How many German retailers and wholesalers work with influencers, and what do they spend?

In the English edition of its report, Bitkom says influencer marketing “remains a niche activity for most companies”. Far more of them are active on social media: in the same survey, 59% have their own profile and 31% pay for social ads. So many have a presence there of their own without working with creators.

As a sales channel, social networks still play a minor role, according to Bitkom: of the companies that sell online, 27% take orders there, up from 23% in 2023.

The average says little about any single budget. More than a third get by on €10,000 a year or less, while at the other end 1% spend a million euros or more. That one per cent alone adds roughly €10,000 or more to the average (1% × €1,000,000). Bitkom doesn’t give a median, the value in the middle. The three bands add up to 80%, and Bitkom doesn’t break down the rest.

A worked example for context: say your shop plans an advertising budget of €150,000 a year. Of that, 7% would be €10,500, just above the €10,000 that 35% of the companies working with influencers stay within. If you pay for results, with an assumed 10% commission per sale, €10,500 would cover the commission on €105,000 of sales through creator links.

For the figures from the study report, “agree” combines “completely agree” and “somewhat agree”. The first four statements were rated by the 67 companies that work with influencers, according to the English edition of the report. The German edition gives n=37 at this point, and the press release relates the figures to companies with influencer experience. The two hype figures come from the press release, which gives no answer scale. The figures on trust and image are based on all 505 respondents.

The gap on hype stands out: 17% of companies with influencer experience consider influencer marketing overrated, compared with 46% of those with no experience of their own. That may reflect good experiences, or simply that the companies it works for are the ones that stick with it.

Bitkom asks about the share of the advertising budget and the amount in euros, not about the payment model. The study doesn’t split the €66,860 into fixed fees for posts and videos and pay for clicks and sales.

For your planning, that makes a difference. With a fixed fee, the amount for the agreed posts is set in advance, whatever they bring. With pay for results you pay per click on a link (CPC, cost per click) or a commission per sale (CPA, cost per acquisition), usually through an affiliate programme. Spending then grows with the results, so the annual budget can only be estimated in advance.

The catch: an affiliate programme alone doesn’t produce posts. Many partners never become active, and the creators you most want rarely post without a reason. The real task is getting creators to post, ideally many at once, and then seeing who sells. That is why the two models can be combined, for example with a campaign budget paid out according to results agreed in advance.

The budget figures are based on 67 companies that work with influencers. Both figures are the respondents’ own estimates: Bitkom asked what share of their advertising budget they estimate goes on influencer marketing and roughly how much they spend a year. For a group this small, the uncertainty is larger than the margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent that Bitkom gives for the full sample. So read the values as an order of magnitude, not as a benchmark accurate to the euro. Shops with fewer than ten employees and companies outside trade, such as pure manufacturers, are not part of the surveyed population.

• Commissioned by Bitkom, carried out by Bitkom Research
• Computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) with managing directors and board members
• 505 companies from wholesale, retail and motor vehicle trade with at least 10 employees
• Calendar weeks 11 to 19 of 2025, i.e. 10 March to 11 May 2025
• Weighted using the business register of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis)
• Published as a press release on 14 August 2025 and in the 2026 study report “Digitaler Handel in Deutschland”, with an English edition titled “Digital Commerce in Germany”

If you plan with an annual amount like the surveyed companies, you can spend it as a campaign with wyrld Boost. You set the products, the period and the KPIs, the metrics that decide the payout, such as sales, clicks, watch time or reach. Many creators can take part at the same time, and the budget goes to them according to what they achieve. You decide in which shops people buy, and campaign videos are labelled as advertising. Taking part is up to each creator.

With the brand and shop subscription you see every day which creators already feature your products and which of them sell, and you can agree your own terms with them. In your affiliate programme wyrld shows up as a single partner, and the subscription shows who is behind it.

On wyrld, hundreds of creators, mainly in fashion, beauty and interiors, feature products they picked themselves in their own storefronts. You can connect your shop through your existing affiliate programme or directly and pay for results, per click, per sale or both, so creators can also add your products to their storefronts themselves. If someone buys through your shop’s offer, the order goes through your shop. If wyrld finds the same item in other partner shops, their prices appear alongside. Prices for the subscription and Boost are available on request.