Strike Overview
- Brands utilizing influencer-driven campaigns can achieve up to 18x ROI for every dollar spent, but this doesn’t happen just by launching a campaign or boosting a sponsored post. Knowing the preferred social media platform for brands and agencies is one of the first steps.
- On Instagram alone, there are already about 10 million influencers you can connect with. But will your brand effectively reach its audience there, or would working with a YouTube or TikTok influencer be a better option?
- Influencer marketing thrives on platforms that offer high engagement and authenticity, but choosing the right one depends on audience reach, creative formats, and cost efficiency.
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The Go-To Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing Agencies
Collaborating with a top-tier social media influencer not only reduces the workload on your creative team but also enhances brand authenticity. Utilizing user-generated content (UGC) creates a more natural and relatable ad experience, making your campaigns more engaging to your audiences.
Currently, there are over 12 million U.S. influencers across all social media platforms. Yet the real question is: Which influencer marketing platform delivers the best results when integrated into paid ads, and where do they perform best? From audience reach to ROI, several factors determine whether TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube is the ideal choice for your influencer marketing campaigns.
Top Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing
The competition between TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram is fierce when it comes to video advertising and audience reach. YouTube leads with over 250 million users, followed by Instagram at 138.5 million.
However, TikTok is not to be overlooked. The app saw a surge of 88.3% user growth in 2019 and continues to grow by 2.2%–2.4% annually through 2029.
But does a platform’s user base directly translate to its effectiveness for influencer marketing? Let’s take a closer look at the different platforms and how influencer marketing agencies maximize them:
TikTok
While many assume the platform caters only to younger users, our campaign data tells a different story. Despite the majority of U.S. TikTok users being under 30, our data reveals up to 37% CPM efficiency even among audiences aged 55 and up—demonstrating TikTok’s versatility in reaching diverse audiences.
So, how does this well-rounded strategy position TikTok as an influencer marketing platform worth considering?
Promoting your Brand with TikTok Influencers
Influencer marketing agencies choose TikTok for its ability to drive high engagement through viral, short-form videos. Its algorithm naturally amplifies content, enabling brands to reach wider audiences without relying solely on paid media.
Spark Ads further enhances this by boosting organic influencer content, allowing brands to connect authentically with target audiences through established influencer communities.
- Authentic and Relatable Content: TikTok thrives on raw, unfiltered content that feels genuine, bringing authenticity to each video. This “in-the-moment” vibe resonates with users across age groups, making influencer recommendations feel more like advice from a friend than a corporate pitch.
- Cross-Generational Appeal: Though TikTok’s user base skews younger, influencer marketing remains highly effective across all age groups. Audiences aged 55+ have an average engagement rate of 7.3%, surpassing the 5.3% average for younger users. This indicates that while they may be fewer in number, older users demonstrate higher intent and engagement on the platform.
From Gen Z creators to senior influencers, TikTok offers brands a wide range of niche communities to tap into.
- Innovative Content Formats: TikTok offers unique content formats that amplify influencer campaigns:
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: Brands partner with influencers to create viral trends, increasing user participation.
HP’s #HPRadicalReuse campaign, featuring creators like @dreaknowsbest and @alisonsadventures, achieved an 18% engagement rate, with over 4 million video views from Spark Ads alone. - Interactive Add-Ons: In addition to promoting video ads, you can make them more engaging by adding interactive features such as gestures, gift code stickers, and pop-out showcases.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges: Brands partner with influencers to create viral trends, increasing user participation.
Further Reading
Activating Authorization Code for TikTok Spark Ads
TikTok’s Spark Ads simplify collaboration with influencers, making it easier to boost their content. With just a few quick steps, you and your chosen content creator can activate a sponsored post and seamlessly launch a successful influencer marketing campaign.
Keep in mind that TikTok is just the first social media advertising platform in this discussion. While we see how it excels in both video advertising and influencer marketing, how do Instagram and YouTube compare?
