How to Run Partnership Ads on Instagram: Setup and Strategy

Influencer marketing is projected to surpass $32 billion in global spend by 2025, making Instagram advertising too valuable to approach with a basic strategy. As CPMs fluctuate and competition intensifies, performance marketers need smarter ways to stretch budgets and ensure influencer content reaches the right audiences.

This is where partnership ads come in. 

Consumers now trust recommendations from creators nearly 70% more than traditional brand messaging, signaling a major shift in how people prefer to engage with brands on social media. The advantage? You don’t have to choose between authentic creator content and the advanced targeting available through Meta Business Suite. Partnership ads let you have both.

Why Partnership Ads Work Better Than Your Regular Instagram Campaigns

Think about your own Instagram habits for a second. When you see a post directly from a brand, you immediately recognize it as an ad. But when that same message comes from a creator you trust? You’re far more likely to pay attention, engage, or even save it for later. That’s why Instagram partnership ads work; they blend creator authenticity with brand investment.

Here’s how they outperform standard Instagram ads:

Authenticity & Trust

Traditional brand ads can feel intrusive, while a paid partnership ad appears as a natural, trusted recommendation from an Instagram influencer a user already follows. This built-in social proof lowers resistance and makes audiences more receptive.

Engagement

Partnership ads consistently drive stronger results because they resemble organic Instagram sponsored posts. According to Shopify, Instagram partnership ads outperform brand-only ads in engagement by 36%.

Audience Layering

Partnership ads allow marketers to start with a creator’s engaged community and then apply the full targeting capabilities of Meta Business Suite. Brands can build lookalike audiences from creator followers or layer demographic and interest targeting to zero in on their ideal customer profile.

With partnerships on Instagram, the brand brings the budget and targeting precision, while the creator provides credibility and authentic creativity. Together, they form campaigns that perform better than either could deliver alone.

Setting Up Your Creator Collaboration for Paid Promotion

Before you can run partnership ads on Instagram, you must set up your creator collaboration correctly. Follow these pre-launch steps to build a smooth workflow.

Paid Partnership Label & Initial Collaboration

The first step is transparency. The creator must publish their post organically with the Paid Partnership label, allowing you to promote it as an ad. This is the foundation of any Instagram collaboration.

Here’s what an Instagram influencer needs to do:

1. Create the Instagram post as usual (Feed post or Reel).
2. Tap More options before posting.
3. Under Ads and monetization, select Partnership label & ads.
4. Click on Add paid partnership label. The influencer will add your Instagram handle and submit. The request will show as Pending on their end.
5. Finalize the caption and details, and tap Share.

At this stage, the post will display a Paid partnership tag without your brand name until you approve the request.

How to Whitelist an Influencer’s Content

Tagging the post is not enough; permissions must be granted from both sides. To solidify the partnership, both the creator and the brand must approve the collaboration. This two-way approval process is often called “whitelisting.”

First, the creator must allow promotion on the specific post.

The creator needs to go back into their post settings and toggle the “Allow brand partner to boost”. Once enabled, the content will appear in their Meta Business Suite, ready for promotion.

Second, your brand must approve the creator to tag your business.

You can streamline future campaigns by pre-approving trusted creators. Here’s how to manage your approved partners list from your business profile:

1. In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap the Menu icon (☰) in the top right.
2. Go to Business tools and controls, then click on Branded content.
3. Turn on the toggle next to Manually approve content creators. This gives you control over who can tag your business.
4. Under “Received Requests”, tap “Approve” or “Decline” to manage the partnership.
5. To manage future partnerships, click on Approved content creators.
6. Find the Instagram handle of the creator you’re working with and add it to your list. This creator will now be able to tag your business without requiring manual approval each time.

How to Promote Influencer Content on Instagram as a Partnership Ad

With the permissions in place, you’re ready to build your campaign in Ads Manager. Take a closer look at each section and see how you can turn influencer content into engagement drivers.

Accessing Creator Content in Meta Ads Manager

Beyond approving an Instagram collaboration in an organic post, you want to be able to create Partnership ads without having to ask permission from an influencer every time. You can do this in the Partnership Ads Hub within Meta Ads Manager.

