Influencer marketing has been a top marketing strategy since the mid-2000s, but it may be showing some cracks — at least when it comes to consumers’ willingness to actively engage with influencers’ Instagram posts.

Brands in the United States will spend $10.5 billion on influencer marketing in 2025 and up to $13.7 billion in 2027, according to a recent eMarketer forecast. Instagram is the No. 1 social media channel marketers use, according to Digiday’s upcoming CMO Strategies report on social media.

However, Digiday’s 2025 Influencer Index research findings indicate that consumers may be growing weary of specific types of content in both sponsored and organic posts on Instagram, and that their engagement levels with influencers’ posts may be more seasonally based than consistent year-round. 

To measure the impact influencers have on consumers’ purchasing behaviors, Digiday+ Research analyzed the engagement levels leading influencers received on their sponsored and organic Instagram posts in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. That analysis also informed predictions for influencer marketing trends for the year ahead.

This first installment of Digiday’s 2025 Influencer Index focuses on analyzing influencers’ posts on Instagram. Future installments will cover influencers’ posts on TikTok and YouTube.

The Digiday Influencer Index collects data from 22 influencers and their Instagram channels, scoring them across a set of key dimensions to create a total index average score. Each influencer is then given a deviation percentage from the index average to denote above- or below-average performance in specific dimensions. Results are dependent upon the list of influencers and the time period of data collection, generating a snapshot of the influencer space at a specific moment in time.

Digiday’s index collected Instagram data from 2024 (Jan. 1, 2024 – Dec. 31, 2024) and the first quarter of 2025 (Jan. 1, 2025 – March 31, 2025). Data collection was conducted by social media management company Dash Social.

The influencers were selected by Digiday’s editorial team, based on their reputations for creating content their followers deem to be honest and valuable, or helpful in making informed purchases.

The product categories with the most sponsored posts on Instagram during 2024 were beauty (coming in at No. 1) and fashion (which came in at No. 2). The beauty category had 561 posts for the year, while the fashion category had 185 posts. After beauty and fashion, the categories with the second- and third-most sponsored posts were finance and technology, with 35 posts, and food and beverage, with 29 posts. (It’s worth noting, though, that the majority of influencers included in this year’s index are beauty and fashion influencers, so the data skewed toward these specific categories.)

Sponsored finance and technology posts were dominated by partnerships with buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) companies like Klarna and Afterpay. These flexible payment companies typically partner with influencers on posts that feature products that can be bought using their BNPL plans. For example, a sponsored post from Madeleine White showcases fashion products from Old Navy that can be purchased using a BNPL plan from Afterpay.

Regardless of the quarter of the year in which a post appeared, product demonstrations, at 456 posts, were the most common type of content influencers included in their sponsored posts — particularly beauty product demonstrations. Following demonstrations, influencers posted vlogs (156 posts), professionally shot photographs (101 posts), and styling or get-ready-with-me (GRWM) videos (82 posts) most often — in that order.

While sponsored beauty posts typically lacked variety and focused on product demonstrations, sponsored fashion posts and posts within other product categories regularly utilized different types of content, such as styling videos, vlogs and professional photoshoots.

When analyzing the average number of likes per post within different quarters of 2024, Digiday’s analysis uncovered some interesting performance trends. In general, organic, non-sponsored posts had higher engagement in both likes and comments than sponsored posts. For organic posts, their highest rates of user engagement occurred during the second and third quarters of the year. However, sponsored posts saw their highest engagement rates during the fourth quarter of 2024, followed by the second quarter.

Looking at Q2 2024, organic and sponsored posts had similar results during the quarter, with strong user engagement for both types of posts. Influencers’ organic posts received an average of 77,136 likes per post in Q2, while sponsored posts had an average of 33,330 likes per post.

Typically, the second quarter of the year is when major beauty retailers Sephora and Ulta hold their annual sales events: Sephora’s VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider) event and Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty event. During these events, smaller retailers and brands often price-match Sephora’s and Ulta’s sales.

It seems that beauty consumers who are aware of this sales time period tend to engage more often with brands’ and retailers’ social media posts during Q2, hoping to find shopping inspiration or product deals. It is a significant sales period for the beauty category, and both brands and influencers capitalize on the increased consumer attention by posting more content.

