Following our event on the topic, this article gives an overview of the rise in influencer m...
Following our event on the topic, this article gives an overview of the rise in influencer marketing. Keep reading to learn what leading Influencer Marketing Managers believe is the future of the sector. An excellent resource for anyone in the social media or content marketing space.
On Wednesday, 12th February 2025, Director, Michael Judkins, hosted a seminar event for our social media marketing community. With the recent emphasis on influencer marketing strategies, we wanted to bring together our network to discuss the actions they’re taking to build successful brand partnerships. The discussion was expertly led by:
Together, we explored:
Keep reading for the key takeaways from the discussion.
Influencer marketing is a strategy where brands collaborate with individuals who have built a presence and community online to promote their products or services. These social media influencers have cultivated dedicated followings on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. They are seen as trusted experts and/or trendsetters within their niches. Brands can leverage that trust by sponsoring posts and content from these influencers that endorse their goods or services.
This marketing strategy has become increasingly popular over recent years. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the sector has grown by $22.6 billion in just 10 years. This significant investment has resulted in social media becoming the world’s largest advertising channel in 2024, surpassing paid search.
More and more consumers are using social media channels, such as TikTok, as search engines. The New York Times summarises this change:
“Doing a search on TikTok is often more interactive than typing in a query on Google. Instead of just slogging through walls of text, Gen Z-ers crowdsource recommendations from TikTok videos to pinpoint what they are looking for, watching video after video to cull the content. Then they verify the veracity of a suggestion based on comments posted in response to the videos.”
As different social networks gain momentum, there has been a change in how consumers respond to advertising. Nowadays, they’re looking for two things:
Working with content creators helps brands moves away from traditional advertising and towards building communities with consumers.
As brands invest more into different types of influencers, they need dedicated resource to monitor the success of campaigns.
Where previously brand partnerships may have been handled by social media or PR teams, we’re now seeing companies building an influencer marketing team. This is accompanied by the rise of the Influencer Marketing Manager. These experts identify influencers that align with your brand, reaching the right audience demographics and increasing brand awareness.
“We have seen the demand of this role increase significantly,” says Director of social media and content recruitment, Michael Judkins.
Historically, influencer marketing has been the responsibility of social media or public relations teams. While influencer marketing does play a role in both strategies, it requires its own dedicated resources in 2025.
With more and more data and budget being attached to influencers, it’s crucial to have dedicated resource to manage spend and monitor results. Here’s what our panellists had to say...
“It’s not just a role, it’s a team.”
Influencer marketing ties into social, paid media, and growth, but it needs dedicated resources to make an impact.
Ella Crabtree, Head of Affiliate, PR and Influencer Marketing at Hawes and Curtis, describes ‘influencer marketing’ as an umbrella term for:
The sheer scale of the role alone, means it requires a dedicated individual to oversee the strategy. “By siloing influencer marketing into other teams, you run the risk of it not getting the attention it deserves and the expertise you need to drive it,” says Ella.
Sarah Ashwick, former Head of Communications and Advocacy at L'Oréal, built on this by sharing the importance of having someone who is always thinking about social media trends. Sarah said, “There’s always more influencers you could talk to, always more platforms to spend your time on.” Brands need a dedicated and curious Influencer Manager to identify new opportunities and build successful campaigns.
At the core of influencer marketing strategies are relationships. Whether it’s the community someone has built with fellow social media users, or the partnerships between brands and creators.
“If it’s just part of someone else’s job, it’s really hard to invest the time needed to build those relationships,” says Lucy Murray, Brand Director at Free Soul.
It's important that relationship-building isn’t an afterthought. Companies need a dedicated expert to find the right influencers for their brand, cultivate partnerships with them and ensure they always advocate for the business. As the conversation went on to explore, some of the best influencer marketing campaigns embed their brand partners across every piece of marketing they do.
We understand that it can be difficult to build a team without being able to communicate the return on investment (ROI). So, a big question remains - ‘How do we measure influencer marketing ROI?’
There is no simple answer. While direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands can track influencer-driven purchases more easily, for retail-based brands, it’s far more difficult. As Lucy said, “If I see a TikTok of someone showing a new mascara and then I go into Boots and buy it, there’s absolutely no way to track that back to an influencer.”
Ultimately, retail brands often found in bricks-and-mortar stores or luxury brands, with one-off purchase models, must find other ways to measure success.
Our panellists shared that measuring the value of influencers requires a holistic approach, evaluating both short-term conversions and long-term brand impact. Some ways they do this is through:
Additionally, brands are increasingly using affiliate programs, discount codes, and trackable links to tie influencer efforts to revenue.
Ultimately, when it comes to influencer marketing, you must think differently about ROI. A Head of Influencer will play a significant role in helping you measure the success of your brand partnerships as they monitor results, trends and data.
Looking to the future of influencer marketing, there are a lot of unknowns. As Sarah said, “Virality was the holy grail for us.”, but being able to predict the next trending moment is practically impossible.
What we do know is that the investment into influencers will continue to grow. The sector is projected to reach $32.55 billion in global market size by 2025.
Quickly, becoming the second most preferred channel, TikTok has played a significant role in the evolution of influencer marketing. The platform facilitated the rise of micro-influencers, thus segmenting different types of content creators (also introducing macro-influencers and mega-influencers).
With the social media platform under threat in the US, questions are being raised about the future of influencers.
While it’s undeniable that many influencers’ livelihoods are under threat, our industry experts were confident that content creators would find a new home. Many have already started to diversify their channels and continuing to build communities on new platforms.
It's clear that influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. If your business isn’t currently investing in influencers, now might be the time to do so. The first and most important step to a successful influencer campaign is identifying who to work with.
Each business needs to pursue different strategies and different platforms. While each social media network offers unique benefits (for instance social SEO is huge on TikTok), what works for some brands, won’t work for others.
“What I’ve learned is to look and listen - where is your customer?” says Ella, “Don’t get caught up chasing the latest platform.” Although you will probably be able to find your audience demographic on every platform, with limited budget, it’s important to prioritise.
Social listening is key to understanding where your target audience is and what they’re searching for to ensure successful social media campaigns.
If your campaign goals are to drive sales, you often need to think outside the box. Choosing the right influencers isn’t just about follower count - it’s about authenticity, audience alignment, and engagement levels.
“A lot of the time, the most aesthetic, polished influencers aren’t going to drive sales,” says Lucy, “That’s where a good influencer marketing team makes a difference, identifying those hidden gems.”
Sarah shared one anecdote about discovering a community of content creators through word-of-mouth from customers. Their engaged audiences were coming into stores to find the products they recommended. The challenge is to then “capitalise on this without disrupting the authenticity.”
Due to the complexities of the sector, it's clear that Influencer Marketers are key to successful social media campaigns. If you’re thinking of expanding into the space, get in touch with our specialist recruiters for talent support.
A big thank you to our panellists for sharing your time and knowledge with us. It was a truly insightful event. If you’d like to join us at our next event, be sure to register your interest below.
