Partnership ads aren’t just a trend, they’re outperforming traditional brand ads across the board.

By leveraging the credibility and reach of creators, platforms like Meta and TikTok have built ad formats that drive real results. Think higher engagement, stronger conversions, and trusted delivery – all while maintaining brand control.

In this post, you’ll learn how partnership ad performance stacks up against standard brand ads, when to use each, and how to design campaigns that scale with confidence – plus five real campaigns that show what it looks like in practice.

What are partnership ads (and why they perform)

Partnership ads are co-branded placements that blend the authenticity of creator content with the scale and precision of paid media. On platforms like Meta and TikTok, they use unique formats that boost performance by combining signals from both creator and brand accounts.

Here’s how they work:

• Meta Partnership Ads display both the brand and creator in the header and draw ranking signals from both, improving delivery and incrementality.
• These can run on Instagram feed posts, Stories, and Reels and don’t require a creator ad code if permissions are granted directly.
• TikTok Spark Ads amplify organic posts from creators or brands, maintaining social proof by attributing all engagement to the original post.
• Brands can authorize up to 10,000 Spark Ads per account, giving them the ability to scale while keeping content rooted in authentic creator voices.

This dual-account signal strategy boosts algorithmic delivery, while the creator’s voice enhances trust. Together, they unlock stronger partnership ad performance, especially in competitive or conversion-driven campaigns.

Not sure which format fits your campaign? See how Partnership Ads vs Spark Ads compare.

Performance benchmarks & lift

Partnership ads don’t just promise better performance, they prove it.

Meta’s branded content formats have shown significant incremental impact:

• The Myra case study combined Partnership Ads and Reels with Collaborative Ads, resulting in a 3× increase in incremental add-to-cart events.

TikTok’s Spark Ads deliver equally compelling gains:

• Internal analysis found Spark Ads delivered +30% video completion, +142% engagement, and +43% conversion rates, while reducing CPM by 4% compared to non-Spark ads (Spark Ads Playbook).
• A TikTok Conversion Lift study with Quay showed the treatment group achieved +417% more search volume, +70% add-to-cart, and +54% purchases, resulting in +91% ROAS over the target.

Compared to traditional brand ads benchmarks, these gains highlight the clear upside of partnership formats. Especially for brands aiming to validate incrementality and drive lower-funnel results.

Where partnership ads beat brand ads

Partnership ads outperform brand ads across key performance metrics, especially in areas tied to engagement and conversion.

On TikTok, Spark Ads offer a compelling edge – +142% engagement, +43% CVR, and +30% completion rates vs. non-Spark formats.

On Meta, the advantage comes from signal synergy. When both the brand and creator accounts are linked via Meta’s partnership format, the ad receives higher placement priority and trust from the audience.

Beyond the numbers, brand lift studies validate the emotional edge. Nielsen found that brand recall is the strongest predictor of lift in emerging media – including influencer and branded content. Partnership ads inherently boost recall by fusing trusted creator voices with consistent brand messaging.

When your goal is to stop the scroll, earn trust, and convert, especially in UGC-friendly verticals, partnership formats often deliver better outcomes than standard brand ads alone.

When brand ads still win

Despite the momentum behind partnership ads, brand ads still play a vital role, especially where scale, speed, or control is critical.

Use brand ads when:

• You need strict compliance or legal approval on messaging – brand ads streamline workflows by bypassing creator permissions.
• Speed is essential – brand ads can launch faster since they don’t rely on external assets or creator timelines.
• Your brand already has strong performance signals – Meta’s auction favors historical account performance, which may outperform creator-linked units if the creator lacks credibility or alignment.

In short, while partnership ads shine in authenticity and engagement, brand ads remain the go-to for efficiency, consistency, and short-term control. The strongest strategies blend both – using creators where they add lift, and relying on brand ads to scale proven messaging fast.

Framework: test & prove incrementaly

To truly understand whether partnership ads outperform brand ads, brands need structured experimentation. That’s where conversion lift studies (CLS) come in.

