What is Influencer Marketing and Why Does it Matter?

Influencers, content creators, social media personalities; whatever you call them, they’re effective marketers. Influencer partnerships are an inescapable part of brand publicity in 2025, and they’re only getting more and more essential. 

Influencer marketing is a collaboration between a brand and a content creator with a particularly engaged audience. The key difference between influencer marketing and traditional marketing lies in credibility and trust; traditional ads can feel impersonal and transparently sales-driven, while influencers are trusted for their personalities and recommendations. 

As part of Omnicom Media Group’s research into influencer marketing, we found that 63% of consumers reported that influencers make them feel like they’re part of a like-minded community.

Understanding Influencer Marketing

Effective influencer marketing works when brands are partnered with content creators who align with brand values, target audience, and industry niche. These creators—from mega influencers who are essentially A-list celebrities, to micro-influencers with a niche, smaller audience—produce sponsored, brand-led content that seamlessly fits into their regular posts. 

The appeal of this type of marketing lies in influencers’ authenticity. Today’s consumers, particularly younger generations, are wary of traditional ads and tend to trust peer recommendations over corporate messaging. Our proprietary research found that 46% of consumers follow micro and niche creators for their ‘authenticity’. A study from Edelman’s Trust Barometer found that 63% of consumers trust influencers’ opinions more than what brands say about themselves. 

This shift has made influencer marketing a truly powerful tool for companies looking to connect with audiences in a way that feels genuine. 

The Growing Influence of Social Media Creators

Social media holds more power than ever, and brands are continuing to increase their investments in creator partnerships to harness this power. The global influencer marketing market was valued at $21.1 billion in 2023, a massive leap from $6.5 billion in 2019, showing how lucrative it is to get your strategy right. Our research shows that over half of consumers believe that influencers can be a “one-stop shop” for everything they need—demonstrating the serious potential of influencer marketing to impact overall commercial revenue for brands.

A Nielsen study found that 92% of consumers trust ‘earned media’, or recommendation-driven content, over branded advertising, which explains why around 70% of US-based mid-to-large companies are rapidly incorporating influencer marketing strategies into their plans.

One of the biggest reasons for this shift is the rise of social commerce, and a culture change as to where and when users make purchases. Platforms like TikTok Shop and Instagram Checkout have made it easier than ever for users to buy products directly from creator content as they scroll their feeds, bridging the gap between aspirational inspiration and purchase action. Proving social media’s power for commerce, influencer-driven purchases accounted for 20% of U.S. Cyber Monday e-commerce revenue last year, significantly up from 13% in 2023.

The Keys to Creating an Optimized Influencer Marketing Strategy

So, how do you make sure you’re doing creator partnerships the right way, connecting with potential consumers who will actually convert, and how do you make your investment count?

That’s where top influencer marketing agencies like Creo come in. Combining data analysis, in-depth industry knowledge, technical expertise, and a global network of creator connections, influencer agencies create a perfectly fine-tuned partnership designed to hit brand goals and empower creators at the same time. 

It’s not as simple as picking an influencer with a large following and asking them to mention a brand. To turn influencer marketing from a trend into a revenue-driving strategy, you need a clear, results-driven plan. Here’s how an expert-led strategy can make all the difference.

Setting Clear Objectives

It’s impossible to beat your goals if you don’t know what they are. Perhaps you’re looking to increase brand awareness or drive engagement to your website. Maybe you need to generate leads and boost sales for a specific demographic? Identifying your primary objective means that every decision, from influencer selection to content style and audience targeting, works towards your end goal.

A well-structured influencer marketing strategy increases visibility and grows brand awareness, but the main priority is always driving real business impact. With the right goals in place, influencer marketing becomes a powerful growth tool rather than just another expense or, worse, a gimmick.

Knowing Your Audience

As important as it is to set objectives, it’s just as crucial to know your audience. Before thinking about choosing influencers to work with, it’s essential to think about the demographics of the people you want to reach: age, gender, interests, location, online habits, etc. You need to know who your customers listen to, and what they value.

