Partnership ads: what Meta's $15B run rate means for a small brand

What are partnership ads, and why is everyone talking about them?

Short answer: partnership ads are Meta ads that run with a partner, "creators, brands and other businesses", whose handle shows in the ad's header next to the advertiser's, or in its place (Meta Business Help Center, About partnership ads). They used to be called branded content ads, so the same rules hold if you searched branded content ads. On 21 October 2026 Meta said the product "grew over 97% year-over-year and surpassed $15 billion in annual revenue run-rate" (Meta Q3 2026 earnings call transcript).

That sentence came from Susan Li, Meta's CFO, in the prepared remarks of the Q3 2026 call. In the same paragraph she said Meta finished the global rollout of Creator Marketing Hub to all advertisers, "with more than 10 million creators now discoverable".

For a small brand the headline number says one thing: Meta is putting its product work into this format. New placements, new discovery tools and simpler permissions arrived in the last twelve months, and Meta says it is now adding its AI business assistant to the hub, which we covered in Meta AI business assistant. It does not say a partnership ad will work for your shop. The rest of this post reads Meta's numbers with their conditions, lists what changed, shows five live ads from Meta's Ad Library, and walks through the setup.

What do Meta's partnership ad numbers actually say?

Every Meta number on partnership ads comes with a condition, and the condition decides how much it tells a small brand. Most guides quote the averages and drop the footnotes. Here they are side by side, each from Meta's own page.

What this means for a DTC brand: the 19% and the 71% compare a whole spend mix with partnership ads in it against the same advertiser's normal mix. They are averages across the advertisers who ran those lift studies, not a forecast for one ad. The 97% is about Meta's revenue, so it tells you where Meta is building, not what your cost per purchase will be.

What changed in partnership ads since December 2025?

If you set up partnership ads in 2025 and wonder whether Meta changed how they work, this is the list, dated, each line from a Meta page.

Not in Meta's list: Instagram Live. Some trade posts say partnership ads now run in Instagram Live. Meta's own list of partnership ad placements, checked on 29 October 2026, does not include it (Supported objectives and placements). Treat it as unconfirmed until that page says otherwise.

One naming note: Meta's earnings call says Creator Marketing Hub, while some help pages still say Partnership Ads Hub. They describe the same place in Ads Manager where you find creators and their content.

How do partnership ads work: permissions, identity and placements?

A partnership ad needs permission from the partner whose handle it uses, and the partner can take it back at any time (About partnership ad permissions). Meta has two levels of permission.

Identity. In Ads Manager you choose which names show in the header: both, the first identity only, or dynamic identity, where Meta picks the version it predicts will perform best. Dynamic is on by default. Dynamic and single identity work only on Facebook Feed and Reels. Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Stories and WhatsApp Status always show both names (Supported objectives and placements).

Placements. Instagram Feed, Web Feed, Explore Feed, Explore Grid, Stories and Reels; Facebook Feed, Stories, Reels and Marketplace; WhatsApp Status.

What does not work. Calls is not supported as a conversion location under Traffic, Engagement, Leads or Sales. Under Leads, Messenger and Instagram conversion locations are not supported; instant forms and website are. Instagram Stories is not supported when you combine partnership ads with Advantage+ catalog ads. Threads supports only organic branded content, not partnership ads (Eligibility requirements).

Who can be a partner. A Facebook Page, a Facebook profile in professional mode, or an Instagram professional account with "an authentic, established presence". The advertiser needs a Facebook Page or an Instagram professional account.

What do real partnership ads look like?

None of the top guides on this topic shows a live partnership ad, so here are five, taken from Meta's public Ad Library on 29 October 2026. In the Ad Library a partnership ad reads "Name with Name" in its header; the first name is the first identity. The Ad Library shows no results, so we say what each ad does and when it started, never how it performed. If you want to search the library yourself, our guide to the Meta Ad Library shows how.

Stephanie Wolfe with AG1 by Athletic Greens

Try on my brand

The creator's name comes first, so the ad reads as her post. The hook is scarcity, "Sold out after launch. It's back (for now).", and the video shows her hand and the shaker, not a studio shot. Started 16 October 2026; the Ad Library lists Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

Em Miller with AG1 by Athletic Greens

Try on my brand

Same brand, a different creator and a different hook: a free AG1 Pro x YETI shaker with the first subscription order. AG1 runs ads through several creators' names at the same time, as these two show. Started 21 September 2026.

Jessica De Oliveira with Sol de Janeiro

Try on my brand

A German creator video marked "Anzeige" (ad), about the new Intense Perfume Mists and "up to 10 hours of fragrance intensity". The link goes to the retailer Douglas, not to Sol de Janeiro's own shop. Started 13 October 2026, Instagram only.

