We’ve all seen sponsored videos where an influencer completely changes their tone to promote a product they would never use. They seem more like a paid actor than a content creator.
Forced influencer partnerships usually lead to underwhelming results—and often do more harm for your brand than good.
Marketers need to align their influencer sourcing techniques with evolving algorithms, and trust that influencers know how to create content that resonates and drives engagement.
The power of choosing the right partners
Building partnerships with influencers who fit with your brand is a long-term investment that can help you weather an evolving marketing landscape. As traditional tactics like paid search become less effective, influencer marketing continues to show massive potential.
Marketers say influencer content outperforms brand content in terms of reach, engagement and conversion according to Sprout Social’s Q1 2025 Pulse Survey. Already, 49% of consumers make a purchase inspired by an influencer at least once a month, per The Influencer Marketing Report.
Influencers afford brands something that has been nearly impossible to achieve to date: the ability to bring a product or customer service experience to life in a more genuine way than traditional ads.
Which is why effective influencer sourcing is so critical. Sponsored content needs to feel like a natural fit for whoever you partner with.
Keeping up with the algorithms
Marketers traditionally searched for creators via quantitative profile attributes—follower size, audience demographics, engagement rate or location. This no longer matches how networks serve up content, or how users consume social.
Network algorithms increasingly customise users’ experience based on the content they interact with most. Your own For You Page probably reflects topics you find interesting, not necessarily your location, gender, age or the size of creators you typically interact with. You probably also see content in your main feed from creators you don’t even follow. That’s exactly why brands need to lead with the topics influencers talk about when they conduct their research.
Historically this research has been highly manual, even with influencer marketing management software. Marketers had to rely on complex filtering, spend significant time vetting and comb through piles of data to ensure quality results. And even after hours of work, the influencer could still end up being a poor brand safety fit.
Thankfully, that’s changing. Emerging AI-powered natural language discovery helps brands search based on the content they want to create. This approach ensures influencer content actually matches up with your brand values and campaign messaging—driving much stronger results.
Find the right fit
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach consumers—many brands are just following the wrong blueprint. The strongest partnerships are no longer based on profile stats or follower counts. They’re built on shared values, trust and content that fits the way people consume social today.
By leveraging tools like AI-powered discovery and leading with a content-first approach that prioritizes topical relevance over quantitative metrics, marketers can find the right voices to tell their stories—and make those stories stick.
It’s time to move beyond the surface. Source smarter. Collaborate deeper. And let your influencer strategy evolve with the platforms—and people—it’s built for.
Attending the 2025 Digital Marketing World Forum in London? Visit us at Booth 238 or catch one of our creator economy speaking sessions.
Or, you can head to the website to register and join us on 24-25 June at Olympia, London.
