$37B Sponsored Content Spend, $53K FTC Risk in 2026

US brands spent an estimated $37 billion on creator and sponsored content advertising in 2025, up 26% year over year, according to IAB’s Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report, published in November 2025 from a survey of more than 450 US ad-spend decision-makers. That spend has nearly tripled since 2021’s $13.9 billion. It also lands on top of a disclosure rulebook that just got more expensive to ignore, and a consumer base that says it can tell the difference.

How much are brands spending on sponsored content in 2026?

US creator and sponsored content ad spend reached $37 billion in 2025, up from $29.5 billion in 2024, a 26% year-over-year jump, per IAB’s Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report. That is more than 2.5 times what advertisers spent in 2021 ($13.9 billion), and IAB describes the category as growing nearly four times faster than the overall media industry.

Figure 1: US creator and sponsored content ad spend nearly tripled in four years. Source: IAB, Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report, November 2025.

IAB projects the figure will climb to $44 billion in 2026. That number is a forecast built from the same 450+ advertiser survey, not a measured 2026 result, so treat it as directional rather than final. Either way, the money flowing into paid partnerships keeps growing faster than the rules governing them are getting easier to follow.

What counts as sponsored content, and who is paying for it?

IAB defines the $37 billion figure as spend brands intentionally invest in creators through three channels: direct partnerships for sponsored content, amplified sponsored content (paid promotion behind an organic creator post), and planned creator ad adjacencies. Nearly half of surveyed ad buyers, 48%, now call creator media a “must buy” channel, ranking it just behind paid search and social media in overall importance.

That is not only an influencer problem. Publishers of every size run sponsored posts, affiliate placements, and paid reviews, and each one carries the same disclosure obligation regardless of follower count. For a sense of just how many sites this potentially touches, see our count of how many blogs are there: most of them never publish a disclaimer at all, even though FTC guidance and platform policies increasingly expect one.

Year	US sponsored content / creator ad spend	Status	Source
2021	$13.9B	Actual	IAB, 2025
2024	$29.5B	Actual	IAB, 2025
2025	$37B	Actual, 26% YoY growth	IAB, 2025
2026	$44B	IAB projection	IAB, 2025

Source: IAB, Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report, November 2025.

How many consumers can tell when a post is a paid partnership?

Most consumers say they do not react well to finding out after the fact. BBB National Programs’ Influencer Trust Index, a February 2025 survey of more than 3,720 US consumers commissioned through the National Advertising Division, found 70% feel negative toward an influencer who was paid or given free product and did not disclose it, split between 37% who say they feel “deceived” and 33% who say they feel negative toward the influencer specifically.

Figure 2: Seven in ten surveyed consumers react negatively once they learn a partnership went undisclosed. Source: BBB National Programs, Influencer Trust Index: Consumer Insights 2025 (n=3,720+).

This mirrors a gap we measured directly in a companion post: our look at influencer sponsorship disclosure rates found 96% of sponsored posts on the platforms studied carried no clear disclosure at all, meaning most of the audience reacting badly to non-disclosure is also the audience most likely to encounter it undisclosed.

Does adding an #ad tag actually build trust?

Not by itself, according to the same survey. 57% of consumers say adding an #ad or #sponsored tag does not make an influencer more trustworthy, and separately, 70% say the mere existence of a brand partnership does not make an influencer less trustworthy either. Trust, in other words, is not won or lost by the label; it is won or lost by whether the disclosure is honest and consistent with what the audience already believes about the relationship.

Figure 3: Neither a disclosed partnership nor a bare #ad tag moves trust much by itself, per BBB’s 2025 survey. Source: BBB National Programs, Influencer Trust Index: Consumer Insights 2025.

Metric	Share	Source
Feel negative if a partnership goes undisclosed	70%	BBB National Programs, 2025
Specifically feel “deceived” by non-disclosure	37%	BBB National Programs, 2025
Cite non-disclosure as a reason to distrust an influencer	64%	BBB National Programs, 2025
Say both brand and influencer are responsible for honest disclosure	72%	BBB National Programs, 2025

Source: BBB National Programs, Influencer Trust Index: Consumer Insights 2025.

