Vendor reportCreatorIQ, 2025

Growth opportunities mattered most to creators in brand partnerships

Briefing creators

Top contributor to creator satisfaction with brand partnerships, by aspect

Top contributor to creator satisfaction with brand partnerships, by aspect
Aspect of brand partnership	Share of creators citing as most important (%)
Growth opportunities	27%
Financial compensation	19%
Creative control	14%
Personalized interactions with brand employees	13%
Ease of onboarding and contracts	12%
Industry connections	8%
Aesthetic alignment	7%
Other	1%

Reader Note:: This chart asks creators which aspect of brand partnerships most contributes to their satisfaction. Growth opportunities ranked first at 27%, ahead of financial compensation at 19%, creative control at 14%, and personalized interactions with brand employees at 13%. The report says this is the second year in a row that growth opportunities ranked first. The exact base for this chart is not stated.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 1,723 respondents: 747 brands, 676 agencies, and 300 creators across 17+ industries and 9+ regions, conducted by Sapio Research in July 2025, with additional CreatorIQ research in August 2025.

Good for

A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.

Not for

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

U.S. AI shoppers 55+ penalize hidden sponsorship 20+ points more than labeled; 25–34s react slightly the other way

Extra trust lost from hidden vs labelled sponsorship disclosure, by age group
Age group	Extra trust lost (points)
All AI users	10.5
18 to 24	3.6
25 to 34	-5.2
35 to 44	12.7
45 to 54	15.6

Saying the brand name out loud in sponsored creator content lifts branding by an average of 22 points in Kantar’s model

Branding in sponsored creator content: lift in branding percentile — Creator x Brand interaction elements (points)
Element	Lift in branding percentile (points)	Share of sponsored creator content featuring this element (%)
Brand name in audio	22	49%
Interaction with product	17	77%
Shopping activities in action	15	29%
Using the product	11	58%

Keyword and search strategy for influencer content ranks dead last in self-reported team capability, with a mean rank of 7.14 out of 8

Team capability by area, self-ranked from strongest to weakest (mean rank, 1-8)
Capability	Mean
#1 Influencer discovery and vetting	2.28
#2 Creative briefing	2.97
#3 Content review and quality control	3.86
#4 Consumer research and tribe identification	4.21
#5 Social listening and trend analysis	4.93

Open full graph

Go deeper on this topic

Our Substack turns the data behind these cards into full breakdowns: what changed, why, and what to do about it.

Fixing your influencer marketing campaign: How to get into the top 10% of advertisers

Influencer briefs only include structured keyword strategy for both social and AI/LLM discoverability 13% of the time; most either provide only social search keywords or just general hashtags

Keyword and search guidance included in influencer briefs (% of marketers)
Guidance type	Share (%)
Keyword strategy for social search (TikTok, Instagram)	34%
General hashtag guidance but no structured keyword strategy	34%
Keyword strategy for both social search and AI/LLM discoverability	13%
Leave keyword and caption decisions to the influencer	9%
Have not considered search optimisation in influencer briefs	9%

0.75x

the conversion odds remained when sponsorship disclosure was present

70%

of U.S. consumers feel negative if an influencer fails to disclose being paid or given free product for promotion in February 2025

Growth opportunities mattered most to creators in brand partnerships

Good for

Not for

Related cards

Go deeper on this topic