Beyond Follower Counts: Trends Reshaping Influencer Marketing

Celebrity endorsements may feel like a fixture of modern marketing, but brands have been borrowing star power for more than a century.

British actress Lillie Langtry became the face of Pears Soap in the 19th century, marking one of the first-ever celebrity endorsements. Since then, a host of famous faces have followed her lead, from Florence Henderson pitching Wesson Oil, to Michael Jordan drinking Gatorade, and William Shatner becoming the Priceline Negotiator.

The dawn of the internet and social media helped democratize influence by enabling everyday people like Michelle Phan and MrBeast to build and monetize their own audiences.

Then, in 2024, Instagram changed its algorithm to highlight content from smaller creators, further challenging the notion that influence hinges on follower counts.

“I think the way we’ve so far thought about influencer marketing is the way we’ve thought about media,” Mo Said, founder and creative director at advertising agency Mojo Supermarket told From Day One. “And now we’re thinking of them almost like the creatives that work at your agency or in-house in your department and that’s such a big shift.”

There’s a lot at stake: research firm eMarketer estimates U.S. spending will grow to $13.7 billion in 2027.

Here are five trends shaping the industry—and how brands are responding.

The Increasing Power of Microinfluencers

According to Karen Tran, principal analyst and CMO Advisor at research firm Forrester, marketers and audiences alike are looking for relatability. “An everyday person who has some level of expertise, knowledge, lived experience that is relatable and valuable to the audiences that we are looking at, that’s what shifts them into having influence or the potential to have influence and that's what we're seeing buyers trust more than anything,” she said.

And microinfluencers, or content creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, are far more relatable to most consumers than high-flying celebrities. 

“I think that there’s a recognized disconnect [between] how those celebrities are living and do they have a true understanding of my needs, my life, my challenges?” Tran said.

DuBose Cole, co-founder of the consultancy New Classic, agreed. “Influence previously ran on aspiration: audiences followed people whose lives they wanted,” he said. “Increasingly, as we face economic uncertainty, influence runs on relatability—people are most influenced by those whose lives have an element that looks like their own.”

For his part, Said likened the status quo in influencer marketing to a movie production, which requires a few movie stars and a lot of other people. He pointed to DoorDash’s World Cup campaign. In it, British media personality and aspiring chef Brooklyn Beckham, who is estranged from his famous family, gave away World Cup tickets in host cities with the help of local microinfluencers.

“Microinfluencers aren’t anything new. They’re old. But now, for the first time, we’re trying to be strategic with them,” Said said.

Fit Over Followers

Data from social media management platform Sprout Social backs up this trend: Its 2026 Influencer Marketing Report found only 17% of consumers consider follower count when deciding whether to follow a creator. 

That’s in part because audience fit matters more than audience size.

“We don’t just want to go to a smaller influencer or niche influencer because that’s what they are,” Tran said. “We want to ensure that we’re aligning influencers with the objectives that we have as marketers.”

Instead of looking for influencers with the most followers, brands need to understand what their audience cares about and what they themselves are trying to achieve.

“Sometimes a small follow count actually means a very specific area of expertise that could have an impact with very important people,” Tran added.

For James McWhinney, founder of DTC bedding brand Premium Grounding, customers are the new creators. “Our best creator content does not come from people with the biggest audiences. It comes from people who already bought, liked the product and can explain it in their own words,” he said. “A customer with a few thousand followers who genuinely uses the product beats a polished creator reading a brief.”

Brands Embrace Employee Influencers

In recent years, we’ve seen headlines about employees turned influencers, from Tony Piloseno at Sherwin-Williams to Miriam Webb of Chick-fil-A and Kaeden Rowland AKA Staples Baddie.

While Piloseno was fired and Webb quit, Rowland has the support of her retail parent.

“We’re incredibly proud of our associate, Kaeden, and the passion she brings to her work,” Staples chief marketing officer Bob Sherwin told Fast Company in February 2026. “It’s been exciting to see the positive response and enthusiasm she’s sparked.”

The Sprout Social report underscored the power of employees like Piloseno, Webb and Rowland: 40% of consumers—and 62% of Gen Z consumers—discover products through employee-generated content at least monthly.

“Employees are a unique group that have inside access to your company and can provide a level of expertise that buyers trust,” Tran said.

Said pointed to Starbucks’ pilot program with TikTok for employee-generated content as another good example of what’s possible. “I think every company will do it,” he said.

Famous Faces Still Have Their Place

But that’s not to say celebrities are losing out per se.

For example, corporate spending platform Ramp recently tapped skateboarding legend Tony Hawk for its Tony Stock: Pro Trader campaign, demonstrating how even B2B brands can use celebrity appeal to generate attention beyond their traditional audiences.

“I think there’s still a place for that level of influence and reach and excitement around the celebrity, but it’s kind of like advertising at the Super Bowl to some extent,” Tran said. “For some brands, it makes total sense.”

However, she cautioned this should be part of a bigger strategy—particularly in B2B, where purchases are large, buying cycles are lengthy and risk aversion abounds.

“I think that there’s a place for all kinds of influencers and creators,” she added.

The most important aspect is whether the influencer is providing value to the audience and whether they’re being transparent.

“I think it has to not be dictated by the brand and the influencer or creator themselves has to determine what the right way to share the information will be to keep and maintain that trust with their audiences,” Tran said.

AI Influencers Are Still an Open Question

As AI-generated content and search up the ante for trust and authenticity, what remains to be seen is whether AI influencers like Lil Miquela and Aitana will ever go mainstream alongside their human counterparts.

Sprout Social found 44% of consumers still aren’t comfortable with AI influencers and Tran finds it unlikely they’ll gain traction—at least in B2B circles.

“What a business buyer is really looking for is that very specific subject matter expertise and/or lived experience,” she said. “So if it’s an AI-generated influencer, I think that there’s going to be a lot of questioning about who’s behind this, how authentic it is, do I really trust this.”

Lisa Lacy is a writer based in Atlanta. She has covered marketing and technology for more than a decade for publications like TechCrunch, CMO.com, VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, ClickZ and Search Engine Watch.

(Photo by Urupong/iStock)