Your Influencer Marketing Is Broken

🏕️ Opening Bite

Everyone's chasing one-off viral moments with influencers.

A big splash. A quick spike. Then on to the next.

Meanwhile, new data shows that the real money is in the follow-up.

And most brands are leaving it on the table.

🎧 Have You Listened To The Podcast?

We’re on Apple and Spotify!

Listen here on Apple Podcast

Listen here on Spotify Podcast

🚨 The Big Marketing Story

Sticking with the same YouTube creator nearly doubles your affiliate click-through rate, according to new data published today.

Fresh research from eMarketer, based on a January 2026 report from Agentio, reveals a powerful creator loyalty multiplier. By the eighth time a brand integrates with the same YouTube creator, the affiliate link CTR reaches 1.8 times the rate of the first integration .

This data confirms what many have suspected: one-off creator campaigns are a losing game. On average, a buyer needs to see a creator promote a product three to four times before making a purchase, meaning a single integration almost never converts . The value is in the repetition and the trust built over time, not the initial splash.

This isn't just a theory; it's a fundamental shift in how smart brands are building their marketing infrastructure. Creator marketing is no longer a sidecar to retail strategy; it's becoming a core part of it. Retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy are moving away from one-off campaigns and toward long-term partnerships that focus on storytelling. Best Buy even integrated creator-generated content into its Connected TV (CTV) ad placements for the first time last holiday season, and found it performed on par with traditional CTV assets .

🧠 Why This Matters

• You're quitting too early. If you're running one-off campaigns and seeing poor results, the problem isn't the creator; it's the strategy. The data shows the ROI comes from sustained partnerships, not single posts.

• Creators want long-term deals. The best creators—the ones most likely to drive repeat results—are also the ones who want to keep working with high-quality brands. Some 45% of creators say working with a quality brand is their top priority when considering a deal . They want to be partners, not just megaphones.

• Creator content is becoming retail media infrastructure. Retail media networks are now chasing bigger brand and national budgets, and they see creators as the bridge to that upper-funnel investment. They are building systems to pair creator exposure with first-party transaction data to prove the efficacy of the ads .

🔍 What Smart Marketers Are Doing

They are shifting their budgets from a wide net of one-off creator campaigns to deeper, long-term partnerships with a smaller, more aligned group of creators. They are treating creators like a core part of their marketing team, integrating their content across channels from social to CTV, and measuring success over quarters, not days.

🧪 Try This This Week

• Look at your last three influencer campaigns. How many were one-offs? How many were with the same creator?

• Identify one creator who was a good fit but didn't drive huge immediate sales. Reach out to them with a proposal for a three-month, multi-integration partnership. Measure the CTR on the third integration, not the first.

⚡ 3 Quick Signals

Google is taking even more control of your Search campaigns. The new AI Max feature suite for Search campaigns will automatically expand keyword matching, generate ad copy, and even change your landing pages. The takeaway: your website is now a direct input to your ad creative, and the manual control you thought you had is not coming back .
Google is about to spend your ad budget faster. Starting March 1, Google Ads will try to spend your full monthly budget cap (30.4x your daily budget) even if you use ad scheduling. It will just spend more aggressively during your "on" hours. If you run weekday-only campaigns, check your budgets now .
TikTok is betting on sports to keep you scrolling. The platform just expanded its multi-year deal with Major League Baseball, giving creators access to highlights and behind-the-scenes content. This follows deals with FIFA and the International Ski Federation. For brands, this means sports content is becoming premium inventory on TikTok .

🤖 Tool Watch

Statusphere just raised $18 million to kill the one-off influencer campaign.

The AI-powered platform helps brands scale their micro-influencer programs, moving away from single posts and toward long-term, measurable partnerships. The Series A funding round, led by Volition Capital, is a massive signal that the money in the creator economy is flowing toward platforms that can prove long-term ROI, not just short-term virality .