By Becca Monaghan
For years, influencer marketing has been dominated by big names and even bigger followings. Brands have invested heavily in creators who can deliver instant reach and visibility. But a shift is quietly taking place.
More brands are now turning to micro influencers. These are creators with smaller, more defined audiences and often a stronger sense of community and niche interests. Their content tends to feel more personal and less like traditional advertising, which can make it more effective with audiences who are increasingly wary of feeds saturated with product placements.
The shift reflects a wider change in how people use social media. Trust and relatability are becoming more important than scale. Whether it’s discovering a new skincare product, booking a hotel or finding outfit inspiration, people are often more likely to take recommendations from someone who feels familiar rather than a distant figure with millions of followers.
For brands, that means rethinking what influence actually looks like. Rather than prioritising sheer reach, many are focusing on creators who can spark genuine conversations and recommendations.
The key question now is how brands can make this approach work at scale while keeping the authenticity that makes micro influencers so effective.
For Jamie Love, social media expert and founder of Monumental Marketing, the change is very much intentional. Once upon a time, brands were heavily focused on creating awareness; now they’re knuckling down on sales.
Jamie Love
Jamie cites TikTok Affiliate as completely revolutionising the game, with smaller creators able to drive real results with far lower investment risk.
Not to mention, feed visibility is becoming harder to attain.
“Smaller accounts tend to have more engaged communities and stronger audience relationships, which often leads to deeper influence and better conversion compared to creators with massive but less connected followings,” he shares.
The good thing for micro influencers is that they can pretty much work across any industry, Jamie notes, though influencer marketing “shouldn’t be treated as a one-trick pony”.
That said, there are areas that work particularly well for smaller creators, including beauty, fashion, hospitality and travel. These are categories where audiences are often looking for recommendations from people they trust, rather than content that feels overly polished or PR-perfected.
The digital social media age has forced people to evolve and become more savvy with the way they consume ads, and quite frankly, “people see through marketing much quicker now”.
“Good marketing should feel seamless, rather than jarring. A beauty influencer suddenly promoting a car with no natural connection? Audiences spot that immediately,” he shares.
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So, when it comes to selecting micro influencers for the job, what metrics actually matter?
Through and through, engagement is still key. According to Jamie, follower count is somewhat a thing of the past in terms of not being able to portray the full story.
“Views, for instance, are also incredibly important because they show how well content travels beyond an influencer’s existing audience,” he shares, citing that his company has worked with many creators who consistently outperform their follower count.
“That’s often a strong indicator that they’re producing genuinely valuable content that platforms want to push organically,” he shares.
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As for whether micro influencers are here to stay, Jamie sees the shift as part of a wider evolution, and something he has been discussing for some time.
“It’s not a quick-win strategy. The brands seeing the best results are the ones taking a long-term, ecosystem-led approach,” Jamie says. “Combining different creator types, building relationships over time and understanding how creators fit into the wider customer journey rather than treating influencer marketing as a standalone channel.”
