Meta’s Partnership Ads surge 97 per cent as creator business tops $15 billion

MUMBAI: Meta is making sure creators are no longer just the faces of campaigns but a bigger part of the advertising machinery. The company’s Partnership Ads business grew more than 97 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026, crossing a $15 billion annual revenue run-rate, as it expanded tools to help advertisers discover creators and turn their content into campaigns.

During its earnings call on 21 October, Meta said it had completed the global rollout of its Creator Marketing Hub to all advertisers during the quarter. The platform brings more than 10 million creators into a searchable discovery system, allowing brands to find potential partners, organise content and activate Partnership Ads.

The expansion marks a further step in Meta’s effort to embed creator marketing within its advertising infrastructure, making the journey from finding a creator to running a campaign more streamlined. The company, however, did not disclose the absolute quarterly revenue generated by Partnership Ads or provide a breakdown by market, platform or creator category.

The Creator Marketing Hub brings three key activities together: creator discovery, content organisation and Partnership Ad activation. Rather than treating these as separate stages, Meta is looking to make them part of a connected advertising workflow.

The company is also integrating Meta AI Business Assistant into the hub. Through conversational prompts, advertisers can search for creators, identify content that could be used in Partnership Ads and receive guidance as they navigate creator marketing workflows.

The aim is to reduce the friction involved in finding suitable creators and putting their content to work in advertising campaigns. For brands, that could mean a more accessible route from identifying a potential collaborator to using creator-led content in paid promotions.

Partnership Ads allow advertisers to run advertisements in collaboration with creators, brands and other businesses. Their growth of more than 97 per cent year-on-year and annual revenue run-rate of over $15 billion underline the scale of the business Meta is building around creator partnerships.

The annual revenue run-rate is an indication of the business’s pace at the time, rather than a disclosure of revenue earned over the full year. Meta has not provided a separate quarterly revenue figure for the format.

Creator marketing is also becoming part of Meta’s broader push to use artificial intelligence to simplify advertising. Alongside the Creator Marketing Hub rollout, the company reported that nearly 10 million advertisers used at least one of its generative AI advertising creative tools during the third quarter.

Adoption of Meta’s video-generation features grew 25 per cent quarter-on-quarter, adding another dimension to the company’s expanding suite of AI-powered advertising tools.

The integration of Meta AI Business Assistant into the Creator Marketing Hub extends this approach beyond creative production. It brings conversational AI into creator discovery and campaign workflows, potentially helping advertisers navigate a growing pool of creators and content.

However, Meta did not specify how much of the adoption of its generative AI tools came from creator-led campaigns. It also did not disclose whether the Creator Marketing Hub or its AI assistant had already improved campaign performance, conversion rates or returns on advertising spend.

The figures therefore demonstrate growing use of Meta’s AI advertising tools, but do not establish the direct impact of those tools on Partnership Ads revenue.

Meta’s creator push sits alongside a broader strategy to generate revenue from subscriptions and specialised services across its platforms.

In September, the company announced the global expansion of Meta One, a unified subscription service for consumers, creators and businesses. The service is being rolled out gradually across Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, with more than 50 features, including Meta Business Agent and Meta AI.

At the time of the third-quarter earnings call, Meta said Meta One had surpassed 15 million subscriptions and trials. The company also reiterated that the core experience across its apps and Meta AI would remain free, while subscriptions would provide specialised capabilities and expanded AI usage.

Meta did not disclose how many of those subscriptions and trials came from creators, nor did it provide a separate revenue figure for creator subscriptions. The reported total should therefore be viewed as a measure of subscriptions and trials across the service, rather than a standalone creator business figure.

The latest figures place creator partnerships alongside Meta’s wider advertising growth. In the same quarter, Meta’s Family of Apps advertising revenue reached $63.1 billion, up 26 per cent year-on-year. Advertising impressions increased 10 per cent, while the average price per ad rose 14 per cent.

Against that backdrop, Partnership Ads are emerging as a significant part of the company’s advertising offering. The format gives brands a way to combine creator content with paid distribution, while the Creator Marketing Hub provides a central route to discovering creators and activating their work.

The challenge will be to translate easier discovery and greater AI adoption into measurable results for advertisers, while ensuring that the growing volume of creator content remains relevant to audiences.

For now, Meta’s figures point to a creator advertising business expanding rapidly, supported by a larger searchable creator pool and tools designed to simplify campaign execution. The next test will be whether the technology can turn that scale into sustained advertising returns.