Career prep leans on search: Google takes 40% of its ad budget against 35% for Meta and 15% for LinkedIn

Budget allocation

Career Prep benchmarks: channel mix — % of ad spend by platform, 2025/2026

Reader Note:: The full mix is Google 40%, Meta 35%, LinkedIn 15%, TikTok 10%. This is the only segment in the report where Google leads: online learning puts 55% into Meta, and higher education splits Google, Meta and LinkedIn evenly at 30% each. These are shares of ad spend rather than of results, so a channel's share says nothing about what it returned. The benchmarks blend Flywheel's client data with third-party research and unnamed industry conversations.
Evidence:: Expert judgment
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Aggregated Flywheel client data, plus third-party research and industry insider conversations; no sample size or selection details disclosed.

Good for

Hearing how someone who knows the field reads it, and deciding what to check yourself.

Anything that needs a measurement. Nobody counted or tested this.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source never says how this number was measured.
This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
The source says how much it looked at, but not how any of it was chosen.

Nearly half of all marketers allocate nothing to consumer research in influencer marketing, and no one allocates more than 10%

Share of respondents by % of influencer budget allocated to consumer research and analytics before campaign execution
Budget allocation range	Share of respondents (%)
0% (no dedicated research budget)	48%
1-5%	35%
5-10%	19%
10-15%	0%
More than 15%	0%

TikTok and Instagram creator video pricing varies significantly, with Instagram typically being the pricier channel by follower tier

Sponsored video price range by influencer follower count, TikTok vs Instagram Reels
Influencer follower count	TikTok video pricing low (USD)	TikTok video pricing high (USD)
1K - 10K	$50	$200
10K - 100K	$200	$1,000
100K - 500K	$1,000	$5,000
500K - 1M	$5,000	$10,000
> 1 Million	$10,000	—

61%

of marketers plan to increase their investment in creator content in 2026

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

Typical macro influencer campaigns cost $8,000 to $25,000, while nano campaigns cost $400 to $1,200

Enterprise advertisers put 63.7% of their monthly Meta spend behind winning ads, against 23.0% at micro advertisers

Meta ads: share of monthly spend going to winners, mid-range and losers, by advertiser size (%)
Advertiser size	Losers (%)	Mid-range (%)	Winners (%)
Micro (<$10K)	31.5%	45.6%	23%
Small ($10K-$50K)	25.7%	39.7%	34.6%
Medium ($50K-200K)	18.6%	28.1%	53.3%
Large ($200K-1M)	17.1%	26.4%	56.5%
Enterprise ($1M+)	13.8%	22.4%	63.7%

71%

of organizations said their influencer marketing investment increased year over year