2023 was the year of girlhood. If Tube Girl, Barbiecore, and Girl Math told us one thing, it’s that women are the leading trendsetters of the Creator Economy. And that’s not stopping this year. It’s why we’ve poured hours of research to bring you the 2024 Creator Economy Trends, statistics, and general report.
With so many unknowns looming on the horizon, what can we do to navigate the industry as a content creator and digital entrepreneur in 2024?
Our team at CreateHer Empire has been working tirelessly to compile a comprehensive Creator Economy Report to cut through the noise, and you’ve just got your hands on it! This post details concrete statistics, trends, and advice so you can adapt, adjust, and achieve your goals in 2024.
The Future of Making Money Online: 2024 Trends in the Creator Economy
Before we dive into the finer details, let’s start by defining what the Creator Economy is.
If this is old news to you, please use the table of contents above to skip to the sections that interest you. This post is organized so that you can easily find the information you need immediately.
But if you’re unsure, here’s an overview of what you’ll get from each section:
- Creator Economy Statistics – This section will give you data and research pertaining to the creator economy. Many of these data points were collected by reputable sources, like Influencer Marketing Hub and their survey of over 3000 marketing agencies, brands, and other relevant professionals.
- 2024 Creator Economy Trends – We’re delivering 7 Creator Economy Trends and predictions that we’ll be seeing throughout the year. Each trend will have a “how to adapt” section so that you can strategize your content, digital marketing, and community-building efforts with intention and knowledge.
- 2024 Creator Monetization Insight – This is where we’ll break down revenue sources, industry averages, campaign spending, brand-preferred platforms, and other pertinent information regarding the monetization of content.
Use the table of contents feature above, take what you need, or keep on reading to get the full scope of the state of the Creator Economy in 2024.
What is the Creator Economy?
CreateHer Empire defines the Creator Economy as the rapidly growing ecosystem built around independent content creators, curators, educators, and influencers who use digital platforms to generate revenue, establish brands, and build their empires.
The Creator Economy encompasses a broad range of creative outlets, ranging from blogging, online course creation, live streaming, podcasting, social media content creation, and so much more.
Who Are the Creators Who Are a Part of the Creator Economy?
If you are reading this, there’s a 99% chance that you are a part of the Creator Economy! To simply put, if you create content consistently online, you are a creator who is a part of this industry.
Don’t worry about the number of followers you have. You don’t have to be a full-time creator even to be a part of the economy. And if you haven’t monetized your content but you’re working towards it, you’re still a part of it.
With that being said, let’s dive into some must-know statistics about the Creator Economy in 2024.
7 Important 2024 Creator Economy Trend Statistics
Still thing content creation is a fun little side hobby that isn’t a “real job?” These statistics will be sure to put any judgmental comments to rest. (That includes your friends or family members who lowkey snicker at the thought of you making money through your content.)
1) The Creator Economy is Worth $104.2 Billion
With over $100 billion, the Creator Economy has significant spending power. And it’s also projected to reach half a trillion dollars by 2027.
What does this mean for you: A market size of $104 billion indicates abundant opportunities. It also validates content creation as a viable and lucrative career path. Content creation is no longer just a fleeting trend; it’s a booming industry that has changed how we market, advertise, and build businesses.
2) The Influencer Marketing Industry is Set to Grow to $24 Billion By the End of 2024
And that’s just through monetizing your content through paid brand collaborations. Since 2020, we have experienced a global economic downturn and increased inflation. Now more than ever, brands are having to compete for consumers’ attention and hard-earned dollars.
What does this mean for you: Brands rely on content creators to connect them with their target audience. And this is where nano and micro-influencers shine. Consumers are more likely to trust a content creator who is more engaged and interactive with their audience.
3) More than 60% of Brands Plan On Using AI in Their Influencer Campaigns
No, AI and Machine Learning is not out to get your job. That couldn’t be further from the truth (skip to trend #6 on how to AI-proof your content). However, technology is coming to the Creator Economy as brands are using AI to help identify the right influencers for their campaigns.
What does this mean for you: Brands are going to get hyperspecific about the influencers they work with. A few years ago, it might have been enough to flaunt large numbers in engagement or followers. But vanity metrics are easily bought, and AI is going to help brands identify genuine engagement.
Focus on building community over chasing large numbers instead. We’ll dive more into this in the next section where we break down 7 creator economy trends to get ahead of.
4) The Primary Objective of Working with Content Creators is to Build a Library of User-Generated Content
According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s survey, the primary goal of brands collaborating with content creators is to build a library of user-generated content. This demand has changed significantly over the years, with a brand’s demand for UGC being at 45% in 2023.
