Is Creator-Led Marketing Overtaking Search?

Research from PwC and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IBA) finds that creator content is growing faster than the overall ad market.

The Internet Advertising Revenue Report – which has been running since 1996 – finds that consumer behaviour is continuing to shift towards video, creator-led content and performance-driven environments, which could lead to significant changes in overall marketing spend. 

Jack Koch, SVP of Research and Insights at IAB, says that the research shows that consumer behaviour has “changed materially” over the course of 2025. 

He continues: “The ability to integrate data, media and commerce is becoming a defining advantage: companies that can provide seamless, personalised and commerce-enabled experiences are where the attention and investment are moving.”

Search growth slows

In 2025, social media advertising was up 32.6% year-over year – reaching US$117.7bn. By comparison, search’s annual revenue saw 11% growth, to US$114.2bn.

The slowing growth of search, the report suggests, may be a result of increased AI usage among consumers, with the technology “redefining” consumer discovery. 

“AI is redefining the entire value chain,” says the report. According to PwC and the IAB, this change spans “agent buying and selling, creative production, AI-driven commerce to both humans and agents and more.”

Meanwhile, creator advertising spend reached US$37bn in 2025, and is projected to reach US$44bn in 2026. 

Brands are embedding creators into long-term media strategies, operational workflows and even product development, says the report, with influencer marketing growing from one-off campaigns to always-on creator programmes.

“This revenue growth reflects a market that has reoriented around performance channels,” says David Cohen, CEO of the IAB. “As expectations for measurable outcomes rise, investment is concentrating in areas that can directly correlate spending to business results.

“At the same time, AI is rapidly moving from theory into practice, emerging as a meaningful driver of efficiency and effectiveness across the ecosystem.”

Advertising revenue shifts

This report follows projections from advertising firm Emarketer, which suggest that Meta will overtake Google in global net ad revenue in 2026. 

The company forecasts that Meta will reach US$243.46bn in net worldwide ad revenues, while Google will reach US$239.45bn. 

Max Willens, Principle Analyst at Emarketer, says: “In surpassing Google, Meta has essentially had many of its core strategies validated.

“Meta has long understood that scale, network effects and habits are more important than anything else in digital media. It has carefully built and defended the advantages it has in all three areas.”

Mark Zuckerberg shared in January that he believes ads will be “by far, the most important driver of growth in our business,” over the next couple of years, with the company introducing new advertising formats on WhatsApp and increasing monetisation opportunities on Instagram Reels. 

The company has also been increasing AI use cases in its advertising business, which the Internet Advertising Revenue Report describes as becoming advertising’s “infrastructure layer.”

This includes the development of Andromeda, an AI ad retrieval system designed to match ads to users' specific interests, and Meta Advantage+, which automates e-commerce campaigns and enhances ad creative.