Despite being called a fad, a bubble and a waste of money, influencer marketing is still, well, influential.
In a March survey of marketers and influencers conducted by Activate, 62% of marketers said they're growing their influencer marketing budgets in 2018. Meanwhile, nearly as many influencers (61%) said they had more sponsored partnership opportunities in 2017 than they had in 2016.
Influencers work with brands in different ways. Nearly half reported posting about a brand simply because they like it. In essence, they're already advertising these brands to their audience before a paid sponsorship even comes into the picture.