Brands are putting more ad spend behind creator content on Meta

Brands are increasingly paying to boost creator content on Instagram and Facebook, with Meta reporting rapid growth in the advertising product that lets them do it.

Partnership Ads, which allow brands to put advertising spend behind content made with creators and other partners, grew more than 97% year on year in the third quarter, Meta said in its latest earnings call. The product has now surpassed a $15 billion annual revenue run-rate.

The figure is not solely tied to creators. Meta also includes ads run with brands and other businesses under Partnership Ads and did not disclose how much of the revenue came specifically from creator campaigns.

The growth comes as brands increasingly use advertising spend to take creator content beyond the audience it reaches organically.

Earlier this year, YouTube’s Head of Creative Works UK&I Khalid Almashgari said that this was already changing how brands choose creators, with follower count becoming less important when reach can be increased through advertising.

“Follower size is less important because reach is achieved by the media spend,” he said at the time. “That's healthy for the industry because you can work with more mid and smaller size creators and get greater diversity.”