Brands are increasing their budgets (yes, even in this economy… at least for influencer marketing). And there’s a real opportunity for creators to cash in on it, because influencer marketing isn’t dead — the rumors have been greatly exaggerated — it is, in fact, booming.
72% of brands plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets by 50% or more. 3 in 4 creators earn under $10K/year.
Source: IMH Benchmark Report 2026 + Manychat Creator Report 2026
As with any other industry, a handful of creators at the top tend to land the eye-watering deals, while those posting as a side hustle for fun to earn a little extra cash bring the average earnings down.
For creators serious about upping their game, we have the numbers to back it up. “It’s not a real job” doesn’t cut it anymore. This is a very real job, and you can succeed if you approach it like one.
The Creator Economy in 2026
While the broader economy might be feeling a little… rough… lately, the creator economy is booming — projected to exceed $250 billion globally in 2026. The number of people who identify as creators is growing, too.
But for every mega-influencer signing huge deals, there are a ton of smaller creators wondering if their big break is just around the corner, or if the burnout they’re starting to feel creeping in means they should just quit.
The 2026 Manychat Creator Report found that over 50% of creators considered quitting in the past year.
It’s exhausting to be expected to be a script writer, videographer, editor, marketer, caption writer, social media manager, talent manager (of yourself), and the 18 other jobs rolled into being a creator. It looks easy from the outside, but it’s anything but once you’re in.
Platform Stats: Where the Money Goes
Brands are investing in influencer marketing at the highest rate on TikTok (31%)… and brands are also planning to decrease their investment on TikTok at the highest rate (39%). The lesson here? Some brands might have rushed in hot and heavy without understanding whether their audience was on TikTok or wanted to hear from them there. Brands should never spin up a presence on a new platform without having a clear plan, either.
It’s a signal that TikTok is where brands are experimenting and taking big swings. As for Instagram? That’s where brands are taking what’s already working and scaling it on a platform that’s more established.
How does this match up with user behavior?
In the 2026 Creator Report, we asked respondents how much time they spend scrolling. 44% said they spend 3+ hours a day on social scrolling, swiping, and shopping. 47% of social media users have bought something because a creator recommended it.
Where are most of these sales happening? You guessed it: TikTok. But social commerce is still largely experimental, not established. (Even if it is the new QVC.) That means there’s a huge opportunity for creators who want to set up smart sales flows on more established platforms like Instagram.
Creator Tier Statistics: Who Brands Want
While you still see a few high-profile creators and celebs bringing in big deals, the majority of the influencer marketing money is going to smaller creators: micro influencers and nano influencers. They have higher engagement rates (4%, compared to 1% for the big accounts), and because they’re less expensive, that means a higher ROI for the brands that work with them.
Related: 19 Brands That Work with Micro Influencers (and How to Connect With Them)
Only 1 in 10 creators surveyed in the Manychat Creator Report see themselves as a business, so there’s a huge opportunity for smaller creators to realize that they already are a business and start acting like one to land more brand deals.
The deals might be smaller, but handled correctly with a strong pipeline and savvy negotiations, it adds up.
Cashing in: What Creators Are Actually Earning
Again, as with most industries, there are a handful of people at the top earning most of the money: 3 in 4 creators earn under $10k/year, while 1 in 10 earn $30k plus. That’s according to the creators surveyed in the Manychat 2026 Creator Report.
This matches the fact that most creators don’t see themselves as a business, but as “just someone who posts” (50%). Shifting your mindset into “this is a business I am running” is a huge opportunity.
We also wanted to know how most creators are making money: platform payouts and brand deals are the two biggest sources, accounting for 67% of income, followed by affiliate marketing in third place.
AI and Automation: The Changing Discovery Landscape
We can’t talk about anything without talking about the robot elephant in the room: AI. Brands (around 37% of those surveyed by Influencer Marketing Hub) are using it for creator discovery, and some front-end workflow tasks like content and brief generation. Brands are using AI at much lower rates for tasks related to trust and accuracy, which tracks with the ongoing issues with LLMs (inaccuracies and hallucinations persist).
The Creator Report asked both creators and social scrollers how they feel about AI content, specifically how creators are using AI in their process, and how scrollers feel about seeing AI content in their feeds.
A good portion of those we surveyed on social don’t want to see fully AI-generated content, but they’re not completely against it either. Quality matters most, not how the content is made. As AI becomes more readily available and affordable, slop proliferates. But so do those using it in truly new and interesting ways, much like the arc of every other new technology over the past century.
Creators are using AI in their processes, but, like brands, it tends to be on the up-front planning side.
60% use it to brainstorm content ideas, with 56% tapping into the robots to write captions or descriptions. We expect this to continue evolving throughout the year as the technology does. (Stay tuned for Creator Report 2027. 😏)
Now Get in (Content) Formation
For creators who want to land more brand partnerships, it’s key to pay attention to what content brands say is working vs. what works for specific creators and their audiences. It might make sense to adapt your content format for a specific campaign if it will run on their channels, but if a brand is tapping into your audience, don’t alienate them by going in a completely different direction.
They’re investing in the relationship you’ve built with your audience.
It’s no surprise that video ranks the highest in terms of content performance. Long-form and short-form are almost tied.
For those scrolling, the format might matter a little bit less than what they want to get out of the content they’re consuming. The answer for most of those we surveyed was authenticity. 86% of Creator Report respondents wanted creators to feel authentic, no matter their niche. Following that, most respondents want to learn something from the content they’re consuming (53%).
What did they NOT want to see? We’ve talked about what gives audiences The Ick before, but we also dug into what made people stop watching a video specifically.
The biggest takeaway for creators? Be real with it, whatever that “it” happens to be.
What Creators Need to Know
Brand money is moving toward smaller creators. Audiences want authenticity above all else — and quality content. There’s a huge opportunity for creators who show up as real as they can for their audiences and treat the work they do as a business, no matter the size of their account.
That includes optimizing for AI as a discovery tool without losing your human presence in the process.
These takeaways are from the 2026 Manychat Creator Report — our survey of 1,000 creators on what it’s really like to build an audience and make a living in 2026, along with insights from Influencer Marketing Hub’s Benchmark Report 2026.
