TikTok expected to overtake Facebook influencer marketing spend this year

TikTok is rapidly catching up to Instagram's influencer marketing spend and is expected surpass Facebook and YouTube

Video-sharing platform TikTok is expected to surpass Facebook's influencer marketing spend this year, while it will quickly also take over YouTube by 2024, reported Insider Intelligence.

Instagram, however, is vigorously competing with TikTok, spending three times the amount of influencer marketing, or $2.23 billion.

TikTok spends $774.8 million, while YouTube spends $948 million and Facebook spends $739 million.

The report noted that TikTok had already crossed YouTube on marketer usage for influencer-based marketing. Instagram has also been steadily tweaking up its algorithm to feature more creator content, along with recommended posts and advertising. 

Instagram is striving to monetize influencer content on its app with better adjustments that favour content, making feed changes to feature micro and nano influencers to be a part of the content feed and get better viewership.

The report observed that the marketing spend on influencers has grown rapidly. Just this year, nano influencer spending has been predicted to rise by 220.5% and micro by 8.0%.

Jasmine Enberg, the principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, says "TikTok is surging in popularity for influencer marketing, but it’s still nowhere near Instagram in terms of spending or marketer adoption. That’s in part due to the higher prices Instagram creators charge for content, but also because of its wide array of content formats, most of which are now shoppable.

Still, Instagram is trying to be more like TikTok so that it can attract smaller creators, which TikTok is known for. That’s key for Instagram to retain its lead in the influencer marketing space, especially as many creators on TikTok now boast follower counts that rival or surpass those on Instagram and YouTube."

According to the report, 74.5% of U.S. marketers will use influencer marketing in 2022, while influencer marketing spend will rise by 27.8% to $4.99 billion this year.