Influencer marketing has moved far beyond being a seasonal experiment. With brands now dedicating bigger slices of their media spend to creator-led campaigns, the channel is becoming central to how awareness, consideration, and conversions are driven. Jakob Wigselius, CEO Scandinavia at United Influencers // ELLE Norway, has witnessed the evolution firsthand. In this interview, he shares why budgets are growing, how funds are being reallocated, the impact of social commerce and AI, and outlines the challenges brands face in measuring ROI and allocating spend effectively over the coming year.
I expect influencer marketing budgets to continue growing over the next years. We're seeing brands allocate a larger share of their overall marketing budgets to influencer efforts, especially as they recognise the full-funnel impact of creator driven content. Influencer marketing is no longer viewed as an experimental or seasonal tactic, it’s becoming a core channel that contributes to awareness, consideration, and conversions.
As traditional media ROI becomes more difficult to justify, influencer marketing is absorbing a bigger portion of the budget pie. Moreover brands have started to realise that influencer marketing is not just a channel of distribution, it’s a way to create content for all types of distribution channels.
First, there's a noticeable shift from one-off campaigns to always-on strategies. These strategies could exist of a single (or a few) ambassadors or a large number of influencers that are activated back and forth. Moreover, brands are realising the value of long-term relationships with creators who embody their values and can build sustained credibility.
Creator fees still represent a large share of spend but brands are putting more money into the services connected to the influencer marketing strategy. These kinds of services could be research, conceptual frameworks, administration and local market knowledge.
In addition, paid amplification to boost creator content through Spark- and Meta Ads are increasing. Production budgets are often lower nowadays because creators can produce more organic-style content in very high quality.
Last but not least, more brands realize the importance of investing in measurement tools to track performance, optimise, and report more effectively on a day to day basis.
Social commerce is definitely shaping how brands think about influencer marketing, but it’s not yet a one-size-fits-all solution. While platforms like TikTok Shop and affiliate tools are gaining traction, particularly in fast-moving consumer categories like beauty and fashion, adoption is still uneven across industries. Many brands are exploring these features, but often need guidance in aligning them with broader brand and content strategies.
From our perspective as an influencer marketing agency, we see social commerce introducing new opportunities but also new complexities. There’s still strong investment in storytelling, community-building, and long-term brand equity, areas where influencer marketing really excels and it’s also important to mention that not all brands deliver products or services that are compatible with social commerce.
Rather than pivoting everything toward affiliate-driven content, we believe budgets will continue to expand in ways that balance commerce with creativity.
The KPIs that matter most depend on the campaign’s objective. For awareness, brands still rely on reach, impressions, and engagement rates. For mid-funnel goals, metrics like clicks, saves, and branded search lift become important. At the bottom of the funnel, brands look at conversions, affiliate revenue, promo code redemptions, and even new customer acquisition.
Earned media value (EMV) and brand lift studies are also gaining traction as more sophisticated ways to evaluate impact, especially since the investments within influencer marketing are going up rapidly. That said, some marketers still expect influencer marketing to mirror paid search or direct response metrics, which leads to unrealistic expectations since influencer marketing has a lot of long term effects on your brand.
Yes, many clients do try to compare influencer marketing ROI directly with other channels like paid social or paid search, and that definitely affects how budgets are allocated. The challenge is that influencer marketing plays a different role in the funnel and often has longer-term brand equity value that’s harder to quantify with last click attribution. When brands try to measure influencer performance using the same criteria as e.g. Google Ads, it creates a misalignment. Education and better attribution tools can help bridge this gap, but it’s also about setting clear expectations from the start. Influencer marketing often supports the performance of other channels as well, so it's important to look at its impact holistically.
On the other hand I find it very important that advertisers actually can compare it to other channels in order to allocate budget in a healthy way, and as larger brands are starting to invest more heavily in influencer marketing it is fair to say that you should be able to put it up against other channels such as TV and OOH. What’s important then is that you need to break it down to the difference between production of content and distribution of content since a lot of advertisers often tend to do this for all other channels than influencer marketing.
As influencer marketing matures, brands are navigating new challenges—but many of these reflect the growth and increasing sophistication of the channel. Creator fees are rising, particularly in high demand categories, but that also signals the growing value and influence creators bring to the table.
Measurement is evolving, and while attribution can still be complex, there’s been significant progress in data tools, platform integrations, and reporting capabilities. These advancements are helping brands move beyond vanity metrics and focus on what really drives performance. Regulatory updates are helping to professionalise the space, encouraging more transparency and trust, both of which are good for long-term brand health. And while content saturation is real, it’s pushing brands to think more creatively and strategically. Those who invest in distinct, authentic storytelling and long-term collaborations are standing out more than ever.
For us as an agency it’s also important that our clients feel safe when investing in influencer marketing. The fear of putting your brand into risk is always an obstacle for raising budgets when moving into a strategy like influencer marketing where you often need to trust the creators to have ”their own take” to your brand.
AI, automation, and data tools are already starting to influence budgets, and I expect this trend to accelerate in the upcoming years. These tools allow brands to work more efficiently, whether it’s identifying the right creators, predicting content performance, or streamlining campaign management. Rather than reducing budgets, these technologies help brands invest smarter. We’re seeing more brands allocate budget toward tech platforms and data solutions so they can scale influencer programs while maintaining quality and performance. AI is also helping in areas like sentiment analysis, content optimisation, and even campaign reporting, which in turn makes it easier to justify increased investment.
I think brands should prioritise investment in a few key areas within their influencer marketing budgets. As always, long-term creator partnerships are essential since they drive more authentic brand alignment and better performance over time.
Second, content amplification is still underused. Paid boosting ensures the best content reaches broader and more targeted audiences. Third, brands should invest in data infrastructure and measurement tools to better understand performance and optimise future campaigns either in-house or through an agency like United Influencers.
Finally, brands should explore ways to drive owned data capture through influencer content, whether it’s email sign-ups, app downloads, or gated offers. These strategies will make influencer marketing not just more effective, but more measurable and scalable over time.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
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