Planning your company’s 2025 budget? If the influencer marketing part of your budget is the same or less than in 2024, this is your sign to change your plans.
Let’s talk about increasing your influencer marketing budget. Sure, it may feel scary to spend big. But the thing is, influencer marketing is an investment, not just something you spend on with no return. Here’s why it pays to invest more in influencer marketing…
1. The influencer marketing industry is growing at a ridiculous rate.
Ridiculously good that is. In 2016, the industry was worth $1.6 billion, which sounds like a lot until you realize the industry will reach $24 billion by the end of 2024. It was $21.1 billion in 2023, meaning the size of its growth in the past year is more than the size the entire industry used to be. It’s safe to say that influencer marketing will keep growing in 2025.
This growth is happening for a reason. And that’s because traditional ads just don’t have the same effect as creator content. People love looking at their favorite fun content online, and they don’t love ads. So if your brand is incorporated into content people love looking at, they’ll be more likely to pay attention and have a positive opinion of your brand.
2. Creator rates are getting higher.
Since more and more brands want to use influencer marketing, rates are naturally going up. Influencers are content creators who spend time and effort on their content, and they want to make sure they’re getting a fair amount of pay in return.
When you reach out to a creator for a collab opportunity, other brands may be reaching out to them too. This is especially true for creators with a large following and high engagement rate. If the amount you’re offering is low compared to other brands, the creator may not say yes. A bigger influencer marketing budget helps you make better offers so you can bring on creators you’re excited to work with.
3. There are fewer opportunities for gifted collabs.
You may be wondering why you should increase your influencer marketing budget when you can save money by compensating influencers with free products instead of paying money. The answer is that using gifted products as compensation is less popular these days. Most creators expect to get paid.
There are still some creators willing to do gifted product collabs, so gifting can be a piece of your influencer marketing strategy. But most of your strategy should be about paid collabs. That’s why increasing your influencer marketing budget is a nice idea.
4. You’ll be able to buy exclusivity rights.
When you’re setting your influencer marketing budget, make sure it’s high enough to cover the cost of exclusivity rights. Exclusivity rights are something a growing number of creators are asking for, and these rights cost money… but they’re worth the price.
Many creators are creating content as their full-time job. Since it’s their only source of income, they need to do a lot of collabs to earn enough income. If you collab with a creator and you don’t have exclusivity rights, that creator could soon do a collab with another brand in your industry, making some in their audience think the other brand is better. Getting exclusivity rights prevents this situation, so be sure to increase your influencer marketing budget to account for it.
5. Investing in tools can make your campaigns more effective.
Your influencer marketing budget isn’t just about investing in influencers. It’s also about the tools you need to protect that investment. This means investing in data and analytics software for example. Having strong data analytics tools can help you see your campaign data in real time so you can adjust as needed for maximum impact.
6. You’ll be able to make long-term contracts with influencers.
Working with influencers long-term is a smarter investment than working with influencers just for one-off campaigns. When the same influencer promotes your brand multiple times over a period of time, their audience is more likely to remember your brand. They’ll also find it easier to trust your brand since they’re seeing that the influencer keeps using your products over and over.
Plus, when you work with an influencer long-term, they’ll get used to working with you and you’ll be able to communicate and collaborate well. They’ll feel valued by you and will be motivated to do their best work. Having long-term relationships with influencers is the way to go, and raising your influencer marketing budget is a must to cover those long-term contracts.
7. You’ll be able to work with a larger number of influencers.
When you have a bigger influencer marketing budget, you can work with more creators and make more content. Your ideal customers are constantly surrounded by a flood of online content, so if you only work with a small number of creators – even if those creators are top-notch – there’s still so much other content out there that gets in the way of your brand’s content.
Quality is more important than quantity, but quantity ain’t a bad thing to have either. The more creators you work with, the more content gets out there promoting you, giving you a bigger reach. It also means there’s a higher chance of at least one of those content pieces going viral. That’s why it makes so much sense to increase your influencer marketing budget.
8. Higher pay means more elaborate, high-quality content.
One thing to keep in mind with your budget is the type of content you’d want creators to make. For example, would you want an Instagram story about your product, or a 30-second promo in the middle of a YouTube video? The story will disappear in 24 hours, but the YouTube promo can be seen by people months or even years after the video is published. And with 30 seconds, there’s more time for the creator to go into detail about your product. That’s clearly the better option, but it’s a higher investment.
Also, think about the investments creators have to make to create good content. They may invest in an expensive camera and lighting or sophisticated video editing software. Plus, they may have people assisting them, and those people have to get paid. Influencers need to pay for these things that help them create better content, so that factors into their rates. If you want higher quality content, you’ll have to increase your influencer marketing budget.
9. You’ll boost your brand awareness and reputation.
Once you’ve created a larger number of influencer campaigns with more elaborate, high-quality content, more people will know your brand exists and will respect it. High-quality content sticks in people’s minds and makes an impact. So when there’s a lot of high-quality content associated with your brand, it creates a vibe that people remember.
Keep in mind that this only works if you’re careful about the influencers you work with. You have to work with people who truly “get” your brand and are a natural fit. These are the influencers who will elevate your brand reputation and create that vibe in people’s minds. With a bigger influencer marketing budget, you can make this happen faster.
10. What happens if you don’t increase your budget?
If you don’t increase your influencer marketing budget, you’ll have to rely more on traditional ads. But people are always looking for ways to skip over traditional ads. After all, it gets tiring to constantly hear companies preach about their products.
You could use your small budget to do some collabs, but you’ll be very limited in the types of influencers you can work with and the reach your campaigns will have. You may have to work with influencers you’re not enthusiastic about just because they happen to fit your budget. You’re going to have to cut corners here and there, making it frustratingly hard to get an ROI. Ironically, not increasing your budget can have a higher cost than increasing it.
Key takeaway: Increasing your influencer marketing budget is an investment that can seriously pay off.
If you haven’t already stopped in the middle of this blog post to edit your budget, feel free to do so now. With the influencer marketing industry continuing to grow in 2025, your budget should too. There are plenty of perks to having more money for your campaigns!
Influencer marketing is here to stay, and to take advantage of it, you have to make it a priority in the new year. So go ahead and invest big. If you do it strategically, you’ll be more than happy you did.
