The influencer marketing industry continues to grow as authentic, relatable storytelling becomes more and more relevant. Brands are exploring ways to repurpose creator content across brand channels and amplifying it through paid media. In this article, we’ll dive into how brands can use paid strategies like whitelisting and Meta’s partnership ads to extend reach and impact of creator content.
The creator economy has been rapidly growing year over year, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly relevant in the marketing space, with 81.2% of marketers considering influencer marketing to be ‘highly effective’ for their brand. Influencer and creator content delivers authentic, relatable storytelling that resonates with audiences, and 94% of companies now believe creator content generates stronger ROI than traditional digital advertising.
To maximize the impact of influencer marketing and fully leverage its authenticity, brands are exploring ways to extend and make more effective use of creator content beyond organic use only on the influencer’s own account. Brands have been repurposing content on the brand’s social channels and leveraging collaboration posts, which allow brands to co-create content, tap into built-in trust, and reach new audiences in a more organic and engaging way.
Beyond being posted on organic social, creator content can also be further amplified through paid ads. Using creator content in advertising can be an effective strategy as it allows brands to leverage the trust and authenticity of an influencer’s voice while pairing it with the scale and targeting power of paid media. Brands can leverage creator content for paid ads on Meta in several ways, including whitelisting handles and partnership ads.
Whitelisting has been around for years as a way for brands to run ads through a creator’s handle. Meta’s partnership ads, introduced in 2019, offered a more transparent and easy setup.
Each of these paid strategies comes with its own set of advantages. Below, we break down the benefits of each and how they differ, so brands can determine when and how to use them most effectively.
Planning for Creator Content within Paid Ads
Some influencers charge an additional fee for ongoing paid usage rights, though in our experience, this is becoming increasingly rare as most big brands and agencies are running too many paid strategies to track end dates on individual videos. At Reshift Media, we generally encourage influencers to bake in usage rights into their fees, since in most contracts, the agency or brand that pays for the content then owns it outright.
Brands must obtain permission from creators to reuse their content, and it’s often best to discuss this during initial conversations and in the partnership offer, with usage rights explicitly included in the influencer contract.
Brands should ensure that creators have clear guidelines on what they are required to do for whitelisting or partnership ads to properly set up access. This makes the setup process smooth and convenient for influencers, though some work on their end may be required.
What Is Whitelisting?
Whitelisting involves the brand or agency getting access to the creator’s handle, which allows them to run ads off the creator’s identity. In this setup, the creator is the sole handle at the top of the ad.
Through whitelisting, an influencer grants a brand permission to use their account, not just a single post, to run paid advertising campaigns. On Meta, this permission is granted through Business Manager and requires a bit of work from both the creator and the brand. Brands set up ads through their own ad account, which are then shown as coming from the creator’s handle, making it appear as if the brand is not involved. In actuality, the brand has full control of the ad. The brand can edit the caption, target the creator’s followers and lookalike audiences, add CTA buttons and destination URLs, set ad spend, and access all post-performance data, allowing for highly optimized campaigns delivered through a trusted creator voice.
Brands who have this level of access can boost the creator’s existing posts or run their own dark posts. Dark posting refers to content that is run as a sponsored ad but does not appear on the influencer’s feed. Instead, it is only seen by the targeted paid audience.
Dark posting is a popular strategy because it allows brands to experiment and test content and different ad variations. Since the content doesn’t appear on the influencer’s page, the brand can experiment to see what variation engages and performs best, allowing multiple ads from the same influencer to run without overwhelming the audience or showing up on their page.
Using their whitelisting access, brands can also get access to and target the influencer’s audience by followers or by people who’ve engaged with the influencer’s content. The brand can also create look-alike audiences of those people.
