URL Genius x impact.com: Commerce Creator Survey

Industry pioneer in intelligent app linking, URLgenius, and impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, joined forces to unveil key insights from their latest Commerce Creator Lightning Survey. The findings spotlight new opportunities for brand marketers to align with commerce creators and thrive amidst the evolving consumer holiday shopping behaviour and challenges of a nervous economy. 

"In this climate, commerce creators have a direct impact on audience buying decisions and brand loyalty, as shoppers become more selective with their spending," said Brian Klais, CEO & founder of URLgenius. "While 51% of creators have begun their holiday campaigns, brands still have time to refine partnerships and position themselves for success in 2025."

Key insights from the Commerce Creator Lightning Survey include:

Fierce Competition:  

• 45% of creators say rising competition for audience attention is their top challenge this holiday season
• The pressure to produce fresh content (25%) and to maintain a work-life balance (23%) were also notable challenges.

Compensation Balancing Act: 

• 47% of brands prefer flat-fee with performance bonuses, with nearly half of creators citing rate negotiation as their biggest challenge in working with brands.
• The silver lining? Pay-per-post plus commission emerged as the top compensation model across all follower counts, offering a win-win by sharing both risk and reward.

Unease of the Unknown: 

• Both parties rely on measurement to illustrate success but are concerned with it being outside their control.  For brands, sales figures and engagement metrics ranked first and second respectively when assessing the success of an influencer marketing campaign with 41% citing difficulty in measuring campaign effectiveness as a common challenge.
• For creators, 64% marked shifts in social media algorithms changing as their top concern in the next year, impacting their income and business.

"September is not over and we’re already seeing half of creators actively share holiday content, indicating that brands should be engaging with influencers now, to leverage a cost-effective and ROI-driven channel that aligns with how today’s buyer makes purchases," said Cristy Garcia, impact.com chief marketing officer. "We’ve seen when brands and creators come together to create and share authentic content, including trusted reviews and recommendations today’s shoppers seek out before making a purchase, they can build stronger connections with consumers and ultimately drive conversions."