Study: Digital ad dollars moving to creators
June 8, 2023
CreatorIQ, the end-to-end creator marketing platform, has released findings showing brands are diverting digital advertising budgets to creator-led marketing initiatives.
At a top-line, 67 per cent of surveyed marketers report increasing their investment in influencer marketing from 2022 to 2023. Of those brands whose budgets increased, only 24 per cent are working with a net-new budget and 76 per cent are diverting the funds from other marketing activities, including digital ads.
The majority of marketers cite the advancements in measurement for this shift to creator-led marketing efforts, which are enabling them to understand both top- and bottom-of-funnel ROI down to the dollar. Not only can 94 per cent of organisations attribute sales to creator content on social media, but marketers also report that creator-led efforts are consistently outperforming traditional digital advertising channels.
“Over the past few years, advancements in measurement solutions have enabled creator marketing to be compared alongside traditional digital channels,” said Conor Begley, Chief Strategy Officer at CreatorIQ. “Now, at a time when macroeconomic factors are constricting ad budgets, brands and agencies have continued to double down on creator-led efforts, which have actually proven to be more efficient for driving impressions, engagement, conversions, and other full-funnel KPIs.”
Additional findings include:
- When it comes to creator compensation, the most frequent methods for paying creators include pay-for-content (60 per cent), affiliate commissions based on sales (45 per cent), and performance based on clicks (33 per cent).
- Of the marketers surveyed, 77 per cent reported actively transforming creators who share organically about their organisation into brand partners, which allows them to yield authentic content from individuals with a pre-existing passion for their brand’s products or message.
- The main reasons marketers attribute to creators converting are Authentic and Relatable (48 per cent), Aspirational and Instructive (21 per cent), Entertaining, (15 per cent), Easier To Reach Consumers (15 per cent).
The report surveyed 132 marketers who directly engage in influencer marketing, with 68 per cent from brands and 32 per cent on the agency side. This includes organisations of all sizes, with 37 per cent of respondents from companies with more than 1,000 employees.