IAB, a trade association for the digital advertising and marketing industries, teamed up with market intelligence firm Advertiser Perceptions on the recently released 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report.
The two organizations surveyed more than 450 ad spend decision-makers in the U.S. who include creator marketing in their budgets, and they conducted qualitative interviews with senior-level marketing leaders, in an effort to analyze how brands and agencies are planning, buying, and measuring creator ad investment.
Open Influence expanded on five key insights from the report:
Hitching a Ride on the Growth Train
Creator economy ad spend in the U.S. more than doubled from 2021 through 2024, and IAB projected a 26% climb in 2025—a rate roughly four times higher than the 5.7% increase for the overall media industry—to $37 billion.
While double-digit growth is predicted for every category tracked by IAB, the trade association said retail and consumer packaged goods will be particularly prolific.
IAB added that all types of creator marketing ad spend are riding the growth train, including direct partnerships between brands and creators, amplification of those partnerships, and content adjacencies, or strategically placing ads next to specific types of content in order to increase their relevance and impact.
Creator marketing continues to claim its spot as a must buy and what IAB calls “a distinct, essential channel,” as it now trails only social media and paid search in terms of ad spend.
Coffee Is for Closers
While sales, or conversions, are essentially the end goal of every campaign, they have not been the sole focus of most creator marketing campaigns.
IAB pointed out that the top three goals of creator marketing campaigns have historically been building brand awareness, reaching new audiences, and enhancing the reputation of brands, but sales has claimed the No. 4 spot, giving creator marketing a foothold in all stops on the journey to purchase.
Brands have turned to creators as sales associates of sorts, looking to them to recommend their products and services across their social media presence.
The social platforms have climbed on board, as well, with robust social commerce features now a part of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
And brands themselves are partaking via actions such as tagging products on surfaces including live videos, posts, Reels, and Stories, and making that content instantly shoppable by customers without forcing them to leave the platform where they are consuming it.
Finding the Right Match
So, you are finally on board with launching a creator marketing campaign, but you’re missing one essential element: the creator.
The creator ecosystem can still have a bit of a Wild West feel to it, with a seemingly endless number of creators and sources of creators to choose from.
Agencies like Open Influence can help brands ensure that they are matched with creators who fit their audience and post on the most relevant platforms, and those creators are already vetted for characteristics such as audience quality, brand safety, and reputation, helping to quell the fears of brands worried about ending up with the wrong creator.
OI’s roster also includes creators with all types of follower bases, as agencies and brands have evolved their strategies from focusing on mega-influencers and celebrities to incorporating multiple tiers of creators into their campaigns, prioritizing brand alignment over follower count, and signaling a shift toward quality and brand safety.
Like It or Not, AI Is Here
“The industry is entering a tipping point where AI is no longer optional, but an increasingly integral part of how brands and creators plan, produce, and optimize content,” IAB wrote, noting that three out of four brands are using or plan to use the technology for tasks related to creator marketing.
According to IAB, nearly one-half of brands are using artificial intelligence to edit and personalize content, and roughly one-third are tapping the technology to create synthetic content, with other uses including efficiency, scalability, and content refinement.
Smaller brands with more limited resources are more likely to use AI as part of their creator marketing campaigns, IAB wrote, noting that brands of all sizes are still cautious about its effects.
Uses for AI in creator marketing include helping agencies and brands vet creators; mining data and other information from previous campaigns; real-time analysis of campaign data; automation of tasks; and strategy refinement via data-driven insights and qualitative data from surveys and customer feedback.
Can Measurement Improve?
IAB cited measurement, standards, and operational tools as the top opportunity areas for improvement in the creator marketing sector, adding that brands need better attribution capabilities and consistent reporting to determine how creator marketing is impacting their outcomes and do so across multiple platforms.
These challenges are most evident with return on investment, which IAB called the most common key performance indicator used in creator marketing campaigns, as well as the most difficult to quantify.
The two most used measurement sources are currently reporting from platforms and first-party data, with much lower use of business-level sources such as sales data, third-party measurement providers, and brand lift studies.
Multi-touch tracking factors in all of the marketing touch points a customer engages with on their way to conversion, including those where creators are involved, helping agencies and brands learn the true impact of each of those interactions and, in the case of creator marketing, how those creators impacted different stages of the journey to purchase.
How Open Influence Can Help
Open Influence is a global, award-winning creator marketing company, providing premium, end-to-end creator marketing solutions. Since 2013, we have been pioneering the creator economy, executing social-first strategies for over 1,500 top brands—including Uber, Subaru, Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Disney.
As a platform-agnostic and talent-agnostic partner, we connect brands with the right creators, on the right channels, to drive measurable impact and business growth. Contact us and schedule a 2026 creator strategy session today.