Influencer PR posts keep filling Instagram and X feeds. One private study puts Japan's influencer marketing market on a yearly climb, with the social media marketing market projected to grow into the late 2020s. As that market expands, the pull of working out the methods and the cautions in advance grows with it.
Social platforms include a feature for running an influencer's post as an ad, rather than as a company's own message. This guide covers what that feature is, its benefits, the setup on X, Instagram, and TikTok, and the cautions to plan for.
What third-party-post advertising is
Third-party-post advertising means delivering an organic post made by someone other than the advertiser as an ad. The third party is not only an influencer or celebrity with a large following. It is anyone who holds sway over the group of users the advertiser wants to reach. The question is why a company would advertise through someone else's post rather than reaching out directly, and the benefits answer it.
Why it works: four benefits
First, it conveys the product from the consumer's eye. An influencer who actually used the product posts an impression at the same eye level as the consumer, and because it does not come straight from the company, it reads as an objective take. One THECOO survey of 1,000 people aged 15 to 59 across Japan found that about half of those in their teens to thirties had bought a product at least once after seeing a PR post by an influencer, celebrity, or curation account. Running that PR post as the advertiser's ad extends the influence beyond the influencer's own followers, and the softer ad feel breeds empathy and familiarity, which can put the product in more hands.
Second, targeting reaches users with high affinity. Unlike a plain PR post, third-party-post advertising lets you target on delivery, so the post reaches people who are not the influencer's followers and who organic posts cannot. A part-time job site for university students, for instance, can limit delivery to that age band and reach exactly the layer it wants.
Third, a lifestyle-fit introduction lands the appeal. When an influencer introduces a product, it is easier to picture the product woven into daily life, and since the chosen influencer usually has a high affinity with the product, the message comes across at the consumer's level and fits the viewer's values. You convey the product's traits through the influencer's strong area.
How the setup works, platform by platform
The flow runs the same in outline: the advertiser gets the influencer's consent to use the post as an ad, the influencer grants permission on the platform, the advertiser applies to use the third-party post, the advertiser selects the post in the ad dashboard and delivers it, and the advertiser pays the platform. An agency sometimes handles the exchange with the influencer. The feature is called Spark Ads on TikTok, third-party-post advertising on X, and Instagram Partnership Ads (formerly Branded Content Ads) on Meta, and while each sets up differently, the outline above holds.
X. To use a third-party post, both the delivering account and the quoted influencer account need a verification mark, the check beside the account name. The blue mark comes with X Premium and the gold mark with Verified Organizations, so one of those subscriptions is required. Check that both the advertiser and the third-party account carry the mark, and obtain or request it where needed.
Instagram Partnership Ads. This runs an influencer's post or story as the advertiser's ad. It differs from a tie-up post in who publishes it. A tie-up post is the influencer's own post made on request to promote a product, marked under the username as "paid partnership with [brand]," and the influencer is the publisher. A Partnership Ad instead delivers the influencer's photo or video as the advertiser's ad, marked "ad" under the account name with the influencer's and the company's account names side by side. It delivers beyond both parties' followers, and because it runs as an ad, you can measure impressions, cost per acquisition, and the rest in the dashboard.
TikTok Spark Ads. Spark Ads runs an organic video as an in-feed ad, both the advertiser's own organic video and a third-party creator's. Organic posts cannot target, but Spark Ads can target finely and deliver to the users you want. It also looks different from a standard in-feed ad: the icon goes to the TikTok profile while the CTA goes to the landing page, so it sits close to organic and carries less ad feel, which tends to perform well. And where a standard in-feed video caps at 60 seconds, Spark Ads accepts up to 10 minutes, room to pack in appeal that 60 seconds cannot hold.
Cautions to plan for
The upside comes with heavy coordination between influencer and company, so plan around the downsides too. Align the terms first: what video or still to make, the fee, and whether secondary use applies. To avoid a "he said, she said" dispute, sign a contract first. Four points belong in it.
- The fee
- The posting period
- Whether secondary use and other-platform deployment are allowed
- Handling of other PR requests, such as reporting any request from a competitor
Secondary use on other platforms in particular needs permission in advance, or it invites trouble later, so put the terms in writing rather than settling them by word of mouth. And select the influencer against the product's traits. To promote pet goods, an influencer who actually keeps a pet has a higher affinity, and the post reaches their followers too, a double benefit. Check what views they hold, what they post, and whether they have drawn backlash before, since a past post can drag the advertiser's product into a flare-up. Understand the promotion's goal, then weigh carefully who can introduce the product appealingly.
A different way to show the product
Third-party-post advertising uses an influential person's post to deliver an ad, which earns engagement and breeds empathy and familiarity for the product. It is worth considering when you want to show a product in a way your own delivery cannot. The catch is that without aligning the post content and the fee in advance, the message can land off from the advertiser's image. Understand the promotion's goal, then work hand in hand with the influencer so more people take an interest in the product.