Please Note: Because giving whitelisting access allows a brand to run any ad or content they would like to off an influencer’s handle, it is essential that influencers protect themselves with very clear guidelines in their contracts. They might ask for approval or insist that any ads that run on their handle follow their typical content’s look, feel, and tone,
The Benefits of Whitelising Ads
Potential Stronger Performance
For brands, whistlisted content often feels more organic and less like a traditional ad, which can lead to stronger performance as it feels more authentic and credible. Since the ad doesn’t need to visibly include the brand, the content appears to come solely from the creator. This makes it less likely that viewers will immediately identify the content as a brand-approved ad, increasing the chances that they’ll watch, engage, and respond positively.
Expanded Audience Targeting
Brands gain access to the whitelisted creators’ audience data, allowing them to target an influencer’s followers and specific segments within their audience, such as people who have recently engaged with a post on their account. They can also build lookalike audiences based on similar behaviours and interests of the creator’s audience.
Beyond the creators’ audience, brands can precisely target ideal audiences, including users who match the desired demographics or interests but don’t follow the influencer, amplifying the trust of the influencer’s account past their typical audience reach.
Brand Control and Content Flexibility
The brand has full control and access to run whatever variations of ads they would like from the creator account. The brand can edit captions, create new variations and add CTAs without relying on the influencer to create new content or make changes. The brand also has access to manage targeting and set ad budgets. The brand has complete access to run ads freely from the creator account (within the agreed upon parameters detailed in their contract with the influencer).
What Are Partnership Ads?
Partnership ads (formerly known as branded content ads) are paid ads where a brand has the ability to create a paid ad from a creator’s specific published post. In this setup, the creator grants the brand access to a single post, and the brand then has access to “boost” that post to a larger targeted audience. The brand has the flexibility to include both the brand and the creator as tagged accounts at the top of the ad, or include the brand account or the creator account only. The brand has control over targeting, budget, and performance data, and can add custom CTA buttons and UTM links as they would with any other creative running from their Ad Manager. However, the brand cannot edit the video in any way or gain access to the influencer’s audience to target them; they can only promote the existing content as is and target audiences in the brand’s ad account
Partnership ads leverage the trust and engagement of creator content while giving brands the ability to scale it beyond the creator’s organic reach. According to Instagram, campaigns that combined partnership ads with business-as-usual ads drove 53% higher click-through rates, 19% lower cost per action, and had a 99% probability of outperforming brand-created ads alone.
This style of ad is also often viewed as being more transparent than whitelisting, especially when both the creator and the brand are tagged on the ad, rather than just the creator, clearly signalling an official collaboration. Meta likely introduced Partnership Ads because whitelisting was a popular option, and this is a much easier implementation for both the influencer and the brand. There is also less risk of running into compliance issues with this method.
The Benefits of Partnership Ads
Extended Content Life
Typically, organic posts on Instagram see the majority of their views and engagement within the first 48 hours of being live. Sponsoring a creator’s post can extend the overall lifespan of an influencer’s post, allowing it to continue delivering value well beyond the typical window. By extending the life of creator content, brands can maximize the return on their influencer partnership investment, ensuring the content continues to be viewed for as long as the brand sees positive results or as agreed with the creator.
Expanded Reach and Value
Boosting the creator’s content through Partnership Ads can help the brand reach a larger, more precisely targeted audience than the creator could reach organically. This approach can maximize the value of the creator’s content by adding visibility, driving stronger campaign results, and continuing to deliver impact after the initial organic results have peaked.
Simple and Streamlined Setup
Compared to whitelisting content, Partnership Ads offer a more straightforward setup for both creators and brands. Creators simply grant access to a specific post (usually through a code they generate off their existing post), and the brand can immediately sponsor the content. In contrast, whitelisting requires influencers to set up Business Manager accounts and grant brands or agencies partnership access to their handles and audiences.
