By Antoinette Siu • January 4, 2024 • 4 min read •
Ivy Liu
This article is part of a series exploring trends in marketing, media and media buying for 2024. More from the series →
Influencer marketing and social media are poised for more growth in 2024 as trends from social commerce to paid media continue to accelerate.
Social and influencer agencies anticipate the emergence of more niche social platforms, artificial intelligence experimentation and paid media investments to continue increasing in the new year. It makes sense given the developing industry: The global creator economy is projected to have grown to $127 billion in 2023 and is forecasted to reach $528 billion by 2030, according to Coherent Market Insights.
Here is a look at the biggest trends agencies in that space are expecting in 2024.
With more advertising interest in using influencers and content creators, agencies are seeing growing investments in paid media opportunities. Desiree Marchetti Russell, director of the influencer marketing program at Trade School (spun out of agency 22Squared), noted more client interest in television and commercials using influencers, as well as a trend of merging brands’ affiliate and influencer programs.
“[We are] allowing our contracts with influencers to include paid media usage rights and also to tap into specific content types that we want to run,” Russell said. “They’re doing everything from delivering those with exact specs, voice overlays and really being able to kind of fine-tune the way that paid media is evolving into influencer-led production as well.”
There will be continued demand for user-generated content, added Daniel Collins, COO at social agency Pepper. The agency has seen a 23% reduction in cost per acquisition with user-generated content, and its research showed many brands plan to increase UGC in the next year, Collins noted.
“It’s unsurprising that advertisers are including influencer-generated content more and more in their paid media mix,” Collins said.
Commerce potential
More shopping and advertising are shifting some spend toward social platforms, and these trends will continue playing out next year. Permele Doyle, U.S. president and co-founder of influence agency Billion Dollar Boy, predicts that social commerce will grow as brands keep testing commerce features like TikTok Shop and other “smaller social commerce platforms” using influencer marketing.
However, feelings are divided on the success of TikTok Shop and storefronts on the other major platforms. Urvashi Ajmera, senior strategist at digital agency Barbarian, believes TikTok Shop will transform user feeds and overall content experience. “More and more organic content will have the Shop feature, and you’d be scrolling through an infinite feed of shop and sponsored content,” Ajmera said.
Others feel that these shopping features will fall short in the U.S. market. “I believe [TikTok’s] shoppable efforts will continue to be met with indifference and skepticism from U.S. audiences,” said Erik Hamilton, vp of search and social at Good Apple.