UGC Statistics 2026: Creator Marketing Numbers From Primary Sources Only

The headline UGC statistic for 2026 is about money: IAB reported that US creator ad spend reached $37 billion in 2025, up 26%, and in November 2026 said creator media budgets are expected to reach $44 billion this year. The rest of this page is a short list of other UGC statistics we could trace to the organization that published them, read on their own sites today. Some are big independent surveys and some are platforms reporting on themselves, and both are legitimate as long as you know which is which.

If you have tried to cite a UGC statistic in a deck and could not find where it came from, this post is for you. Below are more than 20 figures, each with its publisher, date and what it measured, plus a note on the popular numbers we left out because we could not trace them to a primary source.

The short answer

Two caveats before you screenshot that table.

First, a platform's figure about itself is not an independent measurement. YouTube's Shorts views, Meta's daily users and TikTok's US user count are what those companies report, sometimes in earnings filings and sometimes in announcements. They are primary sources for what the company says, which is why each one below names who said it.

Second, survey figures describe the people surveyed. IAB's percentages come from IAB's own survey of ad buyers; Pew's come from a survey of US adults. A percentage of ad buyers is not a percentage of brands, and a percentage of US adults is not a percentage of your customers.

What the 2026 UGC statistics actually say

1. Creator ad spend

• $37 billion. IAB's 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend release (November 20, 2025) projected US creator ad spend at $37 billion for 2025, a 26% increase year over year.
• About 4x the media industry. The same release compared that growth with 5.7% for the overall media industry, citing IAB's 2025 Outlook Study.
• $13.9 billion to $29.5 billion. IAB put creator ad spend at $13.9 billion in 2021 and $29.5 billion in 2024.
• $44 billion. IAB's Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative release (November 10, 2026) said creator media budgets are expected to reach $44 billion this year.

2. What ad buyers want from creators

All from IAB's November 20, 2025 release, which reports IAB's survey of ad buyers:

• 48% of ad spenders consider creators a "must buy".
• Their campaign goals: building brand awareness (43%), reaching new audiences (41%), enhancing brand reputation or trust (35%), and driving online sales or conversions (32%).
• 40% rank overall ROI as their top KPI for creator campaigns.
• About a third cite identifying the right creators as their biggest challenge.
• Nearly three in four creator ad buyers use or plan to use AI within the next year, and 95% of advertisers have concerns about using AI in creator marketing.

And from IAB's November 10, 2026 release, based on research that includes a survey of 53 industry leaders and that IAB calls directional:

• 67% named measurement as the top problem.
• 66% said a common definition of a "view" was the standard they most wanted.
• 61% identified usage rights as the top friction clause in creator contracts.

3. Where the audience is

• US platform use. Pew Research Center's social media fact sheet (published October 19, 2026, survey conducted January 30 to June 18, 2026) reports that 84% of US adults say they ever use YouTube, 70% Facebook, 51% Instagram and 37% TikTok.
• Younger adults. Among US adults ages 18 to 29, Pew reports 79% use Instagram and 65% use TikTok.
• TikTok in the US. TikTok's announcement of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture (January 23, 2026) refers to "more than 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses" on the platform. That is TikTok's own figure.
• YouTube Shorts. YouTube's 2026 letter from its CEO (January 21, 2026) says Shorts "now averages 200 billion daily views", and that YouTube paid over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years.
• Instagram. Meta's newsroom (September 28, 2025) said Instagram has 3 billion monthly active users and that people reshare Reels over 4.5 billion times a day across Meta's apps.
• Meta overall. Meta's third quarter 2026 results (October 21, 2026) report 3.64 billion daily active people on average for September 2026, up 3%, with ad impressions up 10% and average price per ad up 14% year over year.

4. Trust and creative

• Word of mouth. Nielsen's 2021 Trust in Advertising study, of more than 40,000 consumers surveyed in September 2021, found 88% of global respondents trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel. It is five years old and about people respondents know, not creators.
• The first seconds. TikTok's creative best practices article reports, from TikTok's own 2020 analysis, that 90% of ad recall impact is captured within the first six seconds.
• Show the product. The same article reports, from a 2021 TikTok study conducted by Lumen, that ads showing the product on screen drive a 65% increase in brand affinity and a 25% uplift in recall.
• Engagement with the product. A 2025 Marketing Science study, summarized in an INFORMS press release (March 6, 2025), reported that a "product engagement score" outperformed likes, influencer popularity or ad spend at forecasting the effectiveness of influencer video ads on TikTok. What UGC converts reads that study in more detail.

