Partnership Ads
A Meta ad format that runs a creator's post as a paid ad under the creator's handle, combining the social proof of influencer content with Ads Manager's targeting and measurement.
Your creator’s reel is getting solid organic engagement. Partnership Ads let you turn that post into a paid campaign. It runs under the creator’s handle, to audiences you define in Ads Manager, with the social proof of the original post intact.
The format was called Branded Content Ads until Meta rebranded it in 2023. Since then, Meta has added a centralized Partnership Ads Hub, AI-powered creator discovery, and a single-header format that launched in June 2025.
How it shows up in the wild
ASUS Poland (VivoBook laptop launch): A 30% lift in add-to-carts and 2.4x return on ad spend came from running local creator posts as Partnership Ads, per a Meta for Business case study. ASUS briefed creators with one open-ended prompt: show the VivoBook in daily use. The resulting content ran as the performance layer instead of brand-produced creative.
Viator (Tripadvisor’s experience marketplace): 59.7% lower CPA, 36.9% lower CPM, and 38.6% higher link clicks came from A/B testing Partnership Ads against standard brand ads, per Social Native’s case study of the campaign. Creative, targeting, and budget were identical across both conditions. The only variable was whether the ad ran under the creator’s handle or the brand’s.
Purdy & Figg (UK eco-cleaning brand): +555% Meta revenue growth came from creator-led Partnership Ads managed through Aspire, per their case study. The team used real-time organic engagement data to decide which creator posts were worth amplifying with paid spend.
Why it matters
Partnership Ads have an 82% probability of outperforming the same creative run under the brand handle without the partnership label, per Meta’s internal data. My hunch is the CPA advantage is mostly an identity effect. The creator’s handle signals recommendation rather than advertisement, even with the paid label visible.
The format matters most for brands already running creator programs. Partnership Ads convert existing creator content into paid distribution without additional production cost.
Related terms
- UGC (User-Generated Content) - organic creator content that Partnership Ads can amplify as paid
- Social Proof - the credibility signal that creator handles carry in the ad unit
- Creative Testing - how brands identify which creator posts perform well enough to amplify
- Meta Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns - can accept Partnership Ads creative as an input alongside brand-produced assets
Frequently asked questions
Do Partnership Ads require the creator to have a large following? No. Meta’s eligible creator pool expanded in 2025 when Professional Mode profiles became eligible, reaching 100 million daily active users within their first 18 months. Performance correlates more with audience alignment than follower count.
Can a brand run Partnership Ads without the creator’s ongoing involvement? Yes. Once the creator grants ad permissions in Ads Manager, the brand controls the campaign. The creator retains the ability to revoke permissions at any time, and the post keeps its organic engagement count regardless of paid spend layered on top.
Are Partnership Ads the same as “whitelisting”? Effectively yes - “whitelisting” is the older industry term for the same capability. Partnership Ads is Meta’s current product name, with newer tooling including the Partnership Ads Hub and AI-powered creator discovery added in late 2024 and 2025.