IMPROVING INFLUENCER INCLUSIVITY
A STUDY OF BLACK+ YOUTUBE CREATOR REPRESENTATION & COMPENSATION (JANuary 2020 - June 2024)
FOUR AND A HALF YEAR STUDY REVEALS THAT BLACK+ CREATORS ARE UNDERREPRESENTED IN YOUTUBE BRAND DEALS BUT ARE COMPENSATED FOR BRAND DEALS AT RATES GREATER THAN CREATORS AT LARGE
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Nearly five years ago, we set out to bring more transparency to the influencer marketing industry to answer two key questions:
How well are Black+ creators represented in influencer marketing brand deals?
How well are Black+ creators compensated?
Rather than settle for anecdotal stories and general trends outlined in the press, we dove into the real data on Black+ creator inclusion and compensation, including sharing our own findings as a leading influencer marketing agency.
Twice a year since 2020, we’ve poured over campaign data for tens of thousands of brand sponsorships to see where things currently stand within the influencer marketing industry. And while the influencer industry may still be in its toddler phase, it continues to grow year over year and carries significant weight in society & culture.
In this report, we unpack the findings of our research and what it means moving forward.
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BLACK+ CREATOR STUDY OVERVIEW
Beginning in January 2020, The Outloud Group commissioned an ongoing research study to understand:
[1] Black+ creator representation in brand deals and
[2] Black+ creator compensation relative to the creator population at large
This study includes 293 different brands and 127,692 pieces of content spanning January 2020 through June 2024, with data published twice annually, covering influencer marketing deals completed directly between the creator and the brand [often with the involvement of agencies/agents], as opposed to creators being paid through algorithm-driven ads established by YouTube. The goal being to help with transparency around representation and compensation in the influencer marketing industry.
An industry study found that 92% of influencers believed that the #1 way to address the racial pay gap was through transparency, an approach that The Outloud Group has supported through this study over four plus years.
Two key insights were discovered:
Black+ YouTube creators are underrepresented in brand deals by 28.7% relative to the U.S. Black+ population as a whole. In other words, if you were to select someone in the U.S. at random, they would be 28.7% more likely to be Black+ than if you picked a creator participating in brand deals on YouTube at random.
These figures reflect paid brand deals set up between creators and the brand, often with the involvement of agents and agencies. They do not reflect pre-roll, mid-roll, or end-roll programmatic ads.Black+ creators were compensated 12.2% higher than the creator pool in general for brand deals during this time period at The Outloud Group, the influencer marketing agency that commissioned this study. While we do not have reliable industry data for Black+ creator compensation, we do encourage other entities in the space to share compensation data and increase industry transparency to continue to make this data set more robust.
In summary, Black+ creators are less likely to participate in brand deals but when they do participate they get compensated at a higher rate per view for sponsorships.
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BLACK+ CREATOR REPRESENTATION IN INFLUENCER MARKETING
While the U.S. Population is 13.6% Black+¹, only 9.7% of creators involved in brand deals between January 2020 through June 2024 were Black+. This indicates that Black+ creators were underrepresented by 28.7% relative to the Black+ population as a whole during this period.
FIGURE #1
FIGURE #2
In our latest findings, industry representation continued to increase from 12.7% in the second half of 2023 to 13.2% in the first half of 2024. While this still falls below Black+ representation in the U.S. population as a whole [13.6%], it’s the closest representation has been to parity with the U.S. population since our study found influencer industry representation exceeded U.S. population in the second half of 2022 [14.3%]. Our 4.5-year study is beginning to see a positive trend line with three out of the last four half-year periods being above 12% representation. This emphasizes the need for continued reporting of this data in order to track progress over time — especially in the ever changing influencer industry.
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BLACK+ CREATOR COMPENSATION
Historical studies by other entities have indicated pay gaps between Black+ creators and creators in general, but these studies have focused on algorithm-driven disparities. This study, in contrast, shows representation & pay differences for influencer brand deals that are negotiated directly between the creator [or their agent] and the brand [or their agency], as opposed to through an algorithm.
Data was sourced from 16,363 YouTube sponsorships run by The Outloud Group between January 2020 through June 2024. Over this time period, creator rates, independent of race, have increased significantly [Figure 3].
FIGURE #3
In comparing Black+ creator brand deals to the creator pool at large over a period of 48 months, Black+ creators were compensated at a rate of 13.0% higher than the creator pool in general. During this time period, Black+ creators were paid a median CPM of $60.31 compared to $53.37 for creators at large [Figure 4].
The compensation difference between Black+ creators and creators as a whole has largely been consistent over time with the exception of Q3 & Q4 2020. The spike in Black+ creator payments in this time period is correlated with the racial unrest in the United States in the months following the murder of George Floyd.
FIGURE #4
There are many possible explanations for the differences in median CPM over time for Black+ creators. We believe the opportunity for Black+ creators to engage in dialogue over price and value allows for brands and Black+ creators to align on a fair and equitable price. This is in contrast with the algorithmic pricing which does not involve dialogue or non-programmatic considerations.
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THE OUTLOUD GROUP REPRESENTATION RESULTS
In the most recent six month period [Q1 & Q2 2024], The Outloud Group featured Black+ creators in 9.3% of YouTube brand deals compared to 13.2% for the industry as a whole [Figure 5]. While this industry number is below the 13.6% representation of Black+ individuals in the U.S. population, it signifies a notable improvement from previous years. However, despite this progress, the 13.2% representation still highlights the ongoing challenge of achieving proportional representation after 4.5+ years of underrepresentation in the influencer industry.
