Imagine a skincare brand's social manager who used to spend a week turning one creator video into an ad. Find a creator in one tool. Negotiate over direct messages. Wait for the content. Ask for permission. Edit out the music that would get the ad rejected. Switch to a different tool to set up the partnership ad. This autumn, she opens Meta's new Creator Marketing Hub, searches for posts that already feature the brand's moisturiser, finds a dozen creators who've been raving about it unprompted, and has three of those posts running as ads by the end of the afternoon.
That hypothetical captures the practical shift behind Meta's September launch. By merging its creator discovery tool with its partnership ads tool, Meta has done more than tidy up its menus. It has turned creator marketing from casting into curation. Brands can increasingly start with content that already exists and already features their products. What the Hub doesn't do is the judgement: deciding which creators genuinely fit, agreeing fair terms, and proving the results.
This post covers the Creator Marketing Hub. How partnership ads work in general is covered in whitelisting and creator-licensed ads. Meta announced Instagram Live partnership ads at the same time; we cover them in a separate guide.
What Meta launched
Meta previewed the merger in June 2026 and launched the Creator Marketing Hub at IAB's Global Creator Week in mid-September, with features rolling out globally through the end of the year. It combines two tools that used to handle different stages of a collaboration: Creator Marketplace, where brands searched for creators, and the Partnership Ads Hub, where approved creator content became paid partnership ads. Creator Marketplace opened to brands globally in late January, and in June Meta said more than five million Instagram creators were discoverable there.
The new features mostly shorten the path from discovery to ad. Discovery filters can surface creators who already feature products like yours, including a "predicted affiliate content" filter and filtering by product tags. Recommendations highlight organic posts that may suit a brand, with keyword search, performance insights and a signal showing whether a post is ready to run as an ad. Brands can message creators inside the Hub, manage permissions at content level with expiry dates, use editing tools that strip out elements such as copyrighted music or stickers that would block a post from running as an ad, and create partnership ads directly. Meta's AI business assistant has been added to help with discovery and planning.
Behind the scenes, Facebook creators are joining Instagram creators in the Creator Marketplace API, a new Messaging API lets agencies manage outreach from their own systems, and partnership ads are coming to Meta's connector for AI agents. Availability varies by country and ad account, so check your own before planning around a feature.
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What changes, step by step
| Step | Before | With the Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Search creators by profile | Search posts already featuring your products |
| Outreach | Direct messages, email | In-hub messaging |
| Permissions | Requested post by post | Content-level, with expiry dates |
| Ad readiness | Manual edits, rejections | Editing tools and an ad-ready signal |
| Ad creation | Switch to a separate tool | Created directly from the Hub |
| Payment and contracts | Negotiated off-platform | Still negotiated off-platform |
That last row matters. Meta didn't announce affiliate commissions, order-level creator attribution or performance-based payments as part of the launch. Fees, deliverables and terms are still agreed between brand and creator.
From casting to curation
For years, creator marketing has worked like casting: choose creators, brief them, commission new content and hope it works. The Hub makes a different starting point much easier. Many brands already have customers and creators posting about their products unprompted. That content is often more authentic than anything commissioned, and its organic performance hints at how it might do as an ad.
A brand has $6,000 for creator content this month.
→ Commissioning: 5 new videos at about $1,200 each. Five assets to test, arriving in two to four weeks, with unknown performance.
→ Curating: 20 existing posts that already feature the product, licensed for paid use at about $150 each ($3,000), plus $3,000 left to commission more from the best performers.
Four times as many assets to test in the first round, available within days, and a clearer view of which creators to invest in next.
Licensing fees vary enormously by creator, usage period and exclusivity, so treat these as placeholders. The point is the shape of the approach: test widely with existing content, then invest in what works.
Meta's own figures give the format some backing. In an experiment Meta ran from 14 to 21 June 2025 with about 2,400 advertisers, adding partnership ads creative to business-as-usual campaigns delivered 19% lower cost per acquisition and 13% higher click-through rates on average than business-as-usual creative alone. These are Meta-reported averages, not guarantees, and predate the September 2026 launch; test against your own ads.
The shift Meta has turned creator marketing from casting into curation. The Hub speeds up finding content and turning it into ads, but it doesn't do the judgement: deciding who genuinely fits, agreeing fair terms, and proving the results.
What the Hub doesn't do
It doesn't replace a contract. In-app permissions with expiry dates are useful, but they don't settle fees, how long and where content can be used, markets, exclusivity or edits. Put those in writing, and make sure permission expiry dates match what you've agreed, using the principles in creator contracts explained. If you're curating from ordinary customers rather than professional creators, the rules around rights are different again, as covered in securing the rights to customer content.
It doesn't vet creators for you. Check audience quality, authenticity and brand fit before putting money behind anyone, as set out in how to find and vet influencers. And don't let easy discovery pull you only towards the biggest accounts; the tier considerations in choosing the right creator tier still apply.
It doesn't handle disclosure for you. Depending on its identity setting, a partnership ad's header can show both accounts, only the first, or a dynamic choice (the default) that Meta predicts will perform best. The original organic post and any accompanying content still need correct disclosure, and brands remain responsible for making sure it happens, as covered in influencer disclosure for brands.
