Despite being less than a year old, Instagram's test of a creator marketplace has already had its share of ups and downs.
The marketplace, which was pitched to creators and brands as an influencer-marketing and monetization solution, started out with high expectations. Creators were excited about the feature, and in its early testing days, the brand sponsorship rates were "relatively competitive," according to influencer talent manager Ali Grant.
But many influencers said the marketplace had turned stale as the months went on.
"The quality of the brands in the marketplace has gone down," Grant recently told Insider. The marketplace, by March, was "absolute crickets," Grant added.
That could change, however.
Instagram announced in a blog post on Tuesday that it would be expanding its test of the creator marketplace by onboarding third-party influencer-marketing platforms and brand agencies via API, which lets other applications integrate with Instagram.
That means Instagram's creator marketplace could potentially see an increase in brands and paid opportunities for influencers in the coming weeks.
The third-party influencer platforms include big names within the creator economy like Captiv8, CreatorIQ, and Aspire. Creators often use these platforms, which offer their own marketplaces, as a way to connect with new brands and discover opportunities to make money as an influencer.
CreatorIQ's chief business development and partnerships officer, Tim Sovay, said in a statement that 89% of influencer deals on the company's platform already include Instagram content.
TikTok's creator marketplace made a nearly identical move in 2021 when it brought on "alpha partners" such as Influential, Whalar, and Captiv8.
"With this test, we're looking to make it easier to drive additional brand deals for Instagram creators and for them to navigate potential opportunities in one centralized place," a Meta spokesperson told Insider in a statement.
Here's a breakdown of what's changing (and what's not):
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Brands can use some creator marketplace features via third-party influencer-marketing platforms. Brands will be able to DM creators with "prioritized" messages and be able to post partnership opportunities using third-party platforms. However, brands will still need to be onboarded to Instagram's creator marketplace to do so, and third-party functionality will be limited to messaging and sharing project briefs, according to Meta.
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Marketing agencies can post project briefs on behalf of brand clients. If a brand agency is working on behalf of a client, the agency can now post opportunities and directly communicate with creators using Instagram's marketplace. Any communication made by an agency on behalf of a brand will include details disclosing that relationship.
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The test is still limited to the US. Instagram's test of a creator marketplace is not global just yet. These updates to the test only affect US-based creators, brands, agencies, and influencer-marketing platforms.
