Instagram Debunks the Myth Around Sponsored Posts 👀

TOGETHER WITH

I’m writing this edition from Las Vegas, where I’ll be speaking on a panel at the American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education conference today about the opportunities for influencer marketing in higher education. It’s been great to see industries outside the typical ones tapping into creators and influencers.

TODAY’S EDITION

• Instagram debunks the myth that it downranks sponsored content marked with the Paid Partnership label.

• TikTok added an integration with its sister app, Lemon8, for cross-posting photo content.

• YouTube makes it easier for creators to grant brands access to performance data and ad permissions for their Shorts.

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DEEP DIVE

Instagram Says It Doesn’t Downrank Sponsored Content – Here’s Why You Should Believe It

In a recent video, Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed that Instagram doesn’t downrank sponsored content—posts tagged with the Paid Partnership label. He explained that the label helps the platform identify sponsored content and enables creators to comply with local advertising regulations.

The Persistent Myth of Penalized Sponsored Content

The belief that social media platforms penalize users for posting sponsored content using native disclosure tools has been a recurring topic of debate. Many creators and brands suspect platforms downrank this content to push users toward ad products. I’ve heard this sentiment firsthand from clients I’ve worked with on influencer marketing campaigns.

In response, platforms have started addressing these concerns:

• TikTok dispelled the myth that using the Branded Content Toggle affects video performance.

• YouTube clarified that marking videos as Paid Promotions doesn’t impact their algorithmic ranking.

• Now, Instagram has joined in to reassure creators and brands.

Why Penalizing Sponsored Content Doesn’t Make Sense

Despite reassurances, the myth persists. But a closer look reveals why penalizing sponsored content isn’t logical:

• Brands Rely on Organic Performance: Brands increasingly use creator content for ads because it consistently outperforms traditional brand creative. Strong organic performance signals that the content resonates with audiences, giving brands confidence to amplify it with ad spend. Penalizing sponsored posts would reduce the pool of viable content for ads, directly impacting platforms’ ad revenue.

• Creator-Led Ad Solutions Are Thriving: Platforms like Meta and TikTok have invested in tools like Partnership Ads and Spark Ads, which enable brands to amplify creators’ organic posts as paid ads. These solutions are build off organic creator content.

• Sponsored Content Often Outperforms Organic Posts: Countless examples show sponsored content with disclosure tools going viral, especially on TikTok and Instagram Reels. In some cases, creators’ sponsored posts even outperform their organic content. If platforms were suppressing this type of content, such results wouldn’t be possible.

What’s Really Behind Poor Performance?

If sponsored content underperforms, the root causes are often:

• The Content: Overly prescriptive campaign briefs can lead to content that feels off-brand for the creator, alienating their audience. Sometimes, the execution is simply poor.

• The Audience: Feeds are increasingly saturated with sponsored posts, which can lead to fatigue and lower engagement.

Improving Sponsored Content Performance

If your sponsored content isn’t hitting the mark, consider these strategies:

• Reevaluate the Campaign Brief: Does your brief encourage creators to stay true to their authentic style, or does it force them to deviate? Strike a balance between your messaging and their voice.

• Analyze Creator Performance Holistically: Look beyond organic content performance when selecting creators. Review their past sponsored content for a more accurate benchmark.

• Regularly Update Your Benchmarks: Keep benchmarks current by factoring in algorithm changes and shifting trends across platforms. This ensures you’re evaluating performance accurately.

TOGETHER WITH DASH HUDSON

Uncover Key Insights for Your 2025 Social Media Strategy

2025 is right around the corner! Before finalizing your social media strategy, dive into Dash Hudson’s free Social Media Benchmark Report to get the most out of your social content in the new year.

What’s Inside: Explore key cross-platform trends for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, plus deep dives into industry-specific insights for sectors like beauty, retail, fashion, CPG, food and beverage, B2B, and more.

