Partnership ads are paid ads that run under a creator’s account name, using content the creator made with or for a brand, and paid for from the brand’s ad account. On Meta they show both the creator’s and the brand’s names in the ad header; TikTok’s version is called Spark Ads, and the older industry term for the practice is whitelisting.
How partnership ads work
The creator gives the brand permission to use their identity in ads. The details differ by platform, at the time of writing (October 2026):
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram): the creator and brand connect through the branded content tools, or the creator shares a partnership ad code. The brand then builds the ad in Ads Manager using the creator’s existing post or new content, and the ad shows both accounts.
- TikTok Spark Ads: the creator generates an authorisation code for a chosen video and period, and the brand uses it to promote that post from its ad account.
- Other platforms offer similar options, such as LinkedIn’s thought leader ads for posts by individual members.
Because the ad runs as a real post from the creator, likes, comments and shares can collect on the original post, and the brand gets all the targeting, budgeting and reporting of a normal campaign. The brand can also use its own audiences, such as a lookalike audience or retargeting lists, to show the creator’s content to people the creator would never reach organically.
Why it matters
Content from a real person often feels more trustworthy than a brand’s own ad, and it usually looks native to the feed. Partnership ads let a brand put budget behind the creator posts that worked best organically, rather than hoping they spread on their own. For many brands they are the most useful part of an influencer marketing budget, because you only scale what has already proved itself.
There are UK obligations on both sides. Paid amplification of creator content is advertising under the CAP Code, so the brand is responsible for the ad’s claims and for making it clear that it is an ad. And because you are using another person’s name, face and content, you need a written agreement covering usage rights: which content, on which platforms, for how long, whether you may edit it, and the fee.
Common mistakes
- Running ads with no usage agreement, or after the agreed period has ended.
- Assuming the platform’s tagging covers your obligations as an advertiser.
- Boosting content that did not work organically in the hope that money will fix it.
- Editing a creator’s video into claims they never made.
- Leaving comments unmanaged on the creator’s post while the ad is live.
- Judging results on engagement rather than conversions tracked through the Meta Pixel and Conversions API.
How to act on it
Before any creator posts, agree in writing that the brand may run the content as partnership ads, for how long and at what fee. Choose content to promote based on its organic performance and how well it explains your product. Run it in a normal campaign alongside your own creative, with conversion tracking in place, and compare cost per result rather than likes.
Keep the #ad disclosure in the caption, check claims against the CAP Code before launch, and switch ads off when the usage period ends. Setting up and judging these campaigns is part of my Facebook and Instagram ads management.