It doesn't measure beyond Meta. The Hub's performance data describes activity on Meta's platforms. To understand whether creator content is really driving sales, use your own attribution and, where possible, holdout tests, following influencer campaign measurement.
How to use it well this season
Start by searching for existing posts that feature your products, and shortlist the strongest. Vet the creators behind them. Agree simple written terms for paid use, with usage periods that cover the holiday season and permission expiry dates to match. Run several creator assets against each other and against your own ads, rather than betting on one. Brief any new content from the winners clearly, using how to write a creator brief. And remember that since Meta has also been removing ad-set placement exclusions, creator ads may run in more places than before, so check they work across formats, as covered in Meta removes placement exclusions.
Finally, keep perspective: the Hub makes Meta the easiest place to run creator content, which is also a reason not to build your whole programme around one company's tools. Relationships, content rights and data should be portable to TikTok, YouTube and wherever your audience goes next, a theme explored in how brand-creator deals are changing. Brands that want creator discovery, rights and paid amplification run as one programme often work with a specialist social media marketing team.
The short version
In September 2026, Meta launched its Creator Marketing Hub, merging Creator Marketplace and the Partnership Ads Hub into one workspace, rolling out globally through the end of 2026. It adds discovery filters that surface creators already featuring your products, organic content recommendations with an ad-ready signal, in-hub messaging, content-level permissions with expiry dates, editing tools that remove elements blocking ads, direct partnership ad creation, and Meta's AI assistant, with Facebook creators joining the Marketplace API. The practical shift is from casting to curation: brands can start with existing posts that already feature their products and turn the best into ads quickly. In a June 2025 Meta experiment with about 2,400 advertisers, adding partnership ads to business-as-usual campaigns averaged 19% lower cost per acquisition and 13% higher click-through rates; those are Meta's figures, not guarantees, so test against your own ads. The Hub doesn't change payments, replace contracts, vet creators, handle disclosure or measure beyond Meta, so keep written terms, vetting, disclosure checks and your own measurement, and keep your creator programme portable across platforms.
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Explore Social Media Marketing →Frequently asked questions
What is Meta's Creator Marketing Hub?
Meta's Creator Marketing Hub is a single workspace that combines two tools that were previously separate: Creator Marketplace, where businesses searched for creators to work with, and the Partnership Ads Hub, where approved creator content was turned into paid partnership ads, which can show both accounts, only one or a dynamic choice by Meta, depending on settings. Meta previewed the merger in June 2026 and launched the hub at IAB's Global Creator Week in mid-September, with features rolling out globally through the end of 2026. The hub lets advertisers discover creators and organic posts that already feature their products, message creators, request and manage permissions, prepare posts to run as ads and create partnership ads in a few steps. Meta also added its AI business assistant to support discovery and planning. Availability of individual features can vary by country and ad account, so brands should check what their own account shows.
What's new in the Creator Marketing Hub?
The main additions focus on finding content and turning it into ads faster. Discovery filters can surface creators who already feature products like yours, including a predicted affiliate content filter, and content can be filtered by product tags. Recommendations highlight organic creator posts that may suit a brand, with keyword search, performance insights and a signal showing whether a post is ready to run as an ad. In-hub messaging supports outreach, and permissions can be managed at content level with expiry dates. Ad-readiness editing tools can remove elements such as copyrighted music or stickers that would stop a post running as an ad, and partnership ads can be created directly from the hub. Behind the scenes, Facebook creators are joining Instagram creators in the Creator Marketplace API, a Messaging API supports outreach from agencies' own systems, and partnership ads are coming to Meta's AI agent connector.
What does the Creator Marketing Hub not do?
It does not change how creators are paid or how deals are agreed. Meta did not announce affiliate commissions, order-level creator attribution or performance-based payments as part of the launch, so rates, deliverables and terms are still negotiated between brands and creators, usually outside the hub. In-app content permissions are also not a substitute for a written agreement covering usage rights, duration, exclusivity, fees and disclosure. The hub's performance data covers activity on Meta's platforms, so brands still need their own measurement to understand how creator campaigns contribute to sales across channels. And the hub only covers Meta's apps, so creator relationships and content on TikTok, YouTube and elsewhere still need separate management. It speeds up the mechanics of finding content and running it as ads, but decisions about which creators fit a brand, and whether campaigns are working, still sit with marketers.
How should brands use the Creator Marketing Hub?
Use it to find and activate content faster, while keeping the judgement and paperwork that make creator partnerships work. Start by searching for organic posts that already feature your products, since these are often authentic, proven with audiences and quick to activate. Vet the creators behind them for audience quality and brand fit rather than relying only on recommendations. Agree terms in writing before running content as ads, covering fees, how long the content can be used, in which placements and markets, and whether any exclusivity applies, and make sure in-app permission expiry dates match those terms. Check that disclosure is correct, since a partnership ad's header may not always show both accounts. Test several creator assets against each other and against your own ads, measure results with your own attribution or holdout tests as well as Meta's reporting, and diversify across platforms so your creator programme isn't dependent on one company's tools.
