Ad spending in the US creator economy is on the rise and set to climb to US$37 billion by the end of the year, according to a new report that highlights how brands can mine this growth.

The 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report from trade association Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and research firm Advertiser Perceptions was released today, and it projects a 26% increase in industry ad spending compared to 2024. 

US annual creator economy spend from 2021 to an estimated 2025 and 2026. Courtesy of IAB.

Ad spending on creator deals has grown quickly as brands have begun treating this space as a distinct advertising channel, rather than leveraging creators for temporary, one-off social media pushes, IAB notes. 

It’s worth noting that this report is not kids- or media-specific, and it focuses on data from an online survey of 453 marketers in multiple industries, including retail, media, finance, auto, tech and telecom. But it dives into how brands are typically structuring their deals, and some of the biggest challenges that make these partnerships difficult. 

The report breaks down the four ways brands are spending ad dollars on creators: placing ads adjacent to creator content; paid amplification on social media; paid amplification that goes beyond social media; and partnerships to produce and post content. Ad spending is up across all four categories, and researchers predict it will climb again on all fronts in 2026. 

US annual creator economy ad spending by category, including direct partnerhsips to produce/post content. Courtesy of IAB.

Interestingly, most brands aren’t working with creators who have the biggest followings. More than half (61%) sign deals with “mid-tier” creators who have 50,000 to 500,000 followers. The report speculates that this is the follower-count sweet spot that delivers “a good balance of reach, content quality and affordability.” The percentages decrease the bigger the creator is. 

Brand owners who are worried about playing catch-up in this space aren’t alone. Spending on creators is still an emerging area, and most brand marketing budgets don’t have creator ad spend as a dedicated line item yet. Instead, 62% of brand marketers are pulling the money out of a social media budget or general advertising budget. 

Three in four brands use flat-fee payment deals with creators, signifying that simplified transactions are the norm in these partnerships. Some companies sign performance-based deals, while others bring creators in on a retainer, but flat-fee deals make a lot of sense for smaller brands that want certainty when it comes to costs and don’t have the resources to track ROI, the report notes. 

It’s important to know that creator deals come with their own potential issues. One-quarter of brand owners report challenges when it comes to working with sometimes unpredictable talent and controlling the quality of the content. And an even bigger problem that 32% of them say they face is simply finding the right creator. But after the deals have been signed and the content goes out, more than a third of brand owners (39%) said proving ROI was their biggest challenge, since it can be very difficult to measure just how much of an impact creators have had on driving business. 

It’s helpful to remember that the creator economy is still in a nascent stage, lacking infrastructure and standards. So to make getting into the market easier, the report suggests brand owners should consider finding trusted platforms to discover and vet creators, and building an internal workflow for finding, briefing and paying this emerging talent pool. 

Top image photo by Videodeck .co on Unsplash