Add content creator partners

1. Go to Ads Manager > All tools > Partnership Ads Hub.
2. On the Home tab, you’ll see:
   • Recent posts from your added creator partners,
   • Recommended posts already labeled as paid partnerships, and
   • Performance insights on whether a post is likely to work well as an ad.
3. On the Partners tab, you’ll find:
   • Sent requests (content partners you invited),
   • Received requests (creators requesting to tag your brand), and
   • A full list of approved creators and pending statuses.
     * Note: You can also manage these approvals directly in the Instagram app if needed.
4. On the Content tab, you’ll see all approved creator posts. To use one:
   • Ask your creator to generate an ad code for the specific post.
   • Go to the Content screen, find the desired post, click the three-dot menu, and select Authorize with Ad Code.
   • Paste the ad code, and the post becomes eligible for use in your campaign.

Building the Campaign

From here, you’ll set up your campaign like any other in Ads Manager:

1. Create a new campaign and work down to the Ad level.
2. Toggle Partnership Ad on.
3. Paste the creator’s ad code.
4. Choose how the ad identity should appear:
   • Brand + Creator handles
   • Creator handle only
   • Dynamic identity (automatically tests which performs best).

Smart Targeting That Goes Beyond the Surface

The real impact of partnership ads comes from layering audience insights. Instead of simply boosting influencer reach, you can expand on it strategically:

• Build a lookalike audience from the creator’s most engaged followers
• Retarget people who’ve interacted with the creator’s content before
• Layer interest targeting that matches your ideal customer profile

By combining your influencer marketing strategy with well-defined targeting, partnership ads transform influencer posts into scalable campaigns that let you go beyond a simple boost.

How Partnership Ads Can Work Best for Your Brand

Boosting vs. Whitelisting

Many marketers ask: Is there a real difference between boosting influencer posts and running Instagram partnership ads? The short answer is yes.

Clicking “Boost Post” may feel easy, but it’s a limited tool with restricted targeting and reporting. Whitelisting through Meta Business Suite or Ads Manager gives you full campaign control: advanced targeting, top-to-bottom funnel objectives, A/B testing, and detailed Instagram advertising metrics. This is the difference between running a simple sponsored ad in Instagram and managing a scalable, data-driven partnership on Instagram.

Picking Winners from Your Creator Content

Not all Instagram influencer posts are worth promoting. To maximize your ad spend, prioritize the ones that already show strong organic performance.

The best approach is to let creator content run organically for 24–48 hours before committing to a budget. Observe how users respond. Posts with high save and share rates usually outperform others as Instagram sponsored posts because those signals show genuine interest and intent. Other posts with lots of likes or comments but few saves may be entertaining, but they’re less effective for driving action.

Identify these nuances beforehand to ensure only the strongest content gets promoted as Instagram partnership ads.

Testing Like You Mean It

Treat partnership ads like a true performance campaign. Test Instagram Reels against carousel ads, run audience segments to discover overlap between your customer base and the Instagram influencer’s followers, and compare different creators to see whose content drives the highest engagement.

Over time, these tests provide data-driven clarity on what type of Instagram ad creative and targeting mix delivers the best ROI.

FAQs: Answering Top Questions on Partnership Ads

Leveling Up Influencer Marketing Through Instagram Advertising

Partnership ads are no longer just another tactic to test when you have the extra budget. It’s now a core strategy that wants to stay competitive in influencer marketing and Instagram advertising.

Combining creator authenticity and paid media precision creates something neither approach achieves alone. Together, they create Instagram sponsored posts that outperform standard ads and deliver stronger ROI.

You don’t have to overhaul your entire social strategy overnight. Start small: choose one creator, run one partnership campaign, and measure the results. Many brands find partnership ads become their most cost-efficient way to scale reach, engagement, and conversions on Instagram.

If you’re ready to move beyond organic reach and boost creator collaborations with a proven paid media strategy, Strike Social is here to help. Our team specializes in building performance-driven Instagram partnership ads that deliver measurable impact. Contact us today to see how we can scale your next influencer campaign.