21 Influencer Marketing Experts give their Predictions for 2022

The influencer marketing landscape continues to evolve at such a rapid pace, we now have a whole new set of challenges and opportunities to take on, as 2021 proved to be a challenging year but also created a lot of new opportunities within the social media and influencer marketing industry. We asked 21 influencer marketing experts what we could expect for influencer marketing in 2022, and beyond. In this article, you will learn where your focus should be, what changes are coming and some future trends to keep an eye on. The only constant in our industry is change, so stay current, and you’ll see some handsome returns on your marketing campaigns!

21 Influencer Marketing Predictions for 2022:

1. Brian Mechem – GRIN 

2022 is the YEAR of the CREATOR. Last year we began to see the impact of having more than just one or two strong social networks. This increased competition at the network level is fantastic for creators. Audiences have shown that they will follow creators from one platform to another which makes creator engagement a key competitive point between the networks. We saw a greater focus from the networks on providing tools to their creators to better help them monetize and manage their personal businesses. This will continue and get much more aggressive between TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snap. 

At the same time, more and more people are beginning to understand what many creators actually are: entrepreneurs. 2022 will see a surge of investment into business tools for creators. Things like launching brands and storefronts, nurturing your audience in traditional ways like email but also new and innovative ways; banking, lending and other financial tools, tax management, healthcare, networking, content creation, editing, and more.  DTC will continue to thrive as well. Originally ignored in the influencer marketing space, eCommerce is now a critical battleground for platforms that seek to solve problems in the Creator Economy. Legacy brands will invest an ever-increasing amount to stay relevant in this new era of marketing. Lastly, privacy concerns and the actions of device makers, platforms, and regulators will continue to impact the industry. Ad costs continue to rise and fines from regulators will get larger and more commonplace.

Brian Mechem

Co-Founder & COO

Influencer marketing will drive online sales by offering seamless shopping. Thanks to social commerce features like native shops and online checkout that is now available on almost all social media platforms, influencers are crucial intermediaries in converting awareness into online sales. I predict that influencers will lead the way in powering a seamless social shopping journey thanks to their role in live social shopping, affiliate marketing and sharing authentic product recommendations. 

Influencers will be key to expanding affiliate programs. Brands are shifting focus to measuring sales and conversions instead of social engagement. With this in mind, influencer marketing will be key to expanding affiliate programs. Influencer and affiliate campaigns will merge to help brands leverage authentic influencer content to drive sales within an affiliate model that incentivizes influencers through a commission-based fee and helps brands track each sale generated. 

In light of data privacy challenges, first-party consumer data is the key to unlocking the potential of organic influencers. As Google phases out third-party cookies by 2023, marketers need to focus on leveraging first-party data for strategic marketing. When it comes to influencer marketing, analyzing the social reach and purchasing habits of a brand’s current customer base will help to identify organic brand advocates that can be activated as online ambassadors as part of an influencer strategy. 

Viral content on TikTok will continue to drive commerce trends. TikTok has increased potential for the creation of viral content as it’s more geared toward content discovery, giving TikTok creators the power to reach enormous audiences with their engaging, trending content. Most TikTok content doesn’t look like an ad, making it all the more powerful at fuelling trends through brand challenges and influencer-generated content. We predict the #tiktokmademebuyit trend will grow bigger in the next year, as the platform continues to invest in seamless commerce features such as its partnership with Shopify. 

We’ll see the continued professionalization of influencers thanks to monetization models on social media platforms. Social media apps know the value that influencers bring to their platforms. We’re seeing new payment models emerge to incentivize influencers to keep using certain platforms. Facebook is planning to pay $1 billion to creators through 2022, TikTok has launched a creator fund and individual users can pay for content from their favorite creators on Twitter and Twitch. As the potential for influencers to drive commerce activity on these platforms will grow, we’ll see more sustainable payment models emerge to continue compensating influencers.

