Dispatch
CPM Alert
YouTube mid-roll CPMs up 18% MoM in Finance niche
Feb 24 — Q1 trend
Brand Deal
SaaS sponsors paying $45 CPM for 100K–500K channels
Algorithm
TikTok Shop commission structure revised — 8% → 5% for electronics
Creator Economy Intelligence
CPM benchmarks, brand-deal rate cards, algorithm shifts, and platform moves — distilled into a five-minute morning read.
Today's Wall
Sample cards from the archive. Your edition arrives before 7 AM with the overnight moves that matter.
Finance niche average
Mid-tier channels (100K–500K) in personal finance are commanding a 31% premium over the platform average. Brands like Betterment and YNAB are signing 3-month exclusives.
Source: Dispatch Research Desk
Original audio vs. library
Internal testing by three analytics firms confirms Shorts with original audio are receiving a 2.4× discovery boost vs. tracks from the library. Applies to channels under 200K first.
Source: Three independent analytics firms
Annual deal value
The 380K-subscriber productivity creator structured his deal as a quarterly content calendar, not per-video. Notion paid for exclusivity in the productivity vertical through Q3.
Managers in Australia, Brazil, and Germany can now access direct brand-matching for clients with 25K+ followers. Commission floor drops from 15% to 10% for deals under $5K.
Median open rate — creator newsletters
Creator economy newsletters are outperforming every other B2C vertical. Median open rate sits at 44.2%, with top-quartile operators seeing 61%+.
Source: Beehiiv Q1 2026 Benchmark Report
Actively pitching migration
At least 12 management firms with 50+ client rosters have begun pitching Substack migration packages. The pitch: own your audience before the next ban scare.
Podcast mid-rolls now average $28 CPM for 50K–150K listener shows. YouTube integrations in the same audience tier are at $38. The gap reflects brand confidence in attribution.
With native sponsorship tag
B2B creators can now tag sponsored content natively. LinkedIn reports that sponsored posts with the new tag see 19% higher reach due to trust signals in the feed algorithm.
Three sources confirm Squarespace is renegotiating its entire influencer program after Q4 attribution data showed 60% of conversions came from fewer than 15% of creators. Expect tighter vetting.
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Q1 2026 Benchmark
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