How the elections are shaping influencer marketing, from brand strategies to social media spending

“We’re vetting influencers more closely, as many brands prefer to steer clear of political conversations and, therefore, want to work with influencers whose content does not discuss politics,” said Sarah Gerrish, senior director of creator and influencer at Movers+Shakers. “On the other hand, some brands believe it’s important to engage in these conversations, opting to collaborate with influencers who are vocal about political issues.”

Growing creator political content and brand safety

Influencer marketing platform Collective Voice issued an influencer and brand strategies report this week that found 76% of consumers want election content from creators. Additionally, the survey noted that 46% of influencers are adjusting their content and partnership strategies around the election. On the follower side, 45% of consumers mentioned they are more likely to support influencers who align with their values, and 33% are more likely to buy promoted products from them.

“As affiliate strategies gain traction, we’re witnessing a shift where creators play a pivotal role,” said Clair Sidman, vp of marketing at Collective Voice. “Creators not only validate [return on investment], but also enhance brand visibility through significant earned media value.”

Paying attention to the timing of election posts will be key, noted Gerrish. “Political news will dominate social media during this time, so it’s crucial that our messaging doesn’t get overshadowed or lost in the noise,” Gerrish said. “Being mindful of when and how we share content ensures that our campaigns remain impactful without competing with the election’s intensity.”

Increasing engagement is one thing, but agencies say they also need to lock down brand safety measures this election season. While creator marketing company Open Influence is not currently posting political creator content, the firm is applying stricter measures around reviewing creators’ history of political content. They present this to clients as a matrix outlining a creator’s political stance, consistency of messaging and alignment with brand values, explained Diana Perlov, senior director of client success at Open Influence.

“This doesn’t mean avoiding creators who engage with political topics — it means gaining a comprehensive understanding of the frequency and tone of their political posts before partnering with them,” Perlov said.

Following the money

Around 61% of consumers noted an uptick in election-related content from their favorite creators, per Collective Voice. However, it remains unclear how much of this political or election-related content is contributing to shares of digital spending this election, which is expected to total a record $12 billion in ad spending this year.

Of that $12 billion, the social network political ad spend is a small but growing portion of the digital mix — which is expected to reach some $605 million, up 86.7% compared to 2020, according to eMarketer. Most of the social media investments will go to Meta platforms (mostly Facebook), which will total some $568 million.

It becomes complicated to break out influencer political spending from there, as some social media platforms, like TikTok, do not allow political advertising or monetization of it. CTV, for instance, and other non-social digital spending has actually grown far faster in the digital category, eMarketer noted.

Looking at Meta’s ad spending could shed some light. Perlov referred to numbers on the Meta Ad Library Report, showing that advertisers have spent some $92,778,561 on political, election or social issue ads on Meta based in the last 30 days.

“That is inclusive of all political content — not just creators — and it’s impossible to predict what portion of that does include creators,” Perlov said. “This is a tactic that has absolutely increased in the 2024 election as candidates seek to reach younger, digital-savvy voters.”

Gerrish agreed that measuring investment in political creators “remains a gray area,” particularly considering how they are compensated — if at all. For example, even though hundreds of creators were credentialed for the first time and attended the DNC, they were not necessarily paid for their posts, Gerrish explained. “Instead, the investment seemed to cover travel, accommodations, meals, events and other expenses,” she added.

Platform preferences and content types

Toward the end of the 2020 election cycle, it was clear that fatigue was setting in for social audiences, leading agencies and brands to be even more careful this time around. In 2020, some 55% of adults on social media said they were “worn out” by political posts and discussions — an 18% increase since Pew Research Center first began tracking it for the 2016 presidential election.

This year, it’s not just changes in the audience’s desire for political content — there is also a difference where this social content comes from, the length of it and the kinds of topics covered.

Influencer platform Captiv8 in an August study sampled 600 respondents across generational cohorts. It found Facebook was the favorite for consuming political news among boomers (48%), Gen X (38%) and millennials (28%) — while Instagram was the top platform for Gen Z (38%). Other platforms are growing in the political space. Reddit emerged as the preferred platform for politics for 8% of millennials, while TikTok was the preferred platform for 13% of Gen Z.

Because creators are also “everywhere” across different channels and different content formats, it is difficult to track spending and engagement, explained Krishna Subramanian, founder and CEO of Captiv8.

“I think Instagram is still going to be one of the strongest platforms where you expect to see consumption and interaction of content,” he told Digiday.

Captiv8 also found YouTube dominating in usage during election seasons, particularly in long-form content — with an added advantage of being backed by its owner Google’s search and recommendation algorithm. More than half of Gen Z follows political influencers or activists on social media, and 74% learn about elections and political policies through these platforms, per the report. Boomers and Gen X, however, are averse to political content on social media, with some 46% preferring non-political content as a break from election coverage.

Apart from platform choices, Subramanian acknowledged that the impact of influencers cannot be ignored in this election. 

“The one big piece is … no one’s really ever leaned into creators that aggressively,” Subramanian said. “It is across the entire span that people are going to be influenced by the people that they have emotional connections to — and you have to pay attention to that. It’s not just the celebrities or the digital creators, it’s everything in the middle, and I think that’s going to become more and more important.”