Creator management agencies are increasingly being discovered through AI search, with a small number of firms capturing the majority of mentions when creators and brand-side buyers turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI products to research the category.
To better understand this shift, Net Influencer has partnered with AEO/SEO agency Grow and Convert, leveraging their Traqer AI Visibility platform to do a deep dive on which creator management agencies AI models surface when content creators and marketing professionals ask for recommendations. According to Grow and Convert’s analysis, 144 agencies surfaced across a standardized set of buyer-style queries run on five major AI platforms, with visibility heavily concentrated at the top of the list.
The analysis tracked how often each agency appeared in AI responses to nine prompts run across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode.
Methodology
Prompts ranged from broad (“Creator management agencies”) to specific buyer queries (“What’s the best creator management agency for a mid-sized creator who is just starting to monetize seriously?” and “What are the best creator management agencies for podcasters and long-form content creators?”). The query set was designed to mirror how content creators across platforms, and the brand teams working with them, actually research the agency landscape before making contact.
The Universe of Agencies
According to Grow and Convert’s analysis, 144 agencies were mentioned at least once across all 45 query runs. That figure represents the full set of firms surfaced across the tested queries. The broader creator management market includes many more firms, suggesting that many agencies in the category did not surface in any AI response across the tested queries.
How the Visibility Score Works
Each agency’s visibility score reflects the percentage of total query runs where it appeared in an AI response. An agency that surfaced in every query would score 100%. An agency that surfaced in roughly half would score 50%.
Grow and Convert’s data segments scores into four ranges:
60% and above (Default Recommendation): The model cites the agency across most queries on most platforms. Buyers running almost any version of an agency search will encounter the name.
30% to 59% (Strong Consideration Set): The agency reliably surfaces on multiple platforms for multiple query types. Buyers will see the name often, depending on phrasing and platform.
15% to 29% (Selective Visibility): The agency shows up for specific queries or specific platforms. A buyer might encounter the name once across several searches, or not at all on certain AI engines.
Below 15% (Long Tail): The model surfaced the agency once or twice across 45 runs. Buyers running a small number of searches have a low probability of seeing the name in their results.
The Top 10
Rank
Company
Visibility Score
Strongest Platforms
1
Viral Nation
71%
ChatGPT, Gemini
2
The Influencer Marketing Factory
53%
ChatGPT, Perplexity
3
Ubiquitous
33%
AIO, Gemini
4
Obviously
24%
ChatGPT, Perplexity
5
inBeat
22%
ChatGPT, AIO
6
HireInfluence
18%
ChatGPT, Gemini
7
NeoReach
18%
ChatGPT, Gemini
8
Shine Talent Group
13%
Perplexity, AI Mode
9
Neon Rose Agency
13%
Perplexity, ChatGPT
10
Select Management Group
13%
AI Mode, Perplexity
Viral Nation is the only agency in the entire dataset to clear the default recommendation threshold. Two additional agencies, The Influencer Marketing Factory and Ubiquitous, sat in the strong consideration tier. Four agencies in the top 10 fell into the selective visibility tier, while the final three ranked agencies fell into the long tail. Every agency outside the top 10 also fell into the long tail. Several agencies tied at 13%; the top 10 reflect the ranking order supplied by Grow and Convert.
What the Data Shows
Viral Nation led all tracked agencies at 71% visibility, 18 percentage points clear of second-place The Influencer Marketing Factory at 53%. According to Grow and Convert, this is the strongest performance by a single agency relative to its field among the verticals covered in this index series, with Viral Nation crossing the default recommendation threshold that no agency reached in the UGC agency, TikTok Shop agency, or talent management agency categories.
The top three agencies, Viral Nation, The Influencer Marketing Factory, and Ubiquitous, showed meaningful presence across at least three of the five AI platforms. By rank 4, scores drop to 24% and continue declining steeply. Agencies ranked 8 through 10 all scored 13%, already well into long-tail territory by the standard definitions.
The dataset is notable for its breadth: 144 agencies surfaced across 45 query runs. Grow and Convert said that represented the largest universe of any vertical covered in the index series. The query set’s platform and format specificity, including YouTubers, TikTok creators, Instagram fashion creators, podcasters, appears to have broadened the field of agencies AI models considered relevant, drawing in specialized firms that wouldn’t surface for broader agency queries. Despite this, the top of the list remains highly concentrated.
