IAB Australia today published Creator Connect, a 21-slide research deck combining four surveys, which finds that six in ten Australian online shoppers often or sometimes come across brands via content creators - and that the figure climbs past eight in ten for those aged 18 to 39, before collapsing among older age groups.

In Short

Australia's online advertising trade body asked shoppers how much people who post videos and reviews online shape what they buy, and the answer is a lot, especially if you are under 40. It matters for brands and agencies because younger shoppers now meet products through these people almost as a matter of routine, while older shoppers are far more wary when a post turns out to be paid. The report also shows that AI shopping tools are starting to draw on these reviews, which means creator content can now reach buyers through a chatbot answer as well as a social feed.

Four datasets, two continents

Creator Connect is not a single study. The deck stitches together four separate sources, and the distinction matters for anyone reading the numbers closely. According to IAB Australia, the report draws on its Commerce and Discovery Report 2026, produced with research firm Pureprofile; The Creator Signal, a five-market consumer study from the IAB Insights Engine; the US Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy research; and the US 2026 Outlook Study.

The Australian consumer numbers come from 1,079 online shoppers aged 18 to 70. A New Zealand comparison uses a separate wave, labelled Wave 3 2026, with 877 online shoppers in the same age band. The Creator Signal, fielded in May 2026, surveyed 2,200 consumers who had used an AI tool for shopping research in the previous three months: 1,000 in the United States and 300 each in the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Mexico.

That split has a consequence. Figures the deck labels "global" are pooled across a sample in which US respondents make up 1,000 of 2,200, or roughly 45%. Australian results in The Creator Signal rest on 300 people - a base that supports broad comparisons but not fine-grained ones. The spending data, meanwhile, is American throughout; the ad spend research surveyed 453 US ad decision-makers, and the outlook study questioned 211 in September 2026 and 208 in January 2026.

IAB Australia is candid about that limitation. The investment chapter, according to the deck, is "a US-only ad-spend data set, included here as a rough guide to where investment could follow the consumer behaviour already covered."

The Australian commerce findings are not entirely new. Headline figures from the same Pureprofile programme - six in ten shoppers and 85% of young shoppers discovering products through creators - were presented when IAB Australia examined retail media at its July 2026 summit, where fieldwork was dated to May 2026. What Creator Connect adds is the age-by-age breakdown, the trust and disclosure data, and the AI layer. The timing is not accidental either: publication falls inside the September 14-18 window of IAB Global Creator Week, which links chapters across 17 markets.

Where creators sit in the shopping journey

Search and online stores remain the default. According to IAB Australia, 92% of Australians use search or an online store somewhere in their discovery, research or comparison journey. Creator content, the deck says, plays a smaller role at every stage, weighted toward the start.

The stage-by-stage chart breaks this out across five media sources. Social media leads, used by 36% of Australian online shoppers to discover, 30% to research and 19% to compare. Traditional television holds a strong discovery position at 34%, but falls away sharply to 17% for research and 15% for comparison. News and lifestyle sites register 26%, 23% and 18%. Streaming video sits at 24%, 19% and 13%. Creator or influencer content, isolated as its own category, accounts for 22%, 20% and 16%.

Taken together, 48% of Australian online shoppers use creator or influencer content at some point in the journey, according to the report. Among 18 to 39 year olds that share reaches 72%.

Those numbers need to be read against the headline. The 61% figure measures something different: whether respondents often or sometimes discover brands via creators at all. The 48% figure measures whether creator content was one of the sources used in the discover, research or compare stages. One is a general habit; the other is a specific role in purchasing. The deck presents both without reconciling them, and the gap between 48% and 61% - or between 72% and 85% for younger shoppers - is best understood as the difference between the two questions.

A generational cliff

Age explains more of the variance than anything else in the Australian data. According to IAB Australia, 84% of shoppers aged 18 to 29 often or sometimes discover brands via creators, and 85% of those aged 30 to 39 do so. The figure falls to 63% for 40 to 49 year olds, 38% for those aged 50 to 59, and 21% for those aged 60 to 70.

