Creator Insights Report from Aspire Shows Nano-Influencers See 10x More Engagement on TikTok vs. Instagram

Aspire, the leading Influencer Marketing Platform for 800+ Shopify merchants and e-commerce brands, announced findings from its annual influencer marketing insights report. Based on a survey of over 700 marketers and creators, the report sheds light on industry trends, including which social media channels present the biggest opportunities and how brands can best work with creators to improve partnership decisions.

“The evolution of social media has redefined what it means to hold influence and sway purchasing decisions,” said Anand Kishore, CEO of Aspire. “Customers, industry experts, brand fans, really anyone can be an influencer. Our report offers insights for brands so they can build and nurture creator relationships, boost customer loyalty, build communities, and improve ROI for campaigns as they head into critical 2023 planning.”

Where Will Brands Increase and Decrease Presence in 2023?

Influencer marketing spending in the U.S. is predicted to reach $4.6 billion, doubling what was spent five years ago, as marketers continue to adjust to the challenges associated with tighter data privacy regulations across big tech. Reflecting a dynamic shift toward influencer-led campaigns and authentic content to improve targeting and drive engagement, Aspire’s report unveiled that nearly 7 out of 10 brands (68%) plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets, and a whopping 94% of brands plan to invest in more video content in 2023.

Despite TikTok’s high engagement, Instagram still leads the way, with 87% of brands and 90% of creators planning to utilize Instagram’s video content more in the coming year. Here’s a breakdown of the top three platforms where brands plan to increase their presence respectively:

• Instagram: 87%

• TikTok: 68%

• YouTube: 45%

Alternatively, brands plan to decrease their presence on the following platforms with the biggest pullback on Snapchat:

• Snapchat: 73%

• Twitter: 58%

• Pinterest: 43%

Authenticity Among Nano-influencers Drives Influence

According to the study, campaign performance can be impacted by the size of an influencer’s audience, with nano-influencers consistently achieving the highest engagement across all platforms. Regarding engagement, nano-influencers on TikTok exceed Instagram by over 10x, including comments, likes, and views.

Breakdown of TikTok’s platform engagement:

• Nano: 59%

• Micro: 8%

• Mid-tier: 2%

• Macro: 2%

Breakdown of Instagram’s platform engagement.

• Nano: 6%

• Micro: 3%

• Mid-tier: 2%

• Macro: 2%

The study further uncovered that brands allocate an average of 25% of their entire marketing budgets to influencer marketing. Long-term partnerships will be pivotal in 2023, with 70% of creators citing it as their favorite way to work with brands. As a testament to deepening creator relationships, more than half of the brands surveyed (52%) are already running brand ambassador programs to build more genuine relationships with creators.

While creators are increasing rates and looking for long-term partnerships, brand value alignment is still key, with 83% of influencers responding they would be willing to work with a brand for free products as long as they love the brand and the value to their followers is high.

To download Aspire’s full report, visit https://aspire.io/guides/state-of-influencer-marketing-2023. To inquire about Aspire’s services or to request a demo of the platform, please visit: https://aspire.io/demo-request/

Survey Methodology

This report uses statistics from Aspire’s internal data, as well as surveys from over 700 global marketers and influencers ranging from nano (less than 10,000 followers), micro (10,000-60,000 followers), mid-tier (60,000 to 200,000 followers), and macro creators (more than 200,000 followers) in Aspire’s database between January - November 2022.

About Aspire

Aspire is the influencer marketing software platform for high-growth e-commerce brands. Since 2014, Aspire has helped brands build and manage relationships with millions of influencers, inspiring marketers to think bigger, plan smarter, and deliver outsized value. Brands and creators use Aspire to find and vet each other, activate influencer marketing campaigns of any size, and put the magic of branded content to work at scale. As a recognized leader by Forrester Research, Aspire has paid out over $100M to creators, and is trusted by over 800 top brands from fashion to fitness and everything in between. For more information about Aspire’s leading suite of commerce platform integrations, or to get in touch with our expert-in house agency services team, please visit www.aspire.io

Contact Information

Eric Gonzalez

Media Contact

PR for Aspire

aspireiq@vsc.co