56% Of People Have Purchased A Product After Seeing An Influencer Use It

Influencers have increasingly captured consumers’ attention and time. As creators deepen their connection with their followers through content and products, they’ve also started to gain consumers’ trust.

According to a new Izea report analyzing the effectiveness of influencer marketing for generating consumer trust and engagement, creators reach a whopping 92 percent of those aged 18 to 29. Most individuals follow between one and 20 influencers while one-quarter of respondents between 18 and 29 follow between 21 and 50 influencers. Thirty-nine percent of social media users over 60 years old don’t follow any.

Sixty-two percent of social media users trust influencers over celebrities, and consumers are acting on this trust. For 36 percent of respondents, influencer posts are the best way to get them to try new products while another 46 percent have bought products promoted by influencers.

Other than influencers, TV ads (30.6 percent) and paid social ads (12.5 percent) were also effective. Magazine ads (7.8 percent) and radio ads (3.7 percent) were the least effective methods for inspiring consumers to try new products.

About 42 percent of females reported social media influencer posts to be the most effective whereas just below 31 percent of males reported the same. The difference in the success rate of each of the other methods studied didn’t vary greatly depending on gender though radio ads were noticeably more effective on males than on females.

Age tells a different story about the effectiveness of methods for encouraging consumers to try a new product. Thirty-nine percent of individuals ages 18 to 29 and 45 percent of those ages 30 to 44 report influencer marketing posts as being the most likely to get them to try a new product. 

Paid social ads were the second most popular option for 18- to 29-year-olds while TV ads were the second most popular option for 30- to 44-year-olds. TV ads were the most popular choice by individuals aged 45 and up, followed by influencer posts. Radio ads remain the least effective for all age groups.

When asked whether they would be more likely to trust a sponsored post from an A-list celebrity or a social media influencer, 62 percent of respondents said influencers were more trustworthy. This sentiment remained about the same for all age groups.

Over half (56 percent) of 18- to 44-year-olds have actually purchased a product after seeing an influencer use it while 39 percent of 45- to 60-year-olds and 33 percent of individuals over 60 have reported doing the same.

Izea’s 2022 State of Influencer Equality report found that 83 percent of all influencer marketing deals were allotted to female influencers yet the impact of influencer marketing is much more balanced across age and gender. In fact, 43 percent of males have made purchase decisions inspired by influencers while a little over 49 percent of females report the same.

Apart from making buying decisions based on influencer posts, 61 percent of all respondents have engaged with a sponsored influencer post by either liking or commenting, though the percentage of individuals within each age group who have done so decreases with age.

Izea also studied respondents’ perceptions of the efficacy of platforms used to promote a product via influencer marketing. Of the options listed, YouTube (26 percent), Facebook (24 percent) and Instagram (24 percent) were the most popular while LinkedIn (2 percent) and blogs (2 percent) were the least popular.

These answers varied greatly by age. Those between 18 and 29 years old said Instagram, YouTube and TikTok (in that order) were the best way to promote a product via influencer marketing while individuals between 30 and 44 years old responded with Instagram, YouTube and Facebook (in that order).

Izea’s “Trust in Influencer Marketing” report findings are based on a survey of over 1,200 social media users in the US conducted in March 2022. Data was gathered in December 2021 and included a roughly equal distribution of males and females with ages ranging from 18 to over 60.