The deck describes discovery via creators as "close to universal under 40", with a steady decline after that. The same pattern shows up on the supply side. Thirty percent of respondents in both the 18 to 29 and 30 to 39 groups self-identify as a content creator or influencer, compared with 20% of 40 to 49 year olds, 10% of 50 to 59 year olds and 8% of those aged 60 to 70.

Across the whole sample, 21% of Australian online shoppers describe themselves as creators or influencers. In New Zealand the figure is 13%. Discovery follows the same order: 61% of Australians often or sometimes discover brands via creators, against 49% of New Zealanders. According to IAB Australia, the two countries share the same trust hierarchy for creators, but Australians engage more on both sides.

A fifth of shoppers calling themselves creators is a striking number. The deck qualifies it immediately, noting that creators range from local hobby accounts to full-time content businesses and that only a small share earn meaningful income from it. Its framing line: "The creator economy spans communities to celebrities." For planners, the self-identification figure describes a population that posts, not a supply of professional partners. The wider creator economy is measured very differently depending on who is counting, and none of the four datasets here attempts a local market size.

Brand reputation outranks entertainment

What makes an Australian act on a creator's recommendation? The answer in the deck is more functional than the category's image might suggest.

According to IAB Australia, 86% of Australian online shoppers say the reputation of the brand being promoted is at least somewhat important when deciding whether to act. An authentic and trustworthy creator scores 84%, as does how knowledgeable or expert the creator is. Three factors tie at 81%: seeing the creator actually use the product, whether a discount or deal is offered, and whether the brand fits what the creator normally talks about. How entertaining or engaging the content is comes last, at 74%.

There is a wording issue worth flagging. The chart measures the share rating each factor "at least somewhat important". The accompanying callout describes the 86% as the share who say brand reputation "matters most", and the summary slide says 86% "say brand reputation matters". Those are not the same claim. The underlying data supports the third reading: brand reputation is the factor the largest share rated as at least somewhat important, not a factor that a majority ranked first. The spread between top and bottom is also narrow - 12 points separate the strongest and weakest driver.

The cost of disclosure

The disclosure finding is the one most likely to be cited in client meetings. According to IAB Australia, 44% of Australian online shoppers are less likely to act once they know a post is paid. The New Zealand figure is 42%.

Age sharpens the result. Among Australian shoppers aged 50 to 70, 54% say a disclosed paid partnership makes them less likely to act - 10 points above the national average. The deck calls this a generational comfort gap and describes the overall effect of disclosure as "modest rather than punishing." Its closing summary puts it slightly differently: disclosure "has a real but manageable cost, and a strong brand can offset most of it."

That last clause is an interpretation. The deck does not present a cross-tabulation showing how disclosure penalties vary by brand reputation, so the offsetting effect is an inference from the fact that brand reputation tops the list of trust drivers rather than a measured result.

Disclosure itself is not optional in Australia. The ACCC has been enforcing it at modest scale. PhotobookShop paid $39,600 in March 2026 after instructing influencers to hide paid partnerships, and Hismile paid $138,600 in June across seven infringement notices over staged customer videos. Platforms are moving in the same direction: YouTube has said it will label brand deals that creators fail to disclose. A 44% penalty is therefore a cost attached to a legal requirement, not a choice between disclosure and performance. Irish data published this month points the same way from a lower base, with just 17% of Irish adults finding paid creator posts authentic, according to IAB Ireland.

Five markets, one hierarchy

The Creator Signal asked respondents across the five markets what makes a creator trustworthy and what kind of creator AI tools ought to prioritise. According to the deck, everyday people rank above public figures in every market.

On preferred creator types for AI to prioritise, everyday consumers sharing real experiences lead at 52.0%. Professional product reviewers follow at 42.9% and subject-matter expert creators at 37.1%. Creators respondents personally follow score 24.4%, lifestyle and social influencers 22.1%, journalists and editorial critics 17.3%, and celebrities and public figures 12.7%. The deck notes that everyday consumers beat celebrities by 39 points globally.