Gymshark with Victor Sanchez

Try on my brand

Here the brand comes first and the creator second. Gymshark keeps its own name on top and borrows the creator's face for a Spanish-language sale ad, "your new training essentials are here". Started 2 July 2026, with several versions running.

Gymshark with Optimalik Coaching

Try on my brand

The partner is a coaching account, not a person's name, which shows that Meta's "brands and other businesses" is real. The French copy talks about new personal records and ends on a welcome discount code. Started 2 July 2026, Instagram only.

The pattern across the five: the brand decides whose name comes first. A creator-first header reads like a recommendation. A brand-first header keeps the brand's name in front and uses the partner as a face. Both are partnership ads. Why a borrowed name works at all is the subject of our post on ethos examples in ads, and more formats sit in our advertisement examples.

Can a small brand run partnership ads without a creator?

Yes. A partnership ad needs a partner, and Meta says that partner can be a creator, a brand or another business. Three routes work for a small brand.

1. Two accounts you already own. Meta's permissions page says: "If 2 Instagram or Facebook accounts are owned by the same business and an employee has ads access to both assets, they will be able to run partnership ads without partnership ad permissions" (About partnership ad permissions). A sister brand in the same business portfolio fits that sentence.
2. A brand next to yours. A complementary shop, such as a coffee roaster and a mug maker, can be the partner, as the Gymshark ad with a coaching account shows above. That route needs permission like any other partner.
3. A creator from the hub. Creator Marketing Hub now lists more than 10 million creators, according to Meta's Q3 2026 call.

What about a founder's own account? Meta does not say whether a founder's personal professional account counts as "owned by the same business". The help page covers accounts owned by the business, and nothing more. So take the safe route: have the founder's account accept a partnership ad permission request from the brand, like any other partner would, or run the ad from the brand's own handle.

When should you run the ad from your own handle instead?

Run the ad from your own handle when the partner's name means nothing to your buyers. A partnership ad borrows trust from the name in the header. If your buyers do not know that name, the header adds a stranger, not proof, and you pay the partner for it.

Meta's averages do not settle this for a single ad. The 19% lower CPA compares a spend mix where at least 30% of assets were partnership ads with the advertiser's usual mix; the 71% lift needed at least 20% of spend on them. A small brand testing one partnership ad is not running that experiment.

So a creator-style ad from your own handle is the fair test against it: the same script and the same face, without the partner's name. We covered how brands weigh AI UGC against real creators on our AI UGC page, and how to hire and brief creators in UGC creators.

The creative itself can come from anywhere. Any creative works in a partnership ad, including one made in Selzee: you upload it as new content under account-level permission, or the partner posts it and sends you an ad code.

How do you set up a partnership ad, step by step?

Every step below says who does it, because a two-party setup stalls when the brand waits on a step only the creator can do. The steps follow Meta's help page (How to create a partnership ad); Meta is rolling out a new setup flow for some objectives, so a screen may look slightly different.

1. Creator: give permission. Turn on "Allow brand partner to boost" on a post with the paid partnership label, send the brand an ad code, or accept the brand's account-level request.
2. Brand: start the campaign. In Ads Manager click + Create, pick an objective from the supported list, and set budget, schedule and audience.
3. Brand: turn on partnership ad. At the ad level, switch on the partnership ad toggle.
4. Brand: add the content. Click Enter ad code or post info and paste the code, post ID or post URL. With account-level permission, pick an existing post or upload new creative instead.
5. Brand: pick the identity. Choose both names, the first identity only, or dynamic identity.
6. Brand: publish. Meta reviews the ad and notifies you when it is approved.

If an agency runs the ads, the brand has to give it permissions on the Instagram account, the Facebook Page and the ad account. TikTok's version of this format, Spark Ads, uses authorization codes instead; we covered it in TikTok Spark Ads.

How do you measure a partnership ad?

Measure a partnership ad in Ads Manager, against a control. The brand sees the ad's results in Ads Manager only. The creator sees the same insights they get for an organic post, and the brand does not get the extra details only the creator sees (Measure partnership ad performance).

Meta's own claims come from lift studies: a test cell with partnership ads against a business-as-usual cell. Judge yours the same way. Run the partnership ad next to the same creative from your own handle, with the same budget and audience, and compare cost per purchase. Attributed ROAS alone cannot tell you whether the partnership ad caused a sale. Our CPA calculator does the arithmetic for both cells.

If the partnership version wins, keep the creator and try a second post. If it does not, you have a creator-style ad that runs from your own handle without a partner fee.

Partnership ads: FAQ