Partnership ads and Spark Ads are the Meta and TikTok formats for running paid ads from a creator's handle. On Meta, a partnership ad shows the creator and your brand together; on TikTok, a Spark Ad boosts the creator's own post, and the engagement stays on that post.
This guide is for ecommerce teams who pay creators for video and want to run it as ads on both platforms. You'll see how permissions, engagement and control differ, which format fits which job, and you'll get a setup checklist and a rule for picking the TikTok authorisation length. Platform flows change often, so every rule below links to the official help page to check before you launch.
What are partnership ads and Spark Ads?
Both formats let you pay to show a creator's content under the creator's name, instead of uploading the video as an ad from your brand account. The viewer sees a person's name at the top of the ad, which is the reason both formats exist.
Meta partnership ads run on Facebook and Instagram from a creator's or partner's handle. Meta renamed them: its help centre notes that branded content ads are now called partnership ads. Meta's developer documentation says a partnership ad features the brand and partner accounts in its header and uses signals from both accounts for ranking. You choose which account is the primary identity and which is secondary.
TikTok Spark Ads are a native format that boosts organic TikTok posts, either from your own account or from a creator's account with their permission. TikTok's Spark Ads overview says the views, comments, shares, likes and follows from a Spark Ad are credited to the original post. The ad is the creator's post, promoted.
So the core difference is identity. A partnership ad is a co-branded unit. A Spark Ad is the creator's post with your budget behind it.
How do the two formats compare side by side?
Here is what each platform's own documentation says, in one view. Check the linked pages for changes before you plan a campaign around a row.
| Meta partnership ads | TikTok Spark Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose name shows | Creator and brand, both in the header | The post owner's account |
| Permission model | Content-level (one post) or account-level (ongoing) | Authorisation code per post |
| How long permission lasts | Until the creator revokes it | 7, 30, 60 or 365 days, chosen by the creator |
| Ad without an existing post | Yes, with account-level permission | No, the post must exist |
| Where engagement goes | Meta says insights on partnered content are visible; check current reporting | Credited to the original post |
| Edit the creative | Yes, with content-level permission; the original post stays the same | Display name and post text follow the organic post |
| Use the creator's audience | Account-level permission lets you include or exclude the partner's custom audience | Not listed in TikTok's Spark Ads overview |
| Comment control | Brand can hide comments; creator can unhide them | Creator keeps the post and its comments |
| Disclosure | Creator tags the brand with the branded content tool | Creator turns on the commercial content disclosure toggle |
Sources for the Meta rows are the partnership ad permissions page and the developer docs above. Sources for the TikTok rows are the Spark Ads overview and TikTok's guide to authorising Spark Ads posts.
How do permissions work on each platform?
Permissions are where most creator ad campaigns break, so read this section before you brief anyone.
Meta: content-level or account-level
Meta's help page lists two types of partnership ad permission:
- Content-level covers one post, story or reel. The creator either turns on the "Allow brand partner to boost" toggle on a post that tags you with the paid partnership label, or shares a partnership ad code for any post. You can edit the content for the ad and the creator's original post stays the same.
- Account-level is for ongoing work. Once the creator accepts your request (in Partnership Ads Hub, or the Instagram or Facebook app), you can create partnership ads from their handle without a pre-existing post, and build ads from any of their posts that tag you.
Creators can revoke either type at any time. Meta's guide for creators on stopping an advertiser from running partnership ads shows account-level access is removed in Partnership Ads Hub and content-level access in the app. One exception worth knowing: if both accounts belong to the same business and an employee has ads access to both, Meta lets them run partnership ads without a permission request.
TikTok: one code per post
On TikTok, the creator allows ad authorisation in their app settings, opens the post's ad settings, turns on ad authorisation, picks a duration and copies a video code. You paste that code into TikTok Ads Manager under the Spark Ads posts section and confirm. TikTok's authorisation guide lists 7, 30, 60 or 365 days as the durations and adds three details that catch teams out:
- A duet or stitch needs codes from both creators.
- A private video becomes public once it is used in a campaign.
- A video code can only be deleted once every ad using it is deleted.
Which format should you use for which job?
