Brands paying creators to front their ads has quietly become one of Meta’s fastest-growing businesses. On its third-quarter earnings call, the company said the ads it runs with creators nearly doubled in a year and now bring in money at a pace of more than $15 billion a year.

A $15 billion pace, up 97%

According to PPC Land‘s Luis Rijo, chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts on Oct. 21 that Meta’s partnership ads, which let advertisers run ads with creators, brands and other businesses, “grew over 97% year-over-year and surpassed $15 billion in annual revenue run-rate.” Rijo notes that PPC Land’s first-quarter coverage put the run rate at $10 billion, meaning it climbed about $5 billion in two quarters.

A run rate isn’t the same as reported revenue. It takes recent sales and projects them across a full year, and Rijo points out that Meta doesn’t break partnership ads out as a separate line in its financial statements.

Ads that borrow a creator’s face

According to Marketing Newsroom‘s Grzegorz Kubicki, partnership ads are the ones brands run through creators’ own accounts, so the promotion shows up under the creator’s identity with the brand alongside. Kubicki reports that Meta’s overall ad revenue reached $63.06 billion for July through September, up from $50.08 billion a year earlier, while the average price per ad rose 14% and the number of ads shown grew 10%.

10 million creators in Meta’s catalog

Li also said Meta finished rolling out its Creator Marketing Hub to all advertisers worldwide. The tool puts creator discovery, content organization and partnership ad buying in one place, with more than 10 million creators now discoverable, Rijo reports. Meta is also wiring its AI Business Assistant into the hub so advertisers can “conversationally search for creators” and find content to turn into ads. Separately, Li said nearly 10 million advertisers used at least one of Meta’s generative AI creative tools during the quarter.

The takeaway

For creators, the numbers say brand money is flowing toward people with real audiences, and Meta wants to be the middleman. A searchable catalog of 10 million creators makes it easier for brands to find talent, but it also makes it easier to shop on price. Creators who know their worth and negotiate usage rights for their content will get the most out of this boom.

Image: Meta Platforms headquarters in Menlo Park, California, by LPS.1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons