A new survey by EMARKETER and Viral Nation reveals that despite increasing investment in the influencer marketing channel, most brands are failing to implement adequate vetting processes to protect against potential reputational damage.
According to the report, which surveyed 117 U.S. marketers, influencer marketing budgets in the U.S. have jumped 15% to $10.52 billion in 2025, with 86% of marketers now using this channel. The growth continues despite 77.8% of marketers reporting that brand safety concerns influence their willingness to invest in the industry.
This year’s spending increase reflects marketers’ growing comfort with the channel, even as they acknowledge inherent risks. Among those increasing their influencer marketing investment over the next three years (70.9% of respondents), 30.1% consider influencer marketing “very safe,” while 55.4% deem it “somewhat safe.”
Brands Prioritize Results Over Safety
When evaluating influencer marketing campaigns, brands place greater emphasis on immediate performance metrics than on brand safety standards. Performance (27.4%), engagement rate (23.1%), content quality (15.4%), and demographic reach (12.8%) all rank higher in importance than adherence to brand safety standards (11.1%).
“What we’re seeing is that brand safety has become reactive rather than proactive,” says Nicolas Spiro, Chief Commercial Officer at Viral Nation. “Instead of building comprehensive protection systems, teams are essentially gambling on good faith.”
The focus on short-term outcomes appears to be driven by mounting pressure to prove ROI as influencer budgets continue to grow. With 52% of U.S. consumers discovering products through creators in the past six months, according to a March survey by impact.com and EMARKETER, the channel has become a critical awareness driver, with 49.6% of marketers citing awareness as their primary objective.
Vetting Processes Remain Inadequate
Despite increasing investments, marketers aren’t dedicating proportional resources to vetting influencers, according to the report. Only 9.4% of brands fully outsource the vetting process to vendors or agencies, with 81.2% including some form of manual content review.
Most concerning is the time allocated to this process: over 50% of marketers spend 30 minutes or less vetting a single influencer. According to Viral Nation, this typically accounts for only 0.01% of a creator’s content history.
“Given that most marketers conduct some vetting manually, it’s impossible to do a thorough job in this time frame,” notes Spiro. “A thorough review goes beyond text vetting to include photo and video content, which is hard to conduct efficiently without the right technology.”
The survey reveals widespread dissatisfaction with current vetting processes. Marketers cite their biggest challenges as the time-consuming nature of vetting (38.5%), difficulty with ongoing monitoring (34.2%), and lack of automation tools (28.2%). Only 9.1% of brands describe their current process as “very scalable.”
Industry Lacks Standardized Approach
Complicating matters further is the absence of universal standards for influencer vetting. The survey reveals significant knowledge gaps, with 21.4% of marketers unsure how long it takes to vet an influencer and 18.0% uncertain what percentage of an influencer’s content gets reviewed.
“There’s no shared definition of what ‘brand safe’ actually means,” explains Spiro. “Risk tolerance varies dramatically between brands, and even within the same organization, different teams, agencies, and platforms have completely different standards and interpretations.”
This lack of consensus extends to agency-brand relationships. Only 21.8% of brands believe their agency partners have a well-defined and transparent vetting process. This skepticism appears warranted, as just 29.0% of agencies report offering such a process, while 30.9% of brands describe their agency’s approach as ad hoc or inconsistent.
Trust issues are further amplified by a lack of communication and transparency. While 96.6% of brands want documentation on how influencers were vetted before a campaign, only 25.6% always receive it.
Safety Standards Remain Personalized
Despite challenges with standardization, the survey indicates that marketers still need customized brand safety solutions. When vetting influencers, alignment with brand values (55.6%) tops the priority list, followed by follower authenticity (44.4%).
Among those increasing their investment in influencer marketing, 60.2% cite brand values alignment as a top-two criterion. This subjective metric requires a more personalized approach than objective factors, such as past collaborations with competitors (22.2%) or a history of platform violations (11.1%).
These findings align with consumer preferences. A February 2024 Sprout Social survey found that alignment with personal values is the top quality U.S. and UK consumers look for in creators.
The Path Forward
As brands refine their approach to influencer marketing, the report highlights three key considerations:
Continuous monitoring: “An influencer who was perfectly brand safe six months ago might have completely different associations, controversies, or community dynamics today,” Spiro points out, adding that “aesthetics do not equal aligned values.”
AI-powered vetting: While human expertise remains necessary, specialized AI tools can help brands manage online activity more efficiently. “AI gives us the speed and scale to highlight potential risks across massive amounts of content, and then humans can review those red flags and make brand-specific judgments,” explains Spiro.
Transparency demands: Streamlining vetting processes and setting consistent standards for partners can help establish more universal guidelines. “We need a shared language across the industry,” says Spiro. “Brands, agencies, and platforms need common guidelines for what vetting practices should look like.”
