Instagram has updated its policies around affiliate marketing, renaming its Branded Content Ads to Partnership Ads in order to better communicate its approach. With this change, Instagram will enable brands to promote more types of user-generated content (UGC) in the app, not just posts that use the Paid Partnership label. Advertisers can now boost more types of organic Instagram content as partnership ads, including Instagram Collab posts, @mentions, people tags, product tags, and other content without the paid partnership label.

This update provides a new range of ways for brands to monetize UGC, while also giving creators more opportunities to form business partnerships. By expanding the pool of potential ad partners that can connect with them based on their posts, creators can benefit from increased exposure and collaborations with brands.

The permission process for Partnership Ads remains the same – creators can switch on the ‘Allow brand partner to boost’ option which will give businesses the capacity to use their posts for ads, if they choose. Brands will then be able to initiate the campaign process, with creators able to approve selected partnerships on whatever content the brand has chosen to use in a paid promotion.

In addition to this, there are account-level permissions that enable brands to create Partnership Ads from a creator’s handle without a pre-existing post. This is a more defined partnership, likely established through a broader agreement with the creator.

This updated process is part of Instagram’s renewed push on UGC, with the platform also testing out a new process that helps brands feature user photos and videos in their IG shop to better promote their products. Instagram has been working to establish more opportunities for creators, especially Reels stars, in order to keep them posting. This new update will provide expanded opportunities, while also giving businesses more ways to boost brand awareness through UGC.

According to Instagram, campaigns that combine partnership ads with business-as-usual (BAU) ads drive 53% higher click-through rates, 19% lower cost per actions, and 99% probability to outperform BAU ads alone. These results show the potential effectiveness of incorporating Partnership Ads into marketing strategies.

Overall, these updates provide more opportunities for brands and creators to collaborate, making it easier to monetize UGC on the platform. By expanding the pool of potential ad partners, businesses can boost brand awareness through UGC, while creators can benefit from increased exposure and collaborations with brands.