Influence Marketing

In Russia

2024: The volume of the Russian influence marketing market grew by 37% over the year and reached ₽42 billion

According to the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA), the volume of the influence marketing market in Russia reached ₽42 billion in 2024, an increase of 37% compared to the previous year. TAdviser got acquainted with such data in January 2025.

According to TASS, market growth by 37% compared to 2023 exceeded the original forecasts of the ABA. The total market volume was 4-5% higher than expected.

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Фото: Freepik

Significant growth is due to the development of Russian video platforms. Rutube video hosting increased its audience by 40%, reaching 65-70 million visitors per month against 40 million in 2023, mainly due to the placement of entertainment content - films, TV shows and other materials that attracted a new audience.

The vertical video segment received significant development after the departure of major foreign players. Domestic services Yappy and "VK clips" significantly expanded the audience, and new platforms Nuum and Looky reached an indicator of 2 million active users each, creating additional opportunities for posting advertising content.

According to the Association of Bloggers and Agencies, more than 70% of influence marketing market participants increased their staff in 2024. The industry has a significant influx of new advertisers - 41% of companies first turned to blogger services, which indicates the growing interest of the business in this promotion channel.

The development of domestic platforms and the expansion of their audience created additional opportunities for advertising, which attracted new investments by advertisers in influencer marketing. The growth of the vertical video segment contributed to the emergence of new formats for interacting with the audience and diversifying advertising tools.^[1]

2017: Influence Marketing in Digital

According to the IAB Russia Committee on Influence Marketing, influence marketing in digital is showing impressive growth. In the Influence Marketing White Paper published in December 2017, the committee gives a complete description of the existing ecosystem of the influence marketing market in Russia.

The integration of advertising messages into popular content attracts advertisers and opens up a lot of opportunities for them, but the segment itself as part of the advertising industry is still in formation and is experiencing certain "growth problems." IAB Russia experts noted the lack of so far generally accepted terminology and metrics for assessing the effectiveness of work on the market. In a situation where advertisers do not understand the rules of pricing, positioning players in the market and the mechanics of managing campaigns, the risks of stopping advertising campaigns and stopping cooperation grow.

The Influence Marketing market ecosystem is formed by production companies, specialized agencies, blogger exchanges, seeding systems and platforms. The product line can be determined based on the types of services, the exclusivity of the brand's presence and the tasks being solved. In mandatory metrics, metrics are allocated for Youtube - for the placement presale and for the report; for Instagram - metrics for presale placement and reporting by format photo posts, video posts, stories.

Advertisers often approach the issue of advertising with bloggers as media placements, without taking into account the specifics of this channel. Especially large advertisers who seek to impose their guides invented for traditional advertising on a blogger "sin," ultimatedly intervene in the creative, at the output receiving material that is not organic for a specific person. The "nativity" is reduced and, as a result, the audience's confidence in such advertising, and bloggers receive negative reviews from their subscribers. This is only one of the main risks - "ideological." But he is the most frequent cause of conflict situations, - said Yevgeny Safonov, chairman of the IAB Russia committee on Influence Marketing, a group of digital companies Happy Monday Family. - Other risks arise from insufficient experience and understanding of specifics. As a result, everyone suffers: the advertiser, the blogger, and the market as a whole. The presence of a specialized agency in the process reduces these risks. The agency in this case acts as a "buffer" between the parties and is the force that can lead the parties to compromise. With the help of the Influence marketing committee at IAB, we want to tell advertisers how to properly and productively work with this channel so that all market participants are comfortable and the market is growing.

According to Safonov, there are three main trends in total: the consolidation of content makers into production centers, the oversaturation of demand in the market of top bloggers, the gradual expansion of the audience due to traditional and offline channels.

Hybrid-type agencies appear, combining the functions of content production and advertising sales. The demand in the segment of top bloggers is oversaturated, we can expect that budgets will go to the segment of small bloggers with whom work is almost not carried out. Bloggers will become even more "media," there will be more "contract" stories when the blogger will cooperate with advertisers not only within his channels, but also participate in other activations of online and offline brands. This, in turn, will attract media budgets to the market, and we will increasingly see "blogging" content in traditional online advertising channels, the expert noted.

It is also expected to strengthen positions in the field of Influence marketing of social networks in addition to Youtube and Instagram.

It is necessary to standardize pricing policy in order to take into account the interests of both clients and bloggers, as well as all intermediaries. Blogging agencies, in addition to the service itself, have other advantages: bloggers' control in terms of timing, transparency and legality of the transaction, correctness of reporting the advertiser's brand value to the blogger, can give their expert assessment and guarantee a high-quality selection of bloggers for your advertising campaign, - said Yaroslav Andreev, CEO of the blogging agency WildJam. - In the future, the number of bloggers who work on their own will decrease. - There will be more blogging agencies and blogger aggregator platforms, more transparent work with commissions and prices for bloggers. The number of production centers creating new bloggers will increase, blogging agencies will increasingly resemble record labels, and bloggers will become not only opinion leaders, but also celebrities in the traditional sense.

Chronicle

2024: Influence Marketing 2.0: Building Long-Term Partnerships Instead of One-Time Collaborations

Sergey Kosenko is a pioneer of an innovative approach to influencer marketing, known for his ability to transform short-term collaborations into strategic long-term partnerships. Since 2023, he has radically rethought the interaction of brands and thought leaders, creating a number of cases that have become benchmarks in the industry. His unique experience with micro-, macro- and mega-influencers allowed the development of a methodology that maximizes the authenticity and effectiveness of campaigns. Read more here.

2023: Key success strategies in short and long video for creators and influencers

In today's digital space, creators and influencers face ever-changing trends and forms of content consumption. One of the key aspects of their success is choosing the right video format and developing effective strategies to attract and retain audiences. Understanding the intricacies of short and long videos allows you to create content that not only attracts attention, but also establishes a deep connection with the audience. Read more here.

2022: Rise and fall of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has become one of the hottest trends in the marketing industry in recent years. In this article, we will look at how the state of influencer marketing has changed and what challenges and potential problems arise from the use of influencers. Read more here.

See also

• Advertising (Russian market)
• Online advertising (Russian market)
• PR agencies (Russian market)
• Advertising (Global Market)
• Online Advertising (US Market)
• Online Advertising (European Market)
• Video advertising on the Internet (Russian market)
• What can not be advertised on the Internet

• B2B-marketing
• Marketing Technology (Global Market)
• Conducting Market Research
• What market research is needed for
• Market Research Types

Notes