Influencer Marketing Statistics in Canada

Influencer marketing is still a relatively new concept. However, it is a concept that is growing fast in popularity and is regularly referred to in the mainstream media. It can be a useful tool for companies, but how exactly does influencer marketing work, how do companies use it, and how effective is it?

In this article, you will find key information on influencer marketing in Canada, including statistics on the most used platforms in influencer marketing, what influencers look for when choosing brands to collaborate with, and the value of influencer marketing. We will also explain what influencer marketing is, in case there are readers who are not yet fully familiar with this marketing style.

Influencer Marketing Statistics for Canadians

• Internet searches for influencer marketing have grown by 465% since 2016.
• Global market size for influencer marketing was expected to reach $16.4 billion in 2022.
• 75% of companies now have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing.
• 90% of brands and marketers believe influencer marketing to be effective.
• 89% of influencers will only represent brands whose products or services they like.
• 65% of social media influencers find the changing algorithms their biggest challenge.
• Facebook is the most popular social media platform in Canada.
• Instagram users post 100 million photos and videos every day.
• More than 7 million social media posts per year now include sponsored content on Instagram.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Since there are still people and brands who are not entirely familiar with influencer marketing, we will share key points of this style of marketing first. If you are already familiar with the concept, you will find the statistics a little later in the article.

Influencer marketing can be said to be a hybrid of traditional and new marketing tools. It has taken the idea of using celebrities to endorse products or services and transferred it into content-focused marketing campaigns on social media.

There are some differences between traditional and influencer marketing such as the results of marketing campaigns on social media are usually collaborations between influencers and brands. Another difference is that more often than using celebrities, brands will collaborate with popular social media accounts. The people behind these accounts are known as influencers.

What is An Influencer?

An influencer is someone who can influence other people’s purchasing decisions because of their relationship with their audience or because of their position or knowledge of a certain concept or product.

Influencers generally have a dedicated following in their niche, and they engage actively with their audience. They usually have put a lot of effort into building their social media following and it is not a coincidence that their audience follows them instead of a particular brand.

What do Influencer Marketers Need to Understand?

When a brand wants to collaborate with an influencer, they need to understand that the audience cares more about the person they follow than they do about the brand. The audience also cares a lot more about the opinion of the influencer than what the brand has to say about its product or service. Marketers should not try to impose their business practices or rules on the influencers who have carefully created their brands on social media.

Who Can Be an Influencer?

Anyone who works hard to create a presence on social media can potentially be an influencer. What makes them influential is their dedicated followers who trust what the influencer recommends.

While some influencers in certain niches can have hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions of followers, most will have far less. However, research has found that people are more likely to be persuaded by these influencers than celebrity endorsements.

What Not to Expect From Influencers

Brands that are looking to use influencer marketing should do their research and only approach influencers they think would genuinely be the right representative for their product. Most people who have built their brand on social media are protective of their reputation and aware that their followers trust them and expect them to be genuine in their recommendations. Do not expect them to represent a brand simply for the money, although of course, those influencers exist, too.

Statistics on Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has seen a huge increase in popularity in recent years. The number of times people searched the term influencer marketing on Google has increased by 465% since 2016. Some people searching for the term are people looking to become influencers, while others are brands who would like to harness the power of influencer marketing to raise brand awareness and sell their products.

Global Influencer Marketing Continues to Grow

The growth of influencer marketing was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While in 2016, the market size of influencer marketing was a mere $1.7 billion, by 2020 it had grown to $9.7 billion. The market continued to expand and reached approximately $21.1 billion in 2023, surpassing earlier forecasts. By 2026, the global influencer marketing market is projected to exceed $30 billion, reflecting sustained growth as brands increasingly allocate marketing budgets to creator-led campaigns.

The Number of Platforms And Agencies Focused on Influencer Marketing Doubled in Two Years

A sure sign that influencer marketing is now mainstream is the number of platforms and agencies that focus on influencer marketing. They offer brand services where they search and select suitable influencers for them. In the last twelve months, 240 influencer marketing-focused agencies and platforms opened and 380 entered the market the previous year.

How Much Do Businesses Earn From Influencer Marketing?

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, businesses earn an average of $5.20 in earned media value for every $1 spent on influencer marketing (2023 data). While some companies see significantly higher returns, a substantial proportion of marketers report mixed results, with around 25% of businesses either breaking even or failing to see a positive return on investment.

¾ of Companies Budget For Influencer Marketing

Around 80% of companies report having a dedicated budget for influencer marketing (2024 data). This represents a continued increase compared to 2017, when only 37% of companies had an influencer marketing budget.

In addition, most companies are still looking to increase their spending on influencer marketing. Approximately 60% of companies with an existing influencer budget planned to increase it in 2024, while only a small minority said they were decreasing their influencer marketing spend or moving away from it altogether.

