Inside the Campaigns: How Brands Win with Creator Partnership Ads

Creator-led advertising is no longer experimental. It reliably outperforms traditional formats on CTR, CPA, and ROAS, especially when run as creator partnership ads on Meta and TikTok.

Brands like Purdy & Figg, BMG360’s fashion client, Fabletics, Nood, Dyme, and Mall of America are using Partnership Ads and Spark Ads to scale faster while keeping acquisition costs under control. Their results show what happens when creator identity and paid performance work together.

This post breaks down how these brands did it and why the numbers look so strong.

TL;DR

• Purdy & Figg drove +555% revenue and lower CPA using Meta Partnership Ads.
• Fabletics and Nood used creator whitelisting to cut CAC up to 30% and scale spend to $150k/month at strong ROAS.
• TikTok Spark Ads powered 40% of all conversions for Mall of America and boosted Dyme’s CTR by 70%.
• Creator partnership ads consistently outperform brand ads because they stack trust, social proof, and performance targeting.

What are creator partnership ads, really?

Creator partnership ads are paid placements that run from a creator’s handle while the brand controls spend, targeting, and optimization.

• On Meta, Partnership Ads evolved from whitelisting and branded content. They allow brands to run ads from a creator’s handle with full Ads Manager control.
• On TikTok, Spark Ads let brands promote an existing creator post while keeping all likes, comments, shares, and social proof on the creator’s profile.

Compared with boosted posts or dark ads, creator partnership ads:

• Maintain creator identity
• Retain social proof
• Look native in the feed
• Offer full control for optimization and scale

This combination is why performance consistently rises when brands adopt creator-led ads as a core part of their paid social strategy.

Case Studies: Meta Partnership Ads in Action

1. Purdy & Figg

Purdy & Figg, a UK-based home and wellness brand, wanted to grow online sales without letting acquisition costs spiral. Instead of relying only on brand-led creatives, they leaned into creator partnerships and turned those collaborations into Meta Partnership Ads.

In practice, this meant running ads directly from creator handles, using content that already felt like trusted recommendations in the feed. The brand kept full control in Ads Manager (budgets, audiences, optimization), while the creator identity carried the social proof.

Over a 60-day campaign window, the creator partnership ads approach unlocked dramatic performance lifts compared to business-as-usual campaigns:

• +468% purchases
• +555% revenue
• –35% CPA
• +78% ROAS

These results show how creator partnership ads can do more than just “look native.” When creator identity is combined with performance targeting, brands like Purdy & Figg can scale spend, improve efficiency, and prove incremental revenue impact in a tight timeframe.

2. BMG360 Fashion Brand

BMG360 worked with a fashion brand that had already invested heavily in polished brand creative but wasn’t seeing the performance lift they wanted from traditional ads. CTRs were decent, but acquisition costs weren’t moving in the right direction, so the team wanted to understand whether creator Partnership Ads could outperform their existing brand ads in a clean test setup.

They designed a head-to-head experiment: standard brand ads vs. Meta Partnership Ads run from creator handles. The messaging and offers stayed aligned, but the Partnership Ads leaned into creator identity, native-style visuals, and social proof in the ad unit. The goal was to see if the creator “face” could make the same core proposition more efficient to scale.

The results were decisive in favor of creator-led Partnership Ads:

• +53% CTR
• –19% CPA
• +296% engagement vs brand creative

For the fashion client, this validated that creator partnership ads weren’t just a branding tactic. They became a performance lever, proving that shifting spend from pure brand ads to creator-led Partnership Ads could immediately improve both efficiency and engagement without changing the underlying offer.

3. Fabletics: Extending creative lifespan while lowering CAC

Fabletics is another brand example that moved beyond one-off creator posts and built always-on whitelisting systems to scale efficiently on Meta. This brand leaned into creator handles not just for credibility, but for performance longevity – something polished brand ads struggled to achieve.

Fabletics had a common performance challenge: even strong creatives were fatiguing quickly, causing CAC to climb. Instead of producing more polished ads, they shifted toward running whitelisted ads from creator handles, powered by real voices and more organic-feeling videos.

By tapping creator identity (while still optimizing inside Meta Ads Manager) they unlocked two major wins:

• 30% CAC reduction
• 40% longer ad lifespan

These results, reported by Mesha, show why more mature DTC teams adopt whitelisting: not just for authenticity, but for efficiency at scale.

