Creator marketing has opened the door for brands to work with voices beyond celebrities and large influencers. Micro and niche creators have become particularly valuable because they often speak to specific communities and have a more personal relationship with their audiences. But YouTube’s tighter monetisation requirements from February 2027 could make the path harder for creators who are still trying to build an audience and turn content into a sustainable source of income.
One clarification is important. The new threshold applies to ad and YouTube Premium revenue eligibility for new applicants, rather than every form of monetisation on the platform. New creators seeking entry into the ad revenue sharing programme will need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views, compared with the current 4,000 hours or 10 million Shorts views. Creators can still work with brands without meeting these numbers, but the wait for YouTube revenue could become longer.
For creators who have spent years trying to reach that point, the prospect is particularly significant. Content creator Jigyasa Bhatt, who recently got her YouTube channel monetised after almost seven years, knows how long that road can be. “As a creator, you already go through a lot of struggles–no stable earnings, no sense of security and facing society’s endless criticism,” she remarks.
Bhatt says the uncertainty does not end once a creator starts gaining traction. Brand collaborations can be inconsistent, while payments can sometimes take months to arrive. “One month you may get good collaboration opportunities, the other month you won’t,” she says. In that environment, YouTube monetisation can become more than an additional income stream. It can provide a degree of stability.
That is why a higher threshold could have consequences beyond the numbers on a YouTube dashboard. Bhatt believes creators who are just starting out may find the road discouraging if monetisation feels even further away. “Making the criteria more difficult may lead to people giving up more easily, or they may not even try to do what they really want to,” she says.
For brands, however, the concern is different. A tougher route to monetisation could encourage marketers to rely more heavily on creators who are already established, creating greater competition for a relatively small group of proven names.
Baani Chugh, Founder, Jammin Digital, says this could happen, particularly in the short term, as brands look for creators who appear to offer greater certainty. But she warns against making monetisation a shortcut for credibility. Micro and nano creators often bring “a distinct voice, a close-knit community and genuine relevance within a niche”, she says. If brands concentrate too heavily on established names, campaigns could become more repetitive and lose some of the diversity that makes creator marketing effective.
Her suggestion is for brands to keep part of their budgets open for emerging talent, while giving newer creators clearer content and compliance guidelines. That would allow marketers to manage risk without shutting out creators who are still building their audiences.
Garima Kakkar, Co-founder, Fraganote, believes some brands may initially lean towards established and monetised creators because they appear to be the safer choice. “Brands tend to default to safety when a platform’s rules tighten,” she says. But she sees a problem with relying too heavily on that approach. If brands keep choosing from the same pool, they could end up paying more while losing the freshness that emerging creators bring to campaigns.
Monetisation, after all, does not necessarily indicate influence. Kakkar says a creator can have a modest following and still move products effectively because their audience trusts them. “Monetisation status tells you a creator has cleared a platform’s bar. It doesn’t tell you whether their audience trusts them,” she says.
Chugh agrees that monetisation can offer some reassurance to brands, but says it should remain only one part of the evaluation. For her, audience quality, conversations in the comments and a creator’s influence within a category are stronger indicators of potential performance. A smaller, non-monetised creator with an engaged community, she argues, can deliver better results than a larger channel with passive viewers.
That distinction could become increasingly important as agencies assess creators. A monetisation badge can tell a brand that a creator has met YouTube’s eligibility requirements, but it cannot tell marketers whether audiences trust that creator, whether they will act on a recommendation or whether the creator fits the brand.
That distinction is likely to matter more to agencies as they assess creators. Vibhor Gulati, Founder, Defodio Digital, says audience quality, retention, content consistency, category relevance, regional influence and the ability to drive action will be more useful signals than simply knowing whether a channel is monetised. Average views, watch time, repeat viewership, comments and audience geography can tell brands more about a creator’s actual influence.
The economics could also get more complicated. If brands put more money behind established creators, their rates could rise as demand grows. Chugh says a smaller pool of eligible creators could give established names more room to command higher fees, particularly in categories where only a handful of creators combine strong influence with a brand-safe content history.
Brands could respond by reserving larger budgets for proven creators while keeping smaller pools of money for testing emerging talent. But Baani points out that newer creators do not need to rely on YouTube advertising revenue to prove their commercial value. Affiliate links, creator-led commerce and performance-based payouts can give brands other ways to work with them.
That could eventually create two clearer segments within creator marketing: established creators commanding a premium for scale and predictability, and emerging creators being judged more closely on engagement and outcomes. The challenge for marketers will be managing the risk without closing the door on fresh talent.
For agencies, this puts greater importance on scouting. Prince Khanna, Founder and CEO, Eleve Media, says agencies will need to identify promising creators before they become obvious choices for every brand. Established creators will continue to matter, particularly for large launches where predictable reach is important. But emerging creators can give brands access to smaller communities with strong engagement and trust.
A two-tier creator economy is therefore possible, but it may not be as simple as monetised versus non-monetised. Established creators already have an advantage because brands know what to expect from them. They have performance data, proven reach and the infrastructure to handle larger campaigns. Smaller creators are still building those credentials, even when their audiences are highly engaged.
For creators, however, the issue is also about whether there is enough incentive to stay the course. Bhatt says the number of people creating content may be growing rapidly, but that does not make the job easier. “The difficulties won’t decrease because of this,” she says. Unpredictable brand opportunities, delayed payments and the lack of stable earnings can make the early stages particularly difficult.
India’s creator economy makes this question even more relevant. Kofluence’s 2026 report estimates that India’s influencer marketing sector was worth ₹3,000-3,500 crore in 2025 and could reach ₹4,500-5,000 crore by 2027. An ISB and HashFame study found that 66% of India’s creators came from non-metro markets in 2025. Much of the next wave of talent, therefore, may come from creators who are not yet obvious to brands.
For marketers, using monetisation as a hard filter could mean missing those voices. Agencies that can identify creators early, understand their audiences and help brands build relationships with them could have an advantage.
Bhatt’s own experience also offers a reminder of what sits behind a monetised channel. Seven years of creating content came before that milestone. And despite the tougher road ahead, she says she would still encourage India’s young creators to start. “India has a huge and vital amount of talented and passionate youth,” she says. “I personally, as a creator, would always hope that these people come up and create no matter what the criteria is.”
The challenge for YouTube is not simply whether more creators can reach monetisation. It is what happens to the ones who are still trying. For brands and agencies, the answer may lie in looking beyond the monetisation badge and finding creators whose audiences are already listening, even if the platform has not started paying them yet.
