Marketers 'must seed with precision' for influencer gifts

Influencer gifting – sending free products to creators – has long been positioned as a cost-effective way to generate buzz through authentic unpaid content but despite its mainstream presence, marketers are failing to use it effectively.

That is according to new research from global social and influencer marketing agency Socially Powerful, which reveals that, despite 93% of marketers sending free products to creators, fewer than one in five (19%) receive any meaningful brand advocacy in return.

Some 43% said the biggest challenge was identifying the right creators. This has led to overly-broad targeting (a ‘spray and pray’ approach) with 35% of marketers admitting that casting too wide a net with creators is reducing campaign effectiveness.

This poor targeting undermines the potential of influencer gifting, with 23% of marketers reportedly receiving low-quality or irrelevant creator content.

And it is not just the marketers who are being turned off by this approach, with more than a third (35%) blaming declining effectiveness of gifting campaigns on creator fatigue and 38% admitting creators feel spammed by outreach.

Added to this, marketers highlighted the looming creator economy pressure, with almost a third (31%) stating that creators expecting payment can damage authenticity, resulting in a decline in effectiveness.

But, according to Socially Powerful, there are still rewards to be reaped by marketers who learn to “seed with precision”, and align gifting with the right creator, format and moment.

This is more important than ever with 92% of consumers trusting peer recommendations more than any other form of advertising – making the ability to generate authentic, unpaid advocacy a modern brand’s superpower.

Heading into 2026, influencer content is the number one area where marketers are planning on increasing their spend. But with marketers largely unaware of how to create real advocacy and value for brands, there needs to be a move towards more specific targeting, or brands risk wasting their increased investments and missing out on building lasting partnerships.

Socially Powerful has identified four levels of ‘Seeding Maturity’ for marketers that use influencer gifting in their campaigns. These are “ad hoc” (no clear targeting), “basic” (using simple filters to try and identify creators), “intentional” (targeted with strategically drops but manual and siloed) and “future-proof” (seeding is fully integrated, data-led, precisely targeted, robustly measured and continuously optimised).

Fewer than one in five (19%) marketers have reached the future proof level where they can benefit from the full potential of seeding.

Socially Powerful chief executive James Hacking said: “Brands must face up to the uncomfortable truth that their investment in seeding products is vanishing before it’s generating any real value. Brands are shipping millions of gifted products into a void, hoping for a return they can’t secure because they skipped the most critical step: targeting with intent. This eats budget rather than builds value.

“Brands need to approach influencer gifting and their seeding campaigns as the beginning of a relationship that needs nurturing. It should be strategic, targeted, measured and continually optimised. When seeding reaches its full potential, it unlocks the unstoppable power of peer-to-peer advocacy at scale. The earned media era is still young, get it right now, and brands win the future of attention.”