What happens if a brand or creator skips disclosure?

The FTC’s own Endorsement Guides set the test: if there is a material connection between an endorser and a brand, financial payment, free product, or an ownership stake, and that connection would not be obvious to a reasonable viewer, it needs a clear, unavoidable disclosure. Skipping it is not a theoretical risk. The maximum civil penalty for a knowing violation rose to $53,088 per violation as of January 17, 2025, up from $51,744, under the FTC’s annual inflation adjustment published in the Federal Register.

Figure 4: The FTC’s material-connection test for when sponsored content needs a disclosure. Source: FTC Endorsement Guides; penalty figure from the Federal Register, January 2025 inflation adjustment.

A disclaimer covering sponsored and affiliate content is the document that carries that disclosure obligation from a one-off caption into something consistent across every post, page, or video a brand or creator publishes, which matters given how often the same relationship gets promoted across multiple pieces of content.

How has the spend-versus-disclosure gap evolved?

Figure 5: Spend and enforcement have climbed together since 2021, not in either direction alone. Sources: IAB, Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report (2025); BBB National Programs, Influencer Trust Index (2025); Federal Register, FTC civil penalty adjustment (2025).

The pattern across four years is not spend growing while enforcement stays flat, or enforcement tightening while spend cools off. Both lines moved up together, which is the opposite of what a brand betting on “nobody actually checks” would want to see.

The Bottom Line

$37 billion is now flowing into creator and sponsored content deals every year, and the audience on the other end of that spend says it notices when the paperwork is missing. 70% react negatively to an undisclosed partnership, 57% say a bare #ad tag does not fix that on its own, and the FTC backs the expectation with a penalty that now runs up to $53,088 per violation. None of that requires a brand to stop running sponsored content. It requires the same disclosure to appear consistently, in language a reasonable viewer would actually notice, on every piece of paid content a business or creator publishes, not just the ones a regulator happens to review.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much are brands spending on sponsored content in 2026? US brands and advertisers spent an estimated $37 billion on creator and sponsored content advertising in 2025, up 26% year over year, according to IAB’s Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report published in November 2025, based on a survey of more than 450 US ad-spend decision-makers. IAB projects that figure will reach $44 billion in 2026, though that number is a forecast, not yet a measured result.

What is the maximum FTC penalty for not disclosing a paid partnership? The maximum civil penalty for a knowing violation of the FTC’s endorsement and disclosure rules rose to $53,088 per violation as of January 17, 2025, up from $51,744, under the Federal Trade Commission’s annual inflation adjustment published in the Federal Register.

How do consumers react when they learn a sponsored post was not disclosed? 70% of consumers report feeling negative toward an influencer who did not disclose being paid or given free product, and 37% specifically say they feel deceived, according to BBB National Programs’ Influencer Trust Index, a February 2025 survey of more than 3,720 US consumers.

Does adding an #ad tag actually make sponsored content more trustworthy? Not according to most consumers surveyed. 57% say adding an #ad or #sponsored tag does not make an influencer more trustworthy, and 70% say a brand partnership on its own does not make an influencer less trustworthy either, per BBB National Programs’ 2025 Influencer Trust Index.

Sources and References

1. IAB. (2025). “Creator Economy Ad Spend and Strategy Report.” Survey of 450+ US ad-spend decision-makers, published November 2025.
2. BBB National Programs. (2025). “Influencer Trust Index: Consumer Insights 2025.” Survey conducted by The Benchmarking Company for the National Advertising Division, fielded February 2025, n=3,720+ US consumers ages 18-65.
3. Federal Register. (2025). “Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts.” FTC Act Section 5(m)(1)(A) maximum penalty increased to $53,088, effective January 17, 2025.
4. Federal Trade Commission. “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers.” FTC Endorsement Guides material-connection test.

Note: All figures verified as of September 2026. Creator ad spend projections and FTC penalty amounts are both adjusted at least annually, so headline figures in this article are refreshed at least twice a year.