TLDR
Six in ten Australians discover brands through creators, rising to 85% among under-40s, according to IAB Australia research released 17 September 2026. US creator ad spend already sits at US$37 billion and is forecast to reach US$43.9 billion this year, a trajectory Australian marketing budgets have not yet matched.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The numbers
Creators shape brand discovery for 61% of Australians, rising to 85% among those under 40 and falling to just 21% for those aged 60 to 70.[1] That age gap is the most useful fact in the report. If your audience skews under 40 and your media plan does not include creators, you are funding channels that reach the cohort at its least receptive.
IAB Australia's Creator Connect research draws on four data sources.[1] The Australian discovery numbers come from Pureprofile's Commerce and Discovery Report 2026, a nationally representative sample of 1,079 Australians aged 18 to 70 who had shopped online in the past 12 months.[2] IAB also drew on The Creator Signal, which surveyed 2,200 people across five markets in May 2026, and two US studies covering 453 and 211 ad decision-makers respectively.[1]
IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy said creators now sit at the heart of how Australians discover and choose brands, and that trust is what makes that influence work.[1] Le Roy said building on that requires partnerships consumers see as credible and transparent.[1]
Where the money is versus where discovery happens
The Australian discovery numbers look sharper when placed next to what US advertisers are spending. US creator marketing ad spend reached US$37 billion in 2025 and is forecast to hit US$43.9 billion in 2026, with 48% of US brands now rating creators an essential channel, ahead of connected TV.[1] Connected TV has absorbed enormous budget growth in Australia over the past three years, so the fact that creators now outrank it as a priority in the US is worth tracking.
Creator and influencer ads ranked as the top format 54% of US ad decision-makers plan to increase focus on in 2026, ahead of cohort-based targeting at 53% and publisher deals built on first-party data at 48%.[1] Australian budgets tend to follow US allocation patterns by one to three years, so the gap between where discovery happens and where the money sits is a temporary one.
IAB Global Creator Week ran from 14 to 18 September 2026, coordinating IAB chapters across 17 countries, including IAB Europe and IAB MENA.[3] Releasing the Australian data inside that window was deliberate: the local numbers are part of a global push to put creator investment on the same planning footing as search and social.
What it means for briefs and measurement
The harder problem for Australian marketers is not whether to spend on creators. Measuring what they buy is. Creator campaigns have historically lived outside the attribution models that justify television or programmatic budgets to a CFO, and the AiMCO and IAB Australia partnership, announced alongside the research on 17 September, is designed to close that gap.[1]
AiMCO Managing Director Patrick Whitnall said the partnership gives members access to IAB's global data at the moment when influencer marketing and digital advertising measurement are converging.[1] Whitnall said the research confirms what AiMCO members see every day: creators play a growing role in how Australians discover and evaluate brands.[1]
The Pureprofile data suggests creators now handle discovery and consideration simultaneously for the majority of Australians under 40. A brief that treats creator content purely as awareness spend, without connecting it to conversion measurement, leaves half the value unaccounted for. IAB Australia is due to release further Creator Connect outputs through the remainder of 2026.[1]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What share of Australians discover brands through creators?
How big is the US creator advertising market?
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James Dore is Strategy Director at Bushnote, a leader in SEO and AEO in Australia. He writes on search, AI and the technology decisions shaping government and industry.
