The creator economy is evolving into a media channel with growing ad budgets and marketing strategies. However, influencer marketing still faces significant measurement challenges that could limit its development into a fully established channel like TV or paid social.
Experts cite fragmented measurement, inconsistent attribution, and lack of standardized pricing as key obstacles. Megan Boveri, chief media officer at Pinnacle, emphasized that increased marketer investment comes with heightened expectations for clear measurement and business outcomes.
Influencer marketing has grown rapidly, attracting investments from private equity and increasing brand spend, projected to reach $13.7 billion in the U.S. by 2027, up from $10.5 billion this year, according to eMarketer. Influencers are now integrated beyond social media into events, out-of-home advertising, and traditional broadcasts. For instance, this year’s Super Bowl saw influencers hosting live events and creating content from dedicated creator houses. ESPN recently signed influencer Katie Feeney to produce daily sports and lifestyle content.
These developments signal maturation in the creator economy but do not yet represent full media channel status. Amber Burns of Allen & Gerritsen notes that influencer marketing is still progressing toward covering the entire marketing funnel.
Chief marketing officers seek detailed attribution data such as clicks and sales to justify spending. Yet, unlike established channels, influencer marketing lacks standard metrics like CPM or CPC, even as influencer rates continue to rise.
Marketers also struggle to measure media efficiency, balancing costs, influencer endorsement impact, brand lift, and organic reach value—especially when content is disseminated through influencers’ own platforms rather than paid placements.
Boveri highlighted the need to evaluate influencer tactics against other media channels based on costs and outcomes. Experts advise viewing creators as earners of media attention that can be amplified with paid support, rather than solely as paid media channels.
To address measurement gaps, some agencies develop proprietary frameworks using their paid data, while others depend on influencers’ post metrics. However, a proliferation of measurement tools has led to fragmented data and silos, complicating campaign scaling and optimization.
Gabe Gordon, co-CEO of Reach Agency, noted that sophisticated agencies create their own metrics but acknowledged that tracking methods continue to evolve as influencer marketing expands into new marketing roles.