Influencer Benchmarks: Instagram Creator Stats for 2024

Influencer marketing is evolving. In the era of social entertainment, users come to social media for relatable entertainment, rather than aspirational content, and branded sponsorships no longer have the impact they once had. Brands need to create content that looks and feels like something a user would scroll upon, rather than just an ad.

Influencer partnerships have become an even greater priority, as no one understands entertainment quite like creators. Their unique lens into what entertains their audience allows them to create content that makes an impact, and brands that partner with creators on content are able to present their product in a way that earns enormous engagement. Dash Hudson has outlined the most important metrics, as well as baseline performance benchmarks, to help grow your influencer marketing strategies.

The Most Important Influencer Marketing Benchmarks

Average # of followers gained: This is how many followers an individual influencer earned for your brand through sponsored posts or partnerships. Brands that use Dash Hudson are able to see this metric for each influencer they’ve connected with. By comparing your results with the following benchmarks, you will be able to identify which partnerships are helping to grow your brand’s social presence.

Average Effectiveness Rate: This measures how many users engaged with your content from those who have viewed it. Influencer marketing effectiveness is a powerful measure of how much of an impact your content made on viewers.

Average Engagement Rate: Engagement is a measurement of how many users engaged with your content out of your entire follower base. This metric can indicate how well your content has performed, and it can also give you an idea of how engaged your overall audience is.

Average Total EMV: This is a proprietary benchmark for how much value an influencer relationship has brought to your brand. Read our guide on Earned Media Value to learn more.

What are Nano-Influencers?

Nano-influencers are creators with 1K-10K followers — while the impact and popularity of influencers and brand ambassadors aren't going anywhere, follower count is less important to the efficacy of these relationships. Nano-influencers tend to garner higher average engagement and Effectiveness Rates — for brands, nano-influencers are a great way to diversify your content, reach niche audiences, produce UGC and generally increase engagement at a lower cost.

What you need to know:

• Nano-influencers have a higher average Effectiveness Rates (+192%) and engagement rates (+213%)
• Nano-influencers are highly effective to reach niche audiences
• This influencer group is beneficial to brands with dwindling influencer budgets. On average, brands are spending less on influencer marketing — in 2024, brands are spending 11.5% of their budgets on influencer relationships, versus 12.2% in 2022 and 33.5% in 2021.
• In 2024, marketing teams are dedicating over 7 billion dollars on influencer marketing.

What Are Micro-Influencers?

Micro-influencers consists of influencers who have recently started out and are slowly building a following, or influencers who have made an impact with a niche audience, making their number of followers smaller than influencers with more mass appeal. Their smaller base does not mean they make a smaller impact, however, as their content has the highest effectiveness and engagement rates out of all influencers. Targeting specific niches, particularly across a wide range of micro-influencers, is a compelling alternative to investing in one splashy macro-influencer partnership.

What you need to know:

• Micro-influencers have a massive average effectiveness rate. A smaller audience may see their content, but it makes an impact
• Micro-influencers typically earn brand partners 20 new followers, which is an impressive number when considering the low cost and easier lift compared to influencers with bigger followings
• Micro-influencers have strong authority, and make good partners for niche products or services that may not appeal to everyone, but have enthusiastic audiences 

What Are Mid-Sized Influencers?

Mid-sized influencers are those with a relatively large audience. They may be professional creators who center their careers around Instagram, although they are not quite household names like the biggest macro-influencers—yet. Mid-sized influencers make compelling partners, as they demonstrate strong creative acumen, and have enough followers that you can justify putting time and effort into making the partnership work.

What you need to know:

• Mid-sized influencers only earn three times more followers for brands than micro-influencers; however, their EMV benchmark is much higher. Partnering with influencers with a sizeable audience will deliver more substantial results and ROI
• Content created by mid-sized influencers also earns better effectiveness and engagement rates than macro-influencers, and the mid-range may be a good happy medium for marketers who want to make an impact, but also drive more ROI

What Are Macro-Influencers?

Macro-influencers are the creators with the largest followings, including everything from the top creatives on Instagram to celebrities. Partnerships with the top influencers in the world provide your brand with a significant amount of exposure, however, they do not come cheap.

Content from macro-influencers is also less effective and earns less engagement than content from smaller influencers, so these partnerships are best left for your biggest, splashiest campaigns. Smaller, more intimate partnerships, such as sponsored posts, make more of an impact on more targeted audiences, and micro-influencers are your gateway to niche audiences.

What you need to know:

• Macro-influencers are unparalleled when it comes to making a splash. They have a lot of followers, and they deliver significantly higher earned media value
• Macro-influencers have the lowest average effectiveness rate, as targeted content makes less of an impact when you cast a large net. Your best content strategy for macro-influencers is to appeal to as many people as possible and avoid being too niche

Influencer Benchmark FAQs

How do you measure the effectiveness of an influencer?

The effectiveness of influencer marketing depends on your KPIs, however, Dash Hudson provides several metrics through its Relationships feature to help you get started, including effectiveness rate, which measures the impact of influencer videos.

What are KPIs for influencers?

KPIs for influencers can include Earned Media Value, average engagement rate, average effectiveness rate, or the average number of followers you’ve gained from the partnership. Additional KPIs depend on the needs of your brand.

What is a good influencer engagement rate?

For macro-influencers, the average engagement rate is 1.86%.

What is the ROI of influencer marketing?

The ROI of influencer marketing is dependent on your goals and where your influencer marketing program sits in the customer journey. If your goal is direct sales, you may measure ROI through sales figures, while if your goal is brand awareness, the ROI of influencer marketing may be sales attribution from further up the funnel.