How do Marketers Judge Influencer Marketing?

It is clear that brands and marketers find influencer marketing effective. This has led to an ongoing increase in content creation. In 2024, around 89% of brands and marketers say that influencer marketing is an effective strategy, which is broadly in line with levels reported since 2017.

This consistency suggests that confidence in influencer marketing has remained high over time, even as platforms, formats, and measurement methods have evolved.

Influencers With Fewer Followers Get More Engagement

It is interesting to note that influencers with fewer followers have higher engagement rates than those with over 100,000 followers. This could benefit smaller brands with less money to spend on influencer marketing. Getting an influencer with fewer, but more dedicated followers can produce the same results as signing a more popular account with less active or dedicated followers.

On Instagram, influencers who have under 1,000 followers get a 7.2% engagement rate. On TikTok, the rate is 9.38%, and 1.4% on Twitter. Influencers with over 100,000 followers get a 1.1% engagement rate on Instagram, 0.3% on Twitter, and 5.3% on TikTok.

How Much Do Influencers Charge?

How much an influencer will charge to post sponsored content varies greatly, with some doing it for a few dollars while others ask for over $1 million. What brands can expect to spend on influencer marketing depends on various factors including which platform they use, how many followers the influencer has, the industry of the brand, and the type of content they want. For example, reels will cost the brand more than a simple photo post.

How do Influencers Choose Who to Work With?

Seeing that influencers have built their brand carefully, it is hardly surprising that the most important criterion for influencers when entering a partnership with a company is liking the product or service. 89% of influencers will only work with companies whose products they genuinely like.

88% of the influencers only represent brands whose values align with their own.  78% will only work with companies that let them have complete creative freedom on the posts they publish on their social media accounts.

Challenges For Influencers

There are some challenges that influencer marketing faces on social media. The biggest challenge is the changing algorithms, with 65% of influencers stating this was their biggest challenge. Another major issue is proving return on investment (ROI) to brands, with many influencers reporting that it can be challenging to demonstrate measurable results. Increased competition and market saturation have also made it harder for influencers to grow their audiences and secure paid partnerships.

Use of Social Media in Canada

When a brand is looking to use influencer marketing, choosing the right platform is important. In early 2025, there were about 31.7 million active social media user identities in Canada, equivalent to roughly 79.4 % of the total population, showing Canada remains highly connected. 

Facebook is still the most popular social media platform in Canada, with approximately 32.3 million users in early 2025 (about 81.9 % of the population). Instagram follows with about 20.2 million users, or roughly 51 % of the population, while TikTok usage is also substantial (around 41 % of the population) according to broader platform reach estimates.

YouTube remains among the top platforms, reaching an estimated 79.4 % of Canadians, while other platforms such as X (17 % weekly use) and TikTok (about 18 % weekly use) are also important parts of the social landscape. 

Instagram Influencer Insights

While there are influencers on all social media platforms including TikTok and YouTube, and while Facebook is the most popular social media platform, for many people social media influencers are synonymous with Instagram. As of 2024, Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, reflecting continued growth in its global reach. More than 500 million people still use Instagram Stories every day, reinforcing its importance for influencer-led content and brand engagement.

Instagram Users Post 100 Million Photos And Videos Per Day

Instagram has continued to grow in recent years. As of 2024, users post over 100 million photos and videos per day, reflecting increased activity driven by short-form video content. Daily interactions exceed 4.5 billion across posts, showing sustained high engagement on the platform.

The composition of content has shifted, with video content, driven by reels, now accounting for a significantly larger share of posts, while photos and carousel posts make up a smaller proportion than in previous years. 

Spending on Instagram Influencer Marketing

Since Instagram has continued to grow its user base, brands have further increased their spending on Instagram influencers. By 2024, Instagram had overtaken other platforms to become the most used channel for influencer marketing globally, with around 57–60% of marketers using it, according to more recent influencer marketing surveys.

Global spending on Instagram influencer marketing is estimated to exceed US$10 billion annually, and it will account for the largest share of total influencer marketing spend, with brands prioritising reels, stories, and in-feed collaborations to reach highly engaged audiences.

Conclusion

Despite being a relatively new form of marketing, influencer marketing has continued to grow rapidly, with around three-quarters of companies now maintaining a dedicated influencer marketing budget. Brands looking to collaborate with influencers should also be aware that almost 90% of influencers prefer to work only with brands whose products or services they genuinely like, making authenticity increasingly important.

While influencers with the largest audiences can charge six-figure or even seven-figure sums in certain industries, influencer marketing remains accessible to smaller brands, as many micro- and nano-influencers charge relatively modest fees per post. With around 90% of marketers continuing to view influencer marketing as effective and well over 7 million sponsored posts now appearing on Instagram each year, competition for audience attention is intense, reinforcing the need for strategic partnerships and high-quality content.