Brands are spending more on creators.

Creator marketing has moved well past the test budget. For many brands it's now a real line item, sitting alongside paid social, retail media and brand campaigns. But in many plans it still runs on its own data, its own team and its own goals, which makes it hard to know what it's contributing to the business.

What the data shows

Brands now invest an average of $4.8 million a year in creator marketing, up 33% from last year, according to CreatorIQ's State of Creator Marketing 2026–2027 survey of 2,000 brand and agency marketers, as reported by Forbes.

Confidence is high: 77% of brands say they feel confident measuring the business impact of creator marketing. Yet the top challenges they name tell a different story: integrating creator data (27%), coordinating teams (26%) and measuring performance (26%).

Why the gap matters

When creator work sits outside the main plan, it tends to be judged on its own terms, often views, engagement or a single week of sales. That makes it hard to compare with other investments, to decide what to fund next, or to know what to stop.

Some brands are closing the gap by planning creator content as part of media rather than as a separate program. Forbes reports that SharkNinja places roughly 80% of its media spending behind creator content that has already performed well organically. Whatever the approach, creator work earns more when it's planned with everything else.

Four things to consider

1. A defined role

Decide whether creator content is meant to build awareness, drive consideration, convert, or fuel paid media, and write that into the plan. A clear role shapes the brief, the creators you choose and how success is judged.

2. Connected data

Creator results should sit alongside paid, owned and retail performance, not in a separate report. Agree on shared definitions, tracking and timing so the numbers can be compared fairly.

3. Shared ownership

Brand, social, media and partner teams should brief and plan creator work together. When one team owns creators and another owns media, strong content can miss the reach it deserves.

4. The right measures

Match KPIs to the role, with realistic timelines. Awareness work should be judged on reach and brand lift, and conversion work on sales and incrementality, rather than holding every effort to views or one week of results.

A clear job and a way to measure it

Creator marketing earns its budget the same way every other investment should: with a clear job in the plan and a fair way to measure what it adds. The brands that get the most from it will plan it like media, alongside everything else.

Questions to ask your team

• What role does creator content play in our plan, and is it written down?

• Can we see creator results next to paid, owned and retail performance?

• Who briefs and approves creator work, and is our media team involved?

• Which KPIs do we use for creator work, and do they match its role?