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Measuring What Matters: 41 Professionals On The Tools, Frameworks, And Gaps Defining Creator Performance in 2026

Influencer Marketing is no longer fighting for budget. It’s fighting for proof

Author

Nii Ahene
February 17, 2026

U.S. brands were projected to spend more than $10 billion on sponsored content in 2025, yet nearly a third of marketers cited measuring creator performance as their top roadblock. At the same time, 61% of marketers plan to increase creator investment in 2026, despite persistent gaps in effectiveness frameworks.

The pressure is structural. The C-suite now holds creator marketing to the same standards as paid search, social, and programmatic media. But no single metric captures its full impact. Brands toggle between reach, engagement, conversions, brand lift, MMM models, and internal dashboards, often across platforms with inconsistent definitions and limited access to first-party data.

Measuring creator performance has become a multi-layered challenge.

To better understand how the industry is addressing this shift, we asked 41 professionals:

What tools or frameworks do you rely on to measure creator performance today, and what gaps still exist in analytics and attribution?

You're probably optimizing for the wrong things.

Most agency founders think buyers care about revenue growth or client roster. Then they get to the table and discover what actually drives multiples, usually too late.

Three people who've done the deals will tell you what matters:

Nii Ahene has sat on both sides. After selling his agency, he led acquisitions at Tinuiti, evaluating dozens of agencies and closing deals worth $750M total.

Kevin Simonson sold Metric Digital to Wpromote. He knows what he'd change about positioning and what didn't matter at all.

Andreas Roell runs M&A advisory firm Evros Group. He's guided dozens of sales and knows why some get premium multiples while others struggle.

February 19, they're breaking down the real factors: What kills deals? What's different about 2026? Where do founders waste time?

No fluff about "building enterprise value." Just specific decisions that move your multiple.

Worth joining if you're thinking about an exit or curious what your agency would actually sell for.