Case Studies: TikTok Spark Ads at Work

1. Dyme

Dyme, a financial wellness app, needed a way to break through on TikTok – a platform where education, finance tips, and lifestyle content compete for the same attention. Instead of producing polished, brand-first videos, Dyme leaned into the power of native creator storytelling, promoting an existing creator post through TikTok Spark Ads.

The creator’s original post explained how Dyme helps users take control of spending in a relatable, personality-driven format. TikTok viewers saw it as a trustworthy recommendation, not an ad – and Spark Ads allowed Dyme to amplify that authenticity at scale.

Because all engagement (likes, comments, shares) stays on the creator’s post, each paid impression carried built-in social proof. This made the campaign feel more organic and lifted performance across acquisition metrics.

Dyme’s Spark Ads campaign delivered:

• +70% CTR
• –20% CPC
• +30% ROAS

These results reveal how creator credibility accelerates performance on TikTok. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Dyme simply amplified content that already resonated – proving Spark Ads can turn a single strong creator post into a high-ROI acquisition asset.

2. Mall of America

Mall of America wanted to drive both awareness and measurable conversions for its in-person experiences – a challenge that requires more than polished brand footage. To make their message resonate with real visitors, the brand partnered with creators who could showcase the mall through authentic, first-person storytelling.

Instead of producing traditional ads, creators documented their actual visits: exploring shops, trying food spots, and highlighting attractions. These short, native TikTok videos felt like genuine recommendations rather than paid promotions. Rather than repackaging the content, Mall of America used Spark Ads to amplify the creators’ original posts.

Because Spark Ads retain all engagement (comments, likes, shares) on the creator’s handle, every impression built additional social proof – making the ads feel trustworthy and community-driven.

The campaign outperformed expectations:

• +68% CTR
• –45% CPC
• 40% of all conversions from Spark Ads

For a high-traffic retail destination like Mall of America, these numbers show the power of letting creators lead the storytelling. Spark Ads made the mall feel vibrant, lived-in, and worth visiting and the data shows audiences agreed.

TikTok’s Playbook confirms this: 87% of the top 200 Spark Ads included creators.

Why These Campaigns Work

The success of creator partnership ads across industries stems from three performance drivers:

1. Signal stacking

Partnership ads combine creator identity signals with brand targeting, improving relevance rankings on Meta and TikTok. Meta reports that combined campaigns (BAU + Partnership Ads) achieve: 53% higher CTR and 19% lower CPA.

2. Social proof that travels with the ad

Spark Ads keep all engagement on the creator’s post, making every ad impression appear validated by other real users.

TikTok’s study shows: +31% attention and +128% purchase intent for native, creator-led formats like unboxings.

3. Media efficiency that scales

Aspire’s 2025 data shows creator UGC ads deliver: 4x higher CTR and 50% lower CPC compared to traditional brand ads.

These campaigns illustrate that creator-led ads aren’t a creative trend – they’re a performance unlock.

Want to try creator partnership ads?

You don’t need a big team or a complex tech stack to start testing creator Partnership Ads and you don’t need to hunt for creators or manage logistics manually.

With Billo, brands can source creators, gather performance-ready UGC, and activate Partnership Ads or Spark Ads in one streamlined workflow.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Secure the right permissions

First, secure the right permissions. On Meta, creators grant Partnership Ad permissions. On TikTok, creators generate Spark Codes. Billo simplifies this process by managing creator collaboration, approvals, and asset delivery in one place.

2. Run clean A/B tests

Next, run clean A/B tests comparing creator-handle ads to brand-handle ads. Meta data shows a 99% probability that Partnership Ads outperform BAU-only ads when tested head-to-head, so structured testing will quickly reveal the lift.

3. Track the right performance metrics

Finally, track the performance indicators that matter most: CTR, CPA, CAC, frequency, sentiment, and reach quality. Billo centralizes creator performance data, making it easier to identify winning creators, refine your strategy, and scale what works.

Billo centralizes creator performance data so you can quickly identify winning creators and scale what works.

If you want to run Partnership Ads the way top-performing brands do, Billo gives you the pipeline, creators, and workflow to make it repeatable.

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