Get the scoop from strategic media pros at Disney, YouTube and more just in time for upfront season at Convergent TV, March 21–22. Learn more.
In the rapidly growing creator economy space, even the creators themselves struggle to price their wares.
U.S. advertisers are anticipated to spend more than $6 billion on influencer marketing this year, per Insider Intelligence. But creators still aren’t sure how big a piece to claim from this pie, a new report from social media management platform Later and influencer marketing platform Mavrck finds.
The report found that 37% of creators initially set their rates by guessing, adjusting it over time, according to a survey of more than 500 creators collected in December 2022. The majority of the creators were microinfluencers, with 10,000 followers or less, and skewed toward Instagram.
The findings were not shocking to some in the social and creator industries, who said there is still a lack of standardization in what brands pay creators.
“There are a lot of brands doing predatory pricing and taking advantage of new creators,” said Daniel Goldstein, founder of agency Next Rep Marketing, who also is a TikTok creator with more than 30,000 followers.
“There is no standardization,” Goldstein added. “There are a huge amount of creators just making content just for free products. There is the same amount of audience just doing it for affiliate.”
This lack of consistency is also found in the upper echelons of influencer marketing, said Lindsay Nead, CEO of talent management firm Parker Management, where creators make no less than $250,000 a year from brand partnerships. Most creators, when they first come to the agency, are grossly undercharging, she said.
“There is no consistency,” Nead said. “It would take management companies like us to get together with every other management company. I don’t know when that will come.”
While billions may be spent on influencer marketing, it is still a relatively young industry: 72% of the respondents to Later’s survey only started monetizing in the past two years. Monique Thomas, editorial content marketing manager at Later, said this indicates that the industry is still in growth mode.
Creator economy sources shared with Adweek what trends are emerging as guideposts for paying creators.