Adam Shapiro

Head of Product Marketing and Strategic Partnerships

3. Hannah Cameron – #paid

1. Creators, not brands, are the linchpin to Web 3 and NFTs are in the very early days, but creators are finally building equitability and ownership for their work. Brands and social platforms are reaching out to creators to help them break into this space (and better understand it). Take TikTok, for example, they recently launched “Own the Moment”, an NFT project that lets fans own viral moments from top creators. TikTok understands that the creators on their platform are more powerful to their audience than their own brand name. Social platforms, brands, organizations; they’re all building infrastructure to let creators sell NFTs because they understand how important this will be to their long-term plans. Peter Yang—another crypto expert who writes a newsletter called Creator Economy—agrees; “Web 3 lets creators own the upside from their work instead of giving up revenue share to the middleman.”  

2. Brands will hire in-house Creators to own everything! Brands will use Creators to manage everything, from their newsletters to their social media accounts. Creators have built their businesses around cultivating relationships and communities on social platforms. Who better to own your social channels? Brands are also bringing Creators on board to manage their newsletter (or just outright buying Substack newsletters of successful Creators), having Creators manage their video creation, social ads, create brand assets, swag inventory, company stores, and so much more. Creators are no longer here to post about your products and services on social media, they’re here to manage it, enhance it, and create a long-lasting community for you.

Hannah Cameron

Content at #paid

Prediction #1 Live Shopping will become a staple for influencer campaigns. This QVC-styled live shopping experience is one of the features Facebook rolled out this year. Amazon and Pinterest offer similar features that allow brands to partner with influencers who are great at creating engaging livestreams. 

Prediction #2 More Nuanced Influencer Partnerships are the new norm. In the midst of a global social reckoning, 2020 also brought with it an important shift in the brand-influencer dynamic. Influencers publicly tasked brands with creating policies that would promote equity and transparency in how they hired and paid creators. The result is influencers are far more diligent when it comes to reviewing the terms of brand partnership agreements.

Prediction #3 Diversity and Representation are now the standard. Both influencers and consumers are analyzing those branded messages and campaigns to make sure everyone is represented. Brands have the opportunity to shift their corporate cultures to not just focus on inclusivity, but also to remove any traces of exclusivity – the institutional bias and outdated norms that you don’t even realize are showing up in your campaigns.

Prediction #4 Audio and video as primary formats. We’ve gotten used to text and images being the way we present that pillar content and those important campaigns. But more and more people are consuming content as audio and video. So, look to build more of your campaigns with podcast influencers, Twitch influencers, and of course, YouTubers. 

Speculation #1 Credit where credit is due. Entire documentaries have been dedicated to making sure creators get credit for their choreographed TikTok genius. It would be cool for platforms to start some sort of licensing program for creators, even if it’s just a buck or two, that allows choreographers to be paid for their creations every time someone tags a video with a challenge or dance they created.

Speculation #2 Instagram may not be able to continue to hold its own against newer/emerging platforms like TikTok IF it doesn’t maintain a focus on what it does best – images and short-form video.

Atul Singh

CEO/Co-Founder

5. Rachael Cihlar – Mavrck

One Billion People Will Self Identify as a Creator.  According to eMarketer in 2020, 50 million people identified themselves as a “creator”. As the creator economy continues to grow and bring new meaning to the influencer marketing industry, our prediction is that 1 billion people will self-identify as creators in the next 5 years. Social media is becoming even more democratized – TikTok’s algorithm makes it easy for unknown users to grow tremendously overnight and gain millions of followers. This combined with its easy-to-use platform that simplifies the production of creating content into one app, allows more everyday users to become internet sensations. As other platforms attempt to catch up, there becomes even more optionality for brands to identify the perfect creators to partner with and pay for content, expanding the industry as a whole. We’re even seeing more children in the US and UK aspire to be creators over astronauts (Harris). As the rising generations decide whether or not to attend college or bypass higher education in favor of becoming a creator, we’re also seeing how the business of influence is changing the college experience, especially for NCAA athletes. The ability for college athletes to monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL) through new laws will accelerate the growth of the creator class. It’s never been a better time to be a creator, and for brands and here at Mavrck, we’re along for the ride.

