Partnership ads with creators: the one setting that changes everything

Partnership ads are one of the most profitable formats on Meta right now. The idea is simple: your ad runs under a creator’s name, not just your brand’s. But a single default setting is enough to wipe out the whole point of the format. Here is which one, and how we use partnership ads on our clients’ accounts.

What a partnership ad is

A standard ad runs under your brand’s name. Your logo and your name sit at the top of the ad.

A partnership ad runs under a creator’s name. The person who shot the video, who talks about your product, who has their own audience.

The creator simply gives you permission to run ads from their account. You keep control of the budget, the targeting and the sales tracking.

For a long time, this setup was a workaround: you had to ask the creator for access to their page. Today, Meta offers it officially, right inside Ads Manager.

Why it works

It comes down to one thing: people trust a person more than a brand.

When the same video runs under a creator’s name, it stops looking like an ad. It looks like a recommendation.

The numbers back this up. According to Meta, advertisers who put more than 20% of their budget into this format see a 19% lower cost per acquisition.

On October 7, Meta published a newer study covering around twenty campaigns in Europe. When more than 30% of the creative is partnership ads, the cost of each truly incremental sale drops by 45%.

In the field, some specialists see even bigger gaps. A US expert in creator ads, whose work we studied in our latest internal training, reports a 53% lower cost per acquisition on the accounts he manages.

These are averages, and every brand is different. But the trend is clear.

The setting that breaks everything

When you create a partnership ad, Meta asks which identity to show at the top of the ad. There are two slots: one for your brand, one for the creator.

By default, Meta puts your brand in the first slot.

Then it recommends the “dynamic identity” option. With it, Meta decides on its own whether to show both names, or only the first one.

You can see the problem. If your brand is in the first slot and Meta decides to show a single name, yours is the one people see.

Your partnership ad then runs like a regular brand ad. You paid the creator, you have the right video, but you lost what made the format work.

The fix takes ten seconds. In the “Identity” section, swap the order so the creator comes first. If Meta shows only one name, it will be theirs.

It is one of the settings we check on every new ad, every time.

Three more habits

Let the creator talk. It is tempting to send a word-for-word script. That is often a mistake. A creator knows their audience better than you do. Give them the product and the points they must cover, then let them find their own words. Slightly raw videos that don’t look like ads are often the ones that sell best.

Keep the comments and likes. When an ad performs well, it builds up reactions. That social proof is valuable. If you duplicate the ad into a new campaign carelessly, the counter resets to zero. By reusing the original post ID, you keep the full history.

Pay creators on results. A flat fee for the shoot, plus a variable part based on views or sales. That is how brands working with many creators do it. The best performers earn more, and they want to come back.

How many partnership ads?

Meta’s studies give a benchmark. The clearest effects show up beyond 20 to 30% of budget or creative.

So you don’t replace all your creative with creator videos. You make them a real part of the mix, alongside brand visuals, product videos and offers.

And you judge each ad on what it brings in. Not on the creator’s views or follower count.

Already working with creators and want to know if your partnership ads are set up right? We can look at it together. The review is free, with no commitment.