For a variety of reasons, influencer marketing is a creative solution for many brands that can’t produce brand-centric first creative with lots of dollars behind it. It’s also the way consumers are using and consuming content on key social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Short-form, user-generated content like shorts and reels provides authenticity and has quickly become the preferred way that consumers learn about brand products.

Influencer marketing continues to evolve from the way brands approach their integration. What was once considered a nice-to-have has now become an essential and dedicated element of marketing strategies for brands.

Retailers and e-commerce have also experienced a significant shift in their landscape as well, as influencers continue to leave their mark up and down the funnel with live streaming content that encourages users to purchase their favorite products.

And then there’s the year of AI. Expect AI’s impact to reshape how campaigns are run, and even extend its impact to the influencers themselves. We’ll explain.

As you plan and finalize your marketing strategies for 2024, check out four influencer marketing trends that you can expect to take shape in the new year.

Influencer marketing is an always-on strategy, not just supporting key tentpole

It’s official. If your overall marketing strategy doesn’t include influencers or content creators, you are, for lack of a better phrase, behind the times.

No longer reserved for specific campaigns or sales events, influencers are an integral part of ongoing brand communication. The shift is attributed to the ability to quantify the value of influencer content and observe its competitive edge over traditional brand creatives.

Every year, we see new social media platforms, types of content, and ways that brands can connect with audiences. You can expect the evolution of influencers and content creators to transform in 2024, as well.

If you are one of those companies that hasn’t included influencer marketing in your media mix, put it at the top of your priority list for 2024, because it is becoming as normal and mainstream as a company owning a LinkedIn page.

Which brings us to our next trend…

Investment with influencers will largely increase, and more brands will take advantage of content creators

If it feels like influencer and creator content is seemingly everywhere—social media feeds, Amazon home pages, etc.— it’s not just you. Influencer marketing ad spend is expected to reach close to $21 billion by the end of 2023, according to Statista. In 2024, we will see more brands investing in influencers and content creators across social media.

Authenticity and trust are a selling point that influencers have above other marketing and advertising tactics. If you could point to one reason why influencer marketing burst onto the scene and proved its staying power year after year, it’s that people increasingly look for transparency and originality among the advertising they see every day.

Content creators will also be more utilized in the upcoming year. Nearly 44% of advertisers intend to boost their investment in creator content in 2024, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Part of the reason is that as more influencer and creator content became trendy, brands didn’t have a large sum of their marketing budget to execute an effective campaign. Now, platforms such as Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube have all launched custom solutions to mitigate having to pay a heavy out-of-pocket cost for creator content.

The other need for more creator content is that brands consistently update ad creative to adapt quickly to hot culture trends such “Girl Math” and “Get Ready with Me” videos.

Influencer marketing campaigns will become more streamlined with AI-powered assistance

2023 will be remembered as the year AI blew up. The mainstream adoption of AI tools has reshaped the approach to content and image generation, programmatic advertising, and chatbots. AI-generated posts are already causing a transformation in the social media landscape and the evolution will continue with influencers.

In 2024, expect AI to help solve for challenges to influencer campaigns, starting with matching the right influencers to the brand.

AI intelligence tools can assist brands in pinpointing the influencer whose values and mission align seamlessly with the brand. These tools conduct thorough searches, delving into an influencer’s brand affinities and analyzing their activities to address potential risks preemptively. Partnering with the right influencers is a strategic move to safeguard your brand image and as AI improves, will help find the right relationship with less effort.

Executing an influencer marketing campaign encompasses many intricate components. Establishing the campaign’s start and end dates, evaluating metrics and engagement rates, monitoring the content generated by each influencer, and assessing the achieved results against campaign goals are all time-consuming tasks.

By leveraging AI, it is possible to consolidate all these data points into one area and derive impactful insights. The greater the influx of data points into an AI solution, the more adept it becomes at establishing connections between them.

If AI contributes to the execution of influencer campaigns, the emergence of virtual influencers takes influencer marketing to a whole new level. Businesses have increasingly embraced the use of digital avatars, controlled by real individuals, to authentically showcase and promote their products or services through social media content.

Virtual influencers benefit brands by being more cost-effective than celebrity endorsements and having more control over the messaging and actual image of the influencer. Brands can also reach a wider audience because they aren’t restricted by a follower count and can also change their personality to fit target audiences.

More big retailers will dip their toe into live shopping

This year, live shopping demonstrated the potential of collaborating with influencers. Some of the biggest retailers, Amazon and Walmart, paved the way for what promises to be another significant year in the realm of live shopping.

For example, Amazon’s Influencer Program leverages influencers to raise brand awareness, tap into new audiences, and help increase conversions. Influencers have the ability to host livestreams on their Amazon storefronts and some are featured on the Amazon homepage to take advantage of seasonal peak periods.

Influencer marketing’s effectiveness stems from the trust factor. Audiences rely on influencers to introduce them to new brands, as influencers leverage their credibility to endorse products. This, in turn, allows brands to tap into potential customers who might not be reached through traditional marketing channels.

The adoption of live shopping will see more big companies experiment with the strategy. Brands like Macy’s, Poshmark, and TikTok Shop are already seeing success with new and younger audiences.

It’s worth noting that viewers don’t always buy but watch live shopping to get inspiration or learn about new products. Nearly one-third of viewers watched live shopping to learn about new products, according to Coresight Research. Creating more awareness will be enough of a reason for more companies to jump on live shopping in 2024.

The combination of accessible solutions, evolving consumer behavior, and the strategic use of influencers will be key drivers for brand success in 2024. If you are looking to elevate your media strategy, please get in touch!