Rachael Cihlar

VP of Mavrck’s Influencer Marketing Center of Excellence

6. Sarah Levin Weinberg – Stellar

2022 influencer marketing will return to the fundamentals of storytelling with true creative content, that is based on integrity, proof and authenticity. 

Influencer marketing tools will improve quality audience check and success measurements, while authenticity will be guaranteed by long-term collaborations and co-creations between brands and ambassadors who truly share common visions and values. 

Influencers as product sellers, The WeChat and Taobao Asian giants will continue to inspire our social networks and will focus even more this year on social selling and live shopping; meaning influencers will play a direct role in helping brands generate online sales. In that perspective, companies will keep betting on the “usual suspects” but also turn to smaller brand advocates such as employees and top customers. 

Influencers as value messengers. Brands will however communicate as much as possible on their values rather than on their products. As the general public demand accountability and transparency around business practices from brands they know and follow, influencers become efficient communication tools for spreading messages related to a brand’s values as well as social, environmental, and ethical responsibilities and commitments. Indeed, influencers guarantee those actions and values are heard and believed.

Sarah Levin Weinberg

Co-founder and CMO

The maturation of the influencer marketing industry will see brands focus on business outcomes through the entire funnel using creators at every touchpoint. Top of funnel metrics like earned media value, reach, and brand lift will continue their prominent place for some brands, while others will use machine learning to search for ideal creators who can deliver outcomes that are more mid (intent) and bottom (sales) funnel. Nurturing long-term relationships with creators will be the key to the success of these programs. The Creator Economy has become very powerful for every B2C brand – from large global enterprises to fast-growing DTCs. For brands to succeed in this environment, they will have to approach creators as creative partners, develop trust, and build mutually beneficial partnerships. 

At the technical level, we expect brands to get smarter about data and measurement. From machine-learning-powered search to building lookalike audiences and brand affinities, a data-driven approach will be vital to measure against other key marketing channels. Reporting and measurement will advance to more precise attribution and insights, which will enable brands to create predictive models to continue scaling their programs efficiently in the future. As platforms continue to unroll partnerships with e-commerce tools, brands will expand their influencer marketing programs toward social commerce. We also expect a new wave of convergence of affiliate and influencer marketing, more sophisticated and data-driven ambassador programs powering both, and programs becoming truly global in nature like the Amazon Influencer Program. TikTok will continue its stronghold on Gen Z, and brands will continue competing to get noticed there. The key will be to partner with the right creators and let them drive the creative decisions and strategy. As the Creator Economy continues to mature, new tools and agencies will emerge to help creators develop their own DTC brands and launch creator-led products. This is why it’s important for brands to build these long-term partnerships now.

Sophisticated influencers will realize how beneficial it is for brands to put paid dollars behind their posts, not for “exposure” or “to build the influencer’s brand” but because it makes the influencer’s content more successful. More successful content leads to more assignments and increased demand increases prices.

One thing’s for sure, influencer marketing has become a dominant marketing methodology, and it’s growing quickly. One of the top trends for the coming year, it is essential to include influencer marketing in your strategy for 2022. The impact of social media continues to grow, and simultaneously, so does the weight and reach of influencers. Although new rules have resulted in increased influencer regulation and responsibility, many influencers have thrived with drastic audience and engagement growth. Influencer marketing now offers better results, with fewer risks. As we move into next year, the brands that make the most of these opportunities are those that dig into what makes consumers tick and identify the influencers that will drive the most impact. There’s no magic solution to building your consumer base, but influencer marketing is a surefire way to boost results. Influencer disruption was already starting to happen, but the pandemic definitely sped things up. The pandemic accentuated consumers’ need for belonging and connection. So, social media users who were in lockdown sought activities that involved both community and entertainment, whether it was through a TikTok dance or trying to DIY the guest room. As the line between social media and e-commerce becomes increasingly blurred, influencer marketing creates connections with consumers, allowing brands to flourish and see immediate results.