As Meta continues evolving Instagram into a video-first platform, it has become a top alternative to TikTok—especially during discussions of a potential TikTok ban. When advertisers explored shifting TikTok campaigns to Instagram Reels, it reinforced Instagram’s position as one of the top choices for influencer marketing agencies.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Instagram Influencer Advertising
Instagram is home to over 10 million influencers in the U.S., accounting for 9.8% of its users. With such a vast creator ecosystem, brands have plenty of opportunities to collaborate with influencers across various niches.
Understanding Influencer Tiers
Instagram offers a broad spectrum of influencers, from small, niche-focused creators to mega influencers with massive reach.
More followers don’t always mean better results—nano-influencers often have the highest engagement rates due to their highly engaged, niche communities, making them a strong choice for influencer-driven ads.
| Influencer Tier | Reach | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Nano | 1,000-10,000 followers | $10 – $100 per post |
| Micro | 10,000-50,000 followers | $110 – $500 per post |
| Mid | 50,000-500,000 followers | $500 – $5,000 per post |
| Macro | 500,000-1,000,000 followers | $5,000 – $10,000 per post |
| Mega | 1,000,000+ followers | $10,000+ per post |
Visual Storytelling
Instagram is inherently a visual-first platform, making it ideal for brands that rely on aesthetics and storytelling to connect with audiences. Its various ad formats cater to different marketing objectives:
- Reels: Short-form videos optimized for discoverability and engagement. Influencer-driven Reels see engagement rates of up to 2.08%, outperforming the 1.8% average for regular Reels and other content types.
- Stories: Ephemeral content perfect for real-time updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or limited-time offers. Stories ads can boost reach by 35%, particularly for small brands looking to expand their audience.
- Carousel: Multi-image posts designed to encourage user interaction by swiping through content, making them ideal for detailed storytelling or showcasing multiple products. As a prominent ad format on both Facebook and Instagram, Carousel ads have proven effective—helping a luxury watch brand drive up to 56% of landing page views in a traffic campaign.
Meta’s Stability and Instagram’s Longevity
As part of Meta’s advertising network, Instagram remains a dominant force in social media advertising–and it’s here to stay.
Meta’s resilience in the stock market reinforces its position as a leading platform, and with 47% of brands using Instagram for influencer marketing, its relevance will persist—especially as uncertainty around a potential U.S. TikTok ban continues to impact advertiser decisions.
Is Instagram more effective for influencer advertising than TikTok? The answer depends on campaign goals, target demographics, and engagement strategy. But before drawing conclusions, let’s analyze yet another major influencer marketing platform—YouTube.
YouTube
While YouTube might appear last on this list, its engagement, effectiveness, and video advertising impact are anything but last place. Known for brand awareness campaigns, YouTube is also a high-performing platform for action and conversion-driven marketing.
Why YouTube Influencer Marketing Works
YouTube’s advantages for influencer marketing agencies are strongly tied to its ability to deliver detailed, engaging, and authentic content—whether in short form or long form. Discover why you should consider YouTube for your social media influencer campaigns:
Long-Form Content for In-Depth Storytelling
YouTube stands out in influencer marketing for its ability to host extended video content, making it ideal for detailed product showcases and tutorials:
- Detailed Product Reviews: YouTube influencers spend 10–15 minutes (or longer) discussing a product’s features, benefits, and real-world applications, making it the top choice among U.S. consumers for product reviews and information.
- Step-by-Step Tutorials: 64% of viewers have reported making a purchase after watching an explainer video. And because there’s (basically) no length limit to the videos a YouTube content creator can create, they can go into detail on product tutorials, allowing viewers to understand better what they are recommending.
Full-Funnel Marketing Capabilities
YouTube also plays a crucial role in performance-driven marketing, helping brands achieve action-based results such as lead generation, website traffic, and direct sales.
- Action Campaigns: YouTube influencers excel in driving video views and audience engagement, with the help of Video Views Campaigns. The U.S. leads in YouTube influencer engagement with 28.4 billion interactions, and click-through rates peak during high-traffic ad seasons like Q4.
- Driving Conversions: From Strike Social’s data, a family entertainment brand achieved a 7.8x ROAS by using YouTube ads to drive in-store visits. Additionally, influencer-driven YouTube campaigns have been shown to generate up to 10 times higher conversion rates than organic traffic alone.
