A promotional image showing Meta's new Instagram creator marketplace.Source: Meta
Instagram is opening up its creator marketplace to Australian influencers and advertisers, giving small businesses and self-employed social media stars new ways to collaborate on brand campaigns.
Instagram's parent company Meta announced the news in a blog post on Thursday, confirming that Australia is one of eight new global markets to gain access to the creator market.
Influencers and brands will be invited to participate ahead of the event, which is expected to be rolled out more widely in the coming weeks.
Launching in 2022, the Instagram Creator Marketplace will allow content creators to showcase what makes them unique and, more importantly, what makes them marketable.
Brands can sign up through the Meta Business Suite so they can market their campaigns to relevant creators with the right kind of audience.
From there, both parties can negotiate terms and fees before approving branded content and partner advertising opportunities.
“Partnership ads are the highest-performing, most transparent way for advertisers and creators to advertise together, and Instagram's Creator Marketplace helps brands find creators to partner with.” says the blog post.
A demonstration of Meta's Instagram Creator Marketplace, currently rolling out in Australia.Source: Meta
While major social media influencers are more likely to have a dedicated agent or manager in charge of negotiating brand deals, and an increasing number of mid-level talent are represented by agencies, Creator Marketplaces are more likely to have a niche audience. It seems tailored to brands seeking access to customers.
This is good news for small businesses that don't have time to organically find the perfect talent on social media.
Meta, which has invested heavily in artificial intelligence capabilities, assures users that its machine learning algorithms will help brands and creators work together.
“Brands have told us that sourcing creators for partnership ads can be difficult,” the blog post says.
“That’s why we’re excited to begin testing new machine learning-based recommendations using Instagram data to help brands more easily discover the best creators for their campaigns.”
In doing so, Meta will once again face Australia's Linktree. Just this month, Linktree announced a new focus on artificial intelligence and its potential to power social commerce.