2022 will also see brands get a lot savvier about the way they work with influencers. From tracking sentiment to considering influencers of all sizes, brands need to define their goals and keep authenticity a priority. In the end, influencer marketing will continue to develop and grow as new technologies and social media trends emerge. Influencers will be further empowered in 2022 and will play a much larger role across all industries. The brands that will dominate the upcoming year will be those that leverage influencer marketing to create new connections with their consumers.

Melanie Keegan

Content & Copywriting

To put it in quantitatively, IMH published data stating that in 2018 the net worth of influencer marketing was calculated to be $4.6 billion. At the end of 2021 the total valuation of this industry is estimated to be worth $13.8 billion and is predicted to reach $15 billion by 2022 according to Business Insider; and today influencer marketing is the main marketing strategy of approximately 90% of brands- making it very clear that influencer marketing is here to stay. However, which influencers will be the last ones standing? When people hear the words influencer marketing, the first associations to come to mind remain Kim Kardashian or Arielle Charnas that charge outrageous prices per post. Yet, in the past few years, micro influencers have gained an immense amount of attention- leaving the macros & celebs behind. Due to the cost of working with these macro influencers and celebrity personalities, micro influencers proved themselves to be valuable assets when aiming for high engagement with followers. So, which is better you ask? The answer is not simple. As many marketers started adapting engagement rate as an essential KPI for campaign success measurement, they failed to consider the [undeniably] most important component- the amount of actual INFLUENCE the influencer will have. While micro influencers may engage with their followers, their ability to influence choices and lead to sales is lacking. Using our technology, IMAI, we have measured and analyzed the results of over 2000 campaigns that have been managed using the platform. According to the data, influencers with over 100k followers result in higher ROI- contrary to today’s popular belief. Looking for likes and comments? Micro influencers will probably do the job. However, if you’re looking to make sales and reach positive ROI- macros and celebrities are the answer. So this is our unpopular opinion for 2022, bring the macro influencers and celebrity personalities back to the Instagram spotlight- you won’t regret it.

Eran Nizri

Founder and CEO

11. Krishna Subramanian – Captiv8

2022 is going to be a very exciting year for the influencer marketing world. With budgets continuing to increase, platforms consistently updating in ways that benefit both businesses and creators, and general technology advancements, next year is set to be a year of innovation for the industry. 

Major trends all brand marketers and creators should prepare for are: Mainstreaming the metaverse: Aside from the potential rebranding of Facebook to focus on its prioritization of this completely virtual space, we’re already seeing major brands like Verizon finding creative ways to leverage influencers around this topic as well. Most recently they launched a multi-city augmented reality scavenger hunt to help showcase the faster speeds of its 5G network with this multimedia experience that offered a chance to win an iPhone 13. The company called on creators to help promote, not only the new iPhone, but the benefits of 5G in an approachable way. We’ve also seen luxury brands like Gucci build out entire art installations within Roblox, which was originally seen as just a game, but is now being utilized for so much more. The brands brave enough to dip their toes in the space now, are paving the way for this AR/VR tactic to become an integral influencer marketing strategy in 2022.

Over the top campaigns on streaming services: The popularity of streaming sites will only continue to grow in 2022 as new shows and movies continue to be released exclusively on these types of platforms. In fact, 2021 data from Nielsen already showed that TV households were spending more time streaming than they were watching broadcast TV. This provides influencer marketers a golden opportunity to take creator branded content beyond social platforms to meet consumers where they are while breaking through the clutter, increasing share of voice and driving results that matter. 

Creator trust will become the ultimate key to success: This will reign true for both influencer marketers and platforms. There is a reason the term “creator economy” is being used nearly interchangeably with influencer marketing, and it’s because creators are really starting to understand the power of their audience and develop more sophisticated brands out of their social presence. We’re no longer in an experimental phase of activating popular social media stars, these creators are well aware of their marketing power and understand the success they can bring to campaigns. From a brand standpoint, marketers are beginning to integrate creators onto their broader teams to act as longer-term ambassadors that are much more immersed in their products and brand values, rather than just for one-off branded content campaigns. From a platform perspective, the success, and ad revenue, of these platforms relies on its users and the audience it attracts. Once creators start to lose trust, or another platform offers more appealing monetization formats, wherever these creators and their content choose to move to, their audiences will also follow.