As shown in Figure 6, over the four and a half years of this study, the influencer industry has only included Black+ creators in 9.7% of YouTube sponsorships, whereas The Outloud Group has featured Black+ creators in 10.1% of brand deals.
FIGURE #5
There is a general upward trend in Black+ creator inclusion in The Outloud Group’s YouTube brand deals since the first half of 2020, but representation has plateaued between ~9 & 11% over the last 18 months. During the first six month period of this study, The Outloud Group’s Black+ creator inclusion has increased by 29.2% from 1H 2020 to 1H 2024. Over the entirety of this four and a half year study, The Outloud Group has averaged Black+ representation percentage of 10.1 [Figure 6]. This data indicates both positive improvement and recognition that representation in creator brand deals still trails representation in the nation as a whole.
FIGURE #6
We attribute the increase in Black+ creator inclusivity at The Outloud Group to increased transparency and tracking. While not all marketing campaigns are designed to target all Americans, we believe in the importance of transparency and purposeful decision-making, and we work closely with our brand partners to make thoughtful decisions. We hope that this data serves as a model for increased transparency and inclusivity in the industry and society as a whole.
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CONCLUSION
Black Americans make up 13.6% of the U.S. population but were only in 9.7% of influencer brand deals in 2020 through 2024. While The Outloud Group’s representation [10.1% of brand deals] was slightly higher than the industry overall, these numbers still fall short of U.S. representation as a whole.
As shown in the latest data from Q1 & Q2 of 2024, the representation percentage of Black+ creators in the influencer industry has fluctuated significantly since the start of this study in January 2020; however, we do see a positive trendline of more inclusivity over time for the industry. While we observed a milestone in the second half of 2022 with Black+ creator representation exceeding that of the U.S. population, the most recent time period [Q1 & Q2 2024] shows Black+ representation below that of the U.S. population as a whole, but still the second highest rate of representation in the lifetime of the 4.5 year study. This highlights both the progress and the challenges in achieving consistent and equitable representation.
To continue the positive momentum in Black+ creator representation in the influencer industry, both brands and agencies will need to take further steps towards inclusion in their campaigns. We see transparency as a key driver towards helping brands and agencies alike in being mindful of the implications of their choices. By actively normalizing diverse representation, we expect to see a reduction in the gap between the current 9.7% representation and the 13.6% Black+ population in America.
We remain committed to proactively seeking out Black+ creator talent with ongoing brand deals and consciously striving to ensure that these Black+ creators are equitably compensated for their participation in brand deals.
The influencer marketing industry is a leading force at the intersection of marketing and culture – and there’s still work to be done when it comes to representing Black+ creators in brand deals. We believe that transparency is the #1 driver for improvement in inclusivity and The Outloud Group remains committed to providing this transparency for our agency and the industry as a whole.
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CREATOR REPRESENTATION METHODOLOGY
The Outloud Group conducted this analysis to benchmark Black+ creator representation in the Influencer Marketing industry for 2020-2024 using two sets of data:
-- The Outloud Group’s proprietary data²
-- Tubular Lab’s Dealmaker data³
The Outloud Group’s data consisted of 16,363 unique sponsored YouTube videos across 273 brands while Tubular Lab’s Dealmaker data consisted of 111,256 unique sponsored YouTube videos from the top 20 most active US brands in YouTube influencer marketing. All videos included in this study were published between January 1st, 2020 and June 30, 2024. The 127,619 total videos were reviewed by humans with a simple binary tag, which marked if the YouTube channel that published each video featured a Black+ creator or not.
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CREATOR PAY GAP METHODOLOGY
The Outloud Group conducted this analysis to benchmark Black+ creator compensation across Outloud’s influencer marketing campaigns for 2020-2024. This study incorporated four and a half years of The Outloud Group’s proprietary payment data⁵.
The Outloud Group’s data consisted of 16,363 unique sponsored YouTube videos across 273 brands where a creator was monetarily compensated⁶. All payments included in this study were made for videos published between January 1st, 2020 and June 30, 2024.
The CPMs⁷ were calculated by dividing the monetary payment each creator received [in USD] by the number of views to date [in thousands] that each video has received on YouTube⁸.
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ABOUT THE OUTLOUD GROUP
The Outloud Group is a full-service influencer marketing agency that creates & executes strategic campaigns to deliver measurable results. We combine art & science to authentically tell brand stories at scale. You can learn more about our work with brands such as Fiverr, AG1, Acorns, and SimpliSafe at by reading our influencer marketing case studies.
New media. Old-fashioned relationships.
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¹ [U.S. Census Bureau [2023] U.S. Census Bureau July 1 2023 Estimates]² 16,363 sponsored YouTube videos published through The Outloud Group’s anonymous brand partners in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024 ³ 111,256 sponsored YouTube videos in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024 were used as a proxy for the industry benchmark, this data came from the Top 20 U.S. brands that Tubular Lab’s Dealmaker tagged as sponsoring the most YouTube videos⁴ Sponsored refers to any YouTube video where a brand compensated a creator in the form of monetary compensation, product, or services as disclosed by the creator for the FTC⁵ 16,363 sponsored YouTube videos published through The Outloud Group’s anonymous brand partners in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024⁶ We normalized the data set by only looking at brand deals with video views in a locked range of under 120,000 views per video for all creators included in this study. This was done in order to compare CPMs of videos with similar views, therefore, removing varying view counts from having a material impact on the results ⁷ CPM is defined as “Cost Per Mille” or, more simply put, is the monetary compensation a creator receives from a brand per 1,000 views obtained on a sponsored YouTube video ⁸ The sponsored videos in this study will continue to accrue views indefinitely, thus, the CPMs will continue to decrease for all data points in Figure 3 but at a similar rate for all creators compared to the last publication and future iterations