Instagram Expands Its Creator Marketplace With New Projects, Creator Portfolio & Branded Content Ad Codes Features
Source: Instagram
Following a few months of testing, Instagram is now rolling out its Creator Marketplace to more brands in the U.S. and adding new features.
“As we expand availability, we’re introducing new tools on creator marketplace aimed at helping brands and creators collaborate more effectively,” Instagram said in a blog post.
Projects
Source: Instagram
Through a new Projects option, brands can make projects, which are campaign opportunities, discoverable by creators who meet their criteria. Eventually, creators will also be able to let brands know they are interested in partnering with them. Brands can also message multiple creators at a time through a new prioritized partnership message inbox.
Along with negotiable opportunities where brands and creators can customize campaign details, brands now have the option to indicate projects as fixed, which means no changes can be made to details or compensation in cases where they need to move quickly.
Creator Portfolio
Source: Instagram
Creators will soon get a media kit-like feature with Creator Portfolio. As part of the Professional Dashboard, creators can create a portfolio to describe their work, showcase their favorite posts, and highlight brands they have previously worked with on branded content.
Branded Content Ad Codes
Source: Instagram
Similar to the process for granting advertising permissions for TikTok Spark Ads, creators will be able to generate a unique code to share with brands, allowing them to turn their content into ads easily.
Timely & Much-Needed Improvements
These new features make it easier for brands and creators to collaborate through the Creator Marketplace. The Projects and Creator Portfolio features should help brands and creators find their best match for collaborations, while Branded Content Ad Codes help to streamline the process of boosting branded content, which has become somewhat of a standard for most influencer marketing campaigns. They come shortly after reports surfaced that some creators who were given beta access to the creator marketplace didn’t have any brands reach out to them for opportunities, making updates timely and much-needed.
Since launching the Creator Marketplace in July, Instagram has been slow in getting things going. It will need to move much faster if it wants to have a branded content platform that competes with TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM). Not only did TTCM launch two years ago, but TikTok has invested heavily in the platform, including recently introducing several new features like TTCM Match, Open Application Campaigns, and Invite Links to facilitate branded content collaborations further.