Key Insights You Can’t Miss:

• TikTok Leads the Charge: With a 4.5% cross-channel engagement rate, TikTok outperforms Instagram at 4.0% and YouTube at 2.8%. Brands that find the most success on TikTok post consistently, averaging six posts per week—showing that frequency is key.

• Images and Carousels Drive Greater Reach than Reels: On average, single images and carousels are achieving more reach than Reels. With Instagram’s recent updates for images and Carousels, including making them eligible for discovery in the Reels tab, images and Carousels are set to play a bigger role.

• Sharing is Up: TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have all seen a rise in user shares in recent months. With messaging experiences playing a bigger role in how people discover and consume content, creating share-worthy content will be key.

Download the Social Media Benchmark Report for more insights to dominate the algorithms in 2025.

NEWS

Instagram now allows posts with GIFs and stickers to be boosted and lets users swap copyrighted music for boost-eligible sounds. This update alleviates some of the challenges creators and brands faced when trying to boost organic content that previously couldn't be promoted due to specific features used in it.

Instagram is displaying Story Highlights in the native Stories experience. When swiping through live Stories, some users are now seeing recent Story Highlights from accounts they follow mixed in. The platform has been experimenting a lot recently with new features that give the format more visibility, which could encourage more users to incorporate them into their content strategy.

TikTok has announced a new integration with sister app Lemon8. While Lemon8 will remain a separate platform, creators can now use a unified login to access both TikTok and Lemon8, making it easier to cross-share photo content between the two platforms. Lemon8 gained some traction after launching in the US and UK last year, but its momentum has since slowed. To boost adoption, the platform has introduced several new features, including recent updates that allow creators to share their Lemon8 profiles more easily.

TikTok launched new integrations with Spotify and Apple Music. Through a ‘Share to TikTok’ feature, users can share music, podcasts, and audiobooks from streaming platforms to TikTok directly via the Feed, Stories, and Direct Messages. This provides an easy way for creators who review music, as well as artists, to highlight songs and albums, offering viewers a direct link to listen on streaming services. Record labels can also leverage this feature for their influencer marketing campaigns to promote new releases by their artists.

TikTok rolled out a Preview feature. When selecting a thumbnail for a video, users can tap a Preview button to see how the post’s thumbnail will appear on their profile feed. Similar to Instagram’s now-sunset Grid Preview feature, this tool is helpful for creators and brands who want to ensure their post aligns with their profile’s aesthetic.

TikTok is beta testing a Pre-Save button as part of its Add to Music App feature. When available, users can tap the button to pre-save an album on Spotify or Apple Music, which will automatically download upon release. With the shutdown of TikTok Music, the platform will lean on partnerships with these key players, as it double down on its efforts to be a music discovery and consumption destination.

YouTube added a feature that allows eligible creators to request linking their Shorts to a brand’s Google Ads account. This enables the brand to view the video’s performance and run it as an ad. Smaller creators could also use this feature to attract brands they want to partner with formally, by showcasing organic content they’ve created around the brand.

YouTube is enabling viewers to set reminders for upcoming live streams directly from the Shorts feed. When a creator schedules a live stream and shares a Short, this reminder option will be available within 24 hours of the scheduled stream. Combined with the ability for live streams to be discoverable in the Shorts feed, YouTube is leveraging the high-traffic Shorts experience to help live streamers boost their viewership and grow their audience.

LinkedIn has added a more prominent "Follow" button on videos in its immersive video feed. After watching a video for a few seconds, viewers can easily follow the creator by tapping a "Follow + [creator’s name]" button that is front and center below the caption. Creators whose videos are featured in the dedicated Video tab can expect to see increased follower growth.

CES is adding a dedicated space for creators this year. The CES Creator Space will feature workstations, podcast recording areas, networking events, creator programming, and more. Creators have been gaining more presence at conferences, with event organizers increasingly building creator-focused programming and physical spaces. I experienced this firsthand at HubSpot’s INBOUND conference.

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