How influencer marketing became a key revenue driver

Influencer marketing has gone from a “nice to have” to an essential sales outlet for brands both big and small, with platforms like Instagram and TikTok acting as crucial channels for cultivating that change. According to Grand View Research, the global influencer marketing industry was valued at $34.2 billion last year and is projected to grow to $45.2 billion this year.

“It’s one of the easiest [revenue channels] to track in terms of direct ROI,” said Alex Nisenzon, CEO of Charm.io, an intelligence and predictive analytics platform for TikTok Shop. “Because of the evolution and proliferation of platforms like TikTok Shop, a lot of brand activities are shifting to more of these social commerce platforms.”

Democratizing access

Social media has given both brands and influencers more access to the masses. TikTok is a standout thanks to its hyperspecific algorithm, making it easy for smaller companies and creators to build a following quickly.

“TikTok is meant to be the democratic platform of social media and that’s because anyone can be famous,” said Alison Bringé, chief marketing officer at Launchmetrics, which measures the financial return of brands’ public relations and influencer work. “Anyone’s content could be found. You don’t necessarily need a community and that’s been a huge win for small brands.”

Bringé highlighted athleisure brand Gymshark as one company that’s experienced this type of success with influencer marketing. She said that last year the brand generated 75% of its media impact value (MIV)—a proprietary metric that assigns a monetary value to social media engagement—from its influencer partnerships.

The right strategy

The rapid evolution of the influencer landscape means brands need to strategize accordingly to ensure that all-important ROI. Bringé said they should focus on building long-term partnerships.

“To do that, they should pick those influencers that really resonate with the values of their brand,” she said.

Nisenzon said working with microinfluencers—typically defined as a creator with less than 100,000 followers—is one strategy for tapping into specific communities.

“Thousands and thousands of microcommunities are on TikTok and you want to find or be able to penetrate and tap into the right microcommunities that are going to be interested in whatever it is you’re selling, whether that’s Korean skin care products or kitchen blenders,” he said.

Shopping spree

Arguably the biggest shift in the influencer marketing landscape in the last few years has been the launch of TikTok Shop. According to Charm.io, the TikTok Shop global affiliate program grew to approximately 11.3 million so far this year—including 945,000 in the US alone— which is up from 2.3 million in 2024. TikTok Shop also makes up over 18% of total US social commerce sales and grew to $15.8 billion in sales last year, according to market research firm eMarketer.

“You get both the awareness of the discovery of your products that consumers can drive through being exposed to your brand through the campaigns, but also the ability to actually make a purchase,” he said. “It’s that additional layer of ROI for the brand that you don’t get in nonshoppable channels.”

Nisenzon highlighted Korean skin care brand Medicube as a company leveraging TikTok Shop to drive revenue. According to Charm.io, Medicube was the top performing beauty brand on TikTok Shop in Q2, earning $62.8 million in gross merchandise value. He believes shoppable content will play a big role in the future of influencer marketing.

“This whole idea around shoppable content has really been pioneered by TikTok. We’re going to see it permeate into many other channels,” he said.