Instagram creator marketplace opens in Australia, giving SMEs a new way to reach influencers

Instagram is opening its creator marketplace to influencers and advertisers in Australia, giving small businesses and self-employed social media stars a new way to collaborate on branded campaigns.

Instagram’s parent company Meta announced the news on Thursday in a blog post, confirming Australia is among eight new global markets to gain access to the creator marketplace.

Influencers and brands will be invited to participate in the coming weeks ahead of what promises to be a broader rollout.

Launched in 2022, the Instagram creator marketplace allows content creators to showcase what makes them unique — and, more importantly, what makes them marketable.

Brands can sign up through the Meta Business Suite, allowing them to pitch campaigns to relevant creators with the right kind of audience.

From there, the two parties can negotiate terms and rates, before signing off on branded content and partner advertisement opportunities.

“Partnership ads are the most performant and transparent way for advertisers and creators to run ads together and Instagram’s creator marketplace helps brands discover creators to partner with,” the blog post reads.

A demonstration of Meta’s Instagram creator marketplace, which is now live in Australia. Source: Meta

While big-time social media influencers are likely to have their own agents and managers negotiating brand deals, and an increasing number of mid-tier talent have agency representation, the creator marketplace appears tailor-made for brands seeking access to niche audiences.

That’s good news for small businesses, that may not have the time to organically stumble across the perfect social media talent.

Meta, which is heavily investing in artificial intelligence capabilities, has also assured users that machine learning algorithms will help pair brands and creators.

“Brands have told us it can be challenging to source creators for partnership ads,” the blog post said.

“That’s why we’re excited to begin testing our brand new, machine learning-based recommendations that use Instagram data to help brands more easily discover creators who are the best fit for their campaigns.”

In doing so, Meta will once again square up to Australia’s own Linktree, which just this month asserted a new focus on artificial intelligence — and its potential to power social commerce.