Use the table below to choose per creator and per goal. Many brands run the same creator on both platforms, so treat each row as a job to match rather than a winner to pick.
| Your situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A creator already posted about your product on Instagram | Partnership ad, content-level | Boost the post they made, under both names |
| You want many new ads from one creator's handle over months | Partnership ad, account-level | No new post or new approval needed for each ad |
| You want to reach the creator's own followers | Partnership ad, account-level | You can include the partner's custom audience |
| A creator posted about your product on TikTok and it is doing well | Spark Ad | The post keeps its organic look, and engagement builds on it |
| You need the ad to look like a normal TikTok post | Spark Ad | It is the creator's post, with their name and caption |
| You want to change hooks, captions or cuts often | Your own account, or a partnership ad with content-level edits | Spark Ads follow the organic post's text and name |
| You only hold paid usage rights, not handle access | Your own brand account | Neither format applies without the creator's permission |
The last row matters most. A licence to run a creator's video in ads is a different grant from permission to use their handle. Our guide to UGC usage rights shows how to name both in a contract, and what each one usually costs is in UGC creator rates.
How long should a Spark Ads code be?
TikTok gives you four fixed options, so the choice is easier than it looks. Pick from what your account has already shown you:
Spark code length = the shortest of 7, 30, 60 or 365 days that covers your test window plus the run you expect from a winner
If your tests usually read after 7 days and your best ads last about 45 days before creative fatigue sets in, you need 7 + 45 = 52 days, so ask for 60. A 30-day code would end mid-scale, and the creator would have to generate a new one before you can set the ad up again.
Two limits sit on top of the formula:
- Your licence comes first. If the code outlasts the usage term in your contract, the platform still lets the ad run, but your licence does not. Put a stop date in your calendar for the contract end.
- 365 days is the ceiling. A longer contract still needs a fresh code from the creator each year.
On Meta there is no duration to choose in the permission itself, which means the clock is the creator's goodwill plus your contract. Track both.
How do you set up creator ads without losing a winner?
Run this before each creator ad goes live, in order:
- Agree the rights in writing. Paid usage, platforms, countries, term, edit rights, and handle access by platform. Handle access is its own line.
- Ask for disclosure on the post. On Meta the creator tags you with the branded content tool; on TikTok they turn on the commercial content disclosure toggle. The FTC's guidance for creators says a paid relationship should be disclosed in the video itself, and other markets have their own rules.
- Pick the permission type. Content-level or account-level on Meta. A code length on TikTok, from the formula above.
- Request raw footage and a clean export. You'll want both for a version that runs from your own account.
- Launch the creator-handle ad and your own-account version side by side. Same video, same offer, so you know what the handle adds in your account.
- Log every permission. Creator, platform, post, permission type, start date, code expiry, contract end. One sheet, one row per ad.
- Set two reminders. One a few weeks before the code or contract ends, one on the contract end date itself.
Step 5 is the one most teams skip. A creator can revoke Meta permission at any time, and a TikTok code ends on its date. If your only version of a winning ad runs from their handle, losing the handle means losing the ad. With your own-account version already live, spend shifts instead of stopping.
What do partnership ads and Spark Ads cost?
You buy delivery for both formats in Ads Manager like any other ad, so the extra cost to plan for is the creator's. Creators usually price handle access separately from making the video, often per month or per period, because their name sits on an ad they don't control.
That makes the useful comparison the creator's handle fee against what the handle adds to your results. Step 5 in the setup above gives you that number from your own account. If the creator-handle version and your own-account version perform about the same over a fair test, the handle fee buys you nothing, and you can keep the video and drop the handle at renewal. Our creative testing system for Meta ads covers how to read that test.
Where Klaspr fits
Klaspr makes UGC-style video ads with AI creators you cast once and keep on your account. Those ads run from your own brand account, so there is no handle to borrow, no Spark code to renew and no permission that can be revoked mid-scale. They are a quick way to test angles before you pay a real creator for handle access on the winners. See plans and pricing.
The limit is plain: an AI creator has no followers, so it can't give you a real creator's audience or the social proof of their name on the ad. AI disclosure rules also apply, and our guide to AI ad rules on Meta and TikTok lists what each platform asks for.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. For a contract involving a creator's name, likeness or a new market, have a lawyer in the relevant country review the terms.