Influencer Marketing in the US: Things to Know in 2026

Influencer marketing has long become a vital part of online marketing. It’s pointless to argue the benefits this strategy can offer business owners. Brand awareness growth, new audiences reach, and increased sales are only a few of the perks influencer marketing can provide.

The United States is among countries that actively use this tactic. In fact, 75% of the marketing spending worldwide falls to precisely the US, according to Statista.

Sure thing, we won’t deny that influencer marketing has its peculiarities and hardships.

In this article, we aim to describe the current state of influencer marketing in the US, total spending, top challenges, and results marketers get.

So, let’s check how influencer marketing is done in the US in 2026.

Influencer marketing overview

If you wonder when influencer marketing actually started, you will find lots of answers ranging from 105 BCE to the 1760s. Yet, let’s consider the start and active use of this tactic from 2006 when the first influencer marketplace - PayPerPost - was created.

Since then, influencer marketing has only grown, finding new ways to reach potential customers.

That’s not surprising at all, as social media platforms continue to gain more and more followers. Here’s some interesting data from the Pew Research Center in 2025:

• 84% of Americans use YouTube
• 50% of US adults are on Instagram,
• 37% of American adults employ TikTok,
• 21% of US adults use X,
• 26% of Americans use Reddit.
• 25% of U.S adults use Snapchat,
• About half of U.S. adults say they visit each of the platforms at least once a day,
• YouTube and Facebook are the only platforms that a majority of people in every age group report using.

This data clearly shows that the US population is rather active on social media. The two conclusions brands and companies can make are:

1. They should be present on social media,
2. They need to collaborate with influencers to reach new audiences or grow brand awareness.

Sources like Statista prove our thoughts. According to it, in 2025 nearly 12% of respondents devoted more than 50 percent of their marketing budget to influencer marketing.

Instagram represents the most interest in terms of collaborations. It’s evident, as most TV personalities, bloggers, sportspeople, thought leaders, etc., are present and active on this platform.

Yet, TikTok doesn’t stay behind and moves towards top platforms for using influencer marketing techniques. For example, the most popular collaboration type for this network is dedicated content. That’s when an influencer promotes a single brand in the whole video.

Overall, here’s how sponsored content types looked on various platforms in 2025.

Source: Top Platforms for Influencer Campaigns (Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2025)

As you can see, Instagram and TikTok lead the way (just as said earlier).

Nevertheless, long-form content - exactly blog posts - remains among the most popular influencer marketing tactics. As you know, reaching influencers from various industries is effortless, thanks to guest posting.

There are lots of social media platforms with huge followings. But your budget is what defines with whom you will work and what type of content the influencer will create.

So, let’s move to the next section and see how much money US companies spend on this type of online marketing.

How much do US companies spend on influencer marketing?

There are no jokes when it comes to influencer marketing spending in the US. As a matter of fact, US companies spend almost the same budget as the whole world, as Statista reports.

Source: Influencer marketing market size worldwide from 2015 to 2025 in billion U.S. dollars (Statista)

Influencer marketing keeps growing every year. In the US, spending is expected to reach $13 billion by 2027, up 12.9% from last year. EMARKETER reports that this growth is faster than both digital and social ad spending.

Even though influencer marketing is already a mature industry, it’s still growing with no signs of slowing down.

Source: US influencer marketing spending in billion U.S. dollars and % change 2023-2027 (EMARKETER)

The popularity of social media platforms, the number of users, and engagement rates influence budget allocation. Here are the three top platforms that received the most expenditure from US companies:

1. Instagram - $1.95 billion,
2. YouTube - $986 million,
3. TikTok - $986.6 million.

Yet, we believe you would like to know how much the sponsored posts usually cost. This knowledge will help you form your social media marketing budgets more effectively.

Let’s refer to the data shared by Impact.com.

Impact defines the influencer tier the following way:

• Nano-influencers - less than 15k followers,
• Micro-influencers - from 15k to 75k followers,
• Mid-tier influencers - from 75k to 250k followers,
• Macro-influencers - from 250k to 1m followers,
• Celebrities/TV personalities - 1m+ followers.

Another interesting data shared by Statista is that male influencers usually charge more. Averagely:

• The US male influencer charges $3.13 thousand,
• The US female influencer charges $2.65 thousand.

Prices can also differ based on the US influencer's ethnicity. Given that:

• Asian influencers charge, on average, $3.6 thousand per post,
• African American influencers charge, on average, $3.04 thousand per post,
• Caucasian influencers charge, on average, $2.45 thousand per post.

Though influencer marketing budgets are huge in the United States, we understand that not every company can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a single post.

That’s why it’s essential to understand how much different types of influencers charge. Also, you can refer to our guide on how to find influencers for small businesses.

But the cost can be not the only challenge. There are a couple more. And we will talk about them in the next section.

Working with influencers: challenges and top engagement ways

Though influencer marketing budgets grow each year, it’s pointless to deny that marketers face some challenges when using this strategy.

