Influencer marketing has become a core component of how brands build awareness, trust, and consumer loyalty. Still, the way partnerships are actually being structured, disclosed, and timed tells a more complex story than the industry narrative may suggest. Despite growing conversations around long-term creator relationships, one-off collaborations still dominate across every major platform, compliance with disclosure requirements remains inconsistent, and campaign timing varies significantly from platform to platform. As brands increase their reliance on creators to drive measurable results, understanding how content is truly being distributed across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube has never been more critical.
To better understand how these partnerships are being structured and disclosed across platforms, The Influencer Marketing Factory partnered with Modash, an influencer marketing platform covering more than 380 million creator profiles, to analyze sponsored content activity across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. The research focuses on U.S.-based creators with predominantly English-language content, a minimum 30% U.S. audience share, and activity within the last 60 to 120 days. The dataset includes 2,341 Instagram creators (105,939 promoted posts), 3,156 TikTok creators (90,434 promoted posts), and 2,360 YouTube creators (120,019 promoted posts), all filtered for engagement quality and sponsored content activity.
After analyzing the results, The Influencer Marketing Factory identified five major findings, which include:
- TikTok has the highest ad disclosure rate of any social platform. TikTok leads all three platforms at 52% properly disclosed, nearly double Instagram's 29% and ahead of YouTube's 42%. Across all platforms, built-in disclosure tools dramatically outperform hashtags. Despite this, 61% of Instagram sponsored posts still have no visible disclosure label.
- YouTube is the best platform for long-term influencer partnerships. YouTube averages 13.5-month brand partnerships with a 50.9% repeat collaboration rate. In contrast, TikTok averages just 4.9 months, with 72% of creator relationships ending after a single collaboration. The platform a brand chooses determines whether it is building a sustained brand presence or running a one-time activation.
- Influencer campaign volume does not peak at the same time across all platforms. While Q4 accounts for 29-31% of annual collab volume across all three platforms, each has its own monthly rhythm. YouTube peaks in December (11.4%), Instagram in November (9.9%), and TikTok front-loads into January (12.1%) before hitting its annual low in May (5%). A coordinated multi-platform strategy requires three distinct budget calendars, not one.
- One-off influencer partnerships account for the majority of brand collaborations across all platforms. Single-activation relationships dominate everywhere ‒ 69% on Instagram, 72% on TikTok, and 49% on YouTube. However, YouTube's creator retention advantage holds across every follower tier, with repeat collaboration percentages ranging from 36-49%, compared to TikTok's 22-28%. Platform choice determines a brand's retention ceiling, regardless of creator size.
- YouTube's affiliate-first model stands in contrast to Instagram and TikTok's paid-first approach. Affiliate deals account for 52.9% of brand partnerships on YouTube ‒ surpassing paid (41.4%) and unspecified (4.7%) deal types. Unlike the flat-fee structures that dominate Instagram and TikTok, YouTube's affiliate model gives both brands and creators a built-in incentive to extend partnerships beyond a single post, directly contributing to longer average partnership lengths across all creator tiers.
Beyond the five core findings, the Brand Deals Report 2026 explores additional topics shaping influencer marketing strategy in 2026, including FTC disclosure guidelines for brands and creators, platform-specific deal structure breakdowns, a seasonality guide for optimizing campaign timing by platform, and a framework for building long-term ambassador programs.
Learn more about the findings and download The Brand Deals Report 2026 for free.
Explore the Data
In addition to the Brand Deals Report 2026, The Influencer Marketing Factory has released a free interactive dashboard where anyone can explore granular, creator-level brand deal data across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Filter by platform, category, follower tier, and more at no cost. Access the dashboard here: https://theinfluencermarketingfactory.com/brand-deal-analysis/
About The Influencer Marketing Factory
The Influencer Marketing Factory works with Fortune 500 companies, SMBs, and DTC brands on influencer strategy and execution. As a Meta Business Partner and TikTok Agency Partner, the firm maintains its position at the forefront of creator economy innovation.
