The Creator Economy (aka. Influencers) Is No Longer a Side Hustle, It’s a Serious Ad Channel!
Wednesday December 10, 2025
The 2025 report from Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), covered in Marketing Dive’s piece “Creator ad spend to reach $37B as marketers turn to AI for scale,” shows something big: brands are treating creator-driven content as a serious, central part of their marketing mix. (Marketing Dive)
• According to IAB’s forecast, U.S. ad spend on the “creator economy” is expected to hit $37 billion in 2025. That’s a 26% increase over 2024 ($29.5B) — and nearly three times the $13.9B spent in 2021. (Marketing Dive)
• For context: that kind of growth rate (≈ 4× faster than the overall media industry’s growth) signals that creator content isn’t just a fad — it’s rapidly becoming a foundational component of how brands reach audiences.(PR Newswire)
So if your blog or business has ever questioned whether influencer/creator marketing is “just for niche brands,” this data suggests otherwise: creator-focused ads have entered mainstream budgets.
What’s Driving the Surge in Creator Ad Spend
According to the IAB survey (which asked over 450 ad-spend decision-makers), several recurring themes explain the surge:
1. Built-in audience & cultural relevance. Creators already have followers, trust, and an established voice — giving brands a kind of “ready-made channel” that cuts through ad clutter, especially among younger, ad-avoidant audiences.(Marketing Dive)
2. Performance across the funnel. The goals aren’t just awareness: while 43% of marketers cited “building brand awareness” as a top goal, 41% were focused on “reaching new audiences.” Meanwhile nearly a third also prioritized driving conversions or online sales — showing creators are being used end-to-end in the marketing funnel. (Marketing Dive)
3. ROI-driven mindset. About 40% of respondents said overall return on investment (ROI) was their top metric for creator campaigns. That signals a shift: the creator economy isn’t just for “cool branding” — it’s increasingly treated like a performance marketing channel. (Marketing Dive)
In short: creators aren’t just entertainers — they’re distribution channels, audience amplifiers, and conversion drivers.
AI + Creators: Scaling Creatorship, But Not Without Hurdles
The IAB report — and the Marketing Dive summary — highlight that AI is playing a key role in enabling this growth. (Marketing Dive)
• Roughly three-quarters of creator-ad buyers say they currently use, or plan within a year to use, AI to scale their creator-marketing efforts.(Marketing Dive)
• Use cases are diverse: 49% use AI for content editing, 46% forcreator briefs, and 45% forcontent personalization.(Marketing Dive)
But — and this is important — with those gains come new challenges. Many advertisers remain concerned about AI’s impact on authenticity and human connection. According to the report, 95% of them flagged this as a concern. (Marketing Dive)
Plus, classic hurdles remain:
• Finding the right creator — 1 in 3 advertisers named this as their top challenge.(Marketing Dive)
• Attribution and measurement — many want better reporting, standardized metrics, and clearer ways to verify audience authenticity.(Marketing Dive)
In short: AI helps marketers scale and streamline, but you can’t fully automate trust, relevance, or creative judgment.
What This Means for Brands Moving Forward
Most of our clients aren’t necessarily a good fit for creator marketing, however it doesn’t mean that other brands shouldn’t look into this, sincerely. Some things to consider:
• If you haven’t dipped much into creator marketing yet, 2026 is probably a moment to reconsider. With $37B behind the channel, creator campaigns can’t be written off as “experimental.”
• Use of AI in this space can offer efficiency upside — especially for scaling content, personalization, or campaign logistics. But don’t treat AI as a magic bullet: human-led creativity, vetting, and strategy still matter.
Final Thoughts:
When I started writing about creators and influencer marketing years ago, the tone was often experimental: “Can this work? Is this just hype?” Now, thanks to data like IAB’s $37B projection it’s clear the creator economy has matured into a serious part of the ad ecosystem.
Yet, it remains fundamentally different from traditional media. The reasons: creators are personal, their audiences trust them, and campaigns can feel like “real conversations,” not glossy adverts. AI may help amplify reach and efficiency but the core value still lies in human relationships and creative authenticity.
If you’re building a brand, launching a business, or thinking about monetization online: now’s a smart time to pay attention to creators and to think seriously about how they might fit into your strategy.