Nine out of 10 brands overspend their influencer budget on Instagram and TikTok relative to YouTube, according to Advertising Week contributor Gustav Lindell, co-founder and CEO of Pixly, even though YouTube remains the most-watched platform by a wide margin per Nielsen. The imbalance shows up in more than media spend. Most brands built their creator marketing teams around the short-form, fast-turnaround skills Instagram and TikTok reward, and that same team usually isn't equipped to run YouTube's longer-form, relationship-driven, search-indexed content model. The result is a hiring gap as much as a budget gap: brands need a distinct owner for long-form creator partnerships, one who can protect authenticity, think in compounding SEO terms, and tie creator content into the product and commerce calendar, not just repurpose a TikTok playbook onto a platform that runs on completely different rules.
In a piece for Advertising Week, Pixly co-founder and CEO Gustav Lindell laid out an uncomfortable truth about the modern marketing mix: the platform brands are missing the most opportunities on is YouTube, one of the oldest social platforms in existence. It's the most-watched platform by a wide margin according to Nielsen, and it consistently delivers the deepest engagement, the longest content shelf life, and the most scalable creator partnerships of any channel. Most brands still treat it like a side dish.
That's a media strategy problem, but it's also an org chart problem. A brand can't fix an under-resourced channel by moving budget alone if nobody on the team actually knows how to run that channel well. And running YouTube well takes a genuinely different skill set than running Instagram or TikTok.
The Budget Mistake Is Really a Hiring Mistake
That imbalance persists even though YouTube is the most-watched platform by a wide margin, per Nielsen, and offers deeper engagement, longer content shelf life, and more scalable creator partnerships than either Instagram or TikTok, according to Lindell's analysis for Advertising Week.
Budget follows org structure more often than the other way around. If a brand's creator marketing function was built and staffed around Instagram and TikTok, that's where the budget will keep flowing, not because YouTube performs worse, but because nobody on the team is incentivized, evaluated, or equipped to make the case for it. We see this constantly in the searches we run: a company decides it wants to "do more on YouTube," and only then discovers the person running creator marketing has spent their entire career optimizing for 15 and 30-second content cycles, not year-long creator relationships.
Why the YouTube Skill Set Isn't the Same as the TikTok Skill Set
Lindell's piece outlines several mistakes brands make on YouTube, and each one maps directly onto a hiring gap rather than just a tactical one.
Treating YouTube Like Repurposed TV, Not Creator-Native Content
Too many brands run polished, pre-produced ads on YouTube instead of native creator content, missing the trust a creator's own audience has already built. Nike still runs cinematic ads, but some of its most effective YouTube work has come from partnerships with fitness creators like Chloe Ting, who showcase gear inside real workouts rather than a repurposed commercial. That distinction requires someone who understands long-form creator content as its own discipline, not a shorter-form social hire asked to also "handle YouTube."
Over-Scripting Creators Instead of Setting Guardrails
Warner Bros. paid YouTubers to promote a video game but imposed strict content requirements, and audiences noticed the lack of authenticity. The FTC ultimately ruled the campaign deceptive. The lesson translates directly into a hiring requirement: brands need a creator relationship manager who can set clear disclosure and brand-safety guardrails, then let creators deliver the message in their own voice, a very different skill than writing a paid social script.
Undervaluing Compounding, Long-Term Content Value
Blendtec started uploading videos of its blenders destroying everyday objects back in 2006, and those videos are still racking up views nearly 20 years later. Instagram Stories and TikTok trends don't work that way. A brand needs someone who thinks in search and discovery terms, evergreen content strategy, not campaign-burst thinking, or that compounding value never materializes.
Isolating YouTube From the Bigger Commerce Picture
LEGO doesn't run YouTube as a separate lane. It weaves creator content into product cycles, collaborating with creators who develop and review new sets, then ties those videos into broader retail campaigns and launches. That integration needs someone who sits close enough to the product and commerce calendar to build YouTube in from the start, not bolt it on after a launch has already happened.