Krishna Subramanian

Founder

Platforms will increase technological innovations to make it easier for brands and creators to collaborate. TikTok will continue to grow in popularity with new demographics.  Developments in data privacy will fuel diversification away from Facebook and help fuel additional growth in influencer marketing. Brands will flood into the influencer space faster than new creators can grow, driving demand and costs up. Brands that still mistrust influencer marketing from it’s purchased followers days will get left behind by those testing and innovating with influencer marketing. Brands will increasingly see influencer marketers as their own category within internal teams and will be measured with their own metrics. Brands will either scale headcount internally or find partner agencies to deal with the significant logistical side of running influencer campaigns.  Software platforms in the influencer space will serve as an onramp for more brands to test out influencers internally with smaller creators. Traditional influencers will continue to take on more characteristics of user generated content. We’ll see additional growth of influencer paid social or “whitelisting”.  More brands will aim to use influencers as a means to build earned communities around their brands.

Brad Hoos

Chief Growth Group

The demand for sponsored video clips will continue to trend upward. TikTok, Reels and the next big thing – Whitelisting and paid media will remain a permanent fixture within influencer strategies to help offset channel algorithm restrictions.  Collab rooms such as Clubhouse have reached their peak in 2021. Expect a decline in popularity moving forward. Channels built solely around the monetization of content will thrive. As a result, branded/sponsored NFTs will gain extraordinary momentum. Performance results beyond the vanity metrics will become more of a deciding factor when choosing an agency partner. Lift, sentiment, gains.

Much like society as a whole, the influencer economy underwent a period of massive change from 2020 to 2021, and we anticipate that the industry will continue to evolve in 2022. In particular, we predict that three key trends will impact influencer marketing in 2022: increased investment in brands’ earned media programs, a surge in short-form video content, and continued influencer support for brands in the wellness and fitness spaces. According to our recent survey of nearly 150 brands and over 200 influencers, which examined trends and changes in the influencer marketing space, brands are dedicating more resources than ever to partnering with influencers. Over one-third of brand respondents reported that their influencer marketing budgets had significantly increased in 2021 relative to 2020, while 32% reported a slight increase in budget. Additionally, more than half of brand respondents noted that their teams had grown year-over-year. As influencer marketing continues to yield massive returns for brands across verticals, we believe that overall investment in the influencer marketing industry will only become more substantial in 2022. 

With regard to specific platforms and content trends, over the past year, TikTok matured from an emergent channel to an established influencer marketing tool. Our survey data saw TikTok ranking as the third most-important social media platform for both brands and influencers, behind Instagram and Instagram Stories. TikTok’s rise has contributed to an increase in short-form video content on Instagram: 73% of influencer respondents noted that they shared more videos to Instagram in 2021 than in 2020—a trend we foresee continuing in the year to come.

Finally, influencers’ interest in wellness and fitness surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, fueling significant momentum for brands that support consumers’ health. Notably, our survey results showed that even amid re-openings, content creators were continuing to champion brands in these high-growth categories. Over two-thirds of influencers who began posting about wellness brands during the pandemic were still posting about these brands in Fall 2021, while 69% of influencers who started endorsing fitness brands during the pandemic continued to do so. Content creators’ sustained investment in their physical and mental well-being throughout 2021 suggests that enthusiasm for health and wellness brands is unlikely to fade in 2022.

Catherine Kulke

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Influencer Marketing will expand in terms of overall marketing budgets, opening up new revenue streams for content creators and more business opportunities for companies mostly because of these main factors: 

Alessandro Bogliari

CEO & Co-Founder

In 2022, influencer marketing on Instagram will enter a new phase. The first significant change is that influencers will take over the collaboration initiative from brands. In June 2021, Instagram started testing a new solution – a native affiliate tool. The new feature allows creators to discover products on the Instagram checkout, share them with their followers, and, as a result, earn commissions generated from the purchases they drive. The affiliate tool from Instagram allows users to shop from – and support – their favorite influencers. It will not only help brands gain more human touch than ever before, but also it may completely change their business models. Some other great Instagram updates is another omen of what consumer brands may be in the future. With a new feature that allows influencers to add their own shop to their private Instagram profile, influencers may replace faceless brands and effortlessly offer their own merchandise. 2022 will allow us to watch the growing trend and judge whether influencers, their personal brands, and influencer-oriented features will change the way we shop forever. Instagram assures us that this is just the beginning of changes that we will observe in the coming time.

