What’s Hot in Influencer Marketing in 2025
Whilst the wider world of social media may have been aptly captured by the 2024 word of the year, the world of influencer marketing is defying the ‘enshittification’ narrative. With an estimated $9.29 billion planned on being spent on influencer-related marketing campaigns in 2025 (a 14.2% Y.O.Y increase), there’s plenty to be optimistic about in the year ahead.
Industry predictions for 2025 are everywhere - that’s why we’ve curated our own.
Building Relationships with Nano and Micro-Influencers
Brands are increasingly focusing on long-term collaborations with nano and micro-influencers (1,000–50,000 followers) due to their higher engagement rates and strong niche appeal. The rising costs and risks of irrelevance associated with macro-influencers have made these smaller creators a more attractive option, offering both value and opportunities for mutual growth. The ongoing ambassadorship between SweetGoodBye and veterinary nurse VetLifeLiz is a great example.
Integration of AI in Content Creation and Analysis
Influencers are leveraging AI tools to streamline content creation, while marketers use them to boost efficiency and improve campaign performance, enabling more targeted and impactful campaigns. However, while AI tools like TikTok Symphony Avatars provide alternatives to hiring models, actors, and UGC creators, when it comes to influence, trust remains a significant challenge. Consumers continue to favor real, relatable creators over CGI influencers.
Employee-Generated Content
Brands are tapping into their teams, encouraging employees to star in social content to jump on trends or share authentic insights. This approach enhances credibility and reaches audiences in a more relatable way while showcasing the staff care.
B2B influencer marketing
LinkedIn’s focus on short-form video, combined with the rise of employee, micro and niche expert influencers, is reshaping B2B marketing strategies. These creators bring credibility and targeted expertise to their industries, enabling brands to deliver more engaging, thought-provoking content that resonates with decision-makers, drives conversations, and humanizes their offerings in an increasingly competitive digital landscape..
Genuine, Unfiltered Endorsements
Despite ‘Authentic’ being 2023’s word of the year, consumers continue to seek genuine human connections, valuing unfiltered testimonials from trusted influencers. Relatable, everyday content consistently outperforms overly polished posts, as audiences prioritize sincerity and real-life experiences, making authenticity a critical driver of trust, engagement, and ultimately, conversions.
Social Selling Through Influencers
In 2025, social selling will thrive as organic posts play a bigger role, with TikTok adding direct links in captions for seamless shopping.
Live social shopping streaming, long predicted but yet to succeed locally, remains promising, with Gary Vee calling it the next big thing however locally, with the Australian TikTok Shop launch uncertain and Instagram Shop discontinued years ago there’s still question marks over whether Australians will embrace fully shoppable social platforms, With Shopify making the check-out experience near frictionless, for now, Australians prefer to complete their purchases outside social platforms.
Final Thoughts: What’s Hot? Mindfulness
Despite the industry concerns around the impact of increased regulations and the recent Australian social media ban for under 16s, Influencer marketing is set for another exciting and evolving year.
The industry is forever evolving and improving with specialist agencies and platforms launching to help brands tap into emerging subcategories such as nano influencers and tactics such as mass gifting. Whilst this is exciting, newbies should be inspired by dictionary.com’s word of the year, “demure,” and approach their strategies with restraint and thoughtfulness to ensure trust and authenticity remain at the heart of everything.
If you’d like to speak to someone about how to level up your approach get in touch with us here.