A Marketer Quit Her Job to Become a Full-time Influencer and Has Made $210,000 This Year. She Says 2024 Is the Year of the Midsize Creator. A recent report projected that U.S. marketer spending on sponsored social-media content will rise 16% this year to over $8 billion.

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

Influencer marketing has been on a growth tear recently, and midsize creators are one of the biggest beneficiaries, said former marketer Emmy Petit.

In June, Petit quit her full-time role at the firm Digital Voices to take her personal social-media career to the next level because of the money she saw pouring into the industry for influencers like her. She has over 100,000 followers on social media but under 1 million, which she categorizes as a midsize creator.

Petit's online audience has grown massively this year, from around 20,000 Instagram followers last December to 167,000 in July. The brand dollars are following suit.

Last year, Petit made $152,000 through brand deals while making content part-time, according to documentation of her earnings shared with Business Insider. In 2024, she's already hit $210,000 in six months because more brands are reaching out, and she's charging more per post.

"Most people I know are seeing year-over-year growth" in brand partnership income, Petit told BI, speaking about other midsize creators.

A recent report from Emarketer projected that US marketer spending on sponsored social-media content will rise by 16% this year to $8.14 billion. One reason advertising budgets are expanding is the demand for cross-platform sponsored content, Petit said — and it's giving midsize creators like her a chance to cash in. Posting the same photos and videos across different channels means that marketers find scale in ad campaigns, even when working with smaller creators, which allows them to commit larger budgets to the category. It also means they're increasingly looking to partner with talent who prioritize multiple social-media platforms.

"The volume of syndicated brand deals has increased significantly," Petit said. "Creators who are landing more partnerships all have the same thing in common; they post across multiple platforms, whether its Instagram reels syndicated to TikTok to YouTube shorts."

While Petit's largest audience is on Instagram, she's also asked in contracts with brands to post the same content for her audience of 50,9000 on TikTok and 3,000 on YouTube. This shift toward greater content syndication has changed the demand for the types of influencers who marketing firms and brands want to work with. Instead of micro and nano influencers who have smaller online audiences but very strong engagement, creators who have at least 100,000 followers are earning more lucratively.

"It's the year of the midsize creator," Petit said. "We're the most sought-after type of influencer this year."

A growing audience has pushed Petit and other midsize creators ahead

Today's mid-tier creators were the nano influencers and micro influencers of a few years ago, Petit said. As their audiences have grown bigger, their quality of content has improved, too. That's why more brands are now tapping this type of creator to partner with instead of those who are just starting out or even mega-creators with millions of followers.

A 2023 report by influencer-marketing agency Linqia found that over three-quarters of brands were looking to partner last year with influencers who have between 100,000 and 500,000 followers, surpassing micro influencers, who were previously the most in-demand.

"Brands who are ROI focused are looking to tap into communities with a bigger reach, they're looking for results," Petit said, referring to brands looking for a measurable return on investment.

She estimates creators of this scale charge between $3,000 and $5,000 per video on a platform, based on her previous role at Digital Voices, where she worked with hundreds of influencers.

Petit said some midsize creators are also achieving success by speaking directly to the camera, as though they're on FaceTime with their audience. She's tried the technique herself and said it generates more viewership and engagement. Brands are picking up on that and asking for these types of videos. In other words, gone are the days of the "perfectly curated, aesthetically pleasing" video or carousel post.

"When we wrote briefs to creators, we actually asked them to speak directly into the camera," she said, reflecting on her time at Digital Voices. "Brands want to double down on that type of content and it's becoming noticeably clear that they're putting paid spend behind it."