{
    "question": "How much do US advertisers spend on social media and creators?",
    "answer": "US social media advertising brought in $117.7 billion in 2025, up 32.6% from $88.8 billion in 2024, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report (April 2026). That is 40.0% of all US internet ad revenue. Brands also spent about $37 billion on creator advertising, which IAB projects will reach $44 billion in 2026.",
    "period": "2025",
    "key_numbers": [
        {
            "value": "$117.7B",
            "label": "US social media ad revenue",
            "note": "IAB/PwC, 2025, up 32.6%",
            "stat": "marketing/us-social-media-ad-revenue"
        },
        {
            "value": "40.0%",
            "label": "Social's share of US internet ad revenue",
            "note": "IAB/PwC, 2025; formats overlap"
        },
        {
            "value": "$37B",
            "label": "US creator advertising spend",
            "note": "IAB, 2025; $44B projected for 2026",
            "stat": "marketing/us-creator-ad-spend"
        },
        {
            "value": "74%",
            "label": "Creator ad buyers who call social media a must-buy",
            "note": "IAB creator report, 453 buyers, Jul-Aug 2025"
        },
        {
            "value": "37.4%",
            "label": "Marketers planning to raise paid social spend",
            "note": "HubSpot, 2026, vendor survey"
        }
    ],
    "tables": [
        {
            "id": "formats",
            "title": "Social media against other US ad formats, 2024 and 2025",
            "columns": [
                "Format",
                "2024",
                "2025",
                "Growth"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Social media",
                    "$88.8B",
                    "$117.7B",
                    "+32.6%"
                ],
                [
                    "Search",
                    "$102.9B",
                    "$114.2B",
                    "+11%"
                ],
                [
                    "Display",
                    "$74.3B",
                    "$81.6B",
                    "+9.8%"
                ],
                [
                    "Digital video",
                    "$62.1B",
                    "$78B",
                    "+25.4%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "fmt-social",
                "fmt-search",
                "fmt-display",
                "fmt-video"
            ],
            "note": "Formats overlap: social video counts in both social media and digital video. IAB still says search holds the largest share of revenue dollars.",
            "source": "iab"
        },
        {
            "id": "creator-spend",
            "title": "US creator economy ad spend by year",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Creator ad spend",
                "Growth"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2021",
                    "$13.9B",
                    "Not reported"
                ],
                [
                    "2022",
                    "$18.4B",
                    "+32%"
                ],
                [
                    "2023",
                    "$22.1B",
                    "+20%"
                ],
                [
                    "2024",
                    "$29.5B",
                    "+34%"
                ],
                [
                    "2025 (estimate)",
                    "$37.1B",
                    "+26%"
                ],
                [
                    "2026 (projection)",
                    "$43.9B",
                    "+18%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "creator-2021",
                "creator-2022",
                "creator-2023",
                "creator-2024",
                "creator-2025",
                "creator-2026"
            ],
            "note": "IAB Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report (November 2025), estimates by Advertiser Perceptions. Counts brand spend on direct creator partnerships, paid amplification of that content, and ads placed next to creators on purpose, on any channel. IAB's April 2026 revenue report rounds 2025 to $37B and 2026 to $44B. IAB put 2025 growth at about four times the 5.7% of the media industry overall.",
            "source": "iab"
        },
        {
            "id": "creator-by-category",
            "title": "US creator ad spend by advertiser category, 2025 estimate",
            "columns": [
                "Category",
                "2025 spend",
                "Growth from 2024"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Retail",
                    "$12.3B",
                    "+38%"
                ],
                [
                    "Consumer packaged goods",
                    "$5.5B",
                    "+24%"
                ],
                [
                    "Financial",
                    "$2.2B",
                    "+31%"
                ],
                [
                    "Apparel",
                    "$2.1B",
                    "+14%"
                ],
                [
                    "Tech",
                    "$1.9B",
                    "+26%"
                ],
                [
                    "Auto",
                    "$1.6B",
                    "+11%"
                ],
                [
                    "Telecom",
                    "$1.5B",
                    "+19%"
                ],
                [
                    "Travel",
                    "$1.3B",
                    "+31%"
                ],
                [
                    "Home",
                    "$1.2B",
                    "+16%"
                ],
                [
                    "Health and wellness",
                    "$1.0B",
                    "+40%"
                ],
                [
                    "Media and entertainment",
                    "$0.4B",
                    "+39%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "cat-retail",
                "cat-cpg",
                "cat-financial",
                "cat-apparel",
                "cat-tech",
                "cat-auto",
                "cat-telecom",
                "cat-travel",
                "cat-home",
                "cat-health",
                "cat-media"
            ],
            "note": "Advertiser Perceptions estimates for IAB. CPG includes beauty and personal care.",
            "source": "iab"
        },
        {
            "id": "must-buy",
            "title": "Media that creator ad buyers call a must-buy, 2025",
            "columns": [
                "Media type",
                "Share of buyers"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "Social media",
                    "74%"
                ],
                [
                    "Paid search",
                    "60%"
                ],
                [
                    "Creators",
                    "48%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "must-buy-social",
                "must-buy-search",
                "must-buy-creators"
            ],
            "note": "453 US ad buyers involved in creator marketing, surveyed 28 July to 12 August 2025. Must-buy means necessary for the media plan.",
            "source": "iab"
        },
        {
            "id": "history",
            "title": "US social media ad revenue, every year since 2019",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Revenue",
                "Change from prior year",
                "Share of US internet ad revenue"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2019",
                    "$35.6B",
                    "Not read",
                    "28.6%"
                ],
                [
                    "2020",
                    "$41.5B",
                    "about +17%",
                    "29.7%"
                ],
                [
                    "2021",
                    "$57.7B",
                    "about +39%",
                    "30.5%"
                ],
                [
                    "2022",
                    "$59.8B",
                    "about +4%",
                    "28.5%"
                ],
                [
                    "2023",
                    "$64.9B",
                    "+8.7%",
                    "28.8%"
                ],
                [
                    "2024",
                    "$88.8B",
                    "+36.7%",
                    "34.3%"
                ],
                [
                    "2025",
                    "$117.7B",
                    "+32.6%",
                    "40.0%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "soc-2019",
                "soc-2020",
                "soc-2021",
                "soc-2022",
                "soc-2023",
                "soc-2024",
                "soc-2025"
            ],
            "note": "2019, 2020 and 2022 are the sums of IAB's first-half and second-half figures; other years are the full-year totals IAB states. Growth for 2020 to 2022 and all shares are our calculations from IAB totals, so they are approximate. Shares use the total internet ad revenue for each year as restated in later reports.",
            "source": "iab"
        }
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "name": "IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report; IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report",
            "publisher": "Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)",
            "type": "industry",
            "url": "https://www.iab.com/"
        },
        {
            "name": "HubSpot State of Marketing 2026",
            "publisher": "HubSpot",
            "type": "vendor",
            "url": "https://blog.hubspot.com/"
        }
    ],
    "content_changed_on": "2026-10-31",
    "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/marketing/social-media-ad-spending",
    "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/marketing/social-media-ad-spending.csv"
}