USA YouTube Trend Report 2022

The demand for YouTube influencer marketing hiked in 2022 as American brands in almost every category collaborated with creators to strengthen their video marketing. There are tremendous opportunities for brands to target a range of audiences on the channel, as it is mainly used by people aged between 19 and 39 years. 

According to affable.ai data, macro influencers are doing a great job at engaging these viewers. The high follower count enables them to garner more views and drive more engagement on the platform. Brands can leverage macro influencer partnerships to put their product in front of a large audience and drive high engagements. 

We have crafted this YouTube influencer marketing report with first-hand data derived from the affable.ai influencer management platform to help you get detailed insights about the top-performing influencers in the USA, their audience demographics, average engagement, and the number of posts published by them in the last year. 

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Table of Content:

1. Influencer Demographics
2. Number of Influencers by Follower Count
3. Influencer Engagement Rates
4. Influencer Posts: 2021 Vs. 2022

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1. Influencer Demographics
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*YouTube is a male-dominated platform in the USA, comprising 55.18% of the user base. On the other hand, females make up 44.82% of the total viewers. 

A considerable number of Millennials (aged 26-32 years) stream YouTube in the USA. In 2022, 27.90% of users fell under the Millennial audience group, higher than other age sets. Compared to them, the number of Gen Zers (aged 19-25 years) sees a drop of 4.23%, with 23.67% of them streaming influencer content on the platform. 

Interestingly, people above 32 years of age made up 16.63% of the audience, indicating that YouTube is a hit among the older audience despite being dominated by the younger generation. Reason being: Music videos and kid’s content are the most popularly viewed videos on YouTube, which means the older audience uses the channel to stream content for their younger kids. Another reason can be that an older audience prefers visual storytelling over reading blogs, which is why a majority of the audience in this age group loves watching YouTube. 

‍[*The data may vary based on the method of derivation.] 

‍Related: 4 Viral Marketing Strategies to Attract Millenials and Gen Z

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2. Number of Influencers By Follower Count
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Micro (10k-50k followers) and nano influencers (5k-10k followers) are rapidly expanding influencer categories in the USA. In 2022, there were almost 75k micro and nearly 31k nano influencers on YouTube. According to affable.ai’s data, micro and nano influencers make up 41% and 17% of the total YouTube creators in America, showing that the audience relies on them for product advice. 

Despite nano and micro influencers’ fast-paced growth, there are a significant number of mid-tier (50k-100k followers) and macro influencers (100k-250k followers) in the region, comprising 22% (combined) of total creators. The data establishes that these big influencers are a dominant category on YouTube. 

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3. Influencer Engagement Rates
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In 2022, USA influencers with 250k-1m followers generated the highest engagement on the platform, with *342016.81% average views. Besides that, the influencers also attained a high percentage of likes and comments on their content, generating an overall engagement of 6047.85%. Although there were a high number of nano and micro influencers in the country, influencers with 250k-1m followers generated the most engagement, followed by macro influencers (100k-250k followers) who attained close to 190539.98% average views. 

The figures further decrease as we move towards micro and nano influencers, which indicates that YouTube is a perfect platform for brands to drive brand awareness and get more eyeballs on their product with the help of influencers who have a higher follower count. 

‍(*Average View is the main criteria to decipher influencer engagement rate on YouTube. Numbers remain high due to content virality.)

Struggling to find high-engagement influencers for your brand? Access affable.ai’s 6M+ influencer profiles to analyze performance metrics.

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4. Influencer Posts: 2021 Vs. 2022
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The number of influencer posts increased in 2022 in comparison with 2021. While influencers published 12 million posts in 2021, 2022 saw an increase of 17%. It is evident from the data that YouTube’s strategy to share short-form videos via ‘YouTube Shorts’ along with long form are showing results. 

Read our 2023 influencer marketing global report to learn how YouTube and TikTok are thriving with short-form content while Meta is still struggling. 

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