As influencer marketing continues to mature, Minda Smiley, a Senior Analyst at EMARKETER, observes: “The ‘Wild West’ days of influencer marketing are far behind us. As marketers commit more marketing dollars to this sector, they’ll want to ensure their creator partnerships are being carried out thoughtfully and with their brand’s values in mind.”
All images are credited to EMARKETER and Viral Nation The full report is available here
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
A new survey by EMARKETER and Viral Nation reveals that despite increasing investment in the influencer marketing channel, most brands are failing to implement adequate vetting processes to protect against potential reputational damage.
According to the report, which surveyed 117 U.S. marketers, influencer marketing budgets in the U.S. have jumped 15% to $10.52 billion in 2025, with 86% of marketers now using this channel. The growth continues despite 77.8% of marketers reporting that brand safety concerns influence their willingness to invest in the industry.
This year’s spending increase reflects marketers’ growing comfort with the channel, even as they acknowledge inherent risks. Among those increasing their influencer marketing investment over the next three years (70.9% of respondents), 30.1% consider influencer marketing “very safe,” while 55.4% deem it “somewhat safe.”
Brands Prioritize Results Over Safety
When evaluating influencer marketing campaigns, brands place greater emphasis on immediate performance metrics than on brand safety standards. Performance (27.4%), engagement rate (23.1%), content quality (15.4%), and demographic reach (12.8%) all rank higher in importance than adherence to brand safety standards (11.1%).
“What we’re seeing is that brand safety has become reactive rather than proactive,” says Nicolas Spiro, Chief Commercial Officer at Viral Nation. “Instead of building comprehensive protection systems, teams are essentially gambling on good faith.”
The focus on short-term outcomes appears to be driven by mounting pressure to prove ROI as influencer budgets continue to grow. With 52% of U.S. consumers discovering products through creators in the past six months, according to a March survey by impact.com and EMARKETER, the channel has become a critical awareness driver, with 49.6% of marketers citing awareness as their primary objective.
Vetting Processes Remain Inadequate
Despite increasing investments, marketers aren’t dedicating proportional resources to vetting influencers, according to the report. Only 9.4% of brands fully outsource the vetting process to vendors or agencies, with 81.2% including some form of manual content review.
Most concerning is the time allocated to this process: over 50% of marketers spend 30 minutes or less vetting a single influencer. According to Viral Nation, this typically accounts for only 0.01% of a creator’s content history.
“Given that most marketers conduct some vetting manually, it’s impossible to do a thorough job in this time frame,” notes Spiro. “A thorough review goes beyond text vetting to include photo and video content, which is hard to conduct efficiently without the right technology.”
The survey reveals widespread dissatisfaction with current vetting processes. Marketers cite their biggest challenges as the time-consuming nature of vetting (38.5%), difficulty with ongoing monitoring (34.2%), and lack of automation tools (28.2%). Only 9.1% of brands describe their current process as “very scalable.”
Industry Lacks Standardized Approach
Complicating matters further is the absence of universal standards for influencer vetting. The survey reveals significant knowledge gaps, with 21.4% of marketers unsure how long it takes to vet an influencer and 18.0% uncertain what percentage of an influencer’s content gets reviewed.
“There’s no shared definition of what ‘brand safe’ actually means,” explains Spiro. “Risk tolerance varies dramatically between brands, and even within the same organization, different teams, agencies, and platforms have completely different standards and interpretations.”
This lack of consensus extends to agency-brand relationships. Only 21.8% of brands believe their agency partners have a well-defined and transparent vetting process. This skepticism appears warranted, as just 29.0% of agencies report offering such a process, while 30.9% of brands describe their agency’s approach as ad hoc or inconsistent.
Trust issues are further amplified by a lack of communication and transparency. While 96.6% of brands want documentation on how influencers were vetted before a campaign, only 25.6% always receive it.
Safety Standards Remain Personalized
Despite challenges with standardization, the survey indicates that marketers still need customized brand safety solutions. When vetting influencers, alignment with brand values (55.6%) tops the priority list, followed by follower authenticity (44.4%).
Among those increasing their investment in influencer marketing, 60.2% cite brand values alignment as a top-two criterion. This subjective metric requires a more personalized approach than objective factors, such as past collaborations with competitors (22.2%) or a history of platform violations (11.1%).
These findings align with consumer preferences. A February 2024 Sprout Social survey found that alignment with personal values is the top quality U.S. and UK consumers look for in creators.
The Path Forward
As brands refine their approach to influencer marketing, the report highlights three key considerations:
As influencer marketing continues to mature, Minda Smiley, a Senior Analyst at EMARKETER, observes: “The ‘Wild West’ days of influencer marketing are far behind us. As marketers commit more marketing dollars to this sector, they’ll want to ensure their creator partnerships are being carried out thoughtfully and with their brand’s values in mind.”
All images are credited to EMARKETER and Viral Nation
The full report is available here
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