The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) published a 78-page report on August 27, 2026, titled "Influencer Marketing: Reducing Waste and Optimizing Investment." It breaks the influencer marketing process into 13 discrete steps and attaches 37 actionable recommendations for cutting waste. The report exists because of a question raised at ANA's board meeting on September 1: a board member asked the association to do for influencer marketing what it had already done for programmatic media — name where the waste is, then name the fix. For a brand marketer, the report itself matters less than what it now gives you standing to demand at your next contract renewal or agency review.
What exactly did ANA just publish?
"Influencer Marketing: Reducing Waste and Optimizing Investment" was built with input from client-side marketers and industry experts. It maps the influencer marketing process — from discovery through payment — into 13 discrete steps and ties 37 recommendations to them. The report's origin traces back to that September 1 ANA board meeting: as MediaPost reported the same day, a board member, asked what other media issue deserved attention, answered "Influencer marketing! Please do for influencer marketing what you did for programmatic media" — meaning identify where the waste lives and give marketers a way to address it.
What's the parallel to programmatic media?
The parallel the report draws is structural: both channels can route budget through multiple intermediaries standing between the marketer and the consumer. In programmatic, that means agencies, SSPs, DSPs, and data providers. In influencer marketing, it means agencies, talent representatives, technology providers, creator management organizations, production partners, and the influencers themselves. The report acknowledges these layers can add genuine expertise and operational support — but each additional one can also add cost, reduce transparency, and slow decisions. ANA's earlier work auditing the programmatic media supply chain reshaped how agencies disclose media costs industry-wide, which is exactly why the same organization applying that same lens to influencer marketing carries weight.
What was already known about the agency's cut?
Months before the September report, ANA published its first-ever "Influencer Marketing Agency Compensation" report in February 2026, surveying 84 client-side marketers. The headline finding: on average, 30% of influencer marketing spend goes to agencies, with the remaining 70% reaching the influencers themselves. A heavier number sits underneath that one — 61% of the senior marketers surveyed said their agency uses compensation models that are either explicitly non-transparent or unknown to them, and only about half said they had full visibility into what their agency actually pays creators on their behalf. That's the evidence base the September report leans on when it draws the programmatic comparison — this isn't a vague worry, it's a measured gap.
Which step do practitioners say hurts the most?
A survey fielded for the September report between June and July 2026 (78 respondents on the core questions) asked which of the 13 steps hurts most. Measurement topped the list as the hardest step, named by 67% of respondents. Negotiation and contracting came out on top as the step where the most recoverable waste hides, named by 60%. Vetting came in second at 54%. That ordering is a guide to where to spend limited review time: not evenly across all 13 steps, but negotiation and contracting first — since practitioners themselves flagged it as the biggest recovery opportunity — vetting second, and a separate block of time reserved for measurement, since it's the hardest to even assess cleanly.
What should go into the brief and contract before your next deal?
Check these before renewing a contract or selecting a new agency.
- Require a written breakdown of agency compensation before signing. Ask for creator fee, agency margin, technology cost, and production cost as separate line items — reject a single bundled total.
- Use ANA's average (30% to the agency) as your benchmark. If a proposed structure is markedly less transparent, or the agency won't itemize at all, ask why.
- Check whether you're in a principal media arrangement. If the agency buys with its own funds and resells at an undisclosed markup, you have no way to verify the original cost on your own. If that's the structure, add a separate audit-rights clause.
- Spend your review time on negotiation and contracting first. 60% of practitioners named this the step where recoverable waste is largest.
- Add an audit clause that lets you verify what creators were actually paid after the fact. A promise made at signing isn't enough on its own.
Example (a hypothetical, not a reported figure): on a $100,000 influencer budget, applying ANA's reported 30% average agency cut would put roughly $70,000 with creators and leave $30,000 split across agency margin, technology, and production. Without requiring that breakdown itemized before signing, there's no way to verify it after the contract is done.
Naming the waste doesn't make a budget transparent on its own — that line item still has to go into your contract. Want to see, in real numbers, what each creator on your roster is actually driving in sales? Get started.