This year, the desire from an influencer campaign ranks UGC at a 55.8%, sales at 23.2%, and awareness at 21%. Compared to previous years, this is a jump in demand for UGC and less emphasis of the importance of sales and awareness. As content ramps up, we predict that providing brands with user-generated content won’t just be a 2024 Creator Economy Trend, but an invaluable asset that’ll grandfather its way into a brand’s marketing strategy.
What does this mean for you: Brands are heavily valuing content as a part of their marketing strategy. This means that there’s an abundance of opportunities for content creators, both established and new, to pitch themselves for UGC opportunities.
We wrote a few blog posts about the topic to help you started, especially if you’re brand new to the Creator Economy. Click one of the links below to grab the strategies to start landing UGC opportunities:
- How to Find and Land UGC Opportunities
- What is a User-Generated Content Creator: How to Get Paid for Content with a Small Following
5) 58% of Content Creators Produce Multiple Forms of Content
How do you get to 6, 7, 8 figures and beyond?
The CreateHer Empire answer: Diversify, diversify, diversify.
That includes diversifying your content too. But in case you need the social proof, LinkTree conducted a survey among 9,500 content creators, asking about the content types they use. To which a whopping 58% of them say they produce anywhere from two to four types of content, including:
- Short-form videos (TikTok and Reels)
- Blog posts
- Podcasts
- YouTube
On top of that, 25% of these creators say their blogs are their largest revenue stream. This is because when a visitor lands on their blog, the creator isn’t competing for their visitor’s attention – leading to a less distracted audience member and a higher conversion rate.
What does this mean for you: CreateHer Empire has been a huge advocate for diversifying your platforms since day one. And beyond the 2024 Creator Economy Trends and forecast, it is crucial to safeguard your hard work online with a platform that’s entirely in your control. The market is slowly but surely starting to validate our opinions on diversifying your platforms.
That’s because the whims of social media are finicky at best. Between constant algorithm changes, new features being rolled out (for example, how Instagram Reels threw a learning curve to creators who previously were great photographers), and third party threats (a potential TikTok ban and Universal Music Group pulling their entire catalogue off the platform).
The sooner you branch out of a single platform, the more sustainable your career and business will be. Our preference aside from social media is to create your very own blog and email list. This will give you full control over your content, how you reach your audience, and how you attract new audiences.
Here are a few light bites to help you as you get started on your blogging journey:
- A Step-By-Step Guide to Starting a Blog
- How I Grew My Email List from 0-100k (and How You Can Too!)
- How Much to Charge for a Sponsored Blog Post
6) 62% of Niche Creators Agree Specializing Improves Engagement and Reach
One of the biggest challenges for new content creators building their businesses is choosing a niche. Often times, these creators feel like niching down limits their personality and interests.
However, niching down is an essential part of improving your engagement and reach, and the data agrees.
What does this mean for you: Don’t be afraid to niche down. In fact, we at CreateHer Empire even encourage you to niche down within your niche.
Skip to Creator Economy Trend #5 on how to do this and examples of content creators who are blowing up. We’ll give you actionable strategies to implement so that you can proudly niche down and grow a highly-engaged and captivated audience.
Pssst… don’t worry. We know you’re multipassionate (we are, too!). Expanding to different niches is always a natural progression as you grow your business, so don’t worry about not having the opportunity to share your other passions!
7) 41% of Creators Say Selling Their Own Products is the Best Way to Monetize
If you’ve been following us for a while, this statistic probably makes you go, “no duh!” (Look at you, you smart, savvy, content creator!)
According to LinkTree’s survey, 41% of creators say that selling their own products is the most profitable revenue stream in their business. Selling your own products is followed by affiliate marketing, which ranks at 23%.
What does this mean for you: If you’re not at a stage to create your own products quite yet, don’t fret. What matters most is knowing how you’ll eventually monetize your audience beyond user-generated content and brand collaborations.
Our preferred method? Creating your very own online course. Not only does it keep your overhead low, it’s a completely scalable way to increase your revenue. Here are a few blog posts to help you get started on ideating and launching your very own profitable online course:
- How to Find Your Most Profitable Online Course Topic
- How to Sell an Online Course When You Have a Small Audience
- 10 Ways to Market Your Online Course and Increase Revenue
2024 Creator Economy Trends: 7 Tips to Get Ahead This Year
Now that you have the must-know statistics that indicate the current status of the Creator Economy, let’s dive into the 2024 Creator Economy Trends that we predict will have the most significant impact on the industry.
Don’t worry; these aren’t just predictions we whipped out of thin air. We brought receipts and proof as well as suggestions for how you can adapt to these trends.
1) Long-Form Content is Back
From 2020 to the end of 2023, short-form content reigned supreme. You heard it from us as well, “post Reels!”, “Hop on TikTok ASAP!”, and so on.
But here’s the empirical evidence:
Last year, TikTok changed its Creator Fund program so that only videos above 1 minute are eligible for payout. Here’s a screenshot of TikTok’s Creator Fund guidelines.
