From awareness to sales: How influencers drive growth for CPG brands

Over the past decade, influencer marketing has evolved from a niche social media tactic into an expected $32.5 billion global industry in 2025. And while fashion and tech were early adopters, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands are now some of its fastest-growing users. 

Why? Because CPG thrives on speed, scale and connection — the same ingredients that fuel influencer culture.

Products like snacks and beauty essentials for instance are commonly shared socially and tied tightly to culture and identity. A viral TikTok recipe, a beauty hack or a workout smoothie can spark immediate sales spikes and brand loyalty. Simply put: Influencers have become the new storefront for many CPG products.

In this article, I’ll cover why many CPG brands are now turning to influencers, how they drive value, the trends and challenges for brands to keep an eye on and how Zappi can help.

Traditional mass advertising like TV spots and radio aren’t driving the same returns it once did. Consumers skip ads, distrust corporate messaging and would rather seek recommendations from people they relate to.

Enter creators.

71% of consumers say they trust product recommendations from influencers over brand ads. That number jumps even higher among Gen Z and Millennials, who spend more time on social channels like TikTok and Instagram than on traditional cable TV.

And CPG giants like PepsiCo and Unilever have responded accordingly.

PepsiCo

PepsiCo has moved beyond one-off influencer posts and now builds full-scale creator ecosystems around its brands. Here’s a few examples:

• Seasonal campaigns like #PepsiSummer and #BetterWithPepsi invites creators to show how Pepsi fits into everyday summer life, whether it be at concerts or cookouts — often through TikTok trends and recipe videos.

• Snack and beverage integrations bring influencers to real-life events and “creator kitchens,” where they co-create content using brands like Doritos, Lay’s and Mountain Dew.

• Creator-designed limited editions: In 2024, Pepsi collaborated with influencers to co-create digital packaging designs, releasing them as limited-edition online collectibles boosting both engagement and short-term sales.

Why it works: PepsiCo’s influencer strategy isn’t just about reach. It’s about reaching the right cultural communities and connecting influencer-led storytelling with retail activations.

Unilever

Unilever treats creators as co-strategists, using influencers to make legacy brands culturally relevant again. Here’s a few examples of what they're up to:

• Dove’s “Real Beauty” reimagined on TikTok: Instead of scripted ads, Dove partners with creators to share raw stories around beauty standards and self-esteem, aligning with the brand’s long-standing purpose-driven identity.

• AXE’s humor-driven revival: AXE collaborates with comedy creators to rework its classic “AXE Effect” ads into TikTok skits and challenges, parodying over-the-top attraction scenarios and earning billions of views.

• Tresemmé and the GRWM trend: Beauty influencers feature Tresemmé products in “Get Ready With Me” routines before events or work — offering real, unscripted product use that feels native to the platform.

Why it works: Unilever gives creators freedom to use their own tone and storytelling style but stays strict on brand claims and messaging. 

These are just a few examples of why CPG brands are turning to influencers and how some of the big names have found success. But how exactly does this approach drive value for brands overall?

Influencer campaigns aren’t just about visibility. They can drive actual purchase behavior. But not all impact looks the same.

Here’s a table that outlines some of the top outcomes influencers deliver for CPG brands:

Research suggests ROI from influencer marketing in CPG can be between $4 to $6 for every $1 spent, especially when campaigns focus on niche audiences or are paired with retail media ads. 

That said, results can skew heavily based on influencer-brand fit and content authenticity. Let’s get into some more typical challenges for CPG influencer marketing.

While influencer marketing is powerful, it comes with challenges that are especially tricky in the CPG world. Here’s three common ones: 

1. Regulatory compliance: CPG brands, especially in food, beverage, supplements and skincare, must ensure influencers follow FDA and FTC guidelines. Unverified health claims or missing ad disclosures can lead to fines and consumer backlash.

2. Authenticity and brand fit: Followers can instantly detect when creators promote products that don’t fit their lifestyle. Inauthentic partnerships hurt both the influencer and the brand.

3. Product cycles vs. content cycles: Some CPG items have short shelf lives or seasonal relevance (pumpkin spice products, seasonal or limited-edition snacks). Meanwhile, content production and amplification can take weeks, making timing critical.

And yet, despite these challenges, brands aren’t slowing down. Instead, they’re evolving. 

The CPG industry is moving past the experimental phase of influencer marketing and beginning to operationalize it — with clearer guidelines and better tools and strategies. This shift is clearing the path for the next wave of innovation of CPG influencer advertising.

Here’s where influencer marketing in CPG is headed next:

• Micro and nano-influencers: These creators (1K–100K followers) often outperform celebrities in engagement and trust, especially for niche product categories like plant-based snacks and clean beauty.

• Built-in social commerce: Platforms like TikTok Shop and Instagram Checkout are eliminating friction. Users can watch a creator’s video and buy the product in two taps, all without leaving the app!

• AI-powered campaign tools: Brands are using AI to predict which influencer will perform best for a campaign and identify whether a creator’s audience aligns with brand values.

While influencer marketing in CPG is becoming more sophisticated it’s also becoming more complex to manage. The stakes are higher, budgets are bigger and brands can no longer rely on intuition or virality alone. 

To make influencer strategies truly scalable and repeatable, CPG marketers need data-backed ways to predict performance and understand how consumers will respond before campaigns go live.

That’s where platforms like Zappi come in.

Influencer campaigns move fast — but that doesn’t mean brands should skip testing. Zappi helps CPG marketers make influencer investments smarter, not riskier.

With Zappi, brands can:

• Test influencer content before it goes live to measure emotional resonance, credibility and purchase intent.

• Capture consumer sentiment around both the product and the creator to flag potential misalignment or controversies.

• Optimize creative and messaging — from product placement to tone — before scaling the campaign across channels.

"Since partnering with Zappi, our creative effectiveness has improved by 30% across all our advertising. This equates to PepsiCo gaining hundreds of millions in value!"

- Stephan Gans, SVP Chief Consumer Insights & Analytics Officer, PepsiCo

Influencer advertising has become a core pillar of modern CPG marketing, not a side tactic. With the right mix of authenticity, data and speed, influencers can do more than drive likes or clicks. They can spark cultural relevance and move products off shelves in real time. But this success comes down to balance — aligning creators with brand values, staying compliant, acting fast and using consumer insights to validate decisions.

As this space evolves, the brands that win won’t be those spending the most, but those listening the closest. Listening to consumers. Listening to creators. And listening to the data behind every campaign.