What This Actually Means for Who You Hire
None of this means every brand needs four new headcounts. It means the four functions above need a clear, named owner somewhere in the org, and at most brands today, none of them are explicitly assigned. That's the same pattern we flagged in our piece on TikTok Shop's K-beauty boom and Amazon's speed bet: a channel's growth doesn't wait for a brand to formalize ownership of it, and the brands that name an owner early are the ones who capture the upside instead of scrambling to catch up.
The gap isn't that brands lack creator marketing talent entirely. It's that the talent they have was hired and evaluated for Instagram and TikTok's short-form, high-volume cadence, and that skill set doesn't automatically transfer to YouTube's longer, trust-based, search-indexed model.
We covered the broader shift toward dedicated creator roles in our guide to the Creator Partnerships Manager, and this is a direct extension of that argument. A brand serious about closing the YouTube gap should be screening for someone who can negotiate long-form partnerships and brief creators on outcomes instead of scripts, someone accountable for brand safety and disclosure guardrails without over-controlling the content, and someone who ties creator output into the product launch calendar and commerce funnel, including YouTube Shopping and affiliate placements, the same integration logic we outlined in how to hire for TikTok Shop, just built around a completely different content rhythm.
Who Should Actually Own This
At most eCommerce and DTC brands, YouTube still reports up through the same social media manager who owns Instagram and TikTok, evaluated on the same short-cycle metrics. That's workable when YouTube is a minor line item. It stops being workable once a brand is competing against rivals who've named a real owner for long-form creator content, someone measuring success in the kind of compounding views and search traffic that Blendtec has been collecting for two decades, not a single week's engagement rate.
Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are not interchangeable, and brands that build a hiring plan as if they are will keep underinvesting in whichever platform doesn't match the skill set they already staffed for. Right now, for most eCommerce teams, that platform is YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do brands underinvest in YouTube compared to Instagram and TikTok?
According to Advertising Week contributor Gustav Lindell, co-founder and CEO of Pixly, nine out of 10 brands overspend their influencer budget on Instagram and TikTok relative to YouTube, even though YouTube is the most-watched platform by a wide margin according to Nielsen. Part of the reason is structural: most brands built their creator marketing teams around the short-form, fast-turnaround cadence that Instagram and TikTok reward, and that team doesn't automatically know how to run YouTube's longer, relationship-driven, search-indexed content model.
Is the YouTube creator marketing skill set different from Instagram and TikTok?
Yes. Instagram and TikTok reward high-volume, short-form content and fast campaign cycles. YouTube rewards long-form storytelling, deep creator trust, and content that keeps generating views and search traffic for years after it publishes. A social media manager hired and evaluated on short-form output isn't automatically equipped to negotiate a long-form creator partnership, set brand guardrails without over-scripting the creator, or think about a video's compounding SEO value months or years down the line.
What happens when brands over-script YouTube creators?
It undermines the trust that makes YouTube work in the first place. Warner Bros. paid YouTubers to promote the video game Shadow of Mordor but imposed strict content requirements, and audiences noticed the lack of authenticity. The FTC ultimately ruled the campaign deceptive. Brands that succeed on YouTube set clear guardrails around disclosure and brand safety, then let creators deliver the message in their own voice, which requires a creator relationship manager rather than a paid social copywriter.
What roles should eCommerce brands hire for to run YouTube well?
At minimum, brands need a long-form creator partnerships owner who can brief creators on outcomes rather than scripts, someone responsible for brand safety and disclosure guardrails without over-controlling content, a content strategist who thinks in search and discovery terms rather than campaign bursts, and an owner who ties creator content into the product launch calendar and commerce funnel, including YouTube Shopping and affiliate links. Few brands have all four responsibilities assigned to a specific person today.
How is a YouTube creator partnerships hire different from a TikTok Shop hire?
A TikTok Shop hire is built for speed: livestream commerce, affiliate programs, and content that converts inside the app within days. A YouTube-focused hire is built for compounding value: negotiating fewer, deeper creator relationships, protecting long-form authenticity, and measuring success over months and years rather than a single campaign window. Brands that staff both channels with the same generalist usually end up under-resourcing whichever one doesn't match that person's instincts, which is most often YouTube.