Creator marketing is the fastest growing media channel, and it's still not being measured properly

Investment in creator advertising is accelerating faster than any other media channel, yet the industry lacks measurement standards, currencies, and financial rigor needed for full integration into enterprise media strategies. Australia shows the pattern: creators are a quarter the size of paid social, growing faster, but measured worse. Globally, only 35% of brands run always-on creator programs, even though 99% of teams that do report effectiveness and reach $830m in the last twelve months, growing 13.5% year on year. Creators are treated as a core channel, but the discipline behind measurement lags other paid channels. Weak measurement keeps penetration at 35%. Copying paid measurement approaches will not work because creators combine organic relevance, earned reach, and paid amplification in the same post. A measurement stack should answer what returns now and what builds over time, starting with marketing mix modelling.

"“investment in creator advertising is accelerating faster than any other media channel” but the industry “still lacks the measurement standards, currencies, and financial rigour necessary to fully integrate creators into enterprise media strategies.”"

"“Australia is the textbook case. Australian influencer marketing. Social advertising . So creators are already a quarter the size of paid social, growing faster, and undoubtedly measured worse.”"

"“only 35% of brands run always-on creator programs, even though 99% of teams that do hit $830m in the last twelve months, growing 13.5% year on year sat at $3.2bn for CY2025 find them to be effective.”"

"“What will work, is a measurement stack built for the two questions finance actually asks: What does this return now, and what does it build over time? Let's start with now. Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM)”"

Read at Mumbrella