B2B influencer marketing has taken off in 2025 and for good reason. It’s become a core strategy for brands that want to earn trust and attention in a time when trust is harder to come by, more content than ever and continued disruption amongst information discovery channels like AI powered search.
According to our own 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 99% of B2B marketers using an always-on approach to influencer marketing rate their programs as effective, and 72% of the most advanced teams now have a dedicated influencer budget they expect to grow this year. That growth mirrors industry-wide momentum: Gartner predicts that by 2027, 80% of enterprise marketers will integrate influencer marketing into their mix, while Demand Gen Report has found that 87% of B2B buyers give more credence to content featuring industry experts they trust.
In a time where copy-paste AI content is increasingly filling feeds and inboxes, buyers are hungry for authentic voices and meaningful insights. For B2B brands, partnering with trusted influencers is about creating the kind of credibility and connection that can create experiences that build trust, grows engagement and helps buying committees feel more confident about the choices they need to make.
To help bring some clarity to the information chaos around B2B influencer marketing, here are 10 of the most important insights from the 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Research report.
What are the biggest challenges B2B marketers face in succeeding with influencer marketing?
In the multiple years we’ve conducted this survey, the number one challenge has consistently been finding the right influencers. While B2C influencers are plentiful and popularity makes them easy to find, B2B influencer engagements require more due diligence to validate expertise. Here are the top challenges B2B marketers experience when trying to find the right influencers to work with:
- 48% Identifying, qualifying, and connecting with ideal influencers
- 47% Measuring and reporting results
- 40% Managing relationships with influencers
- 37% Collaborating with influencers and creating content
- 35% Creating and documenting an integrated strategy
- 34% Securing adequate budget or resources
- 23% Activating and managing influencer payment and fulfillment
Finding the right influencers starts with understanding the different types of B2B influencers. Start here.
What is the importance of an “Always-On” influencer marketing strategy for B2B?
An always-on strategy, where influencer engagement is ongoing, relationship-focused and integrated rather than campaign-based, is the most important attribute for success. Our research found that nearly all B2B marketers using this approach ratied their programs as effective. Here’s what the research tells us about Always-On Influencer Engagement.
- 99% of teams using an always-on approach rate their programs as effective.
- Marketers not using an always-on approach are 17x more likely to report their program is ineffective.
- 58% of B2B marketing teams overall use an always-on approach.
- 82% of marketers reporting the most success use an always-on approach.
- 81% of marketers with an advanced degree of maturity use an always-on approach.
Always-On influence doesn’t mean alaways-on marketing spend. Learn how relationships and community can power always-on influence in the most meaningful way.
How are B2B marketers budgeting for influencer marketing?
In times like these, budget allocation is under scrutiny more than ever. The majority of B2B marketing teams have a dedicated and growing budget for influencer marketing, and this growth directly correlates with the program’s level of maturity. Here is further data related to influencer marketing budgets for B2B brandss:
- 53% of marketers report their dedicated influencer marketing budget is growing.
- 72% of marketers with the most advanced strategies have a dedicated budget that they expect to grow.
- 76% of C-suite respondents were more likely than any other role to report their influencer marketing budget was growing.
- 24% report their budget is staying the same.
- 9% report they will have a budget in the coming year.
Learn more about how B2B marketers are allocating budgets to influencer marketing best practices here.
What is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in B2B influencer marketing?
Our research found that AI-powered solutions are playing a significant role in influencer marketing, with over half of marketers using it for content creation. Highly effective marketing teams are more than twice as likely to use AI for functions like performance tracking, audience segmentation, and influencer identification. How are marketers using AI and in particular, how are high performers using AI with their influencer marketing? Here you go:
- 57% of marketers are already using AI to aid with content creation.
- 44% of B2B marketers report that the use of AI to expand and optimize influencer content is the most important emerging trend.
- Highly effective marketers are 1.5x more likely to use AI for content creation.
- Highly effective marketers are 2x more likely to turn to AI for all other uses surveyed.
- 46% of marketers report their leadership is extremely supportive of innovation in influencer marketing.
We’re a ways out from AI powered B2B influencers, but the role of AI with everything else is here. Learn more about AI and B2B influence here.
What are the top priorities for improving marketing results with B2B influencers?
As the business environment, technology and buyer behaviors evolve, so too must influencer programs in order to elevate overall marketing results. To optimize the performance of their influencer marketing efforts in the marketing mix, B2B Marketers are prioritizing audience targeting and performance measurement in particular. Here are more priorities:
- 37% Audience targeting/segmentation
- 36% Measuring performance/ROI
- 32% Identifying the right influencers
- 31% Increasing frequency/growing scale of programs
- 31% Creative-forward content development
- 29% Technology and platform/app management
Learn more about how B2B brands can elevate their overall marketing performance by working with influencers here.
What are the most effective content types for B2B influencer programs?
