15 billion on influencer advertising in 2027,” the report stated.
It, however, stressed the need for ‘anyone related to the industry to adopt a cautionary approach since the rate of growth of influencer advertising might continue to suffer a decline till 2027.
“Influencer advertising witnessed spectacular growth during 2017-2021. The annual growth rate fluctuated between 34.6 per cent and 46 per cent during the four years. However, the rate of growth tumbled down to 20.4 per cent in 2022. The rate of growth is expected to keep decreasing at least until 2027. According to the numbers, the annual growth rate in 2027 will be only 10 per cent – which is considerably lower than the growth rate witnesses in the last five years,” it stated.
Analysing individual nations’ influencer marketing spend, the report identified China, as the country with the biggest budget for influencer marketing, having earmarked 57 per cent of the entire spend in 2022, for influence marketing.
“When we look at numbers, it’s apparent that the Asian economic giant loves to spend on influencer advertising. In China, $15.69 billion will be spent on influencer advertising in 2022, making up 57 per cent of the total amount expected to be spent, globally, on influencer advertising in 2022,” the Report stated.
It, however, identified the United States of America, with a $4.25 billion expenditure on influencer advertising, as coming second, ahead of the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany which make up the rest of the top five, with each country spending less than a billion dollars in 2022.