Influencer marketing in the UK 2024: Hang on to your hats, it’s fast and furious

Metrics, strategies, payments: does influencer marketing work in the UK?

Despite the evident maturity of influencer marketing in the UK, there are still large swaths of the market that have yet to fully grasp the concept that success lies in understanding the data. Many brands continue to conduct influencer discovery manually, and to focus on vanity metrics like views and followers.

“There’s still big brands that don't quite get it. They’re only just shifting out of vanity metrics to look towards intent and impact metrics. Some big household names, it’s quite surprising where they’re at,” comments the IMTB’s Guthrie.

Kolsquare Account Executive UK Ore Akinniranye agrees. He says that although UK marketers at the operational level are often well-versed in running data-driven campaigns, many C-level managers remain unconvinced.

“There is still a gap in understanding and defining metrics at the C-level; a lack of understanding in how influencer marketing platforms like Kolsquare can deliver the full impact of the campaign through detailed creator and campaign data,” says Akinniranye.  

And although brands in the UK were quick to to bring influencer marketing services in-house with dedicated teams, inflationary pressures combined with market complexity are forcing many into a rethink.

“There was a misconception of how easy it is to do. [Brands] thought ‘we can hire someone with two years’ experience and they’ll replace an agency, but what we’re seeing now is a huge amount of redundancies and layoffs,” comments Joslin, who predicts rationalisation will hit agencies that have bolted-on influencer marketing services to try to capitalise on the market’s growth.

“There will be a saturation point where brands go back to influencer-specific agencies. There will also be a lot of agencies that go niche, or home in on a specific platform or one form of influencer marketing to capitalise on doing something really well, rather than being a jack of all trades,” comments Joslin.

The huge amount of nano and micro creators in the market, combined with the growing trend of performance and sales-based influencer campaigns, also feeds into widespread confusion about payment rates and fee structures. Joslin estimates that 25% of influencer campaigns in the UK now include a commission-based fee.  

“There’s no rules on payments, on how much something is worth,” comments CurrentBody’s Dorolti. “A lot of influencers don’t understand that companies will have different campaigns in mind. It’s very hard to explain to some influencers or agents that different campaigns will have different budgets depending on whether it’s awareness or performance focused.”

Regulation: has ‘name and shame’ delivered a more transparent market?

UK consumers may have a ferocious appetite for influencer content, but they are much less enamoured with the influencers themselves.

Just 28% of Gen Z, and 18% of Millennials in the UK trust influencer ads which in 2022, were the second largest category of advertising that consumers complained about to self-regulatory organisation the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).  

Although the UK government declined to legislate a dedicated law for influencer marketing that same year, in 2023 it passed the Online Safety Act 2023 that beefed up consumer protections from potentially harmful content on social media.

“The bedrock of any regulation is going to be evidence-based and the fact that the government has a sensation that things are worse in some quarters than the evidence would suggest […] isn’t necessarily born out by the data,” comments the IMTB’s Guthrie.

Meanwhile, the ASA last year published a best practice guide for influencers covering transparency and consumer protection, and has implemented a ‘name and shame’ policy of publishing a list of influencers who have been found to regularly flout the rules around advertising transparency.

To date, just 26 influencers have appeared on the ‘name and shame’ list, with 22 having been removed after regular monitoring proved they had changed their disclosure practices.

However, many industry players argue the current regulations are unclear on two key points: influencers who double as business-owners and post about their own products, and the requirement to tag any content as an ad even the content post is outside the scope of an agreed contract.

Meanwhile, despite the widespread use of #ad on influencer marketing content in the UK today, the sheer volume of content and campaigns means many consumers still don’t fully comprehend influencer campaigncintent are ads, says Dorolti.

Platforms: TikTok continues its ascent, but Instagram remains the go-to

That the UK has been an enthusiastic early adopter of influencer marketing on social media is reflected in the figures. Some 84% of UK Generation Z, and two thirds of Millennials, social media users follow influencers, with short form video the preferred content format.

“I started [as an influencer] when Instagram was really bigging up Reels because TikTok had become popular. I started to post Reels and one of them got nearly 1 million views. That's when I started to gain more followers,” comments UK creator Ella Kirby (@ellakirbyx) who has 199K followers on Instagram, and 129K followers on TikTok.  

That said, Kolsquare data shows that although the UK market is awash with Instagram creators, it has been slower to take off on TikTok. The UK has 46K fewer influencers with +5K followers, and 3.3K fewer influencers with +100K followers on TikTok than France, and only marginally more than in Germany.

This reflects the entrenched position of Instagram in an already mature market. Kirby, for example, says her main focus is to create Reels for Instagram which she then posts to TikTok.

Paradoxically, TikTok trends are more advanced in the UK than in neighbouring Europe. The market was an early testing ground for TikTok Shop, which has become a flashpoint for influence campaigns with sales objectives since its launch late last year.

“In terms of consumer behaviour, the ease of purchase [of TikTok Shop] without ever having to go to a website is something they absolutely love,” comments Summer’s Joslin.

“It works well for certain sectors and certain types of products, like beauty and cheaper fast fashion. Anything premium or luxury is very reluctant to be involved because of the format and the way it’s delivered. It’s just got that TV shopping feel.”

The excitement around TikTok is also resulting in the phenomenon of new, Generation Z creators on TikTok being able to drive better ROI than established, expert YouTube creators in big categories like skincare, comments CurrentBody’s Dorolti.

“That just shows how the market has changed, with a lot of the consumers being younger and shopping through TikTok. Now, most of the revenue that we see [through promo codes and tracking links] is through our own direct influencers on TikTok,” comments Dorolti, who’s brand works with an average 200 influencers per month.

As new platforms and technologies like AI disrupt the industry, the rapid pace of change that defines Influencer Marketing in the UK is only set to continue.  

To succeed and drive true ROI in this ultra-competitive industry, marketers must wholeheartedly embrace data analytics combined with authentic campaigns and relatable content. Anything less will be the equivalent of throwing marketing pounds into the wind.