Resonance + Agentcy Research
Influencer Relations Has Grown Up
From side tactic to operational muscle in B2B technology.
Based on April 2026 research with 100 senior B2B marketing leaders, plus data from CreatorIQ, LinkedIn, TopRank and Sprout Social. This report shows why expert creators, podcasters and practitioner communities now shape B2B buyer opinion long before sales gets involved — and what the brands winning at this are doing differently.
Influencer Relations Has Grown Up
Why expert creators now shape B2B discovery — and what the brands winning at this are doing differently.
The Adoption Curve Has Already Shifted
The Channel Has Become Something Else
B2B technology still talks about influencer relations as if it is a social add-on. A useful extra. A campaign tactic. But in a world where buyers form opinions through expert creators, podcasters and practitioner communities long before they speak to sales, the channel has become something that delivers far more impact.
AI is changing the way trust is built — and influencers are becoming a key part of the programme. Buyers form opinions through expert creators, podcasters, newsletter writers, technical educators and practitioner communities. In many categories, these voices now shape discovery, credibility and demand more directly than branded messaging ever could.
Resonance + Agentcy's April 2026 research confirms that influencer relations is no longer a fringe experiment in B2B technology. It has moved decisively into the mainstream marketing mix.
Key Findings
What 100 senior B2B marketing leaders told us about the state of influencer operations
59% Value Practitioners
Said industry practitioners and hands-on experts are among the most valuable independent voices. Credibility comes from expertise, not fame.
45% / 45% Channels
LinkedIn creators and YouTube are the joint top priority channels. Not vanity surfaces — these are where trust is built.
45% Investment Up
Said influencer-relations investment had increased over the last 12 months. Spend is rising fast across the category.
Only 10% Established
Have a formal programme with defined budget and process. 48% are still campaign-led or entirely unstructured.
35% Run on Spreadsheets
Manage their programme with manual tracking and spreadsheets. Only 10% have a dedicated influencer platform live.
31% Blocked by Proof
Said measurement and proving ROI is the biggest blocker to scaling. 41% said better measurement would most improve their programme.
From Creator Campaigns to Trust Infrastructure
The biggest mistake in B2B technology is to interpret influencer relations through a consumer lens. In B2B, it's not about celebrity transfer, lifestyle reach or surface-level brand awareness. The most valuable influencers are trusted practitioners, educators, operators, analysts, hosts and technical experts. Their credibility comes from usefulness — from knowledge and expertise, not fame and millions of followers.
LinkedIn's 2025 Influence Report found marketers rate peer and influencer recommendations above price competitiveness, household-name fame and advanced product features when thinking about what makes a B2B brand influential.
The Economics Are Starting to Stack Up
Influencer relations has faced a significant objection for years — fun, experimental, but difficult to prove. Public case studies are still few and far between, but the direction of travel is becoming clearer, and the results are increasingly hard to ignore.
And more than 8,000 landing-page views by amplifying research through tech influencers.
LinkedIn form completions through expert-led activation on the platform.
In downloads and more than 52 million social impressions from a creator-led content programme.
Reached, nearly 100,000 engagements, exceeded MQL benchmarks and tied creator activity directly to ARR contribution.
CAC reduced and more than 6,000 sign-ups generated through creator-led TikTok ads — one of the clearest hard-performance examples to date.
Of B2B teams now track leads or MQLs (38%) or pipeline / revenue influence (24%) from influencer activity.
Always-On Beats One-Off. Every Time.
The best-performing programmes are not using creators as one-off media buys. They are building long-term relationships and sustained content programmes, repurposing creator content across paid, owned and earned channels, boosting the strongest assets, and looking beyond impressions to registrations, form fills, lead quality, pipeline influence and revenue contribution.
Mid-market brands run creator programmes from a central team or centre-of-excellence model.
Industry leaders now centralise creator programme management into a dedicated function.
How B2B teams actually manage programmes today
“Trust isn't built in a day. One-off creator activity creates a spike. Always-on builds narrative position over time.”
Three Structural Gaps Holding B2B Teams Back
1. Discovery Is Weak
Teams often do not know which expert voices actually shape their category across LinkedIn, podcasts, Substack, YouTube and technical communities.
2. Context Is Weak
Even when teams know the names, they lack a live view of what those people are saying, which topics are rising, or where a brand contribution might credibly fit.
3. Measurement Is Weak
Most organisations still cannot connect creator activity cleanly to CRM, pipeline, revenue influence or wider brand visibility signals.
31% said measurement and proving ROI is the biggest blocker to scale. 41% said better measurement and reporting would most improve their programme.
Why This Matters Even More in the AI Era
Influence no longer stops at the original post. A credible creator mention can shape how a buyer sees a category on LinkedIn, hears about it on a podcast, encounters it in a newsletter, searches it on YouTube, or later asks about it in an AI assistant.
The job is no longer just to secure coverage or run campaigns. It is to understand and influence the full ecosystem of voices shaping brand perception.
From Influencer Marketing to Influencer Operations
B2B technology does not need more random creator activity. It needs better systems for discovering relevant voices, monitoring what they publish, spotting trend shifts, identifying guest opportunities, managing outreach, and linking creator activity back to measurable business outcomes.
That is where the conversation moves from influencer marketing to influencer operations.
Influencer Intelligence
Monitors content across LinkedIn, YouTube, Substack, podcasts, Instagram and TikTok. Ranks posts by relevance and surfaces trending topics in your category before everyone else sees them.
Opportunity Identification
Spots where podcasts, newsletters and creator formats create credible guest and contribution opportunities for your spokespeople, aligned to rising topics, not just available slots.
Integrated Measurement
Connects creator activity to a wider PR-Ops stack covering journalist intelligence, news intelligence, competitor intelligence, social intelligence and AI visibility — one view of how your brand is showing up.
The New Competitive Advantage
Influencer relations in B2B technology is no longer early. Adoption and spend are up. Always-on models outperform campaign-led ones. The most relevant channels are increasingly clear. And the measurement conversation has moved well beyond vanity metrics.
Campaign-era workflows. Spreadsheets. Ad-hoc outreach. One-off creator buys. Reach without business relevance.
Always-on programmes. Systematic discovery. Content rights. Measurement from trust through to pipeline and revenue contribution.
The real divide is not between brands that believe in influencer relations and brands that do not. It is between brands that still treat it as a side tactic, and brands that are building the operational muscle to use it properly.
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Get the complete report with all findings, case-study data, the three structural gaps holding B2B teams back, and the framework for moving from influencer marketing to influencer operations.
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