And since the early 2020s and the rapid growth of creators like Charlie D’Amelio and Addison Rae, we haven’t seen explosive growth quite like ReesaTeesa’s. Her claim to fame? Over 7 hours of serialized storytime-style content about Who TF She Married.
Each video of her 50+ part series spanned 10 minutes. On top of that, each video received millions of views.
As for how quickly she grew? She shot up to 3.4 Million followers in a matter of days.
How to make this work for your business: You might not have a riveting story of marrying a con man (spoiler alert), and honestly… thank goodness for that! But here are 3 ways to adapt to this trend in 2024 and beyond:
Bonus tip: Think about how you can serialize something so that people are hooked and ready to pounce on part 2 of your content.
2) Personal Branding is More Important Than Ever
Social media coach and YouTuber, Vanessa Lau, recently made a comeback from a year long hiatus. She was running a multi 7-figure business at the start of 2023 only to burn out big time.
When she reappeared with her first YouTube video in 2024, she dropped an eye-opening truth that every content creator should take to heart: don’t lose yourself in the pursuit of trends and what you “should” be doing online.
Vanessa claimed that prior to her hiatus, she had no idea who she was and how she was representing her personality. Instead, she followed the same templates and trends that other coaches in her niche were all doing.
(The Tweet-style graphics, heavily captioned and flashy Reels… there was definitely an “online coach” flavor that was typical across the industry.)
Now that Vanessa is back, she’s posting content that showcases her personality and personal brand. Just take a look at what her feed looks like today.
(This looks like the feed of a friend who you’d easily follow and keep up with. Whereas the previous image could have been any other coach in the space.)
How to make this work for your business: The irony of this isn’t lost on us. We’re fully aware that you’re reading a post about the 2024 Creator Economy Trends. However, we don’t want you to follow a trend for the sake of chasing a dollar or going viral.
At the end of the day, we want you to feel aligned with the content you’re creating and business you’re running. That’s the secret to building a memorable personal brand.
On top of that, establishing a personal brand is a surefire way to AI-proof your business. Anyone can use AI to generate captions and Tweet-graphics. But no one can show up as YOU better than you can.
It’s also what we teach our Creator Bootcamp students when they’re overwhelmed with how saturated their niche might feel.
3) Community Over Content
Remember this headline from The New York Times earlier this year?
Emily Mariko of silent Salmon Bowl fame came under fire for launching (and selling out) of a $120 tote bag. With 12.7 million followers on TikTok and 1.2 million on Instagram, she was the topic of TikTok discourse for a couple of weeks.
Not because her tote bags were outrageously priced. Nope, lots of people have argued that the price catered to a specific demographic of her audience. Besides, she sold out of her inventory which proves that a portion of her audience were willing to spend $120 on a canvas tote bag.
The main problem? People were questioning her audacity for charging exorbitant prices especially when she never engages with her community.
Emily Mariko aside, content creators who blew up, such as Bobbi Althoff and Tube Girl, are finding themselves in the same predicament. Yes, they had a catchy angle that propelled them into the 15 seconds of internet fame most crave… but that’s not enough to sustain them in the long run. It’s why they’ve fallen
How to make this work for your business: Focus on your community over all else. Yep, that includes your content angles. Respond to your comments, engage with your audience, and really get to know them. After all, the best types of content are in service of your audience.
Besides, brands are more likely to work with nano influencers over mega influencers for this very reason.
4) Community Building Off Of Social Media
With 41% of creators saying their own product is their largest revenue stream, and 58% of creators creating multiple types of content across different platforms…
Building your community off of social media is a must according to our 2024 Creator Economy Trends report. While there are still 1.4 billion active users on Instagram, it was also the most deleted app of 2023. This is why it’s so important to continue building and nurturing your community off of social media.
On top of that, platforms like Substack has seen an increase in users, with 1 million of them being paid members – one of them being popular lifestyle and culture content creator, Tamsin Wong.
How to make this work for your business: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. More importantly, we recommend establishing a platform that you have full control over. Normally, that’s done on a self-hosted WordPress.org website and an email list.
While you can absolutely rely on platforms like Substack, Patreon, and other social media platforms, you won’t get the same control that you would with a platform you own.
*Tamsin has since taken a page out of the CreateHer Empire playbook by moving her Substack account off the platform and how houses it on her very own blog, The Rhubarb Society.
5) Owning Your Micro-Niche
Ahh, good ol’ niching down. It’s advice that you hear everyone spew, especially if you want to grow on social media. But you don’t quite know how to make it work for you.
If you feel like there are already too many creators in your industry, you might not be niching down far enough. Most people start the process by defining their general niche. They start with broad strokes like travel, motherhood, fashion, beauty, etc…
But that’s when they start to struggle with their content pillars.
