Meta enhances Instagram and Facebook tools for creator collaborations

New Delhi: Meta has announced a series of updates to its creator marketplace and partnership advertising tools, introducing new AI-powered features designed to support brands and creators in discovering, evaluating and managing collaborations across Instagram and Facebook.

In an update shared on January 30, 2026, the company said access to Instagram’s creator marketplace is being expanded globally, beyond the 19 countries where it was previously available. The marketplace enables brands to search for and connect with creators for partnership advertising campaigns.

Creator profiles within the marketplace will now display an ads performance indicator badge, highlighting creators predicted to drive stronger advertising outcomes for specific brands. Meta said this is intended to help businesses identify potential partners more efficiently.

Additional creator recommendation features have also been introduced. Brands will see recommendation rails highlighting creators who have tagged their brand in content or have expressed interest in partnering. Other recommendations surface creators with prior advertising experience and those predicted to deliver stronger performance for partnership ads.

A new ‘similar creators’ search allows businesses to find creators based on a specific name or Instagram handle, using previous collaborations to identify comparable profiles. Recommendations may also be generated from top-performing creators who have partnered with the business in the past.

Brands visiting the creator marketplace will also see a redesigned homepage that surfaces creator recommendations alongside explanations outlining why each creator has been suggested. Meta said the change is intended to provide greater clarity around the recommendation process.

The updates build on tools introduced in December 2025, when Meta announced enhancements to its Partnership Ads Hub to support the use of existing organic creator content in paid campaigns across Facebook and Instagram.

According to the company, partnership ads deliver lower cost-per-acquisition and higher click-through rates on average when added to ongoing advertising campaigns. The Partnership Ads Hub now allows brands to discover a wider range of organic content, including user-generated and affiliate posts from Instagram, within a central interface.
Advertisers can also view organic performance metrics, including views, interactions, likes, comments, shares and saves, directly within the hub to assess which creator content may perform effectively as an advertisement.

On Facebook, Meta has expanded partnership advertising options through the introduction of the Facebook Partnership Ads API. The API allows advertisers and agencies to create partnership ads from branded or user-generated content at scale. Creator eligibility for partnership ads has also been broadened to include professional mode profiles, increasing the pool of creators available for collaboration.

The company has further simplified content permissions by allowing creators to proactively share ad codes with advertisers, reducing the time required to secure approvals. Creators can share these codes when publishing branded or user-generated content, even if the brand is not tagged.

Commenting on the platform’s creator tools, Lindsey Lehmann, Head of Influencer and Branded Content at PMG Worldwide, said, “Facebook creators offer a powerful combination of community and performance, translating genuine connection, especially with deeply engaged audiences, into strong results when extended through partnership ads. The new Facebook Creator Discovery API elevates creator discovery and evaluation by providing robust filtering options and performance insights.

With more reliable visibility into available creators and their capabilities, our teams are now incorporating Facebook talent more frequently in campaign planning. This has helped unlock new opportunities to scale creative storytelling and performance within the platform.”

Meta also highlighted broader shifts in consumer behaviour linked to creator-led content, noting that creators increasingly influence purchasing decisions across its platforms.

The company said it continues to introduce AI-enabled features for partnership advertising, including creator testimonials that allow product endorsements to appear as featured comments within ads. According to Meta, campaigns using these testimonials have recorded higher conversion and click-through rates compared with standard campaigns.