5. Commerce and enforcement

• Online share of retail. The US Census Bureau's quarterly e-commerce report (released August 18, 2026) put second-quarter 2026 retail e-commerce at $340.2 billion, seasonally adjusted, up 12.2% from a year earlier and 17.1% of total retail sales.
• Undisclosed ads in Australia. The ACCC reported (December 7, 2023) that 81% of the 118 social media influencers it reviewed made posts that raised concerns under the Australian Consumer Law.
• Notices in the US. The FTC announced (October 13, 2021) that it sent a Notice of Penalty Offenses on endorsements to more than 700 companies.

The most-cited UGC statistics are usually the least traceable. If a number has no publisher, no date and no description of who was asked, it is a rumor with a percent sign.

What we left out, and why

You will find many UGC statistics elsewhere that are not on this page: figures on how much more people trust UGC than brand content, how much UGC lifts conversion rates, or what share of shoppers read reviews. Most of the versions we found trace back to surveys run by companies that sell UGC or review tools, are cited on third-party blogs without a working link to the original, or have lost their year and sample along the way. We left them out rather than repeat them. We also left out UK and Australian platform usage figures, because the regulator reports that carry them could not be opened when we checked.

How to use UGC statistics without getting caught out

A workable approach, in order:

1. Open the original. Cite the publisher's own page, not a roundup. If the trail ends at a blog, drop the number.
2. Write down the date and the sample. "88% (Nielsen, 2021, global survey)" survives a challenge; "88% of people" does not.
3. Check what was measured. Recall, trust, engagement and sales are different outcomes. A recall figure is not proof of conversion.
4. Separate company figures from independent ones. A platform reporting on itself is a primary source for its claim, not a neutral audit.
5. Recompute anything you can. If a source gives a base and a growth rate, check that they agree before you put both on a slide.

A concrete example. Checking IAB's creator ad spend figures against each other:

• 2024 creator ad spend: $29.5 billion
• 2025 at the reported 26% growth: $29.5 billion × 1.26 = $37.2 billion, consistent with the reported $37 billion
• 2026 expectation: $44 billion
• Implied 2026 growth: $44 billion ÷ $37 billion = 1.19
• Total: about 19% implied growth for 2026, our arithmetic on IAB's figures, slower than 2025's 26%

That two-line check is the difference between quoting a trend and quoting two numbers you have not compared.

UGC Statistics FAQ

How much do brands spend on creator marketing in 2026?

IAB said in November 2026 that US creator media budgets are expected to reach $44 billion this year, after $37 billion in 2025.

What percentage of US adults use TikTok in 2026?

Pew Research Center's 2026 survey found 37% of US adults say they ever use TikTok, and 65% of adults ages 18 to 29.

What is the most common goal for creator campaigns?

In IAB's 2025 survey of ad buyers, building brand awareness was the top goal at 43%, with driving online sales or conversions at 32%.

How many views do YouTube Shorts get a day?

YouTube said in January 2026 that Shorts averages 200 billion daily views.

Why are some popular UGC statistics not on this page?

We only included figures we could open on the publisher's own site with a date and a description of what was measured.

How Scouty fits

The number that matters most for a creator program is not on any of these lists: what your own program brings in. Scouty runs creator programs end to end and measures them like paid media, on conversions, CAC and ROAS. The team sets the strategy with you, recruits creators against your brief, writes the briefs, reviews and ships every video, and scales what works.

Scouty is a creator and UGC marketing services company, so the team runs the program and pricing is scoped on a call, with no plans or subscriptions. Creators keep 100% of the rate the brand sets. Scouty pays creators on the brand's behalf, and each creator's agreement is with the brand. See how Scouty works, read UGC ROI and attribution for how to measure your own program, or browse short answers on the answers page.

If you would rather have your own results to quote than an industry average, book a call and tell us about your program.

Every figure on this page was read on its publisher's own site on November 14, 2026, and is attributed to that publisher with its date. IAB figures come from IAB's own surveys of ad buyers and industry leaders; IAB describes its November 2026 findings as directional. Pew figures come from a survey of US adults conducted January 30 to June 18, 2026; the TikTok share was read from Pew's published table. YouTube, Meta and TikTok figures are those companies' own reported numbers. TikTok creative figures come from studies TikTok ran or commissioned in 2020 and 2021. The implied growth rate in the example is our arithmetic, not an IAB figure.