Several firms with established market recognition appear in the lower tiers. Billion Dollar Boy, The Goat Agency, Whalar, and Linqia all ranked below 10%, and traditional Hollywood representation firms, including CAA, WME, and UTA, surfaced in single-digit scores, well below where they appeared in the talent management agency query set.
Concentration and Drop-Off
The drop-off between ranked agencies is steep. Viral Nation sits at 71%. By rank 11, Night Media scores 13%. By rank 12, The Goat Agency reaches 11%, and the field drops to 9% before falling to 7% and then 4% for a large portion of the list. Agencies scoring 2%, the floor of the dataset, account for more than half of all 144 ranked firms.
One agency cleared 60% visibility, and three agencies cleared 30% overall. The remaining 141 scored at 24% or below, with the large majority scoring 4% or below. The top two agencies, Viral Nation and The Influencer Marketing Factory, account for a disproportionate share of total mentions in the dataset.
The bottom tier of the 144-ranked agencies scored 2%, indicating those firms appeared once across all 45 query runs.
According to Grow and Convert, this level of concentration exceeds the gap between top and bottom rankings observed for comparable query sets in traditional Google search results.
Platform Distribution
Total mentions were relatively balanced across the five AI platforms tested compared to other verticals in this series. ChatGPT produced 71 mentions, Gemini 70, AI Mode 81, AIO 63, and Perplexity 66. The narrow spread across platforms indicates that creator management agency recommendations are more evenly indexed across AI engines than categories like TikTok Shop agencies, where AI Mode dominated. Multiple agencies showed strong presence on ChatGPT and Gemini while remaining near-absent on AIO, indicating that visibility is still not uniform across engines.
Citation Sources
The data also tracked which domains AI models referenced when generating their answers. The most frequently cited sources included influencer-hero.com with 20 references, joinbrands.com with 17, freshcontentsociety.com with 16, jiveprdigital.com with 14, and reddit.com with 13. Aggregator and listicle-style content from these domains, along with creator community discussions on Reddit, accounted for a significant share of the source material AI models drew from when forming agency recommendations.
How the Rankings Were Calculated
Rankings were generated by Grow and Convert using 9 prompts run across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Prompts covered general agency searches and specific buyer queries related to mid-sized creator monetization, YouTube brand deals and sponsorships, TikTok long-term brand partnerships, Instagram fashion and lifestyle creators, and podcaster and long-form content creator management. A mention is counted when an AI response names the agency in its answer. The visibility score reflects the percentage of prompts where the agency appeared across all platforms. Citation source data captures which domains AI models referenced when generating their answers.
Full rankings, prompt-level detail, and source citations are available on the Grow and Convert ranking page for this vertical.
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
Creator management agencies are increasingly being discovered through AI search, with a small number of firms capturing the majority of mentions when creators and brand-side buyers turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI products to research the category.
To better understand this shift, Net Influencer has partnered with AEO/SEO agency Grow and Convert, leveraging their Traqer AI Visibility platform to do a deep dive on which creator management agencies AI models surface when content creators and marketing professionals ask for recommendations. According to Grow and Convert’s analysis, 144 agencies surfaced across a standardized set of buyer-style queries run on five major AI platforms, with visibility heavily concentrated at the top of the list.
The analysis tracked how often each agency appeared in AI responses to nine prompts run across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode.
Methodology
Prompts ranged from broad (“Creator management agencies”) to specific buyer queries (“What’s the best creator management agency for a mid-sized creator who is just starting to monetize seriously?” and “What are the best creator management agencies for podcasters and long-form content creators?”). The query set was designed to mirror how content creators across platforms, and the brand teams working with them, actually research the agency landscape before making contact.
The Universe of Agencies
According to Grow and Convert’s analysis, 144 agencies were mentioned at least once across all 45 query runs. That figure represents the full set of firms surfaced across the tested queries. The broader creator management market includes many more firms, suggesting that many agencies in the category did not surface in any AI response across the tested queries.
How the Visibility Score Works
Each agency’s visibility score reflects the percentage of total query runs where it appeared in an AI response. An agency that surfaced in every query would score 100%. An agency that surfaced in roughly half would score 50%.
