- Influencer marketing is thriving in 2024 as brands embrace long-term creator partnerships.
- Creators are posting content across multiple platforms, allowing marketers to find scale.
- Goldman Sachs projects influencer marketing will help grow the creator economy to $480 billion by 2027.
Brands are saying “I do” to influencers
Influencer marketing is flying high in 2024, even other parts of the creator economy have stumbled.
Business Insider checked in 11 industry sources, including influencer-marketing firms other experts, to see how creator marketing has fared this year compared to 2023.
Most of them said the category is being taken more seriously by brands starting to win real budgets.
Brands are shifting from one-time, short-term partnerships to long-term, recurring partnerships, according to Olivia McNaughten, senior director of product marketing partnerships at the influencer firm Grin.
Influencer-marketing firm Fohr told BI it saw a 36% year-over-year increase in deal volume a 47% jump in overall dollar value for those deals in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
Creators cast a wider net
London-based marketing firm Billion Dollar Boy said it’s also seen strong growth, deal volume rising 16% revenue from deals jumping 89% in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of 2023.
Other agencies reported more modest growth in creator payouts for the first half of the year but projected similar enthusiasm about how influencer-marketing spending is trending in 2024.
Creators are posting content across TikTok, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, other platforms, allowing marketers to find actual scale on ad campaigns. This has led to larger budgets being committed to the category.
Emmy Petit, a former influencer marketer at Digital Voices who now works full-time as a creator, noted that the volume of syndicated brand deals has increased significantly.
Creators who are landing more partnerships all have one thing in common: they post across multiple platforms.
A tried-and-true formula
Influencer marketing may be outperforming other creator economy businesses because it taps into an existing market rather than inventing something new.
Being attached to a well-established industry backed by billions of dollars in existing spending has helped it hold steady amid industry headwinds.
Goldman Sachs analysts forecasted in April 2023 that influencer marketing creator advertising would help grow the creator economy to a $480 billion industry by 2027.
The sector has professionalized, according to Ed East, global CEO cofounder of Billion Dollar Boy, who said that over the past year a half specifically, the growth has rapidly accelerated.