On Meta:

• Use Meta’s Conversion Lift studies, which split audiences into randomized test and holdout groups.
• Results are measured with intent-to-treat analysis, helping isolate incrementality beyond platform attribution (Meta experiments guide).

On TikTok:

• Run TikTok Conversion Lift studies, which quantify incremental purchases and registrations.
• The Quay case study is proof: partnership ads drove stronger incremental KPIs, including a 91% ROAS lift.

The takeaway? Don’t rely on attributed ROAS alone. Use platform-run lift studies to determine whether partnership ads vs brand ads are truly moving the needle on incremental conversions.

Creative & Ops: Making Partnership Ads Work

Strong results depend not just on format, but on execution. Both Meta and TikTok provide tools to simplify creative and operational workflows for partnership ads.

On Instagram, brands can run partnership ads across feed, Stories, and Reels. Creators either share an ad code or grant permissions directly through Meta’s ad system, making collaboration seamless.

On TikTok, Spark Ads scale easily, with support for up to 10,000 Spark Ads per account. Brands can choose to run ads from their own handle or from authorized creator accounts.

On Billo, creator approvals, Partnership Ad permissions and Spark Ad codes are handled in one place. Spark Ad codes are always set to 30 days, so plan test windows around that.

Creative best practices:

• Rotate multiple creators and test diverse creative angles to avoid fatigue.
• Prioritize strong hooks and measure early hold rates – the first three seconds often predict performance.
• Refresh content regularly to keep ads aligned with platform-native trends.

For brands investing in partnership ad performance, operational excellence is just as important as creative quality. Streamlined permissions, fresh creator rotations, and data-driven creative testing turn partnership ads into scalable, repeatable growth engines.

Budgeting & attribution

Effective budgeting and measurement are essential for scaling partnership ads without overspending.

Set clear baselines:

• Use WordStream’s 2025 benchmarks for CTR, CPC, CVR, and CPL to establish realistic expectations for brand ads.
• Cross-check against Triple Whale’s aggregated dataset, which covers 11,400 ad accounts to contextualize outliers.

Budget allocation:

• Start by allocating 20-40% of spend to partnership ads for 2-4 weeks.
• Run Meta’s CLS experiments to measure incrementality.
• Rebalance budgets based on incremental KPIs, not just attributed ROAS.

Attribution discipline:

• Validate performance through platform-run lift studies before scaling.
• Avoid over-indexing on vanity metrics. Focus on conversions, CPA, and ROAS adjusted for incrementality.

With the right budgeting and attribution framework, partnership ads can be scaled with confidence, balancing performance with sustainable investment.

Case studies: partnership ads and spark ads in action

Looking for inspiration? Real-world case studies show how brands across industries use partnership ads to boost results. Here are five campaigns – three on Meta and two on TikTok, where running ads from creator handles moved the numbers.

Meta Partnership Ads

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.

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.

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.

TikTok Spark Ads

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.

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.

Platform case studies point the same way: Speak paired Automated App Ads with branded content ads, achieving a +49% lift in recurring subscriptions – a model strategy for subscription-based apps.

From home and wellness to fashion, fintech, and retail, the pattern is clear: partnership ads outperform when authenticity meets structured testing.

Summary & next steps

Partnership ads have proven their value. They outperform brand ads on engagement, conversion, and trust, yet brand ads remain essential for scale and control. The winning strategy isn’t choosing one over the other, but knowing when to use each.

Here’s a short overview to keep in mind:

1. Prioritize partnership ads when creator authority and authenticity matter most.
2. Use brand ads to maintain control and scale proven messages quickly.
3. Validate impact with lift studies on Meta and TikTok before shifting budgets.
4. Build a repeatable creative pipeline with multiple creators and test angles to scale what works.

Ready to sharpen your paid social strategy?

Explore our guides on social media content creators, social media advertising, and social media video production to take your next campaign further.

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