Creators rethink revenue mix in anticipation of economic slump

Of course, ad budgets may also get squeezed amid the economic uncertainty, but buyers remain confident creator spending will hold steady. Calum Macdonald-Ball, the head of social media at Dentsu Creative UK, said that brands have started to prioritize creators more in their media mixes, with marketers realizing the power of creators to increase brand trust and awareness within communities that might otherwise be hard to reach.

“From my perspective, whilst the risk of a potential recession will naturally have an impact on brands’ marketing budgets, influencers shouldn’t be disproportionately affected within the cuts,” said Macdonald-Ball. “If anything, brands should be leaning on them more.”

Here’s how content creators are adjusting their monetization approaches in anticipation of a potential recession.

Prioritizing advertising revenue over subscriptions and donations

Creators such as Twitch streamer Swearin, who asked to keep his real name private, said that they are actively reducing how often they push for subscriptions and donations from their viewers. Currently, the Twitch streamer’s revenue is split evenly between subscriptions and brand partnerships, but he wants to push that ratio to more of a 60/40 split, in favor of sponsorships, in 2025.

“I don’t like to put the onus on my [Twitch viewer] chat to give me money,” he said. 

Creators also plan to rely more on platforms’ revenue share programs for advertising revenue, which they view as more consistent than subscription revenue from fans. Instagram and TikTok creator Max Schneider, for example, said that he is creating more long-form videos to build his presence on YouTube, because he believes the platform’s advertising revenue share will continue paying out to creators regardless of an economic downturn.

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The revenue share programs of platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and Instagram allow creators to make reliable income from a cut of platforms’ ad revenue, helping them avoid the boom-and-bust cycle of brand deals. One reason why creators such as Schneider are confident in YouTube’s rev share program is because they view the platform as a free alternative to paid television and believe its viewership will rise if a recession takes place, much like it did during the 2020 downturn. However, although YouTube’s viewership rose during the early pandemic, creators’ ad revenue dropped during the same period, creating a new and lower baseline for brands’ spending on the platform once ad revenue picked back up.

“Creators are putting more priority on YouTube and long-form content, where there has been a very long history of a great monetization model,” said Gaylen Malone, svp of talent at the creator talent management firm Loaded. “So creators are responding and diversifying their content in a way that they can continue to make some of this passive income, versus relying solely on subs and donors, and even sponsorships.”

As creators prioritize brand deals, influencer marketers are finding it easier than ever to fill their campaigns. On April 8, for example, the branded content platform Agentio filled a six-figure campaign in only 18 hours involving 40 creators, a process that Agentio CEO Arthur Leopold said would have taken between three and five days at the same time last year. Agentio fills its campaigns with creators who intentionally elect to participate, and Leopold interpreted the faster fill rate as a sign of creators’ increased enthusiasm toward brand deals.

“We’re definitely seeing a lot more enthusiasm from creators to partner with brands,” he said.

Getting more discerning about brand partnerships

As they rely on brand partnerships, some creators are also becoming more conscious of the types of sponsorship deals they accept. They believe their fans might be more cash-strapped in the near future, so accepting a sponsorship offer from a brand perceived as overly expensive could make a creator appear out-of-touch to their audience.

An executive at a talent management firm that represents large creators, who requested anonymity to preserve business relationships, said that “a bunch” of the company’s creators had recently turned down a sponsorship offer from a premium-cost brand due to the price associated with the brand, as well as the idea that it might not align with their audiences amid the current financial climate.

Matt Woods, CEO of the influencer marketing agency AFK Creators, said that he had observed some creators become less interested in working with subscription services such as meal-kit delivery service HelloFresh, similarly to avoid financially pressuring their audience to spend on what might feel like a luxury as people tighten their belts. (A HelloFresh representative declined to comment.)

“If someone had to choose between a brand partnership pushing a subscription brand to their audience, versus ‘hey, promote this one-off [product purchase],’ they’re always going to take the one-off,” Woods said. “People are quite conscious of, ‘I don’t want to keep pushing subscriptions and these things down my audience’s throat.’”

Going for longer-term brand deals

Creators have always prioritized long-term brand deals over one-offs or short-term activations, but Malone said that creators have trimmed their prices for long-term deals in 2025 in a bid to secure more consistent income during the potential recession, although she did not share specific numbers. Creators’ branded content fees vary depending on their following and the duration of the deal, but typically range between $500 to $10,000 for one-off activations and between $1,000 and $500,000 for longer campaigns or brand ambassador work on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

“I think there is a bit more willingness to do a long-term deal that is just a solid deal — not insane money, but good, consistent money with a brand,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be something that’s revolutionary, like the biggest paycheck that creator has seen in that category.”

Balancing the risks

Creators’ choice to prioritize brand partnership revenue ahead of a potential recession is a risky proposition, given advertisers are likely to cut back on their marketing spend during a downturn. But creators wield more cultural power in 2025 than ever before, and influencer marketing heads from Dentsu, WPP and Omnicom agencies said that they had not yet observed a decrease in brands’ influencer marketing spend.

“With the economic challenges still developing, we are not seeing any major brand shifts in influencer spend currently,” said Lisa Singelyn, vp of celebrity and influencer at Platinum Rye Entertainment, a division of the agency TMA. “It’s business as usual as of today.”

Both Macdonald-Ball, the Dentsu executive, and Ogilvy North America head of influencer marketing Ansley Williams told Digiday that they believe marketers will continue to spend on influencers and creators, regardless of the financial situation.

“We’re seeing brands turn to creators for branded content more and more,” Williams said. “In challenging times, people lean on each other as communities — we turn to each other for shared experiences and learnings, and to platforms for education and insight on the latest of what’s happening. I believe people will be more online than ever, and it’s a smart strategy to think through what more eyeballs means for creator and influencer marketing investments.”