Do nano-influencers convert better than macro-influencers?

Yes: 7% conversion for nano-influencers against 3% for macro-influencers, according to a 2025 sector analysis by archive.com. More than double, on an audience a fraction of the size.

The explanation isn't mysterious. A recommendation from someone you know, or from someone who demonstrably runs the same distances you do, reads as advice. A post from a famous name reads as an ad, because it usually is one. With nano accounts the audience also knows there's no media budget behind it colouring the opinion — and that assumption is half the persuasion.

One nuance most reports leave out: conversion depends entirely on how you measure. Link clicks, redeemed discount codes and purchases attributed in a model give three different percentages for the same campaign. Anyone quoting a conversion figure without saying what was counted is selling a feeling.

That's why our collabs run on a dedicated code or link per athlete. It makes results measurable per profile rather than per campaign, and it shows afterwards which athletes actually sell and which mainly deliver handsome reach. Those two groups overlap less than you'd expect.