Trusted by Audiences
98% of online users trust recommendations from YouTube influencers—more than any other social media platform.
A strong example is MAC Cosmetics, which partnered with beauty content creators Ankita Chaturvedi and Naina Bhan for their YouTube Video Reach Campaigns. With the help of YouTube Shorts, their campaign achieved:
- 66% lower cost per view (CPV)
- 2.5x higher view-through rates than their standard YouTube ads
Further Reading
Driving Conversions with YouTube Influencer Advertising
Don’t let assumptions about high costs and large ad budgets deter you from considering YouTube influencers for your campaigns. Collaborating with YouTube creators could be the key to fully integrating your ad funnel into this video-centric platform.
Now that you have a clear understanding of how these social media influencer platforms work and how you can collaborate with content creators for brand campaigns, it’s time to assess your options. While these major platforms are the top choices for influencer marketing agencies, the right fit depends on various criteria that require careful evaluation.
Why Influencer Marketing Agencies Choose These Social Media Platforms
Influencer marketing agencies select TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube based on their unique strengths in audience engagement, creative content, placement strategies, and cost efficiency. Below is a condensed overview of each platform’s advantages:
| Platform | Audience | Creative Strengths | Placement Options | Cost Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Heavily dominated by Gen Z and younger Millennials. Ideal for trend-driven campaigns. | Short-form, viral content, influencer trends | Spark Ads on For You Feed, Profile Feed, TopView | Lower CPMs, cost-effective engagement |
| Maintains a balanced demographic reach, with strong engagement across all age groups. | Thrives on high-quality visuals and immersive storytelling via Reels and Stories | Partnership Ads on Reels, Stories, in-feed posts, carousel ads | Higher CPM than TikTok, strong engagement & conversions | |
| YouTube | Relatively even audience distribution across all age groups. Effective platform for reaching a wide demographic, from younger audiences to Baby Boomers. | Long-form storytelling, product reviews, in-depth influencer content | In-stream via Video Reach, Video View Campaigns; Shorts; Demand Gen | Higher CPM, but strong ROAS & conversions |
Each social media platform has unique strengths that can enhance your influencer marketing campaigns. By aligning your campaign goals with the criteria outlined here, you can determine the best platform for your strategy.
Beyond platform selection, the influencer’s existing community is another critical factor. For example, if your brand performs well on TikTok but the influencer you’re targeting has stronger reach and engagement on YouTube, shifting your ad spend may be more effective. Likewise, if a YouTube influencer’s rates are too high, exploring Instagram influencers could deliver better results at a lower cost.
While each platform has its pros and cons, Strike Social’s data shows that a multi-platform influencer campaign can drive strong results while maintaining cost efficiency.
Case Study:
A leading CPG brand partnered with Strike Social to drive high-quality traffic and engagement through influencer marketing across TikTok and Instagram while maintaining cost efficiency.
By aligning influencer-driven content with key audiences—homemakers, food enthusiasts, and younger consumers—the campaign achieved 43.2% cost efficiency, with Meta (Facebook and Instagram) contributing to 70% lower CPLC on Meta placements.
Further, capitalizing on the platform’s strength in interactive, trend-based engagement, 61% total engagements were driven by TikTok influencer ads.
Connecting with More Engaged Audiences with Influencer Marketing
Choosing the right social media platform for your influencer marketing campaign is a crucial step in effectively promoting your brand. Each platform offers distinct advantages based on your goals, target audience, and budget—and when combined strategically, they can deliver even stronger performance and cost efficiency.
However, these platforms are just the mediums. Success in influencer marketing depends on aligning with the right audience, budget strategy, and content approach. Whether partnering with Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok influencers, integrating influencer marketing into your paid social strategy is now essential.
Ready to launch your influencer campaign? Contact our team for a personalized walkthrough on how we can activate and manage your influencer ads.
Article by
Lee Baler, Strike Social’s VP of Sales & Strategy
Lee leads global strategy, helping clients and agencies maximize YouTube and paid social performance. Constantly tracking industry trends, he translates insights into strategies that help brands stay competitive and achieve sustained profitability.