On what makes a creator trustworthy, a proven track record of credibility comes first at 45.8%, then consistency over time at 39.9% and demonstrated expertise at 36.0%. Independence from brands scores 34.7%, transparency about sponsorship 34.3% and community trust 33.3%. Large audience or follower size ranks last, at 20.5%.

That ordering is consistent with other research on peer influence. Reddit data published in August found first-hand consumer experience outweighing influencer reviews by 2x in US purchase decisions. For any brand deal still priced chiefly on follower counts, both datasets point to a mismatch between what is being bought and what shoppers say they trust.

Creator content inside AI answers

The third chapter is the newest material, and the most consequential for search and commerce teams. According to IAB Australia, 59% of global respondents had used an AI tool - the deck lists ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Perplexity - for shopping research in the previous three months.

A caveat is needed here. The Creator Signal sample is defined as 2,200 consumers who had used an AI tool for shopping research in the previous three months. If every respondent qualified on that basis, a 59% usage figure cannot come from the same base. The deck does not explain the discrepancy; one plausible reading is that 59% describes a screening stage before the qualified sample was drawn, but the document does not say so.

On what AI should rely on when recommending a product, consumer ratings and reviews lead at 53%. Subject-matter experts score 38%, retailer or marketplace information 37%, and brand or advertiser information 33%. Online communities or forums reach 26%, creator or influencer reviews 22%, journalists or editorial reviews 18%, and press coverage or industry recognition 16%.

Creator reviews, in other words, rank sixth of eight as a source respondents want AI systems to rely on. Yet the deck also reports that 55% prefer AI recommendations to include creator reviews. The summary slide gives a different figure, stating that 56% of global AI-shopping users prefer recommendations that factor in creator reviews. The one-point gap may be rounding, but the two numbers appear in the same document without explanation.

Transparency is where the strongest consensus sits. According to the report, 70% of global respondents say it is very important that AI clearly explains the sources behind its recommendations.

Confidence and discovery by market

Country differences are wide. Asked whether AI recommendations based on creator reviews increase their confidence, 58% of Australians said yes - 14% significantly and 44% somewhat. The US figure is 63% (21% significantly, 42% somewhat), the UK 52% (14% and 38%), Mexico 64% (26% and 38%), and India 88% (42% and 46%). Globally, 64% said a recommendation based on credible creators would boost their confidence.

Discovery through AI follows a similar pattern. Across global respondents, 36% had found a new creator through an AI-generated result and now follow that creator. Australia sits lowest of the five, at 23%. The US and UK each register 31%, Mexico 38% and India 64%.

The deck's closing summary describes Australia as "more cautious than the US about AI-mediated creator recommendations, which leaves room to build trust through transparency." The data supports the first half of that sentence: on both confidence and discovery, Australian respondents trail American ones.

Category matters too. Globally, fashion or apparel is the category where the largest share - 34% - say creator or influencer content is important in AI recommendations. Food, beverage or grocery follows at 33% and beauty or personal care at 32%. Technology or consumer electronics and fitness, health or wellness each score 31%; home products or appliances and travel or experiences each score 29%; entertainment, gaming or media 28%; and household essentials 27%. According to IAB Australia, consumers look to creator content to help find the best price or value when it is included.

The Australian ordering differs. Among Australian respondents, travel and experiences leads at 31.9%, followed by food, beverage and grocery at 31.2% and fashion and apparel at 30.9%. Financial products and automotive each score 18.1%, and parenting, baby and family 12.1%.

This chapter lands in the middle of an unsettled argument. Contentsquare research published on September 2 found 67% of respondents would trust an AI recommendation over a social media creator when evaluating an unfamiliar brand, while RTB House reported in August that leading AI assistants now carry higher shopping trust scores than influencers. The Creator Signal does not contradict those findings so much as reframe them: shoppers may trust the assistant, but a majority say they want creator perspectives inside its answers. On IAB Australia's own publication page, the organisation describes this as putting creator content "inside a channel most brands are not yet measuring." That gap is documented elsewhere. When IAB lifted its 2026 US ad forecast on September 10, it cited separate research showing only 16% of brands systematically tracking their visibility inside AI-generated answers.

