HypeAuditor has unveiled its 2024 State of Influencer Report, shedding light on the ongoing driving force that is Instagram and forecasting global spending on influencer marketing to hit US$22 billion by 2025.

The latest report seeks to highlight key influencer marketing trends across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Global spending on influencer marketing is expected to reach US$19.8bn in 2024 and US$22.2 billion by 2025, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.6%.

TikTok was found to be the fastest-growing social media platform in 2023, boasting 1.6 billion monthly active users globally. Two-thirds of TikTok users are under the age of 24, with 44% being female. Nano-influencers on TikTok have the highest ER at 9.8%. Australia's national women's football team, The Matildas, were the most talked about brands on Instagram among influencers, with a total of 5.6 million mentions from 3.6 Aussie influencers, reaching 52 million people.

Yet nine out of ten marketers chose Instagram as their preferred influencer marketing platform. In Australia, 79.9% of all Instagram creators are nano influencers (1,000 to 10,000 followers), who hold the highest Engagement Rate (ER) of 2.3% on Instagram. Most Instagram influencers produce content related to Lifestyle (10.2%), Music (8.8%), and Beauty (5.9%). In addition, 87% of users take concrete actions after encountering product information in Instagram posts.

YouTube was found to have more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, and 56% of marketers believe YouTube videos are the most important content type for influencer marketing. HypeAuditor's research included data from 47.9 million Instagram, 6.8 million YouTube, and 12.6 million TikTok influencer accounts.

Despite high levels of fraud (43.17%) in 2023, another key finding from the report is the number of influencers affected by fraud decreased by 2.15%, marking the third consecutive year of decline. HypeAuditor also highlighted Instagram as getting more effective in its fight against fraud, and noted there is more awareness amongst influencers themselves that fraudulent methods of promotion don’t work in the long term. Mega (over 1m followers) and Macro (500k - 1m followers) influencers were the most impacted by fraud in 2023.

"Influencer marketing is increasingly being recognised for its value as an essential part of brand marketing. The steady decline in the percentage of influencers impacted by fraud is no stranger to this," CEO and Co-Founder at HypeAuditor, Alexander Frolov, said. "Thanks to greater awareness among content creators and steps taken by social media platforms to mitigate this phenomenon, marketers can feel more confident about the success of their influencer marketing strategies."

However, Frolov also cautioned marketers, "However, despite this good news, marketers need to continue to be vigilant of the impact of fraud, particularly when partnering with mega and celebrity influencers."