US pet food total market sales

Between 2016 and 2022, global influencer marketing spending and US pet food sales both grew, correlating at 0.9622 across seven data points. The theory that pet influencers are driving pet food sales is, unusually, partially true—pet Instagram and TikTok accounts with millions of followers do receive sponsored pet food deals, making this one of the rare cases where the mechanism is real and the data points are too few to prove it. Seven data points of a genuine but unprovable relationship is the statistical equivalent of knowing the answer but not being able to show your work.

Influencer marketing grew from $1.7 billion to over $16 billion. Pet food sales grew from $28 billion to over $42 billion. Pet influencer accounts are a genuine marketing channel for pet food brands, but seven data points cannot establish statistical significance.

Seven data points cannot prove what anecdote suggests. Pet influencers do sell pet food, but seven years of two growing markets is insufficient evidence.