UK creator revenue will pass £1bn this year, IAB UK finds

Money paid to creators by UK brands will pass £1bn for the first time this year. The first dedicated measurement of the market, published by IAB UK with the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics on 15 September, puts creator partnership revenue at £966m in 2025 and forecasts £1.217bn for 2026, a rise of 26 per cent.

The 2025 figure was itself up 20 per cent on 2024, more than double the 9.6 per cent growth of the rest of digital advertising, which makes creators one of the fastest-growing corners of the market. At £966m they accounted for around 2.4 per cent of the UK’s official £40.5bn ad spend, as Marketing Week reported.

That number is smaller than it sounds, and larger. It excludes paid amplification, the media money spent pushing creator content beyond a creator’s own audience, which respondents to the study put at two to three times the partnership fees. Count that and the real creator economy in UK advertising is closer to £3bn to £4bn, at which point it stops being a line in the social budget and starts competing with television.

The mood music agrees. Ninety-three per cent of UK brands and agencies expect to increase influencer spend in the next twelve months. Connie Hawker, who leads TV+ and creator work at IAB UK, described creators as an increasingly important part of the advertising ecosystem, and We Are Social’s Paul Greenwood argued the partnerships are getting longer and more sophisticated as the industry around them matures.

The more interesting shift is in what the money buys. Two weeks ago Rightmove told this site it had put influencer activity into its econometric model and found strong long-term effects, and Marketing Week this morning carried an argument that the pay-per-post deal is giving way to equity, royalties and revenue shares. A channel that gets measured like television and contracted like talent is no longer a tactic.

What it still lacks is a rule book to match, which is why the ASA’s disclosure rules matter more every year the number grows. A billion pounds of advertising that many viewers do not recognise as advertising is a regulator’s problem as much as a marketer’s opportunity.