For instance, Statista reports the following main challenges:

• 41% of US marketers named determining the success metrics or KPIs when working with influencers,
• 40% of US marketers named determining rates or making payments was hard to do, too.

Influencer Marketing Hub shares the next data about the top challenges global marketers face. Yet, as you can see, US marketers have similar drawbacks.

Source: Top in-house campaign challenges (Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2025)

But besides this, ensuring the influencer is not fake, if they have an active and engaged audience, and the rising cost of partnerships are among other challenges, as Forbes shares.

Nevertheless, businesses enter the lists during their establishment and growth. So, influencer marketing challenges are only a step toward a company’s future success and increased visibility.

If you study influencer peculiarities, top platforms, engagement rates, etc., the whole process will be easier for you.

Firstly, learn what social media platforms your target audience uses. Most probably, they will be on a couple of the most popular social networks marketers are already using. They are:

• Instagram,
• Facebook,
• TikTok.

Source: Social Platforms used by US marketers for Influencer Marketing (EMARKETER)

Statista has come to the same conclusion, with:

• 68% of US marketers using Instagram,
• 52% of US marketers using Facebook,
• 42% of US marketers using TikTok.

As the majority of US citizens actively use these platforms (as we shared at the beginning of the article), you will most likely reach your TA on them.

While marketers claim that ROI is one of the biggest challenges, it’s essential to know the approximate engagement rates.

Let’s refer to the Iqfluence statistics. According to it, nano-influencers (with 1,000 to 10,000 followers) demonstrate the highest engagement rate which is 2.19%.

Source: Engagement benchmarks by creator followers number (Iqfluence 2025)

Though it’s global statistics, data about US influencers also shows that smaller thought leaders have higher engagement rates:

• 1k-5k influencers have engagement rates of 4.6%.

So, if you are seeking better conversions as opposed to brand awareness growth, it’s better to partner with nano- and micro-influencers.

However, the situation will be different if you are willing to collaborate with YouTube influencers. In this case, it’s better to work with a huge players.

• 52.48% is the average engagement among US YouTubers with subscribers between 100,000 and 250,000 people,
• 141% is the average engagement among US YouTubers with subscribers over 1 million people.

Thus, most US YouTube influencers have 10,000-50,000 subscribers. There are only 20,241 accounts with 250k to one million subscribers and 7,883 accounts with over one million subscribers.

Even though influencer placements are getting more expensive, brands now have a big advantage: AI is already making influencer marketing more effective.

More than 64% of industry leaders say AI helps simplify work, fix inefficiencies, and improve overall campaign results. Here’s what new Influencer Marketing Hub data says.

Source: The Impact of AI on Influencer Marketing Outcomes (Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2025)

In 2026, AI will play an even bigger role, helping brands get better outcomes, even when placement prices keep rising.

How consumers react to influencer marketing

Sure thing, it’s important to know if the juice was worth the squeeze. To better understand the effectiveness of influencer marketing in 2026, let’s see how people react to this activity.

Here are two activities that can have a positive influence on consumers. According to Statista,

• 76% of female US citizens and 70% of male US citizens shared that deals or promotions posted on social media accounts made a positive brand perception,
• 26% of female US citizens and 27% of male US citizens said that memes and jokes posted by brands achieved that purpose, as well.

Also, think of who you target (once again). For a considerable number of companies, millennials and Gen Z make the desired audience.

Trust in influencer recommendations differs a lot across generations, according to new research from Clutch. The survey (June 2025, 277 US respondents aged 18+) shows that younger audiences are more open to influencer advice.

Source: How Trust in Influencers Varies Among Generations (Clutch survey, 2025)

Also new research from Channel 4 shows that Gen Z has a “flatter hierarchy of trust.” This means trust no longer flows from the top like institutions and experts to the public. Instead, Gen Z spreads trust more evenly across friends, peers, creators, and influencers.

Gen Z trusts different sources more equally than other generations:

• 42% of Gen Z (ages 13–27) trust influencers and online personalities.
• Only 8% of older adults (ages 28–65) do the same.

But what’s really unusual is that, back in 2021, Gen Z didn’t care whether an influencer was big or small. Now, the trend has clearly shifted toward micro-influencers. These small, niche creators are more trusted. And their real, relatable voices connect better than big celebrities.

Of course, every generation has its own particularities. Yet, you are welcome to learn how to market specifically Gen Z or all generations.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing picks up momentum. It’s a proven way to grow brand awareness, reach new audiences, and increase conversions, as younger generations trust influencers’ recommendations.

Influencer marketing budgets are expected to grow by 2027. Of course, that does not necessarily mean that you are ready to allocate the vast part of your social media budget in this direction.

Yet, you should know your audience from top to bottom to make the right choices.

Thanks to the data we’ve shared in this article, you can make more informed decisions about:

• with whom to work (influencer tier, category, etc.),
• what platforms to use (Instagram, blogs, YouTube, etc.), and
• which budget to set.

Are you going to use influencer marketing in 2026? What results do you expect? Leave your comments down below.