If this is you and you’re wanting to stand out from the crowd in 2024, we recommend owning a micro-niche. This is a deep and narrow category within your general niche.
A great example of this is Rachel O Cool. Instead of creating cookie cutter beauty and makeup content that are a dime a dozen, her content takes on a very different approach. (Think Bill Nye the Science Guy but for beauty!)
How to make this work for your business: Think of micro niches as a cozy little corner within the vast umbrella that is the general niche. For instance, if you’re in the travel niche, maybe solo female traveling could be your micro niche.
You could even niche down further so that it’s solo female backpack travels. That’s a vertical that not many other people are in.
Another example would be fitness, where your micro niche could be at home workouts. Or health and nutrition that focuses on chinese medicinal recipes, just like creator Alice Sun.
6) Authenticity is More Important Than Ever
Remember Lashgate 2023? In case you missed it, mega beauty influencer, Mikayla Nogueira, had a paid partnership with L’Oreal. The brief? To promote L’Oreal’s Telescopic Lash Lift mascara.
Mikayla did her job but she might have fudged the results a little. Many were quick to point out that her lashes post mascara application looked a little like Kiss’s Wispy Lashes.
Ultimately, the campaign worked as many wanted to test out the mascara for themselves. But it came at the cost of distrust in mega and macro influencers and content creators.
How to make this work for your business: If you’re a nano or micro influencer, this really works out in your favor. Now more than ever, brands are trusting and leaning on smaller creators because of the deeper trust they’ve cultivated with their audience.
However, as you continue to grow, do not lose sight of your community, your mission, and your deeper vision. Always remain true to what aligns with you and your values.
Telling you to be “authentic” is overplayed advice, but it’s harder than you think. If ReesaTeesa’s success tells you one thing, it’s that people care way more about authenticity and being genuine over aesthetics and results.
7) Always Lead With Value
Last but not least, your content should always lead with value. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 60.1% of internet users go online to find information. Next, 55.9% of people use it to stay in touch with friends and family, and 51.8% use it for entertainment.
To simply put, people are quite intentional about the value they search for online. Whether it’s an solution to their problem, companionship, or entertainment – your content should always lead with value if you want to capture your audience’s attention.
2024 Creator Monetization Insight
Knowing what the 2024 Creator Economy Trends are won’t help you if you don’t know what it means in terms of monetization. We want to empower you along your journey to growing your digital empire as a content creator. To help you do that, we want to present some insight on monetizing your content in 2024 so that you can navigate the ebb and flow of the Creator Economy,
1) Diversification of Revenue
We’re going to see more content creators branching out by diversifying their revenue. This isn’t just a smart business move, it’s one that allows you to be more selective with the brand collaborations and partnerships you take on.
(Being selective with the brands you work with fits nicely into establishing authenticity and maintaining your integrity without taking a pay cut.)
2) Don’t Let a Small Following Stop You From Pitching Brands
According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s research, the demand for nano creators in 2024 is stronger than ever.
44% of brands want to work with nano influencers with a following size between 1000 and 10k. Followed by 25% opting to work with micro influencers (10k – 100k). The steepest decline is seen in the demand for macro and mega influencers.
3) Brand Budget is Increasing for Content Creation
Let’s cement the point above a little more. Because 26% of Influencer Marketing Hub’s respondents plan on spending more than 40% of their marketing budget on content creators and influencer marketing.
Long story short – there are plenty of opportunities for brand partnerships for small, nano creators.
4) More Brands Now Pay Content Creators Instead of Solely Giving Free Products
As the Creator Economy continues to grow, brands are becoming more aware of the importance of influencer marketing and content creation. In the past, gifting a product in exchange for content was enough, especially if you had a small following.
In 2024, more brands now pay their content creators in addition to gifting their products for the content they’re asking for.
Building a Career and Business as a Content Creator in 2024
If you made it through the entire of this post, give yourself a pat on the back because that was a lot! Now you’re equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the Trends Creator Economy in 2024.
And if you scrolled to the bottom of this post, there’s no shame! We get it. You’re busy and we want to make sure you succeed. So scroll through this post and find what you need. Or bookmark this for later and reference it whenever something comes up.
The TLDR version? The Creator Economy is thriving and it’s here to stay. There has never been a better time for aspiring content creators to take the leap and start. With brands on the lookout for small creators, there are plenty of opportunities for monetization be it through brand collaborations or UGC opportunities.
As for mid-size to larger creators, it’s time to focus on pouring your attention back into your community. How can you expand beyond the platforms you’re currently interacting with your audience on?
Is there something you can create to diversify and safeguard your business in the long-run?
As always, we’re here to help you every step of the way. So be sure to follow us on Instagram at @CreateHerEmpire where we post daily updates, tips, and advice.
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