Partnership Ad Performance: How Partnership Ads Outperform Brand Ads

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.

TL;DR

• Partnership ad performance outpaces brand ads in engagement and conversion rates.
• Meta and TikTok both show measurable lifts from branded content or Spark Ads.
• Use Meta/TikTok lift studies to validate true incrementality.
• Blend with brand ads for scale and message control.
• Partnership ads require intentional creative and permission workflows.

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.

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.

Explore the Latest TikTok Ad Trends

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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 Incrementality

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.

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.

Examples of Partnership Ad Performance

Looking for inspiration? Real-world case studies show how brands across industries use partnership ads to boost results.

• Myra Philippines used Partnership Ads with Reels and Collaborative Ads, driving a 3× increase in incremental add-to-cart events – a strong playbook for beauty and skincare brands.
• Speak paired Automated App Ads with branded content ads, achieving a +49% lift in recurring subscriptions, a model strategy for subscription-based apps.
• Quay ran a TikTok Conversion Lift study with Spark Ads, seeing +417% more searches, +70% add-to-cart, and +54% purchases, resulting in +91% ROAS.

These examples highlight the versatility of partnership formats. From beauty to apps to e-commerce, 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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