A great example of audience alignment is Demetra Dias, a 17-year-old TikToker who is a go-to voice for young, fashion-conscious shoppers. Her loyal following, who watched her videos in their millions, showed brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Princess Polly and Brandy Melville that their audience trusted Demetra’s opinions. The success of her campaigns—for example selling out clothing collections in minutes—demonstrates that Gen Z responds best to peer-driven recommendations rather than traditional, faceless advertising. 

Choosing the Right Influencers

When selecting creators, the most effective influencer marketing strategies prioritize engagement, credibility, and alignment. The right influencer is a brand ambassador whose content and audience seamlessly integrate with the company’s vision.

Gymshark’s social campaigns prove that opting for relevant influencers can supercharge engagement. Sure, influencers like David Laid and Nikki Blackketter promote Gymshark on Instagram and TikTok, but they’re also part of the target audience themselves—young fitness enthusiasts whose followers aspired to be like them. Forbes has identified the ‘army’ of Gymshark influencers as a key factor in the brand’s huge development, with yearly growth beating huge global competitors like Nike. 

Strategically choosing which creators to partner with helps campaigns feel organic and sincere rather than overly commercialized. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right influencer marketing agency to help orchestrate your campaigns. At Creo, our proprietary Match Score technology makes sure brands only collaborate with influencers whose audiences align with target demographics, maximizing authentic engagement and high conversion rates..

Leveraging Social Media

Selecting the right social media platform is just as important as choosing the right influencer. Each platform has a distinct audience, content style and engagement pattern, so brands need to carefully align their strategy with where their key consumers are most active. 

Instagram thrives on highly visual storytelling and aspirational branding, making it a prime space for lifestyle, fashion, and beauty collaborations. TikTok, on the other hand, is built for viral, short-form content that resonates with Gen Z, while YouTube is the go-to for long-form, educational, and in-depth product reviews, often used for industries like tech, beauty, and fitness.

Dunkin’ understood the power of platform-first marketing when they partnered with both TikTok mega-influencer Charli D’Amelio, and comedy creator Zachariah Porter, known for his humorous and relatable content. Rather than pushing out a generic sponsored post, Dunkin’ let the creators incorporate the brand naturally into their signature styles—even launching a drink named after D’Amelio that actually broke records for Dunkin’. Porter still has a dedicated ‘Dunkies’ series on his TikTok profile, incorporating 16 videos (many sponsored) with over 8.5 million views.

By focusing on TikTok as the primary platform and allowing the influencer to lead the creative direction, Dunkin’ turned an everyday brand interaction into a viral moment. This approach highlights why platform selection isn’t just about reach—it’s about understanding content behavior and organically engaging their audience in a way that feels real, not forced.

Monitoring and Measuring Success

To make a campaign truly effective, you need to keep track of how it’s doing and make necessary tweaks. 

Keeping track of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as likes, shares and comments helps assess interaction, while click-through rates (CTR) show how effectively content drives traffic. Conversion rates are the ultimate indicator of success, revealing how many users take action.

Tracking these metrics manually can be overwhelming and a huge time drain for in-house teams, which is why data-driven tools are essential for refining influencer strategies. For example, Creo’s Omni Audience Explorer provides brands with a centralized dashboard that offers real-time analytics, allowing marketers to monitor influencer performance across multiple channels. By breaking down audience engagement, CTR, and ROI, Omni helps brands see what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

How Creo Ensures Effective Influencer Marketing Strategies

At Creo, we believe that effective influencer marketing boosts visibility, but is truly about strategic, data-driven partnerships that drive real results like conversions and engagement. We understand that relevance outweighs reach, which is why our approach prioritizes authenticity, engagement, and conversion-focused strategies. 

With tools like Omni Audience Explorer for in-depth performance tracking and Match Score for precise influencer selection, we guarantee that brands collaborate only with creators who truly align with their audience and objectives.

From global brands like State Farm and Mountain Dew to emerging businesses looking to scale, Creo has a proven track record of transforming influencer marketing into a measurable growth engine. If you’re ready to build a strategy that connects, converts, and delivers lasting impact, Creo is the partner to make it happen.

Let Creo build an effective influencer marketing strategy for your brand

Take advantage of our team’s expertise to create influencer campaigns that are data-backed, measurable, and optimized for long-term success.