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Dec 19, 2025 - Creator Economy Ad Spending Soars

• US creator economy advertising spending is projected to reach $37 billion in 2025, up roughly 26% year‑over‑year and growing about four times faster than the overall media industry (5.7% growth) according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report. The creator economy - an ecosystem of independent digital content creators monetizing their audiences through ads, sponsorships, subscriptions, and merchandise - is increasingly treated as a distinct media channel. About 48% of advertisers call creator partnerships a “must buy,” just behind social media and paid search. Marketers use creator campaigns for awareness, audience reach, brand trust, and conversions, with 40% highlighting ROI as a key metric. Challenges remain around finding the right creators and standardizing measurement, while nearly three‑quarters of ad buyers plan to use AI to enhance efficiency, even as most worry about preserving human connection.
• A YouGov survey finds that most Americans are uneasy with targeted advertising, with about 54% saying personalized ads make them uncomfortable and only around 18% feeling comfortable. Ads based on browsing history are seen as especially intrusive, and many consumers say heavy targeting erodes trust or changes their online behavior. However, the data show people are not rejecting relevance itself; they want clearer explanations of data use, easier opt-out options, and more control, with younger consumers more accepting of targeting that relies on anonymized or aggregated data. For marketing consultants, this points to shifting clients toward consent-based, transparent personalization, greater use of contextual and privacy-safe data, and messaging that positions targeting as a customer benefit rather than covert tracking - helping preserve performance while rebuilding trust.

• AI is reconfiguring the advertising ecosystem in favor of large digital platforms, according to marketing consultancy Madison & Wall (M&W). US ad spending is expected to rise more than 8.5% this year, largely driven by AI-enabled ad targeting, creative tools, and audience engagement. Facebook, Google, and Amazon are projected to capture over 56% of the US ad market this year, per M&W, a 4% increase from two years ago. AI-driven improvements, such as enhanced recommendation engines that boost time on-site (Facebook reported a 5% increase in time spent in Q3) and generative-AI ad-creation tools, are enabling technology companies to increase ad volume, optimize production costs, and improve demographic targeting. At the same time, smaller media players and independent ad agencies face the squeeze: when platforms become more efficient and attractive to advertisers, those tech firms pull more ad dollars in-house, reducing the role of traditional agencies.
• AI search is shifting how brands compete for visibility, as search models increasingly summarize and synthesize responses instead of simply linking to ranked pages. According to StatCounter data, Google’s global market share dropped in April to its lowest since 2013, at 89.65%, while US share was 86.71%, with Bing at 7.5%. Google reports its AI Overviews feature has reached 1.5 billion monthly users. Semrush estimated ChatGPT processes 37.5 million search-style queries per day. Meanwhile, eMarketer forecasts AI agents may reduce ad exposure by 38% in discovery, 47% in consideration, and 30% at conversion. As a result, brands can no longer rely solely on keyword rankings - they must earn citations within AI responses, build authority across trusted sources, and craft content that AI systems can reference to maintain relevance and visibility in this evolving search landscape.