Even though consumers increasingly rely on influencers to inform purchase decisions, marketers overwhelmingly treat them as an awareness channel.
Two-thirds of consumers made at least one purchase in the past year directly based on an influencer recommendation, according to Sprout Social’s “2026 Influencer Marketing Report.” Nearly a third did so 10 or more times, and 81% of Gen Z made at least one influencer-driven purchase. Yet half of marketers say brand awareness is a primary reason for using influencer marketing, compared with just 24% who cite direct sales and conversion.
This disconnect is happening as marketers place more emphasis on the channel. More than 75% of those surveyed said their budgets increased from the previous year, with 22% reporting increases of 11% or more.
That means marketers are spending more on influencer marketing without aligning creators, campaigns, and metrics with the behavior they want to influence.
Start with what you need to influence
An analysis of 38 influencer campaigns from 17 brands published in the Journal of Business Research found that only 17% of consumers consider follower count when deciding whether to follow someone. The subjects creators discuss matter to 47%, while brand partnerships and recent posts each matter to 29%, according to Sprout Social.
Follower count becomes even less important when it comes to purchases. Twenty-one percent of consumers prefer recommendations from niche influencers, compared with 15% who prefer large influencers, according to Sprout Social. Another 33% say either can influence them.
Large creators still make sense when a brand wants to reach as many people as possible. Closer to a purchase, expertise, credibility, and a strong relationship with a particular community can matter more than sheer audience size.
Algorithms are breaking the follower shortcut
Social platforms are also making follower counts less useful for predicting who will see a creator’s content.
Sixty percent of creators posting Instagram Reels had audiences where at least 70% of viewers were non-followers, according to Sprout Social’s analysis. For regular posts, 50% of creators reached that threshold. Stories, which primarily reach existing followers, came in at just 10%.
Algorithmic feeds can distribute creator content far beyond the people who chose to follow an account. Audience size still matters, but it no longer provides a clean proxy for potential reach.
That puts more weight on what a creator talks about, the quality and style of the content, and whether it fits the audience a brand wants to reach. The biggest available audience may be less valuable than content with a better chance of reaching and resonating with the right one.
More sales may require less control
Reviews, tutorials, demonstrations, and personal experiences provide prospective customers with information they can use to decide whether to buy. They also depend heavily on the credibility of the person delivering them.
Lower-funnel strategies tend to give creators greater freedom to share their experiences and opinions, according to the analysis of influencer campaigns. The Journal of Business Research article, written by Milan Polytechnic Professors Gloria Peggiani and Lucio Lamberti, found that excessive brand control can restrict creative freedom and reduce the effectiveness of influencers.
Brands have more at stake as a campaign gets closer to revenue, making tighter control tempting. But that’s also when the creator’s credibility becomes more valuable.
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Forty-four percent of consumers think an influencer promoting a product should be a longtime user, according to Sprout Social. Another 37% say the influencer should at least have used it, while only 19% say prior experience doesn’t matter.
A creator who knows a product firsthand has something a campaign brief can’t provide. Tightly scripting that experience can undercut the credibility that the brand hired the creator to provide.
Don’t pay for awareness when you need sales
A 2025 influencer campaign by Poppi, a U.S. prebiotic soda brand, gave branded vending machines to 32 popular influencers. The campaign generated millions of TikTok views, along with criticism over the extravagant gifts.
The campaign fits what the academic research calls an “aspirational billboard” strategy, using high-profile creators and aspirational content to generate broad visibility. The research places that approach at the awareness end of the funnel rather than closer to purchase.
Millions of views are valuable when the goal is millions of views. They say considerably less about a campaign intended to generate product consideration or sales.
Thirty-three percent of social teams say evidence of ROI would likely trigger a significant increase in their influencer marketing budgets, according to Sprout Social.
More spending won’t turn an awareness campaign into a sales campaign. It will just make the mistake more expensive.
Impressive metrics can still be the wrong metrics
The same campaign can look very different depending on how success is measured. A large creator can deliver enormous reach while producing relatively few purchases. A niche creator can generate fewer impressions while influencing a meaningful number of people already considering a product.
Reach is an appropriate measure for upper-funnel campaigns, whereas sales through affiliate links are a lower-funnel measure, according to academic research. It also calls for further research to test how different influencer strategies perform against those KPIs.
The framework is based on an exploratory analysis of 38 campaigns from 17 brands in Italy, so it identifies patterns rather than proving one approach will outperform another. The Sprout Social findings come from surveys of 2,250 social media users in the U.S., U.K., and Australia and 296 social media professionals responsible for managing or reporting on influencer partnerships.
The better question isn’t how influential a creator is. It’s what you need them to influence.
