Brands are on track to spend about $44 billion on creators this year, yet the industry still can’t agree on what counts as a “view.” That’s the gap the Interactive Advertising Bureau is now trying to close. According to an IAB announcement published Nov. 10, the ad industry trade group has released The Creator Economy’s Next Chapter, the first research report from its new Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative, and it lays out seven areas where the business of paying creators needs to grow up.

Big budgets, shaky plumbing

IAB says creator ad budgets in the U.S. more than tripled, from $13.9 billion in 2021 to an expected $44 billion in 2026, but the systems for measuring, contracting and paying creators haven’t kept pace. The report was built from two waves of research by IAB’s Creator Economy Board and FrontRow Research, including a survey of 53 industry leaders. IAB calls the findings “directional,” and stresses that the goal is not to standardize creators or set their prices, but to give buyers and sellers shared definitions to work from.

“Creator marketing has largely won the argument about whether it belongs in the marketing plan. What it needs now is the infrastructure to scale,” said James Douglas, IAB’s VP of its Experience Center.

The seven problem areas

Measurement topped the list. Per the announcement, 67% of respondents named it as the biggest problem, and a common definition of a view was the single most-requested standard at 66%. The other six areas are:

  • Contracts: usage rights were the top friction point in deal terms, cited by 61%.
  • Getting paid on time: 60% agreed that long payment terms cause cascading harm, and only 6% disagreed.
  • Selling it upstairs: 94% reported at least occasional conflict with senior leadership over creator decisions, with budget allocation hit hardest.
  • Siloed teams: 80% agreed media buyers and creator buyers work separately, which often limits what campaigns can do.
  • Sharing results: 58% said withheld performance data limits shared learning.
  • Fee transparency: 74% agreed fee opacity persists partly because some in the industry benefit from it, and the report calls on buyers to lead on disclosing fees.

From survey to standards

IAB says it isn’t stopping at the report. Its Creator Economy Board will form working groups, and in 2027 the group plans to work with the Media Rating Council and platforms to define core metrics like views, impressions, reach and watch time, guided by a new creator advisory body. “The creator economy has grown up faster than the infrastructure to support it, and the window to act is now,” said IAB CEO David Cohen. “If we wait, the same friction points will get set in stone and undoubtedly inhibit future growth.”

This has been building for a while. At IAB’s first CreatorFronts event in September, an IAB recap said a preliminary readout of the initiative already flagged inconsistent view definitions, weak reporting and messy usage-rights terms as the main barriers. And when IAB first teased the effort in October, Board of Creators cautioned that it was an announcement, not a finished rulebook, and that creators should keep standardized contract language separate from standardized pay. IAB is presenting the findings in a webinar on Nov. 12.

The takeaway

For creators, including the ones selling on subscription platforms who also take brand deals on the side, this is about leverage. A shared definition of a view and model contract clauses could make it easier to compare offers, push back on vague usage rights and ask why a payment is months away. None of it is binding yet, so for now the smart move is the same as always: get every metric, right and payment date spelled out in writing before you sign.