There are myriad ways for B2B brands to engage and activate influencers and nearly all of the most effective formats involve content. So what kind of content is most effective when it comes to B2B influencers? Our research found that social media posts by a wide margin, followed by in-person events. Here are more content formats to consider:
- 56% Social media posts
- 39% In-person events
- 34% Webinars/interviews/interactive content
- 29% Video
- 28% Livestreams
- 22% Podcasts
- 19% Reports/guides
To understand which content formats are best for activating influencers for your specific industry and business, learn more about our influencer marketing solutions.
What attributes are non-negotiable when selecting influencer partners?
As mentioned earlier, finding the right influencers is a top challenge and B2B brands continue to be more sophisticated in their expectations of influencers they work with. When evaluating potential influencer partners, B2B marketers look for professionalism than any other attribute, which is an important distinction from how B2C influencers are evaluated. Here are more attributes of influencers that B2B marketers are focused on:
- 42% Professionalism
- 33% Authenticity
- 33% Brand alignment
- 31% Audience alignment
- 31% Engagement rate
- 31% Cost/pricing
While there are specific characteristics of influencers that marketers require, it is also important to understand the different types of influences. Use cases vary and so do influencers. One of the fastest growing categories are micro-influencers, known for high levels of engagement and influence on purchasing decisions. Learn more about B2B micro-influencers here. Also, B2B brands are increasingly looking inside their own organizations for influencers – here’s how to engage employees and executives as influencer partners.
What tactics are the most successful B2B marketers using to find influencers?
We know finding the right influencers is essential and yet our research found that B2B marketers still primarily rely on manual social media searches and word-of-mouth recommendations to find the right influencer partners. Here are the other ways B2B brands are finding influencers to work with.
- 52% Social media searches
- 50% Recommendations from trusted sources
- 49% Web searches
- 40% Influencer research tool
- 39% Agency conducts research
- 31% AI tools
Of course I am biased, but finding the right influencer and then successfully pitching them and negotiating an engagement is a deep skill that requires specific experience – something we’ve been perfecting at TopRank Marketing for well over 10 years. It’s not unlike a matchmaking game.
Which tactics are B2B marketers using to differentiate their influencer marketing strategies?
With the growing popularity of influencer marketing for B2B companies, it is becoming more important to differentiate how influencers are engaged and activated. Influencer programs that look the same don’t exactly build trust in the brand. To make their influencer strategies stand out, B2B marketers report that developing unique content and executing creative campaigns are the most impactful tactics. Here are more ways to differentiate:
- 56% Creative campaigns
- 55% Unique content
- 46% Building long-term partnerships with influencers
- 46% Use of emerging technology
- 35% Cross-channel integration
- 29% Niche influencers
Within our own Best Answer Marketing approach, influencers are an essential driver to build trust and experiential content is central to helping B2B content create meaningful engagement that drives business outcomes. Learn more about the use cases of Best Answer Marketing and influencers to differentiate content.
What compensation models are B2B companies using when engaging influencers?
When we began working with B2B influencers over 10 years ago, the organic to paid split was 85/15. Today it’s the opposite – most B2B influencers are compensated and many B2B brands are still navigating what that looks like. We found that the most frequently used compensation model for B2B influencers is performance-based, where payment is tied to measurable outcomes. The best model to use depends on your situation, the influencer, their audience and the form of activation. Here are more B2B influencer compensation scenarios:
- 53% Performance-based
- 47% Product/service
- 46% Pay per deliverable
- 38% Credibility/reach
- 17% Trade out
- 6% We are not compensating influencers
Many B2B marketers are overpaying influencers because of using B2C compensation models and of course we know that B2B and B2C audiences / brand solutions are not the same thing. To better understand what’s possible with B2B influencer marketing (and how that might affect compensation models) check out these examples of award winning influencer campaigns.
With this review of some of the more compelling findings from the 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report, it’s becoming clear that the role of influence in the B2B marketing mix has moved from an emerging tactic to a core strategic function for many, with nearly two-thirds of marketers now reporting that they have mature programs. We’ve definitely seen a shift toward “always-on” strategies, which can be a game-changer when it comes to depth of relationships and engagement.
The good news is that budgets are growing to match this increased strategic importance. At the same time, even with growing maturity, there are some fundamental challenges; nearly half of marketers still struggle with identifying the right influencers and measuring ROI. To break through, top-performing teams are differentiating with unique, creative campaigns and are increasingly turning to AI to optimize everything from content creation to audience segmentation. Practically, this translates to a focus on high-impact social media content , partnerships built on professionalism and authenticity , and a move toward performance-based compensation models.
Want to Boost Your B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy? Let’s talk.
About the author
Lee Odden has been recognized as a top B2B Marketing professional by Forbes, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. For over 20 years he’s worked with his team at TopRank Marketing to help elevate the B2B marketing industry through creative marketing programs that deliver more authentic, experiential and inclusive content for brands like LinkedIn, Dell and Adobe. Lee is the author of Optimize and has published over 1.4 million words on his agency’s B2B marketing blog. As a trusted marketing thought leader, he has given nearly 300 presentations in 20 different countries on B2B content, search and influencer marketing. When not marketing, Lee is probably running, cooking or traveling.
