eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss polarization on Facebook, whether kids spend more time on TikTok or YouTube, how much people trust influencers, Facebook trying to make TV social, out-of-home advertising in Q1, podcast ad skipping, pyramids where they shouldn't be and more.

Trust is paramount: “The risks of live content are high,” said Nicholas Vincent DiSanto, vice president of influencer platform Activate by Impact. “So, you must choose an influencer you trust. That's really the fundamental first component, and it influences all the subsequent decision-making.”.

Influencer marketing remains both fascinating and frustrating for marketers. In this report, 16 creators share how they work with brands and how they view their role in the path to purchase.

Younger generations are more likely to buy products based on influencer recommendations, as well as consider them reliable. However, these demographics still see influencers as less trustworthy than other sources.

Many consumers don’t think politics and influencers should mix. In a CivicScience survey from February 2020, around the time of then-presidential candidate and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s meme drop, just 14% of US internet users strongly or somewhat supported political campaigns working with influencers. There’s also an issue of trust.

For our new report “Influencer Marketing and the Path to Purchase,” we spoke with a number of social media influencers to find out what brand partnerships look like from their perspective. They shared insights on what creative collaboration looks like, how to engage their followers, and what they do to measure the performance of their content.

The influencer marketing industry is changing, and the pandemic is propelling many of the major shifts in the market.

For example, listeners might discover the Dropps brand on a podcast, get retargeted on Facebook or Instagram and see the brand again in a piece of influencer content. The different touchpoints build trust on the path to purchase. But audio ads don’t offer a lot of metrics for monitoring success, and that can be challenging.

Influencer marketing is growing around the world, and a significant amount of activity is migrating to Instagram Stories. However, fraud is also growing, and that threatens the authenticity of influencer marketing.

YouTube influencers make the most, but video is lucrative on Instagram, too

Putting that into perspective, US internet users trust their inner circle for recommendations more than they'd trust an employee in a store, fellow online consumer or influencer. Product recommendations certainly encourage brand discovery and can even get shoppers to spend more than intended. But if a product has a low rating or not enough reviews, it can be quickly overlooked.

“Creators create,” said Danielle Wiley, founder and CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency. “They’re making content and then sharing it with the world.” On the other hand, “Influencers influence. They often have an aspirational or relatable life or style that makes people want to be like them or trust their style.

Fewer than one in 10 internet users ages 55 to 75 said they trust social ads for recommendations when shopping. “It’s not just an aversion to straight-out advertising. Influencers are conspicuously uninfluential, too,” said Mark Dolliver, principal analyst at eMarketer and author of our latest report, “US Boomers 2019: 'Aging in Place' in Multiple Aspects of Life.”.

The major social platforms hit the ground running in 2021, making substantial investments into many of today’s top social trends: audio, influencers, and short video, to name a few.

Creators are all over the news, but are they different from influencers? While it’s easy to say yes, it’s hard to say why. For our latest report, “Video Ads in Social Media 2019,” we explored how the two are differentiated.

More than three-quarters of kids said they "trust YouTubers over commercials on recommendations on what to buy," according to a March 2019 study from Insight Strategy Group. One caveat is that younger kids might not be able to differentiate vlogger authenticity from paid promotions. Still, influencers are an effective push to purchase among younger consumers.