Grow and Convert’s data segments scores into four ranges:
The Top 10
Viral Nation is the only agency in the entire dataset to clear the default recommendation threshold. Two additional agencies, The Influencer Marketing Factory and Ubiquitous, sat in the strong consideration tier. Four agencies in the top 10 fell into the selective visibility tier, while the final three ranked agencies fell into the long tail. Every agency outside the top 10 also fell into the long tail. Several agencies tied at 13%; the top 10 reflect the ranking order supplied by Grow and Convert.
What the Data Shows
Viral Nation led all tracked agencies at 71% visibility, 18 percentage points clear of second-place The Influencer Marketing Factory at 53%. According to Grow and Convert, this is the strongest performance by a single agency relative to its field among the verticals covered in this index series, with Viral Nation crossing the default recommendation threshold that no agency reached in the UGC agency, TikTok Shop agency, or talent management agency categories.
The top three agencies, Viral Nation, The Influencer Marketing Factory, and Ubiquitous, showed meaningful presence across at least three of the five AI platforms. By rank 4, scores drop to 24% and continue declining steeply. Agencies ranked 8 through 10 all scored 13%, already well into long-tail territory by the standard definitions.
The dataset is notable for its breadth: 144 agencies surfaced across 45 query runs. Grow and Convert said that represented the largest universe of any vertical covered in the index series. The query set’s platform and format specificity, including YouTubers, TikTok creators, Instagram fashion creators, podcasters, appears to have broadened the field of agencies AI models considered relevant, drawing in specialized firms that wouldn’t surface for broader agency queries. Despite this, the top of the list remains highly concentrated.
Several firms with established market recognition appear in the lower tiers. Billion Dollar Boy, The Goat Agency, Whalar, and Linqia all ranked below 10%, and traditional Hollywood representation firms, including CAA, WME, and UTA, surfaced in single-digit scores, well below where they appeared in the talent management agency query set.
Concentration and Drop-Off
The drop-off between ranked agencies is steep. Viral Nation sits at 71%. By rank 11, Night Media scores 13%. By rank 12, The Goat Agency reaches 11%, and the field drops to 9% before falling to 7% and then 4% for a large portion of the list. Agencies scoring 2%, the floor of the dataset, account for more than half of all 144 ranked firms.
One agency cleared 60% visibility, and three agencies cleared 30% overall. The remaining 141 scored at 24% or below, with the large majority scoring 4% or below. The top two agencies, Viral Nation and The Influencer Marketing Factory, account for a disproportionate share of total mentions in the dataset.
The bottom tier of the 144-ranked agencies scored 2%, indicating those firms appeared once across all 45 query runs.
According to Grow and Convert, this level of concentration exceeds the gap between top and bottom rankings observed for comparable query sets in traditional Google search results.
Platform Distribution
Total mentions were relatively balanced across the five AI platforms tested compared to other verticals in this series. ChatGPT produced 71 mentions, Gemini 70, AI Mode 81, AIO 63, and Perplexity 66. The narrow spread across platforms indicates that creator management agency recommendations are more evenly indexed across AI engines than categories like TikTok Shop agencies, where AI Mode dominated. Multiple agencies showed strong presence on ChatGPT and Gemini while remaining near-absent on AIO, indicating that visibility is still not uniform across engines.
Citation Sources
The data also tracked which domains AI models referenced when generating their answers. The most frequently cited sources included influencer-hero.com with 20 references, joinbrands.com with 17, freshcontentsociety.com with 16, jiveprdigital.com with 14, and reddit.com with 13. Aggregator and listicle-style content from these domains, along with creator community discussions on Reddit, accounted for a significant share of the source material AI models drew from when forming agency recommendations.
How the Rankings Were Calculated
Rankings were generated by Grow and Convert using 9 prompts run across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Prompts covered general agency searches and specific buyer queries related to mid-sized creator monetization, YouTube brand deals and sponsorships, TikTok long-term brand partnerships, Instagram fashion and lifestyle creators, and podcaster and long-form content creator management. A mention is counted when an AI response names the agency in its answer. The visibility score reflects the percentage of prompts where the agency appeared across all platforms. Citation source data captures which domains AI models referenced when generating their answers.
Full rankings, prompt-level detail, and source citations are available on the Grow and Convert ranking page for this vertical.
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