The money, measured in US dollars

The fourth chapter switches to American spending, and IAB Australia repeatedly warns against reading it as a local picture. The deck asks readers to treat it "as a guide to where budgets might go, not a description of what's happening here."

According to the IAB Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy research, US creator-economy ad spend stood at $13.9 billion in 2021, $18.4 billion in 2022, $22.1 billion in 2023 and $29.5 billion in 2024. The chart labels 2025 as an estimate at $37.1 billion and 2026 as an estimate at $43.9 billion. The deck says spend has more than tripled since 2021; the chart values imply growth of about 3.2 times through the 2026 estimate, and about 2.7 times through 2025.

The summary slide, however, states that US$37 billion was "spent on creator marketing in the US in 2025, up 26% year on year" - presenting as a completed figure what the chart itself marks as an estimate. The 2025 number was subsequently reported by IAB as an actual when the 2025 US Internet Advertising Revenue Report put creator spend at $37 billion in April 2026, so the claim holds, but the chart and the summary still disagree on its status. PPC Land coverage has dated the original creator spend report to both November 20 and December 15, 2025.

Growth relative to the market is the sharper point. According to the deck, US creator ad spend grew about four times faster than the broader media market in 2025, at 26% against 5.7%. That 5.7% matches the forecast IAB cut from 7.3% in September 2025 as tariff concerns weighed on buyers.

Asked which channels they consider essential, 74% of US brands named social media and 60% paid search. Creators came third at 48%, ahead of CTV at 40% and digital display at 39%.

Where US budgets go

By category, the deck's 2025 estimates put retail at $12.3 billion and consumer packaged goods at $5.5 billion - together nearly half of total US creator spend. Financial services follow at $2.2 billion, apparel $2.1 billion, tech $1.9 billion, auto $1.6 billion, telecom $1.5 billion, travel $1.3 billion, home $1.2 billion and health and wellness $1.0 billion. According to IAB Australia, every US category grew by double digits in 2025.

The deck sets this against the Australian category preferences and draws out a mismatch. Travel and experiences ranks first for Australian relevance at 31.9%, yet it is the third-lowest of the ten US spending categories. Financial products, rated important by 18.1% of Australians, attracts the third-largest US budget. Whether Australian spending follows the US pattern or the local preference data is a question the deck raises but cannot answer, since it holds no Australian category spend figures.

Buyers' plans for 2026

The IAB 2026 Outlook Study: September Update asked US ad decision-makers whether they expected to focus more, less or the same amount of time and resources on a list of ad types. Creator and influencer ads and partnerships topped the list, with 54% planning increased focus. According to the deck, this is the top-ranked ad type for the second wave running.

The margin is thin. Demo-targeted or cohort-based ads scored 53%, and working with publishers that hold first-party data 48%. Contextual ads and shoppable ads each reached 45%, behavioural ads and ads within live programming 40% each, in-person or experiential marketing 36%, augmented reality ads 18%, and in-game ads 16%. A one-point lead over cohort-based targeting, on a sample of 211, is not a statistically meaningful gap. The sequence of intentions has held across two survey waves, however, which is the more durable signal.

The local number, with a warning attached

The deck includes one Australian spending figure, and IAB Australia attaches an unusual caveat to it. Citing its own Internet Advertising Revenue Report with PwC for the June 2026 quarter, the deck says social video - described as the paid amplification category that creator content sits within - is Australia's fastest-growing ad category, at 41% of total video spend in FY26, up from 29.5% a year earlier. The source line states that the figure is "as cited in secondary materials, not independently verified for this report."

That is an odd position for a trade body quoting its own flagship report, and the numbers deserve care. A jump of 11.5 percentage points in share within one year would be large. The public headline figures, released on August 31, put Australia's internet ad market at A$19.8 billion in FY26, with video up 18.8% to A$5.9 billion; format-level splits sit behind a member paywall. Calendar-year data published in March showed social video growing 35.1% in 2025 within an A$18.4 billion market. Social video is also a broader category than creator content, covering any paid video on social platforms.

