When it comes to word-of-mouth publicity for beauty or personal care brands, buddying up with influencers is often a key part of the strategy.
According to the Danish influencer company Influencer Marketing Hub, the global influencer industry was valued at $21.1bn at the end of 2023, which had grown by 29% from $16.4bn in 2022.
Based on this, the firm predicts that the industry will be worth $24bn by the end of 2024.
When the company undertook its annual ‘State of Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report’ for 2024, it found that among those respondents who had an influencer marketing budget, 59.4% said they planned to increase this particular budget in 2024.
Influencer Marketing Hub noted that back in 2017, when influencer marketing was starting to become increasingly popular, only 37% of respondents planned a dedicate a budget for it. Now, in 2024, that number had increased to 85.8%.
The company has also revealed a “marked shift in partnerships with nano-influencers” in 2024. The research found that 44% of those quizzed now preferred to work with smaller influencers.
Marketing software company HubSpot also undertook its annual Social Media Marketing Report for 2024 and found that 64% of marketers have worked with micro-influencers and that 47% said that they had “experienced the most success with them.”
This switch from mega-influencers to smaller micro- and nano-influencers is likely to have many reasons, but one of these is the increased popularity of TikTok as the first choice for beauty social media content.
Instagram long held the top spot, but Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2024 report showed that TikTok has surpassed the platform and that now 68.8% of influencer marketing brands used TikTok, making it the most popular influencer marketing channel.
The firm noted that TikTok is also a highly popular channel among beauty influencers.
It highlighted research from Statista that showed there are over 1.5 million beauty influencers on TikTok in the United States. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Instagram and YouTube had 323k beauty influencers each.
Based on its research, Influencer Marketing Hub said it believed that relatability is now more important that ever for influencers. It stated that “as trust in influencers starts to decline, relatable influencers are gaining ground.”
More disconnected from the real world
Trust in mega-influencers could also be waning as beauty launch events become increasingly extravagant, and therefore increasingly disconnected from the ‘real world’ and its tough economy.
This is the viewpoint of co-founder & managing partner at brand elevation agency, Free The Birds, Nick Vaus, who notes that some of the recent beauty influencer trips have been verging on the absurd.
“Shots of opulent dining tables with branded menus and cocktails. The event unfolds like someone’s personal holiday album - picturesque hotel rooms, rooftop views, and perfectly curated meals, all framed by the product being launched,” said Vaus.
“While the influencers and journalist-voices have built credibility in their own right, the sheer opulence of these trips raises a question for me, both as a brand design leader and as someone passionate about authentic beauty experiences,” continued Vaus. “Are these lavish events truly serving their purpose?”
Although Vaus acknowledged that influencer marketing is an invaluable tool for brands, as more consumers place value on authenticity he asked: “do these luxurious influencer trips still resonate with the public? More importantly, are they fulfilling the job these influencers were hired to do?”
“Where’s the creativity? Beauty is built on ideas and innovation, yet these events have become predictable and much of the same,” he asked.
As authenticity is the key currency in today’s market and people crave genuine experiences, he said that “no amount of luxury can replace the power of a product that speaks for itself.”
A need for authentic high-volume content
This backlash against extravagance is another reason why nano-influencers are now gaining more popularity with beauty consumers. Plus, they are often more passionate and genuinely knowledgeable about their topic of interest too.
The British skin care brand Elemis has been using this strategy of working with ‘grassroots’ influencers that have smaller followings since June 2023 and in L’Occitane’s last financial results call, it’s CEO said that this strategy has been paying off for the brand.
So, how does the land lie for beauty influencer marketing in 2025?
According to CEO at UK-based customer engagement platform Odore, Armaan Mehta, beauty creators are certainly evolving.
“Market demand is changing and its now about authentic, high-volume content,” he said. “The only way to do this get a high volume of content by working with nanoinfluencers.”
Mehta highlighted that the biggest challenge is doing that at scale – as there can be a lot of inefficiencies
Odore has worked with some of the world’s biggest companies such as Coty, Estée Lauder. Companies and L’Oréal and Mehta said there is “no one size fits all.”
“When deciding who to work with, make sure providers can manage scale,” he said. “Ensure you’ve got your strategy from the beginning.”
He said that thanks to TikTok and Instagram, short form video is the main type of content that resonates with beauty consumers, but that choosing to work with a mixture of influencers with different sized audiences is often the best strategy.
“We believe brands should take a multi-layered approach to the influencers they work with,” he explained. “Mega influencers aren’t over, but it is more effective to have a multi-layered approach and use influencers with different audience sizes.”
Mehta also has some advice in terms of choosing how to work with nano-influencers, as his software Odore has a platform of relevant nano-influencers.
“We scan for nano-influencers that have already spoken about the brand,” he explained. “And we look for ‘value matching’; – which influencers have similar values (for example: sustainability goals).”
“The drawback to working with ‘signed up’ creators is that it’s not authentic, so we go organic: finding people already talking about the brand.”
“It can even be in another vertical, not just beauty, he continued. “We look at adjacent industries – eg fitness and lifestyle as this gives a larger share of voice with that influencer. We are looking for ones that are speaking about similar products.”
“Audience demographics is very important in selecting the right influencers,” he concluded. “You need to think long term when creating these communities.”
