The news: Even as advertisers shift budgets to creators, consumers are more distrusting of influencer marketing than other advertising, per a National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs report.

• 58% of consumers over 18 stated they have purchased something because of an influencer endorsement—but over one quarter (26%) don’t trust influencer marketing, compared with 11% who don’t trust advertising overall.
• 64% do not trust influencers who don’t disclose their relationship with the brands they’re advertising, while 70% have negative sentiment toward influencers after finding out they were paid or received a free product from a brand without disclosing it.

Yes, but: Influencer marketing still holds massive value with the correct strategies.

• Influencer marketing can be used at nearly every point of the marketing funnel, with marketers using it to support business goals including brand awareness (66%) and revenue growth (55%), per Sprout Social.
• The right strategies still connect and convert. The average skip time for ads with influencer content is 17.8 seconds, compared with 7.9 seconds for traditional branded content, per Kantar. Influencer ads also maintain 1.4 times higher visibility duration.
• Influencer marketing is generally more cost-effective than other ad strategies like linear and connected TV, with nano-, micro-, and mid-tier influencers maintaining the best engagement to cost ratio.
• The strategy is adaptable across platforms, giving advertisers access to consumers across touchpoints.

Our take: Authenticity is the differentiating factor that will earn consumer trust even as audiences remain skeptical of influencers.

• 80% stated that they distrust influencers who they don’t perceive as honest, transparent, and genuine, while over 70% stated that they value honesty and transparency about an influencer’s relationship to a brand, per the report.
• Authenticity is one of the top factors audiences look for in influencers. Shifting away from traditional influencer marketing that focuses on big names and collaborating with smaller influencers who are everyday consumers sharing genuine content about the brands they love—and who typically boast higher engagement rates—will yield the best results.