Bonus Strategy: Collaboration Posts
Meta’s collaboration posts are organic, co-authored posts that appear on multiple feeds simultaneously, without a direct paid promotion aspect. This style of organic post allows brands, influencers, or other Instagram accounts to partner and be listed as co-authors of a single post, with all co-author accounts displayed at the top of the post. The post appears on all of all co-authors’ Instagram or Facebook pages, and engagement metrics, such as likes, comments, and views, are combined to maximize reach and performance.
This type of post is often used for organic brand-influencer collaborations or customer-created content, allowing user-generated content to be shared across both creator and brand handles, but it is also widely used for brand-to-brand partnerships. For brands, collaboration posts offer an opportunity to showcase user content as social proof on their own accounts, which can boost credibility and increase reach and engagement.
From a paid ad perspective, collaboration posts are one of the easiest ways for brands to turn their existing organic influencer content into advertising. Once the creator of the post has invited a brand as a collaborator on an organic post and the brand has accepted, the brand will see that post in their Ads Manager as eligible to sponsor, allowing it to be run as a paid ad with the brand’s desired targeting and budget.
Also, if the brand pays for the content, it is still important to ensure that all paid partnership disclosures are included on the post, even on collaboration posts.
The Benefits of Collaboration Posts
Immediate Access and Streamlined Boosting Permissions
Since the brand is already listed as a co-author on the organic post, they automatically have the ability to sponsor the post in their Ads Manager, and there is no need for additional permissions, ad codes, or any whitelisting setup.
Increased Brand and Influencer Credibility
Collaborating with partners or creators who align with brand values helps the business build trust, credibility, and social proof with new audiences. Meanwhile, influencers benefit from increased visibility and credibility by partnering with trusted brands.
Whitelisting Ads vs. Partnership Ads vs. Collaboration Posts
| Whitelisting Ads | Partnership Ad | Collaboration Posts | |
| Ad Description | Brand has full control to run paid ads via a creator’s handle | Brand can sponsor an existing post from a creator | Brand can sponsor an existing co-authored post |
| Publishing Identity | Creator’s account only | Creator or brand or both | Both brand & creator |
| Advertising Options | Can sponsor existing organic posts or create new dark posts for ads | Can only sponsor existing organic posts | Can only sponsor existing organic posts |
| Brand Control | High – full control over creative variations, CTA, targeting, and budget | Medium – control over targeting & budget, but not creative | Medium – control over targeting & budget, but not creative |
| Ability to Edit Creative | Yes | No | No |
| Dark Posting Capability | Yes | No | No |
| Targeting Options | The creator’s followers, engagers, and lookalikes, as well as typical targeting options that are available in the brand’s ad account | Typical targeting options that are available in the brand’s ad account | Typical targeting options that are available in the brand’s ad account |
| Setup Complexity | High – requires account access + clear permissions. Requires both the influencer and brand/agency to have Business Managers set up | Medium – creator grants access to one post via a code | Low – brand automatically has boosting access as a co-author |
| Transparency to Viewers | Low – post appears to originate only from the creator’s handle | Medium – post could show the creator’s handle only, the brand’s handle only, or both | High – post appears to originate from all co-authors’ accounts |
| Recommended Use | Performance-driven campaigns, testing variations, scaling creators | Extending the life and reach of top-performing organic posts | Credibility, social proof, and fast sponsoring workflows |
| Primary Benefit | The brand has incredible flexibility, and it lets them increase their creative diversity by leveraging multiple influencers; the ads feel native | Efficient amplification of proven content | Simplified process |
| Primary Limitation | Requires detailed contracts around usage, the creator must trust the brand to use their handle wisely, and setup is more complicated | No creative edits allowed | No creative edits allowed, no ability to choose which handles the sponsored post appears to originate from |
Incorporating influencer content into a brand’s advertising strategy offers a range of benefits to both the brand and the influencer, but the type of implementation that’s best depends on a variety of elements, including ease of setup, usage rights, and contract details. When it comes to influencer partnerships, both the creator and the brand should be very clear on deliverables and how the content/identities will be deployed.
