Report Looks at the Latest Trends and Challenges in Creator Marketing

Looking to partner with creators for your marketing efforts?

An increasing number of brands are doing exactly that, with the battle for attention pushing more businesses to explore new means to expand their brand messaging beyond the usual push marketing approaches.

And if you are considering creator partnerships for your outreach, this will help. CreatorIQ has published a new, 54-page report on the state of creator marketing, and how brands are partnering with influencers to boost their promotions.

You can download the full report here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key notes.

CreatorIQ’s report is based on responses from 1,138 total respondents, though the actual breakdown here is important. Of those 1,138 participants, 457 are from brands, 445 from agencies, and 231 replies came from creators. So the results will be more indicative from the marketer side, but still, there are some valuable notes based on the data which provide more perspective on the modern digital landscape.

First off, the report shows that investment in creators is rising, with 74% of organizations increasing their creator marketing investment this year.

You can see that there was a dip in creator investment last year, which could have been due to the rising AI hype, and the potential to reduce reliance on actual humans. But it’s gone up again in 2024, with more brands now looking to partner with creators for their promotions.

Which makes sense. The rise of short form video in particular has necessitated more creative nous and expertise, which businesses don’t necessarily have in-house. Partnering with the right influencers can give you more creative, resonant content, while also enabling you to tap into each creators’ established community for targeting.

And that investment is producing results. According to the report, “Industry Leaders”, who spent $1M or more on creator marketing annually, achieved their highest ROI via creator marketing.

That’s probably somewhat relative to the celebrities that industry leaders can afford to partner with, as the bigger the name, the bigger the results. But the data does suggest that investing more into creator partnerships is paying off for many.

The report also looks at challenges in creator partnerships, with measurement remaining a key hurdle for many.

If you can’t quantify the results, and the value of your investment, it’s difficult to justify your influencer marketing spend, and that remains a challenge, as does finding the right creators to partner with.

The platforms themselves are working to make this easier, with creator marketplace-type tools that enable you to search for the right influencers, based on a range of parameters, while many brands are uncovering new ways to quantify their creator investment. But if you find these aspects challenging, you’re not alone, with many businesses still establishing optimal workflow in this respect.

In terms of common approaches, sponsored content remains the most effective influencer marketing approach.

Instagram, meanwhile, is the top channel of focus, both for brands and agencies:

Though interestingly, TikTok has now surpassed Instagram as the platform that creators use most frequently.

Which could point to a change in the weather, but then again, TikTok still looks set to be banned in the U.S., which would obviously impact this.

The report also looks at the impact of generative AI, and how marketers are adapting to the new AI landscape.

There are also notes on average creator payments, top content types, expanded performance measurement, and a heap more.

There are some good data points here on the state of influencer marketing, and how brands are adapting to the latest shifts, in order to maximize ROI. And if you’re looking to build out your creator marketing approach, these data points could help.  

You can check out CreatorIQ’s full report here (with email sign up).