Does Influencer Marketing Actually Work for Retail Brands?

There’s little doubt that influencer marketing has left an indelible mark in the business world. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s most recent benchmark report, the industry is set to be worth a whopping $24 billion by the end of 2024, with 85% of the 3,000 individuals polled for the report stating they believe influencer marketing to be effective.

The jury is still out in terms of forming a complete consensus on the matter, however, with critics pointing out several pitfalls common to the practice. So, does influencer marketing actually work as well as advertised within the popular discourse?

Influencer Marketing Works and Is Here To Stay, Some Experts Say

One prevailing opinion on the matter was ushered forth by Kate Vitasek, writing for Forbes.

Vitasek argued that influencer marketing works in terms of overall ad spend efficiency (achieving an average of nearly $6 for every $1 spent) and is tailor-made for a very specific audience. Additionally, this relatively novel form of marketing is effective in overcoming obstacles that consumers — tired of traditional advertising tricks or immune to long-standing or obnoxious persuasion techniques — might have before being convinced to make a purchase.

In a 2023 interview with the BBC, Karen Freberg, a professor of strategic communication at the University of Louisville, reinforced the latter point.

“In a world in where consumer attention is fragmented and fleeting, influencers are emerging as a beacon of authenticity and relatability, offering a human touch that conventional corporate communications often lack,” Freberg said. “Consumers, accustomed to the predictability of corporate messaging, are increasingly seeking genuine interactions and connections. When they see an ad or receive an email, it’s like, ‘OK, I’ve seen this before,’ and their attention has shifted… the human aspect of an influencer is what takes them over the edge.”

Pointing to proven ROI and a maturation of the industry to include nano and micro influencers with an even more specialized (and receptive) audience, Vitasek made her position plain: “It’s clear that these partnerships are going to remain a prominent part of the business world for the foreseeable future.”

As Influencer Marketing Matures as a Practice, Pitfalls Emerge

Setting up an influencer marketing campaign for a retail brand has its share of problems, however.

Among these, as Inmar Intelligence outlined for Adweek, is that retail marketers often lack any form of concrete data as to how their spend relates to concrete outcomes.

“According to the research, while 86% of U.S. marketers will dedicate budget to influencer marketing in 2024, many brands struggle to prove the effectiveness of these campaigns beyond top-of-funnel metrics when they allocate spend to RMNs,” Inmar Intelligence explained.

While this may not be an unfixable problem, as Inmar Intelligence offers its own Commerce Fitscore as a solution, it does speak to some degree of ambiguity when it comes to firm ROI data linking campaign spend versus sales results.

The proliferation of AI influencers in the sector also poses a problem, per Axios.

One of the core tenets of influencer marketing, espoused by many proponents, is the inferred legitimacy of the influencer’s endorsement. In order to achieve this, the influencer must be genuine — and, of course, human — in order to offer such a personal and heartfelt endorsement.

This may not actually be true, according to Axios, which outlined several cases in which artificial influencers had been propelled to fame. Miquela Sousa, a fictional character, has modeled for Chanel, Prada, and Supreme and boasts 2.5 million Instagram followers. Coach recently produced an ad placing rapper Lil Nas X opposite AI-generated model Imma. Lu do Magalu, a Brazilian synthetic influencer promoting cell phones, makeup, and more, has skyrocketed to 7.3 million Instagram followers.

Perhaps most surprising is the fact that members of the social media generation, Gen Z, don’t seem to care that much about authenticity —and as Axios writer Erica Pandey inferred, they may not “care if influencers are real or fake.” Only 35% of Gen Zers ranked authenticity as “a top trait they care about” when it comes to influencer marketing, according to Sprout Social.

Celebrity Influencers vs. Those Related, or Relatable, to You

Somewhere between these two positions is a third. As Marketing Dive reported, a preference for recommendations from friends, family, and “relatable personalities” over “celebrity influencers” may be emerging — in fact, preference for celebrity influencers plummeted to 11% in early 2023.

While this contrasts directly with the success seemingly enjoyed by AI influencers, several questions remain as to whether authenticity actually does matter when it comes to creating a retail marketing campaign involving influencer marketing and whether any brand attention garnered by an increase in social media attention will translate to real-world sales.