influencer marketing · strategy
What Are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Influencer Marketing
A plain look at what influencer marketing gives you and what it costs you, backed by our own deal data.
The benefits of influencer marketing are borrowed trust and tight targeting, the drawbacks are fraud and slow proof, and the deciding factor is who you pick.
Most brands ask the wrong first question. They ask how much it costs, when they should ask whether the channel fits them at all.
Across our database we track 165,807 YouTube creators and 593,557 sponsored deals from 75,262 brands, so we can show you both sides with numbers instead of opinions.
1. The short version
Influencer marketing works when a trusted person vouches for you, and it fails when you pay for an audience that is not really watching.
The good part is that a creator brings warmth that paid ads cannot buy. The hard part is that results swing a lot from one creator to the next, and the bad picks are not obvious until the money is spent.
The channel is not good or bad on its own, it is only as good as the match between the creator, their audience, and your product.
If you are weighing the channel for the first time, our influencer marketing strategy guide walks through where it fits in a wider plan.
2. The benefits
| Benefit | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Borrowed trust | The creator's audience already believes them, so your product gets a warm intro instead of a cold ad. |
| Tight targeting | A cooking channel reaches cooks, a finance channel reaches savers, so less budget is wasted on the wrong viewer. |
| Content you can reuse | A good integration becomes ad footage, landing-page video, and social clips you keep using. |
| Cheap to test | Small creators charge little, so you can try the channel for the price of one ad campaign. |
The trust point is the one brands underrate. BetterHelp has run 6,938 deals in our data, Squarespace 6,785, and Skillshare 6,720, and they keep going back because a creator read converts in a way a banner ad does not.
The repeat behavior is the proof, our data shows a 46.9 percent repeat-buyer rate among brands, meaning almost half come back for more deals.
3. The drawbacks
| Drawback | Why it bites |
|---|---|
| Fraud | Fake followers and bought views can hide inside a clean-looking account, so you pay for reach that is not there. |
| Hard to predict | One creator sells out your product, the next gets you nothing, and the gap is not always visible up front. |
| Compliance risk | A missing disclosure can pull an FTC letter, and the brand, not the creator, often takes the heat. |
| Time to manage | Briefs, approvals, payments, and tracking add up, and a busy team can let deals slip. |
Fraud is the quiet budget killer. We see accounts with big follower counts and almost no genuine engagement, and a brand that skips vetting can hand a full campaign to one of them.
This is the worry that sends most brands to us. If you want the fraud screened out before a dollar moves, tell us about your product and we will vet the list first. You can read more on why fake follower counts still fool most brand teams.
4. The numbers behind both sides
Rates are the part people guess at, so here are confirmed quotes from creators we track.
| Creator | Subscribers | Quoted rate |
|---|---|---|
| Caitlin Costello | 7,930 | $50 for a 60-second ad read |
| GP 2 Archive | 10,300 | $100 for a 60-second dedicated video |
| Bri Jones, PBM | 7,020 | $550 for a 60-second integration |
| Alicia Ernekian | 10,800 | $650 to $850 for a 60-second integration with usage rights |
| Mr. E on Art History | 12,200 | $2,200 for a 90 to 120 second integration |
We hold 617 confirmed creator rates like these, and the spread is the whole story. Two channels of similar size can sit ten times apart on price, which is the benefit and the drawback in one line.
If you want the full picture on spend, our 2026 influencer cost guide breaks pricing down by creator size.
5. When it is worth it for your brand
Influencer marketing pays off when you can pick well and stay compliant, and it wastes money when you cannot.
The benefits live in the match, and the drawbacks live in the vetting, so the work is in choosing the right creators and screening the wrong ones out.
We sit on the picking-and-screening side on purpose, we find creators whose audience matches your product, we check the engagement is genuine, and we keep the disclosures clean.
That is the second-order risk most brands miss. A creator can be a great fit and still post a non-compliant caption, so the value of a partner is keeping you out of trouble while the campaign runs.
6. Where to go from here
If you want a shortlist matched to your product with the fakes already removed, tell us about it and we will send creators worth paying for.
And if you are still mapping the channel, how to run an influencer marketing campaign lays out the steps from brief to payment.
Frequently asked
What is the biggest benefit of influencer marketing?
Borrowed trust. A creator who built an audience over years can recommend your product in a way an ad cannot, which is why brands like BetterHelp and Squarespace each run thousands of these deals.
What is the biggest drawback of influencer marketing?
It is hard to predict. One creator converts and the next does not, and fake followers can waste a whole budget, so vetting matters more than reach.
Is influencer marketing worth it for a small brand?
Often yes, because small creators are cheap. We have seen confirmed rates as low as $50 to $100 for a video, so a small brand can test the channel without a big spend.