2% of people trust influencers when deciding what to buy online. So why are we still calling them influencers?
For a decade, brands have treated social creators as the shortcut to persuasion. But the center of gravity has shifted: people increasingly lean on friends, family, communities, and verified reviews, not paid personalities, when they decide what to buy. I've compiled a set of data that shows why “influence” has migrated away from influencers, and how brands can win by investing in customer experience, quality, and most importantly community.
1) The trust problem: audiences don’t put influencers at the top of their decision stack
When the BBB National Programs benchmarked influencer credibility in 2025, just 5% “trust completely,” 69% “trust somewhat,” and 26% “do not trust.” BBB Programs In other words, a quarter openly distrust influencer content.
53% of consumers trust a recommendation less if the influencer is paid. Clutch That’s a structural penalty on the very thing brands are buying, and is a consequence of FTC guidelines to ensure all partnerships are disclosed. This is arguably the most fundamental shift as social personalities have changed from being organic supporters of a brand, to being a paid supporter of the brand.
In a national survey about what people trust first when deciding what to buy, online reviews (54%) and friends/family (24%) dwarfed social media influencers (2%). Business Wire
Whilst 2% seems extreme, we can contrast that with Nielsen’s findings about influencer advertising: in its global trust work, only about 23% of people say they trust ads from influencers. marketingnewscanada.com (granted this data is from 2021) Nielsen’s analysis highlights that advertising and product opinions delivered via an influencer are, on average, less trusted than many traditional channels. That’s a ceiling on how persuasive paid influencer posts can be at the moment someone is deciding to buy.
Bottom line: Creators can be great media and content, but they’re no longer the most influential voice when it comes to driving consumers down the sales funnel.
2) Where real persuasion lives now: friends, family, communities, and reviews
Friends & family persist as the most trusted human source across trust studies; Pew also shows social platforms are a news touchpoint for many, but again, that’s not the same as who convinces you to spend. Pew Research Center
Half or more of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and reviews strongly shape whether people feel positive about using a business. BrightLocal+1Search Engine Journal
Review quality and volume matter: a huge share of shoppers won’t consider businesses under 3★, and negative written reviews erode trust quickly. BrightLocal
Why this matters: People now triangulate decisions via known people + community proof (forums, subreddits, Discords, interest groups) + reviews. That collectively beats a single sponsored post.
3) The experience & quality imperative (because loyalty is fragile)
When the decision power shifts to communities and reviews, your product and experience are the message.
32% of customers stop doing business with a brand they love after just one bad experience; 59% leave after several. PwC. Market your brand and product as much as you like, it becomes totally irrelevant if the customer experience (CX) does not live up to expectations.
CX quality is sliding industry-wide: Forrester’s 2024–2025 CX Index shows more brands declining than improving; only 3% of companies are “customer-obsessed.” The revenue upside from improving CX is material across industries. Forrester+2
Qualtrics’ global studies (28k+ consumers) link recent experience quality to likelihood to trust, recommend, and purchase more—i.e., the levers that shape word-of-mouth and reviews. Qualtrics+2. CX drives the most important action, which is advocacy amongst consumers, and it's this exact advocacy that fuels continued custom and a growth in customer-base. Whilst this seems obvious, it is often forgotten by brands who seek to use influencers and social media to promote their proposition, which ultimately exposes them to massive risk of consumer/community backlash.
Translation: In a world where peers and communities arbitrate truth, great experiences and products generate the social proof & advocacy that actually moves markets.
So what should brands do with creators now? Reframe their role
Instead of asking creators to convince people to buy, use them to spark, surface, and systematize the social proof that does convince people to buy.
A. Creators as UGC engines (not closers). Brief creators to make modular, rights-cleared assets you can run as performance UGC (in ads, PDPs, emails, retail media). Measure on content lift & efficiency, not last-click sales. Pair every asset with review capture. The use of recognizable personalities in content still drives greater top-of-funnel metrics success when boosted compared to your run-of-the-mill branded content.
B. Creators as community catalysts. Have creators host sampling circles, micro-events, Discord AMAs, or subreddit takeovers/AMAs that bring your community & potential customers together. Whilst influencers may not be as trusted as they once were they can still be seen as experts in their field. But, the real goal is to get customers talking to each other — the most credible layer of persuasion.
C. Creators as VoC scouts. Use creator channels to source consumer friction points and unmet needs from their comments/DMs. Using tools like Siftsy 💬 can let you scour comments sections without the need to partner directly with a creator. Route this feedback into CX and product teams.
D. Creators as proof amplifiers. Ask creators to highlight customer stories and expert/user reviews (with permission), not just their own testimonial. Social curation > self-endorsement.
E. Creators + reviews, tightly integrated. Build flows where creator traffic lands on PDPs dense with recent, verified reviews and UGC galleries. (The data shows reviews dominate in building confidence) BrightLocal+1
5) A practical blueprint (metrics that match how people buy)
Challenge the product & experience first. Track NPS/CSAT for key journeys; tie CX improvements to revenue using your industry’s CX Index benchmarks. Forrester
Make review generation top priority. Post-purchase prompts, verified purchasers, photo/video incentives, and AI-assist to summarize reviews for skimmers. (Shoppers read them and they sway confidence.) BrightLocal
Recast creator briefs. Optimize for shareable demonstrations, real-use scenarios, and community influence.
Redistribute budget. Shift from paying for one-off endorsements to long-term creator partnerships and measure earned media as a defining metric of success. Creators using products when they're not being paid too is invaluable.
Measure what matters. Look at review volume/recency before & after activity, average rating, % of PDP sessions that engage with UGC, save/share rates, delve deeper than your typical view & engagement ratios.
To conclude...
Influencer marketing still has reach and creative value, but it’s not the most influential lever at the moment of conversion. The evidence points to friends, family, communities, and reviews as the real persuaders, and CX and product quality as the engines that power them. Reassign creators from “closers” to UGC creators, community catalysts, and insight channels, and put the bulk of your focus into how communities feel about your product & experience, so the conversation about your brand becomes unmistakably positive, where it counts.
Sources
BBB National Programs — 2025 Influencer Trust Index (trust levels: 5% complete, 69% somewhat, 26% don’t trust). BBB Programs
Clutch — Why Trust in Influencers Is Declining (53% trust recommendations less if paid). Clutch
BusinessWire — New Survey: Reviews vs. Friends/Family vs. Influencers for Trust (reviews 54%, friends/family 24%, influencers 2%). Business Wire
BrightLocal — Local Consumer Review Surveys 2024/2025 (trust parity of reviews with personal recommendations; review impact stats). BrightLocal+1
Forrester — US Customer Experience Index 2024–2025; How CX Drives Business Growth (CX decline; business impact). Forrester+2Forrester+2
PwC — Customer experience is everything (32% leave after one bad experience; 59% after several). PwC
Qualtrics XM Institute — Global Consumer Satisfaction & Loyalty and ROI of CX (experience quality → trust, recommendation, purchase).
