Influencer marketing is a brand paying creators to reach their audiences, instead of buying that attention directly through advertising.
What a brand actually buys is borrowed trust. The same claim carries differently from a person the audience chose to follow than from an advertisement they did not — which is why the format survives despite being more expensive per impression than paid media.
That premium is only justified when the fit is real. An audience that follows someone for one subject does not transfer its trust to an unrelated product, and the mismatch is obvious to everyone except the parties who signed.
Measurement is the chronic weakness. Discount codes and dedicated links capture a fraction of the effect, because much of it arrives later and through other channels, so campaigns are frequently judged by the part that is easiest to count.
In practice
Fifteen creators in one niche usually outperform one large general account on the same budget, and produce fifteen versions of the message to learn from.
Common mistake
Judging a campaign only on same-week code redemptions. Most of the effect arrives after the tracking window closes.
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