Creator content marketing is a powerful vehicle for driving impact

“Creator content marketing is a powerful vehicle for driving full-funnel impact, and advertisers are finding tremendous success adding it to their marketing mix alongside studio content advertising,” says Jack Koch, Senior Vice President for Research & Insights at the IAB.

“This report helps marketers more deeply understand the opportunity, and how best to activate campaigns leveraging creator content. As more advertisers see real success with creator marketing, those who haven’t invested yet risk falling behind.”

Creator content inspires action

• After tracking over 1,000 consumer purchase journeys, the report found that advertising alongside creator content can accelerate the purchase funnel – collapsing the awareness, interest, and consideration stages.
• 39% of consumers are watching more creator content than a year ago vs. just 22% watching more studio content.
• Creator content sparks action: compared to studio-produced content, after watching creator content, consumers were significantly more likely to search for additional content about the topic and interact with the content by liking, commenting, or subscribing.

Advertisers: Quality is in the eye of the beholder 

• 89% of advertisers feel positive about creator content advertising, and 92% consider it a high-quality channel.
• 86% of advertisers say it’s easy to move ad budgets to creator content, and this trend is on the rise. 44% of advertisers plan to increase their investment in creator content in 2024, with an average increase of 25%.
• Nearly 90% of advertisers use the same KPI metrics across both creator content and studio content, and 86% of advertisers have confidence in the ability to measure the effectiveness of creator content campaigns.

“The creator economy, valued at US$250-billion this year by Goldman Sachs, is expected to nearly double to $480-billion by 2027. Savvy marketers know that they need to reach their customers in content that resonates with them,” says David Cohen, CEO of the IAB. “There is no doubt – creator content is now a vital part of the mix.”