Interestingly, despite Q2 being a prime time for brands’ and retailers’ beauty sales, influencers’ Q2 2024 organic posts saw higher rates of consumer engagement than their sponsored posts. With consumers being more active in general during Q2, marketers have an opportunity to encourage organic posts about their brand, rather than relying solely on paid influencer partnerships for sponsored content. One strategy marketers can use is sending free PR to influencers.

The third quarter of the year — the summer months and early fall, when influencer content is often focused on casual content, like travel —  is also a time in which influencers’ organic posts see high rates of engagement. In Q3 2024, influencers’ organic social posts had an average of 65,269 likes per post.

That’s not to say there aren’t sales events for influencers to post content about during Q3. Amazon held its 2024 Prime Day sale July 16-17, for example. And, similar to what happens during Ulta’s and Sephora’s Q2 sales events, brands, Amazon and competing retailers collaborate with influencers to target shoppers through organic and sponsored posts during the Q3 sales event, as well.

Taking a closer look at influencers’ sponsored posts by product category — specifically beauty vs. fashion — Digiday’s analysis found that different trends emerge in different quarters.

Sponsored beauty posts saw the greatest average amount of likes per post (35,955) in Q2 2024, which aligns with the previously noted beauty sales period. However, sponsored beauty posts received their highest rates of engagement based on user comments (545 average comments per post) in Q4 2024, which also coincides with the holiday sales period.

Because engaging with a post through commenting takes more effort than engaging through likes, for the purpose of this report we’ll consider commenting on posts a form of active engagement while liking posts will be considered a form of passive engagement. In this context, it’s worth noting that consumers are more likely to engage with sponsored beauty posts actively vs. passively depending on the time of year.

During Q2 2024, sponsored beauty posts attracted more passive engagement from consumers. However, in Q4 2024, posts garnered more active engagement. Holiday shoppers are likely more intentionally looking to make purchases during Q4 compared to Q2. Examples of sponsored beauty posts catering to these different consumer engagement levels include an influencer looking to drive sales from a post in Q2 vs. the same influencer asking followers to engage by commenting on a specific promotion or product question during a Q4 post.

On the other hand, sponsored fashion posts received the greatest average number of likes per post (59,695) in Q4 2024, which aligns with the holiday sales period. However, sponsored fashion posts saw the highest average number of comments per post (561) in Q3 2024.

During the third quarter of the year, influencers typically post more lifestyle and casual content that is associated with travel and vacations. (Third-quarter 2024 also saw higher engagement rates for influencers’ organic posts and lower engagement rates for their sponsored posts, as noted earlier.) Fashion brands are better positioned than beauty brands to tap into the Q3 trend toward lifestyle posts because of the wider variety of content fashion brands post, including vlogs and GRWM videos. Meanwhile, beauty brands tend to rely on product demonstration posts, which don’t align as well with travel and other casual content.

One example of what this looks like is in September 2024, influencer Kate Bartlett partnered with fashion brand Ralph Lauren on a GRWM and vlog-style video about attending the 2024 US Open Tennis Championships. Bartlett’s sponsored post garnered 64,695 likes compared to the quarterly average of 19,995 for sponsored content. The post exemplified the seasonal trend of posting casual lifestyle content in the third quarter.

Because beauty posts had their highest rates of engagement based on likes per post in Q2 and fashion posts had their highest rates of engagement based on user comments in Q3, there is a potential opportunity for marketers to partner with beauty brands during Q2 and with fashion brands during Q3. The fourth quarter of the year holds potential for marketers to partner with both beauty and fashion brands, as both types of sponsored posts saw high rates of engagement during Q4.

While influencer marketing has been a popular marketing strategy since the mid-2000s, it is not a bulletproof approach to advertising. In fact, most influencer groups’ engagement ratios decreased in 2024 vs. 2023 (with engagement ratio referring to the average number of likes or comments in comparison to an influencer’s following size).

With the exception of mega-influencers, or influencers with 1 million-plus followers, all influencer groups saw a decrease in engagement ratio from 2023 to 2024. Furthermore, when considering Q1 2025 data as a proxy for full-year 2025 data, all influencer groups, without exception, can expect to see a decrease in their 2025 engagement ratios vs. 2024.

