Is Influencer Marketing growing or declining in 2025?

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First up, let’s start from the top and define it.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing refers to swaying the buying decisions and loyalty of the broader population by a brand, using its biggest fans. This could be someone with a high-above-average social following that has an affinity with a brand that’s looking to leverage a social following to market a product or service, or a celebrity with a following receptive to the same.

It was pervasive in media and marketing in recent years and has been around for a long time before in one shape or another. Relatively new rules though, in the social sphere, mean that endorsements of this nature must be properly labelled as such, and even newer ones mean it has to be declared for tax purposes in Ireland and abroad.

What’s an example of influencer marketing?

An example of influencer marketing can be seen, most likely, in your favourite social media feed. Here’s one example from Swedish (now retired) football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who took to screens on social media during his move from PSG to Manchester United some years ago — to give Volvo a boost.

Within two hours it had garnered almost 400,000 likes and thousands of comments. With eyeballs on content to that extent, it easy to see why Volvo was interested in an endorsement from the Zlat-Man in 2016. The tagline of ‘Made by Sweden’ does the job.

Are people searching for influencer marketing?

Interest in influencer marketing is declining. See the capture from Google Trends (last five years).

Why influencer marketing was growing in the twentyteens

A key reason it was big at the time was the growth of the micro-influencer. Not everyone can have the pulling power of an Ibrahimovic but with enough micro-influencers’ brands felt that they got their messages across. Take the Visa #TapIntoIreland campaign, which was full to the brim with these influencers. The reason was broader appeal.

Summary

So, there you have the current verdict on influencer marketing, a trend currently trending downwards for many years.

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