Anastasia Braitsik stands at the intersection of data-driven performance and creative storytelling. As a global leader in SEO, content marketing, and data analytics, she has spent years helping brands navigate the shifting tides of digital influence. In an era where the traditional celebrity endorsement is losing ground to hyper-relevant, niche expertise, her insights are more critical than ever. She is known for her rigorous approach to ROI, often stripping away the vanity metrics that have long plagued influencer marketing to reveal the true drivers of consumer behavior. In our current landscape, her ability to bridge the gap between algorithmic shifts and human trust has made her an indispensable voice for brands looking to move beyond simple visibility toward genuine conversion. Today, she joins us to discuss the fundamental disconnects in modern influencer strategies and how the industry must evolve to meet the needs of the modern, informed shopper.
Given that two-thirds of consumers have made a purchase based on an influencer’s word in the last year, why do you think half of marketers are still stuck treating these partnerships primarily as a brand awareness play?
It is a classic case of marketing strategy lagging behind the lived reality of the consumer. While the “2026 Influencer Marketing Report” from Sprout Social makes it clear that 81% of Gen Z consumers have completed at least one influencer-driven purchase, many marketing departments are still playing it safe by citing brand awareness as their primary goal. Only 24% of professionals are actually focusing on direct sales and conversion, which is a staggering misalignment when you realize that nearly a third of consumers—about 31%—are making ten or more purchases annually through these recommendations. We are seeing budgets swell, with more than 75% of brands increasing their spend from the previous year and 22% of them hiking it by 11% or more, yet the strategy remains anchored in the top of the funnel. It feels like we are throwing more money at an “awareness” problem that has already evolved into a massive “conversion” opportunity. Marketers often feel a sense of security in large reach numbers, but those numbers are increasingly hollow if they don’t align with the actual shopping behaviors of their audience.
The data suggests that only 17% of people actually look at follower counts when deciding who to follow, yet brands still pay a premium for massive audiences. How does the rise of niche influencers change the math for a performance-driven campaign?
The “follower shortcut” is effectively dead because audience size is no longer a reliable proxy for actual influence or sales impact. When you look at the raw data, 47% of consumers care deeply about the specific subjects a creator discusses, which far outweighs the 17% who care about the sheer size of their following. Interestingly, 21% of consumers actually prefer recommendations from niche influencers, compared to just 15% who favor the large, high-profile creators. This suggests that a creator with a smaller, highly specialized audience often carries more weight during the final stages of a purchase decision because their expertise and credibility feel more tangible and less like a paid advertisement. For brands, this requires a shift from buying reach to buying resonance, where the relationship with a specific community is the most valuable asset on the balance sheet. In a world where 33% of people say they can be influenced by either large or small creators, the tie-breaker will always be the depth of the relationship and the relevance of the content to the consumer’s specific needs.
Social media platforms are increasingly moving toward discovery-based feeds rather than just follower-based feeds. How does this algorithmic shift change the way we should calculate potential reach and engagement?
The shift in platform algorithms has completely upended how we measure potential and it makes the old “follower count” metrics even more irrelevant. Our analysis shows that 60% of creators posting Instagram Reels see at least 70% of their views coming from people who do not even follow them, which is a massive departure from the closed-loop systems of the past. Even for standard grid posts, half of all creators are reaching a threshold where 50% of their audience consists of non-followers. Compare that to Stories, which remain an intimate circle where only 10% of viewers are non-followers, and you start to see where the real discovery and broad reach are actually happening. This means that content quality, style, and topic relevance are now far more important than the size of the creator’s base because the algorithm will find the audience for you if the content resonates. We have to stop looking at a creator’s static follower count and start looking at how their specific content style fits the discovery-driven feeds where our customers are spending most of their time.
There is often a tension between brand control and creator authenticity, especially when revenue is on the line. How do you advise brands to strike a balance without sacrificing the influencer’s credibility?
This is where many brands shoot themselves in the foot by being too risk-averse and overly controlling. Research from Milan Polytechnic Professors Gloria Peggiani and Lucio Lamberti has shown that excessive brand control actually restricts creative freedom and directly reduces the overall effectiveness of the influencer. The data is incredibly clear on what the audience wants: 37% of consumers want to know the influencer has at least used the product, and 44% want to see a deep, longtime history with it. When a brand hands over a tightly scripted brief that leaves no room for personal opinion, they are stripping away the very credibility and expertise they are paying for. A creator who knows the product firsthand brings a level of sensory detail and genuine enthusiasm that a corporate script simply cannot replicate. In the lower funnel, where the stakes are higher and the goal is direct revenue, giving up that control is actually the most strategic way to ensure the campaign succeeds and feels authentic to the 19% of people who are skeptical of scripted experiences.
Looking at high-profile campaigns like the 2025 Poppi vending machine initiative, which generated millions of views through flashy gifts, is there a danger that these “aspirational billboard” metrics are masking a lack of actual ROI?
Absolutely, and it is a mistake that is becoming increasingly expensive as influencer marketing budgets continue to rise across the board. While that campaign generated millions of TikTok views and significant chatter, it falls squarely into the “aspirational billboard” strategy, which is designed for upper-funnel visibility rather than moving the needle on product consideration or sales. Millions of views are certainly impressive, but they say very little about whether a campaign is actually working to convince someone to try a prebiotic soda. About 33% of social teams admit that they would only significantly increase their budgets if they had concrete evidence of ROI, yet they continue to measure success through these broad, top-of-funnel metrics. If you spend millions on a visibility campaign when you actually need to move units, you are not failing because influencer marketing “doesn’t work”—you are failing because you used the wrong strategy for the objective. We analyzed 38 campaigns from 17 brands, and the pattern is clear: a niche creator might generate fewer impressions, but they often influence a higher percentage of people who are already primed and ready to buy.
What is your forecast for influencer marketing?
I predict we will see a radical re-niching of the industry where expertise and long-term utility completely trump celebrity and “viral” potential. As brands face more pressure to prove the value of their increased spending—with that 33% of teams demanding ROI proof—they will stop chasing the millions of vanity views and start chasing the sustainable revenue that comes from credible, long-term partnerships. We will see a move away from the one-off “aspirational” posts and toward creators who act as true brand ambassadors, where the audience trusts them as much as they would a close friend’s recommendation. The brands that win will be those that treat influencers not as a megaphone for their own marketing scripts, but as strategic partners who possess the specific domain knowledge required to speak to a focused slice of the market. Success over the next few years won’t be measured by how many people saw a post while scrolling, but by how many people felt confident enough in the creator’s expertise to actually open their wallets.
