U.S. Creator Economy Spending Expected to Hit 37 Billion Dollars in 2025 as Growth Outpaces Media Industry

The creator economy is heading into another strong year. New figures from the IAB show advertiser spending rising toward 37 billion dollars in 2025, which puts the category far ahead of the broader media market’s growth rate. The pace reflects how quickly brands have shifted from treating creator work as a social add-on to treating it as its own line item.

The surge did not appear overnight. Spending stood at 13.9 billion dollars in 2021 and climbed to 29.5 billion dollars in 2024. The latest projection adds another 26 percent on top of that. The overall media sector sits near a mid single digit growth rate, so the gap between creator spending and the rest of the industry keeps widening.

Year	Ad Spend ($B)	YoY Growth
2021	$13.90	N/A
2022	$18.40	+32%
2023	$22.10	+20%
2024	$29.50	+34%
2025 (Estimated)	$37.10	+26%
2026 (Estimated)	$43.90	+18%

Brands now approach creators as a primary channel because they see evidence that these partnerships support several parts of the marketing funnel. Many use campaigns to build awareness and reach new groups, yet sales goals also rank near the top. A large share of buyers put return on investment at the center of their performance tracking. That focus explains why creator budgets have become more formalized inside companies.

Finding the right partners still creates friction. A sizable portion of advertisers see the search process as their biggest hurdle. Reputation matters the most, followed closely by audience alignment. Those two factors shape confidence and help companies judge whether a creator fits their goals. The landscape remains fragmented, which leaves teams sorting through different partnership models and scattered reporting formats.

AI has entered the workflow, mostly to handle editing tasks, brief preparation, and personalization. Adoption continues to rise because teams want efficiency, yet most advertisers are wary of leaning too heavily on automation. They worry about losing the sense of human connection that drives creator impact in the first place.

Measurement remains one of the toughest areas. Marketers often struggle to link creator content with downstream results. They want stronger attribution, steadier reporting, and tools that help them verify audiences. Discovery platforms and vetting systems also sit high on the wish list because they would make planning faster and reduce risk.

Industry data shows the strongest spending coming from retail, followed by consumer packaged goods, finance, apparel, tech, automotive, telecom, travel, and home categories. Health, wellness, and entertainment trail behind. Most advertisers work through platform managed programs such as YouTube and TikTok marketplaces. Partnerships through publishers and networks follow after that, while talent agencies play a smaller role in creator planning.

The IAB’s projection focuses on intentional creator spending such as direct partnerships, paid amplification, and planned placements next to creator content. It excludes revenue streams like subscriptions or merchandise sales. That narrow scope provides a clear view of how much money brands deliberately channel into creator work each year.

With another year of strong growth ahead, the creator economy keeps moving deeper into the center of media strategy. The momentum looks solid, but the path forward will depend on whether the industry can build the standards and measurement tools advertisers keep asking for.

Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools with human oversight.

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World