Marketing Director, Katie Underwood, and Performance Marketing Manager, Candace Campbell, headed to MetaFest 2026 last week to learn more about what’s driving value for brands on the most-used marketing channel there is: Meta.
Our Takeaways from MetaFest 2026
Between the conversations surrounding creators, culture and creativity - both with marketers and creators themselves - one clear message started to emerge: the brands that embrace creator-led advertising will be best placed to drive meaningful growth.
As an ecommerce marketing agency and Meta agency specialising in paid advertising, this interplay between brands and creators and how it spills over into paid media is something we’ve been on the pulse of for a number of years; what stood out to us this time, though, was how Meta was encouraging brands to embrace creator partnerships as the foundation of their strategy - not an add-on or one-off tactic.
Let’s get into our biggest takeaways.
#1 - We’re Moving Towards a Creator-First Future
Consumer behaviour is constantly changing, but in 2026, it’s changing quicker than ever before, and one of the biggest shifts in consumer behaviour has been a pivot away from brands and towards individual creators.
People are turning to creators, yes, for recommendations and inspiration on what new brands to purchase from during the discovery phase, but also for reassurance when they’re further down the buying funnel. In fact, one key statistic shared was that creators now influence almost 50% of all consumer purchases.
We also heard that 92% of marketers believe creator content outperforms their own brand-produced content. In reality, this shift shouldn’t come as a surprise. Creators of all niches have built communities around shared interests and experiences, so their content often feels more relatable and authentic than traditional brand advertising.
Historically, advertising budgets have followed changes in consumer behaviour. The message from Meta Festival was that we’re now approaching another significant shift, with investment increasingly moving towards a creator-first approach.
The opportunity for brands isn’t simply to work with more creators. It’s to work with the right creators, in the right way, to build genuine connections with their audiences, which means that brands need to be consumers themselves and actively participate in the same spaces as their audiences to find the right creators.
#2 - Creator Partnerships Need to Be Measured Differently
One of the more interesting takeaways was the need to rethink how we measure the value of creators. Too often, creators are evaluated against the same benchmarks as traditional advertising, or they’re expected to deliver purely against one particular stage of the customer journey.
But different types of creators play different roles and will have garnered an audience for different reasons.
Where some creators will be brilliant at driving immediate action and conversions, others will be powerful persuaders who influence purchasing decisions over time. Additionally, whilst some creators may not feel like the “right fit” on paper, they’ll be able to help brands tap into new audiences by introducing their products to entirely new communities.
These contributions won’t necessarily deliver the same immediate results, but they all have value in their own right. However, this is all to say that measuring the success of these partnerships isn’t as cut and dry as it initially seems.
Recognising this, Meta highlighted Partnership Ads as a way to bridge creator content and paid media performance, with a reported 19% reduction in acquisition costs compared to a brand’s own creative.
Beyond being more efficient, Partnership Ads also allow brands to diversify their creative by bringing different perspectives into their advertising and provide Meta’s delivery system with a broader range of signals to help identify relevant audiences.
For ecommerce marketing agencies like us, this reinforces the importance of looking beyond individual campaign results and understanding the wider role creator partnerships play in brand growth.
#3 - Brands Need to Enter the Creator’s World, Not the Other Way Around
One of our favourite takeaways from the day.
Rather than asking creators to adapt their content to fit rigid brand guidelines, brands should be thinking about how they can naturally become part of the creator’s world.
After all, audiences follow creators for a reason. They connect with their personality and content style. When a brand partnership feels overly scripted or forced, it risks losing the authenticity that made the creator valuable in the first place.
The most effective partnerships are those where the brand feels like a natural addition to the content, rather than interrupting it.
It’s about finding the balance between protecting brand identity and giving creators the freedom to do what they do best.
#4 - Cultural Relevance Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Another theme that emerged was the importance of brands being culturally vibrant.
Crucially, being culturally relevant doesn’t mean jumping on every viral trend or trying to force your brand into the latest internet moment; rather, it’s about understanding the communities your audiences belong to, recognising what matters to them and identifying cultural behaviours that have longevity.
A great example discussed was the continued popularity of Get Ready With Me (#GRWM) content. Rather than being a fleeting trend, it’s become an established content format that brands can participate in naturally.
Meta also highlighted how content discovery is evolving, with around 70% of content shown to a user now coming from accounts that people don’t already follow.
This creates a huge opportunity for brands to reach new audiences, but it also means they’re competing for attention in spaces where relevance and entertainment matter just as much as brand recognition.
The message was clear: the brands succeeding understand where their brand can tap into culturally relevant moments and trends rather than simply advertising around them.
#5 - There Are New Opportunities to Connect Paid Advertising With Culture
Meta also introduced a new and - what we predict to be a very - competitive ad type: Reels Trending Ads. This is an ad placement designed to position a brand’s ad directly after trending reels content within relevant categories.
This opens up an interesting opportunity for brands to align their advertising with the content being showcased and tap into the conversations audiences are already engaged in.
Rather than relying solely on traditional targeting strategies, it creates another way for advertisers to tap into cultural relevance and discovery.
Combined with Partnership Ads, it highlights Meta’s continued investment in bringing creators, cultural signals and paid advertising closer together. This is one we’ll be experimenting with a lot.
#6 - Larger Creative Experimentation Could Unlock Larger Growth
Our final takeaway - and one less focused specifically on creators - was the importance of being more ambitious with creative testing.
One recommendation shared was to dedicate around 30% of your investment to creative testing, rather than continually making marginal adjustments to existing campaigns.
It’s an interesting challenge for performance marketers, where the temptation can often be to focus on small, incremental improvements. But as advertising becomes increasingly driven by creative diversity, audience signals and automation - with Meta’s own algorithmic changes a major driver - there’s a strong argument for testing more meaningful changes.
Different creators, content formats, creative approaches and messaging can all help brands uncover new opportunities for growth, even something as simple as showcasing the brand logo or product in a different way can make a difference.
Final Thoughts: Creator-Led Advertising Is a Shift in Mindset
If there was one message to take away from Meta Festival, it’s that paid social isn’t about better targeting or bigger budgets (although, let’s not write those elements off).
It’s about understanding people; understanding who people trust, what content they engage with, which communities influence their decisions, and how brands can become a natural part of those conversations.
For paid social agencies and in-house advertising teams, this means moving beyond seeing creator content or “influencer marketing” as a separate marketing channel and starting to integrate it more meaningfully into the wider paid social strategy.
It means that the brands that succeed won’t necessarily be those that jump on the most trends or work with the biggest influencers; it’ll be those that build authentic creator partnerships and combine creative thinking with measurable performance.
Get in Touch With Us
Want to find out how creator-led advertising could work for your brand? Reach out to our ecommerce marketing agency team and we’ll help you build the creator partnerships, creative and paid social campaigns that drive measurable growth. Get in touch with us today, or take a look at our work.
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