Linqia finds big influencer marketing staffing gaps at top CPG brands

Linqia released a report on Aug. 12, 2026 examining how major consumer packaged goods companies staff influencer marketing. The findings point to uneven team sizes, fragmented job titles and almost no senior executive ownership in a function now central to brand strategy.

Why it matters: - Creator and influencer partnerships have become a core marketing channel for major consumer packaged goods brands. - Linqia’s findings suggest many CPG companies still lack a clear staffing model for the function. - The report highlights potential gaps in executive oversight, benchmarking and team design.

What happened: - Linqia released its CPG Influencer Marketing Staffing Report on Aug. 12, 2026. - The report analyzes point-in-time staffing data across more than 700 brands and more than $20 billion in total advertising spend. - Keith Bendes, Linqia’s chief strategy officer, said the report was designed to show how large U.S. advertisers structure influencer marketing today.

The details: - The average company in the study had 12.7 influencer roles across the organization. - Less than 1% of identified roles carried a vice president title or higher. - Only 42% of roles explicitly used “Influencer” in the job title. - Other common title buckets included “Social & Culture” at 17% and “Communications” at 17%. - Half of the companies studied had hired an in-house creator. - None of those companies had more than one in-house creator on staff. - Women accounted for 87% of all identified CPG influencer marketing professionals. - Linqia said influencer marketing team structures vary by company, with titles and reporting lines spread across PR, social, paid media, brand and center-of-excellence models.

Between the lines: - The report suggests influencer marketing has matured faster than many companies’ internal org charts. - The lack of senior titles points to a function that may be influential in budget and execution, but still not consistently represented in top leadership. - Inconsistent naming makes it harder to compare staffing levels across brands, even when companies are investing similar amounts.

What’s next: - Linqia said it plans to publish similar reports for industries beyond CPG. - Those future reports could show whether the staffing patterns seen in CPG are industry-specific or part of a wider trend. - The company also directed readers to the full CPG Staffing Report for more information.

The bottom line: - Major CPG brands are staffing influencer marketing, but the function remains fragmented, unevenly titled and rarely led from the executive level.