Kasia Slonawska

Marketing Executive

TikTok will continue to increase its market share. The burgeoning platform now boasts over 1b monthly users and there is no end in sight to its growth. They are investing heavily into their creator ecosystem and more brands will begin to take notice of the high engagement levels that can be enjoyed through the platforms addictive non-stop scrolling video content. TikTok is known for its young audience, but as older generations get on board and the platform diversifies the types of creators it works with, we will see more growth at the expense of Instagram.

Micro influencers will continue to take budgets away from mega influencers and celebrities. Their engagement rates are higher and their voices are seen as more authentic. Consumers want to engage with brands that share their values in areas such as climate, economics, justice, innovation and wellness. The brands that know how to leverage creator relationships to tell the underlying stories about why they exist and what they stand for, will win through micro creator collaborations. Managing a large number of creator relationships in a scalable way requires tools and platforms, so we will see more and more services popping up focused on niche areas like disbursement, messaging, attribution tracking, etc.

Creators will show more and more authenticity. There will be less use of filters, less air brushing, and more ‘rawness’. Content consumers’ appreciation of ‘behind-the-scenes-this-is-how-I-really-look-or-feel” will keep on growing, particularly amongst older segments. The continued growth of D2C brands will help drive influencer marketing forward with smaller brands increasing their budgets. Smaller brands already own their distribution channels, and they will also want to control their data and creator relationships without reliance on third parties and agencies.

Saleem Yaqub

Founder and CEO

The industry is going to start focusing more on outbreak creators and finding influencers in the first 30-90 days they are trending. This is going to force platforms and agencies to focus their attention on data-driven approaches to finding relevant creators in real time. Smaller, lightweight tools are going to outperform larger, end-to-end platforms. In addition to this, lightweight tools with more integrations into apps like Google Workspace, HubSpot, Shopify, etc are going to lead the industry. In a broader sense, I see market consolidation taking place. Smaller platforms and agencies are going to get swept up by larger providers and I could see by the end of 2022 or 2023 there are only a few leaders in the industry.

Remember that “all markets are conversations”. Brands that allow the influencers to lead the conversations and to be themselves will win out. Don’t try to control their content or put words in their mouths. In 2022 we will see the rise of more authentic conversations happening, not just “pay to say.”

D.J. Coffman

Senior Manager

As we have seen at Brybe over the past years, the pandemic brought changes to the space that are here to stay. We see a rise of data-driven approach higher in its importance, while the concept of using influencer marketing is becoming less “out there” and more of the standard part of businesses’ marketing mix. Repeated use of the same influencers and longer-term campaigns now spanning over multiple Social Networks which requires a more focused and imaginative approach to each channel set the successful campaigns ahead of the rest. And last, but not the least, we see the lines between Influencers and Freelancers getting blurred because the gig economy and the future of work are dictating the need for a wider variety of service offerings that buyers and businesses are willing to pay for.

Igor Fedenkoff

Co-Founder and CEO

2022 will continue to see robust growth for the broader influencer industry, especially in the white hot DTC segment. Older retail brands that had been putting off using influencers as a channel are additionally increasing their budget %s towards influencers as the channel continues to show favorable ROI when compared to paid search and social channels. Another trend worth watching is a wage separation amongst macro influencers that no longer is following a linear graph based on audience size; from our 2021 influencer compensation expectation report finalized in August of this year we see that that compensation expectations are exhibiting exponential curves at the aspirational / celebrity level.

Joe Sinkwitz

Co-Founder and CEO