Brands are buying creators like ad inventory now

The way brands pay creators is changing shape. Forbes, citing eMarketer forecasts, reports that U.S. brands will spend $14.15 billion in 2027 putting paid media behind creator posts on social platforms, and that this spending is projected to surpass what creators earn from sponsored content in 2028. In other words, the money spent boosting a creator's video is about to be bigger than the money paid to make it.

The buying process is changing too. Forbes describes agencies treating creator selection like a casting call, with managers submitting talent for specific roles against strict criteria. Roughly 49% of enterprise marketers work with specialist influencer agencies, per Linqia, and the big ad holding companies own prominent creator shops: WPP acquired Goat, Omnicom operates Creo, and Publicis Groupe bought Influential.

On a Digiday podcast published October 13, Portal A co-founder Zach Blume described the result as a bifurcation. At the top, creators like MrBeast, Alix Earle and Druski are treated as creative partners, closer to an agency relationship, with brands asking for ideas rather than buying a slot. At the long tail, nano and micro creators are bought the way advertisers buy programmatic inventory across thousands of small publishers: at scale, through large influencer agencies Blume compared to media agencies. Blume's point was that it's "not an either-or proposition": the market is growing fast enough that both ends are seeing more spend.

Platforms are building for the paid-media side. YouTube's Creator Partnerships boost lets brands put paid media behind creator videos, and Meta recently brought paid amplification to creators' Instagram livestreams.

Why it matters: if you're a creator, your rate card is increasingly competing with a brand's media budget, not its influencer budget. Expect more requests for usage rights, whitelisting and boost permissions. Price them separately, and put an end date on them.