One reason for the declines in engagement ratio could be due to an increase in individual influencers’ followings. For instance, the influencers who appeared in both this year’s and last year’s indexes had an average follower increase of about 218,000 in 2025, from 2024. As influencers add more followers, their engagement ratios are apt to decrease.

Some well-known influencers like Alix Earle, Glamzilla and Katie Fang had large swings in their follower counts in 2025 vs. 2024, increasing their counts by almost 500,000 followers this year in comparison to last year. Notably, Glamzilla broke the 1 million follower threshold year over year and shifted from being grouped as a medium influencer to a mega influencer — medium influencers were categorized as influencers with less than 1 million followers, while mega influencers were classified as those with more than 1 million followers.

Looking specifically at Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024, the average number of likes per post decreased year over year for both sponsored posts and organic posts. Sponsored posts’ average likes per post dropped from 30,341 in Q1 2024 to 21,619 in Q1 2025. Meanwhile, organic posts’ average likes per post went down from 59,882 in Q1 2024 to 39,683 in Q1 2025.

When considering engagement rates for influencers’ sponsored posts by content type, engagement with sponsored beauty posts decreased steeply in Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024. The average number of likes per post for sponsored beauty content dropped by -73% year over year, and the average number of comments per sponsored beauty post went down by -69% in Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024.

Because the beauty category had the greatest number of sponsored posts on Instagram in 2024, as noted in the first section of this index, it’s possible that beauty consumers may be growing tired of sponsored beauty posts and are therefore engaging less with the content.

Meanwhile, sponsored fashion posts’ decrease in the average number of likes per post was down only -13% in Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024. And sponsored fashion posts actually saw a slight increase in the average number of comments per post, up +2% year over year.

The fashion category came in at No. 2 in last year’s index for the largest number of sponsored posts on Instagram, but the number of sponsored posts in this category was still much lower than the number of sponsored posts in the beauty category — 185 sponsored fashion posts vs. 561 sponsored beauty posts. This further lends itself to the idea that consumers could be feeling burned out on beauty content as opposed to content in fashion and other categories.

First-quarter data results in this year’s index showed year-over-year decreases in user engagement on influencers’ Instagram posts, which is a trend that will likely continue for the rest of the year. However, there are some strategies that marketers and influencers can lean on to protect themselves from that downward trend — a pressing issue for many brands as social media engagement is a way for brands to build brand awareness, and drive traffic and conversion among other metrics.

Another opportunity for marketers lies in the type of content that appears in sponsored posts. In Q1 2024, the most popular types of sponsored posts were makeup and skin-care GRWM videos (84,310 average likes per post), product launch teasers (75,242 average likes per post) and vlogs (55,876 average likes per post). However, in Q1 2025, those results changed slightly. Product launch teasers remained popular, with 152,037 average likes per post, making them the No. 1 content type in 2025. Meanwhile, professionally shot photographs and product demonstrations came in as the No. 2 and No. 3 most popular content styles, at 104,613 and 8,738 average likes per post, respectively.

Product demonstration videos were the most common type of content influencers uploaded in their sponsored posts in 2024, particularly demonstrations of beauty products, as noted in the first section of the index. While beauty product demonstration posts saw declining rates of engagement in 2024, this year, there is an opportunity for non-beauty brands to capitalize on the product demonstration trend. For example, a clothing brand could post a product demonstration video about the material used to make a garment rather than a styling video about how to wear the article of clothing.

Another trend that emerged in the first quarter of 2025 and that will likely carry through the remainder 2025 is the uptick in the number of influencers’ posts asking users to comment in order to receive something from the influencer, such as a product link or beauty regimen instructions.

These types of posts are distinctly separate from giveaways, and the strategy was successful for many influencers. Posts that featured this particular comment strategy in 2024 received, on average, 7,000 comments, or 15.6 times more comments than posts that did not use this strategy.

Influencer Glow With Ava was a strong user of this specific comment strategy in 2024. Several of her posts included messaging that asked her followers to comment with a single word in order to receive information. For example, “comment LINK for my video tutorial & ingredients,” she wrote in one post, which had 783,054 comments on it.

This comment strategy not only encourages users to engage with an influencer on a more personal level, but it also works with existing social media algorithms. The more comments a post receives, the more likely it is that Instagram will distribute the post to non-followers on their explore pages, boosting its overall views.