The Strategic Turning Point: 2025 State of Influencer Marketing

How systematic influencer programs create competitive advantages

Influencer marketing didn’t just grow up in 2025—it became core brand infrastructure. The gap between leaders and laggards widened, and brands who treated influencer marketing as a system pulled ahead with measurable performance advantages. 

This comprehensive report examines how 214 U.S. marketers transformed creator partnerships into scalable, systematic programs that deliver sustained results.

Based on research conducted in partnership with Centiment, this report provides a roadmap for refining priorities, implementing proven frameworks, and building the infrastructure that secures long-term impact in a rapidly maturing industry.

Key findings:

• 61% of brands elevated influencer marketing to strategic infrastructure status

• 92% adoption of AI showed the shift from manual experimentation to systematic excellence

• 70% of leaders transformed creator relationships into ongoing partnerships

• 22% of brands cited UGC and affiliate programs as their top-performing tactics

What you’ll learn 

• Investment priorities: How leading brands committed resources in ways that elevated influencer marketing from experimentation to infrastructure

• AI enablement: How technology transformed manual processes into operational excellence and performance intelligence

• Relationship-focused systems: Why long-term creator partnerships compounded results beyond campaign-by-campaign wins

• Platform diversification: Why spreading focus across multiple platforms created resilience and precision at scale

• The five-pillar framework: How these practices connect into a repeatable system that creates lasting competitive advantages