Three-fifths of sports and fitness clothing brands have used social media influencers to help promote their products.

According to research from global affiliate network Awin, around 62% of sportswear and fitness brands have used social media influencers to promote their products, with two-thirds of content creators recompensed through free clothing and merchandise.

Up to 1,193 business owners or marketing teams were polled and found that while three-fifths of sports and fitness clothing brands use content creators to promote their products, 38% said they don’t.

When it came to notice an improvement in sales following the use of influencers, 49% of said their sales had increased following the use of influencers while 16% said it didn’t.

Out of those surveyed, 35% said they were not sure if using influencers to promote their products had made a difference, meanwhile, the average uplift in sales around the time of influencer posts was 53%.

Next, participants were asked how they recompensed the influencers for promoting their brand. When told they could choose multiple options, the most common answers were ‘they were given free clothing or merchandise’ (65%), ‘through direct payment’ (51%) and ‘through discount codes’ (44%).

Participants were also asked if they were planning to increase their spend on influencer marketing, keep it the same or decrease it. Just over half (52%) said that they were looking to increase their spend, while 11% were looking to decrease it, and 33% said that they were content with their spending.

All respondents were asked which social media platform was the most important for their use of influencers, and the top result was Instagram (45%), followed by Facebook (36%) and YouTube (26%).

“It’s no big surprise that so many sports and fitness brands are using social influencers to help promote their products,” said Claire Mullan, head of marketing at Awin; “It’s encouraging that so many have seen a boost in sales, as this is playing a big part in sports and fitness marketing.”