What IAB Australia draws from it

The deck closes with a set of implications split by audience, which the organisation presents as its own reading of the data. For brands, IAB Australia points to authenticity and category fit over follower count, describing it as the strongest driver of action in every market studied; to disclosure backed by a strong brand reputation; and to under-40 behaviour as a predictor of where the mainstream goes next.

For agencies, the deck names measurement as the gap to close, stating that proving ROI is the top challenge advertisers cite, ahead of attribution and reach. Standardised reporting and payment transparency are both described as top-five industry needs. The deck also stresses that creator-AI receptivity varies enormously between Australia, the US, the UK, India and Mexico. The measurement claim is echoed in other recent work: an ANA survey found 67% of marketers calling influencer measurement the hardest step, though only 78 respondents answered its core questions.

For media owners, IAB Australia suggests packaging creators alongside social and search, citing their position as a top-three US investment priority ahead of CTV. It names payment security and product-quality doubts as the biggest obstacles to shoppable features, although no data supporting that point appears elsewhere in the deck. It also highlights explainability, stating that Australian and UK audiences want to know where a recommendation comes from more than most markets. The deck's country-level charts do not include a transparency breakdown by market, so that claim cannot be checked against the published figures.

Two claims in the implications section rest on data the deck does not show. "Every market studied" covers five markets in The Creator Signal but only Australia and New Zealand in the Commerce and Discovery data, and the Australian chart places authenticity second and brand fit in a three-way tie for fourth.

Why this matters for the marketing community

Three threads run through the report for practitioners in Australia and beyond.

The first is the age split. A channel that reaches 85% of 30 to 39 year olds and 21% of 60 to 70 year olds is not one channel in planning terms. Media plans that treat creator activity as a single line item will blend two very different audiences, and the disclosure data suggests the older group responds differently to paid content as well.

The second is AI. Creator content has until now reached shoppers mainly through social feeds and search results. The Creator Signal suggests it is starting to reach them through AI assistants too, with 23% of Australian respondents having discovered a creator that way. That is a distribution path few measurement systems capture, and the 70% of respondents asking for clear sourcing indicates that attribution inside AI answers will carry commercial weight.

The third is the evidence gap. The deck's spending data is American, its one local spending figure is flagged as unverified by its own publisher, and several summary statements - on disclosure offsets, on authenticity leading in every market, on the 55% or 56% creator-review preference - go further than the charts beneath them. The consumer data is substantial. The investment case for Australia, by the deck's own account, remains extrapolated.

Timeline

Summary

Who: IAB Australia, the peak trade association for online advertising in Australia, drawing on its own research with Pureprofile, IAB Insights Engine data, and US research from IAB and Advertiser Perceptions. The consumer samples cover 1,079 Australian and 877 New Zealand online shoppers, plus 2,200 AI-shopping users across five countries; the US spending samples cover 453 and roughly 210 ad decision-makers.

What: The Creator Connect Report 2026, a 21-slide deck finding that 61% of Australian online shoppers often or sometimes discover brands via creators, rising to 84-85% among those under 40 and falling to 21% for those aged 60 to 70. It reports that 44% are less likely to act on a known paid post, that brand reputation is the most widely cited trust factor at 86%, that 23% of Australian AI-shopping users have found a new creator through an AI result, and that US creator ad spend is estimated at $43.9 billion for 2026.

When: Published today, September 17, 2026, during IAB Global Creator Week. The Creator Signal was fielded in May 2026, and the outlook data comes from January and September 2026 survey waves.

Where: Australian and New Zealand consumer data, a five-market AI study covering the US, UK, Australia, India and Mexico, and US-only advertising spend data.

Why: Creator content has become a routine discovery source for younger Australian shoppers and is starting to appear inside AI shopping answers, a path few brands measure. The deck gives agencies and media owners age-level planning data, though its investment chapter relies on US figures and its only Australian spending number is flagged by IAB Australia as unverified.