UK creator revenue to break £1bn barrier for first time in 2026
Creator partnership revenue will rise 26% to £1.217bn in 2026, while 93% of UK brands and agencies plan to increase influencer marketing spend over the next year.
Updated
The brief
- UK creator partnership revenue is forecast to rise 26% to £1.217bn in 2026, surpassing £1bn for the first time, according to IAB UK and IRM research.
- Creator partnership revenues grew 20.1% to £966m in 2025, more than double the 9.6% growth of digital advertising excluding creator partnerships.
- Kolsquare data shows 93% of UK brands and agencies expect to increase influencer marketing spend in the next 12 months, up from 81% last year and 50% in 2024.
UK creator partnership revenue is set to exceed £1bn for the first time, rising 26% to £1.217bn in 2026, according to new research from IAB UK and the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics (IRM), published today (15 September).
The first-ever study measuring the UK creator partnerships market found creator partnerships rank among the fastest-growing areas of UK digital advertising. In 2025, creator partnership revenues reached £966m, up 20.1% from £804m in 2024.
That growth was more than double the 9.6% recorded for digital advertising investment excluding creator partnerships. Creator partnerships added an estimated £966m to the UK digital advertising market in 2025, equivalent to roughly 2.4% of the official £40.5bn ad spend figure.
The research excludes paid amplification of creator partnership campaigns. However, respondents interviewed for the study indicated amplification spend could potentially reach two to three times creator partnership revenues.
'An increasingly important part of the advertising ecosystem'
Commenting on the findings, Connie Hawker, TV+ and creator lead at IAB UK, says creators are "an increasingly important part of the advertising ecosystem" and the study offers a "clear picture of the size of the UK market".
Paul Greenwood, head of cultural strategy and insight EMEA at We Are Social, claims the research reflects how brands are becoming "more sophisticated" in how they work with creators, with partnerships becoming longer-term as "the industry around them is maturing rapidly".
"For brands, working with creators is increasingly moving from an experimental or tactical part of the media plan to a core part of how they reach and engage audiences," he states.
Over the summer, Marketing Week has spoken to brands including Wild, Cloud Nine and Radisson Hotel Group about why influencer marketing is increasingly central to their strategy.
Confidence rising on spend
The research coincides with new data from Kolsquare showing 93% of UK brands and agencies expect to increase their influencer marketing spending over the next 12 months. That figure is up from 81% last year and 50% in 2024.
Half of UK brands surveyed say influencer marketing drives up to a quarter (25%) of their marketing-driven revenue. Some 38% of UK marketers lean on metrics like ROI to quantify effectiveness, compared with 30% Europe-wide.
Nearly half (49%) of UK brands claim clear disclosure of sponsored content is a priority, against a European average of 41%.
Kolsquare's report, 'The Future of Influencer Marketing: The 2026/2027 Outlook', also found UK brands are the most likely in Europe to describe influencer marketing as a core growth driver. Over a third (38%) of UK brands believe it is, compared with a European average of 31%.
Scale, outsourcing and AI adoption
Currently, one in five UK marketers works with 250–999 influencers per year, and most of those influencers have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Some 30% of UK brands fully outsource influencer marketing, compared with 23% across Europe, while 90% of UK brands and agencies use AI and/or automation.
Almost a third of UK respondents (31%) expect to increase the number of influencers they work with by at least 50% over the coming year, versus 22% across Europe. Short-form video is seen as the biggest opportunity by 55% of UK respondents.
Both sets of findings follow increasing professionalisation of the UK creator economy in 2026. In July, ISBA and the Influencer Marketing Trade Body announced a formal partnership to combine their focus on the creator economy.
In May, IAB UK launched the UK's first industry-backed creator qualification, backed by ISBA and the Advertising Association. It aims to help content creators build audience trust by correctly navigating advertising rules while strengthening brand partnerships, and forms part of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) AdEthics programme.
Based on Marketing Week
Filed under influencer-marketing, creator-economy, iab-uk, kolsquare, uk-digital-advertising
Tom Whitfield
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Staff writer covering consumer brands and retail at Marketing Herald.
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