Influencer marketing has grown up. In 2026, its impact can be proven across the funnel

What explains the continued growth of investment in influencer marketing?

There are still a lot of brands that either weren’t doing much in influencer marketing or weren’t investing heavily, and they’re now getting started. So naturally, when you look at overall investment, you have many advertisers who weren’t present before and are now investing more, which drives growth.

There’s also the fact that influencer marketing itself is becoming more expensive. It’s a market that’s reaching maturity, so it’s taking up a larger and larger share of budgets.

Is it also more expensive because brands are not only paying creators for content, but are investing in paid media to amplify it?

Yes, that’s part of it. But there’s also the fact that some creators are simply charging more. Certain creators are producing increasingly ambitious content. We’ve seen trends around large-scale productions, events, or videos that can cost several hundred thousand euros to produce. Naturally, those costs are passed on to sponsors and therefore to brands.

At the same time, there’s a strong focus on micro-creators, who are often seen as more cost-effective and impactful. How do you see that?

Both trends can coexist. And it ties into the idea of the funnel. At the top, very large creators activated for awareness are becoming more expensive, so more budget goes there. At the bottom, micro-creators or those working on an affiliate or performance basis are also attracting more investment, because brands realise how effective they are. If something drives revenue, brands will invest more in it. So overall, both ends are growing.

Influencer marketing is now considered a mature media channel. Is it subject to the same performance expectations as other channels? And is that well understood?

It really depends on the level of maturity and investment from each advertiser. But overall, I’d say yes. Precisely because it’s becoming more expensive, there’s more pressure on measurement.

Brands need to justify why they’re investing in influence. What does it bring? Does it generate sales? Can we measure ROI? Does it help build the brand? And if so, how do we measure its impact on brand preference, intention, or awareness?

At the same time, there are still some who see it as a channel that’s hard to measure. There’s still a lot of intuition, and even a bit of FOMO. Some advertisers think, “I’ll partner with this YouTuber because they’re huge and get millions of views”, without really knowing the business impact.

How do you see measurement models evolving?

I think it will follow the same evolution as social media. We’ve moved past the phase where likes and views alone were enough. Those metrics help assess digital impact, but now we need to measure business impact.

That means relying on studies similar to other media channels, such as brand lift studies or online surveys. For example, comparing people who were exposed to an influencer collaboration with those who weren’t, to see if they remember the brand better or have a more positive perception.

We also need better measurement of sales impact, even when it’s not direct. That might involve modelling or econometric approaches. 

Of course, for purely performance-driven campaigns, like e-commerce, it’s easier. With tracked links, you can directly measure sales impact.

There’s an ongoing debate about whether we need new KPIs for different stages of the funnel, or simply better interpretation of existing ones. What’s your view?

I’d say awareness is relatively straightforward. You have views, reach, impressions. On the conversion side, especially in e-commerce, you can track clicks, conversions, and purchases.

Where it gets more complicated is the middle of the funnel. And unfortunately, that’s where many influencer campaigns sit. The question becomes: did this campaign improve brand perception? Did it shift how the brand is seen? Is it now perceived as more modern, more innovative? Has brand preference increased?

That’s much harder to measure with standard digital metrics. That’s where surveys, post-tests, or brand lift studies are essential, because digital KPIs alone don’t answer those questions.

Not only are brands building more integrated plans across paid, influence, PR and so on, but what’s interesting is that influence is increasingly becoming the starting point.

In some cases, the collaboration with a creator is the core idea, and everything else is built around it. You amplify it with paid media, PR, events, etc. Large-scale activations like the GP Explorer or major YouTube projects are good examples.

So influencer marketing is becoming more central within broader marketing plans.