Vendor reportKantar, 2026

Almost 40% of consumers trust micro-community recommendations as much as personal ones

Shortlisting creators

~40%

of consumers trust micro-community recommendations as much as recommendations from personal contacts

Reader Note:: Unlike the other figures in Marketing Trends 2026, this one is printed without a named Kantar dataset beside it — it sits in the same paragraph as the China ROI figure, which is attributed to the LIFT ROI database, but the attribution does not clearly cover it. Treat the provenance as unconfirmed. Marketing Trends is a curated digest with no sample size, fieldwork date or question wording published for any of its figures.
Evidence:: Stated intention
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Not disclosed

Good for

Getting a rough orientation, and deciding what to check yourself.

Not for

Predicting what people will actually do. Intentions and behaviour come apart.
The source never says how this number was measured.
The source never says how big its sample was or what went into it.
The source never says when this data was collected. It could be considerably older than the publication date suggests.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.

Influencer selection is mainly based on engagement rate and audience demographics (94% and 88%), with only 25% using social listening on what consumers discuss

Share of marketers using each data input to select influencers, and what it measures
Data input	Usage (%)
Engagement rate (Influencer output)	94%
Audience demographics (age, gender, location) — Influencer audience	88%
Past campaign performance data (Influencer track record)	81%
Audience interest / affinity data (Influencer audience)	78%
Follower count and reach metrics (Influencer scale)	72%

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Sponsored posts got more engagement when influencers had either very low or very high ad loads, and did worst in the middle

In creator selection, brand fit mattered most and follower count mattered least

Most Important Factor Brands Use When Selecting New Creators to Work With
Selection factor	Brands (%)
Creator suitability or fit for brand	22%
Content performance	17%
Working with a diverse group of creators	14%
Brand affinity, or a history of posting about your client	12%
Follower audience demographics	10%

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Fixing your influencer marketing campaign: How to get into the top 10% of advertisers

1.95x

higher conversion odds came with stronger creator audience-brand fit in influencer marketing campaigns

People were about twice as likely to share the sponsored Instagram post when the influencer had low or high ad load instead of a middle one

89%

of marketers do not plan to work with virtual influencers AI avatars or digital clones of creators in 2026

Almost 40% of consumers trust micro-community recommendations as much as personal ones

Good for

Not for

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