A brand advocate is a person, or customer who talks favorably about a brand or product, and then passes on positive word-of-mouth (WOM) messages to other people.

According to Forrester, Zuberance and an infographic from Jay Baer (below), the influence of brand advocates accounts for billions of dollars in purchases for everything from cars to computers, hotel rooms, movies, enterprise software, and more. Brand advocates are:

5X more valuable than average customersSpend at least 2X as much as average customersSpend 3X as much as average customers over their lifetime of their relationship with a company or brandReach 150 people in social media every time they advocate for a product or service92% of consumers trust brand advocates

Do brand advocates generate return on investment for brands? Here are 10 case studies that prove the ROI of brand advocates.