Whilst influencer marketing has become a more common practice for decision makers within the field of influencer marketing, qualitative measurements are yet intangible and hard to measure, hence, requiring standardization. Recent scholars suggest that the phenomenon of influencer marketing have drastically changed over a short period of time, and there are reasons to believe that it is still changing. Therefore, relevant scholars have suggested that further research on the subject is of highest importance to the society as well as for brand/ company perspectives. The authors of this thesis have therefore focused on the most crucial elements that needs further research within the field of influencer marketing. These elements are elaborated by previous research, however, there are inconsistencies that needs to be reviewed and clarified. Although, influencer marketing requires more research in general, the authors of this thesis have decided to focus on the Swedish market, to understand and display the common strategies used within influencer marketing today, andpotentially foresee future strategies and trends.Inconsistency among previous research exists in terms of influencer selection, influencer evaluation and disclosure strategies. Additionally, there is a further need of elaborating on preferred relationships between brands/ companies and influencers, as well as preferred traits and characteristics brands/ companies seeks within an influencer. Therefore, the research question states; How do decision makers within the field of influencer marketing select andevaluate influencers; andhow are the different disclosure strategies used?Based on theoretical books, scientific articles, and journals the authors of this thesis have chosen suggested approaches to evaluate and analyse the data gathered. The primary data itself was gathered through semi-structured interviews consisting of six respondents. The respondents operate in different industries, but all are decision makers within the field of influencer marketing. For convenience, the authors of this have categorized the respondents based on size of company and whether their main focus are products or services.The findings of the thesis are presented in a model where the most common practices are displayed. The result will provide the reader with cause of action within the quantitative and qualitative approaches one can take. It has been established that qualitative approaches are becoming more common, contributing to a need of a trustworthy evaluation of such subjective approaches. In addition, the model presents the disclosure strategies used by the respondents in this study, hence, providing an understanding of how disclosure can be used to prevent certain issues. Evidence also points at missing opportunities regarding disclosure strategies. Furthermore, influencer characteristics and relationship approaches will be discussed. This thesis provides the most common approaches used by decision makers within the field of influencer marketing, especially when selecting and evaluating influencers. However, there is a need for further research regarding selection and evaluation of qualitative approaches as well as for disclosure strategies.

Background: Influencer marketing is a rather new marketing strategy where companies use influencers to promote their products and services on their own social media platforms. Previous studies have shown that companies use influencer marketing for creating purchase intentions for the consumer, whereas other studies have indicated three different characteristics of an influencer, authenticity, attractiveness and trustworthiness, that are important to possess in order to be able to influence its followers, which is why this study wanted to do a combination of these types of studies. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain the relationship between influencers’ characteristics and consumers’ purchase intentions. Methodology: This quantitative study used a deductive approach and had an explanatory purpose, along with a cross-sectional research design. This study also presented a new model, including three hypotheses that assumed a positive relationship between the characteristics of an influencer and consumers’ purchase intentions. In order to collect data, a questionnaire was shared online, both through a convenience sampling technique and a snowball sampling technique, which resulted in 195 responses that passed the qualification questions. Findings: Two of the hypotheses within the proposed model were rejected, which meant that Authenticity and Attractiveness of an influencer did not show to have a positive relationship with consumers’ purchase intentions. Hypothesis 3 (H3) was however accepted, and it was shown that 14,8 % of consumers’ purchase intentions is explained by influencers’ Trustworthiness.   Conclusion: This study contributes with the theoretical implications that there is a relationship between the characteristic Trustworthiness of an influencer and consumers’ purchase intentions, along with the managerial implications which helps companies and marketers to know what characteristics to look for in an influencer when they want to create purchase intentions for consumers. Keywords: Attractiveness of an influencer; authenticity of an influencer; influencer characteristics; influencer marketing; influencers; purchase intentions; social media; trustworthiness on an influencer.