Creators are now part of how Indians discover, compare and buy. What began as entertainment sponsorship has become a business channel with its own research, rules and measurement questions. Here is what recent reports say, and what it means if you run a brand.
How big is it?
Estimates differ by publisher because they define the market differently. The India Influencer Marketing Report 2025 by The Goat Agency (WPP Media) and Kantar put the market at ₹3,600 crore in 2024 and forecast 25% growth in 2025. Other reports give different figures, so treat any single number as an estimate and check which source it comes from.
What brands are doing
- Long-term partnerships: the same report found 72% of brands favour long-term collaborations over one-off posts.
- Quality over vanity: brands weigh engagement rate (39%) and content quality (36%) ahead of follower counts.
- Finding the right people is hard: 83% of marketers said they struggle to find the right talent.
- Regional creators: Kofluence, an influencer platform, reports that over 62% of the creators it surveyed receive more vernacular or local-language briefs. This is vendor data, but it matches what we see in the market.
How it helps your business
Brand awareness
The right creator introduces your brand to people who already pay attention to them.
Credibility and trust
A genuine recommendation carries a familiarity that ads often lack.
Sales and conversions
Trackable links and discount or affiliate codes can connect creator content to purchases. In Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 global benchmark survey, promo codes were the most used measurement tool (45.9%), followed by affiliate links (26%).
Niche audiences
Smaller, specialised creators let you speak to a focused community instead of everyone at once.
Two things brands often get wrong
- Disclosure: ASCI processed 1,015 influencer ads in FY2024-25, about 14% of all ads it processed, and 98% of those needed changes. In a later ASCI study, 76% of Forbes India's top 100 digital stars did not disclose paid collaborations. Under CCPA rules, penalties can reach ₹10 lakh for a first violation and ₹50 lakh for repeat violations.
- Measurement: in the Kofluence survey, only 13.3% of brands directly linked influencer spend to formal revenue targets. Decide your goal and how you will measure it before the campaign starts.
Final thoughts
The brands that win will treat creators as part of an authentic, omnichannel strategy, with clear disclosure and clear measurement, rather than as isolated placements.
Sources
WPP Media, "Influencing with integrity" (Goat Agency and Kantar), 10 June 2025: wppmedia.com
IBEF summary, 12 June 2025: ibef.org
Kofluence, Decoding Influence 2026: kofluence.com
Influencer Marketing Hub, Benchmark Report 2026: influencermarketinghub.com
Exchange4Media on ASCI FY25 data, 29 May 2025: exchange4media.com
Exchange4Media on ASCI 2025 findings, 11 November 2025: exchange4media.com
K&S Partners on the CCPA endorsement guidelines: ksandk.com
Where to go next
See our Influencer & UGC Marketing service, or read about the power of user-generated content in building trust .
