For Top Creator Earners, Instagram Beats TikTok, Survey Finds

TikTok remains the starting point for most creators. The money at the top now flows to Instagram. A CreatorIQ survey of about 5,000 US creators, conducted from May to June, found 52% named TikTok their leading platform for branded content, compared with 43% for Instagram. Among creators earning more than $250,000 a year, the order flips: 60% call Instagram their main branded-content platform and 30% still pick TikTok. Instagram is part of Meta Platforms (META), and YouTube belongs to Alphabet (GOOGL). TikTok's parent, ByteDance, is private.

The pattern tracks what talent managers describe. Julia Kong, a beauty and cinema creator, said Instagram has replaced TikTok as her top revenue driver even though her TikTok following is still much larger. "It's what brands would prefer to reference when deciding whether or not to work with you," she said. Travis Percy, who posts about leadership, said he has also found Instagram to have more potential as his career has grown.

Tim Sovay, chief partnerships officer at CreatorIQ, said Instagram is "where brands are spending the most amount of dollars in the category, both in general paid media, but also with creators." The income split matches the way careers develop, he said. "So the nano-micro story starts on TikTok, and then you see people migrate into longer-term and bigger channels and bigger monetization on platforms like Instagram."

Where Creators Above $250,000 Post

Kyle Hjelmeseth, CEO of talent firm G&B Digital Management, said TikTok's appeal to Gen Z creators made sense as an entry point. The platform's political scrutiny capped its appeal, he said. "It's great for virality, it's great for finding an audience," he said. "Instagram is the platform that's been consistent and hasn't had any issues." He added that brands are now showing strong interest in both platforms.

Agency deal data points the same direction. At Illuminate Social, 64% of brand partnerships this year have involved Instagram, against 14% for TikTok, CEO Becca Bahrke said. She also said Instagram posts reach their potential audiences faster, so brands get results to evaluate sooner.

TikTok still leads among smaller creators. Upfluence data shows TikTok "micro" influencers saw a spike in average brand partnership rates in the first quarter from a year earlier. TikTok's own figures show the number of creators making branded-content deals through its platform grew 90% year over year through May, and creators with 50,000 followers or more saw monthly earnings rise 40% year over year.

Sovay pointed to TikTok's Spark Ads program, which lets brands pay to boost a creator's post, as a reason the platform works for less-established creators. TikTok Shop has also given small creators a route to affiliate revenue. TikTok positions the marketplace as open to accounts with as few as 1,000 followers.

EMARKETER, a sibling company of Business Insider, forecasts paid boosting will keep growing and roughly match what brands pay influencers for organic posts in the US by 2027. "Immediately boosting that content to hit your target audience with Spark Ads has been core to TikTok's strategy," Sovay said. "It's not to say that small creators don't work on Instagram or big creators don't work on TikTok."

The CreatorIQ survey ranked YouTube third overall at 23% as the platform with the best long-term business potential, behind Instagram at 38% and TikTok at 35%. Among creators who regularly publish on YouTube, more than half called it their most lucrative platform.

Lily Comba, CEO and cofounder of the marketing agency Superbloom, said Spark Ads rates have become increasingly competitive, and her firm is shifting more weight to YouTube as it plans into 2027. "The content has a much longer shelf life, audiences tend to be more intentional and engaged, and we're increasingly prioritizing YouTube for our clients as we plan into 2027," she said.