A recent report from eMarketer shows shifting revenue streams in the creator economy. The firm formerly known as Insider Intelligence has published a raft of data that breaks down creator monetization by revenue source. Payouts from platforms, merch, and affiliate links are on the rise, but none of those options can keep pace with sponsored content, which still supplies the majority of creator economy earnings.
The report compared earnings figures from 2023 with projected gains from the current year. Sponsored content dollars are expected to rise from $7 billion to $8.1 billion, which represents a 14% year-over-year increase. The second-most prominent revenue stream in the eMarketer report is direct payouts from platforms, which are projected to go up about 10% to $3.2 billion.
The total annual monetization sum estimated in the eMarketer study totals $13.7 billion. If aggregate social media earnings hit that number, they’ll go up 17% from 2023. Therefore, the growth rate for sponsored content is slower than the growth rate for revenue streams like affiliate marketing (which is slated to go up nearly 20%).
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But those percentages don’t quite encapsulate the massive scale of creator sponsorships. The projected difference between creators’ 2023 and 2024 sponsorship earnings is $1.1 billion, which equals the total estimated size of all the measured affiliate marketing payouts.
Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at eMarketer, told The Information that some creators are experiencing deal droughts, leading the changes in the breakdown of earnings. “The creator economy is maturing, and as that happens we’ve seen creators diversify their revenue streams,” Enberg said.
The nature of brand deals may be shifting, but sponsored content is still an important lifeline for creators across the social landscape. We keep track of some of the most interesting (and successful) deals in our Gospel StatsWeekly Brand Report, which comes out each Monday.
