What is Whitelisting?
Influencer whitelisting (also known as creator licensing or allowlisting) is when you, as a creator, grant a brand access to run ads from your social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Instead of the ad looking like it comes directly from the brand's page, it appears as if it's coming from your handle.
Why Do Brands Want Whitelisting?
Brands want to run ads through your account because people tend to trust recommendations from real people more than traditional brand ads. It also allows brands to access your audience and run campaigns directly from your handle, potentially reaching new audiences and gaining valuable performance data.
What's In It For You, The Creator?
Whitelisting can benefit you too!
Increased Reach: Brands use their ad spend to promote content through your account, exposing your profile to a much larger audience than your organic reach alone, potentially helping you gain new followers.
Content Improvement Insights: Brands gain access to detailed ad performance metrics. They can test different versions of the ad and provide feedback, which can help you understand what content resonates best and improve your future creations.
Potential for Long-Term Partnerships: Successful whitelisting collaborations can lead to ongoing relationships and different types of deals with brands.
Additional Earning Potential: Twirl brands offer separate payment for whitelisting access and usage rights.
Prerequisites & Setup Requirements
Before you can grant a brand whitelisting access, you need to have certain things set up:
Public Social Media Profile: Your profile must be public.
Business/Creator Account: You typically need a Business or Creator account on the platform (e.g., Instagram Business Account, TikTok Business account). This allows you to access features like ad settings and performance metrics.
For Instagram:
Meta Business Manager (for Facebook/Instagram): Brands running ads on Facebook and Instagram will need you to have a Meta Business Manager (sometimes called Business Portfolio) setup. This is where permissions are managed. If you don't have one, more details can be found at steps 2-3 in this article. You'll need a personal Facebook or Instagram account to link to it.
Facebook Page (for Facebook/Instagram): Your Instagram account needs to be connected to a Facebook Page, and both should be linked to your Meta Business Manager.
Setting Up Whitelisting on Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
The brand needs access to your Meta Business Manager to run ads from your Facebook Page and Instagram account. Here is a easy to follow video for your reference.
Brands can request access in a couple of ways:
You Add the Brand as a Partner (Brand Provides ID): The brand will give you their Meta Business Manager ID.
Go to your Meta Business Manager (now called Business Portfolio).
Go to "Business Settings" (or similar, depending on the layout).
Find "Users" and select "Partners".
Click "Add" and then "Give a partner access to your assets".
Enter the brand's Business Manager ID.
Choose the "Assets" (your Facebook Page and Instagram Account) and "Permissions" you want to grant. You'll need to give permissions for them to "Create Ads" or similar ad management capabilities. Be sure you understand exactly what permissions the brand needs and what you are comfortable sharing.
Save your changes.
Brand Sends You a Partner Request (You Provide ID): You give the brand your Meta Business Manager ID, and they send you a request.
Find your Meta Business Manager ID (the brand can guide you on where to find this).
Give this ID to the brand.
You will receive a request in your Meta Business Manager or via email.
Accept the request. You will need to review and select the specific Assets (your Facebook Page and Instagram Account) and Permissions you are granting access to. Review these carefully!
Confirm the request.
Setting Up Instagram Partnership Ads
Brands choose Instagram Partnership Ads when they want to boost a creator’s organic post as paid media while keeping it native and creator-led — ideal for performance-driven campaigns with authentic creative.
To set up a partnership ad:
Post your content organically on your Instagram feed or Reels.
Tap the three dots (•••) on the post after publishing.
Scroll and select ‘Partnership Label & Ads’.
Toggle on ‘Get partnership ad code’.
Tap ‘Copy code’ and share it with the brand.
Important Notes
You must have a Creator or Business account on a public profile.
Ensure the content has the Paid Partnership label if the brand requires it (can be added in the same menu).
Setting Up Whitelisting on TikTok (Spark Ads)
On TikTok, whitelisting is often done using Spark Ads. Spark Ads allow brands to boost your organic posts or run ads using your handle and content.
Here's how it generally works from your side:
Create and Post Content: You create the video content for the brand and post it organically to your public TikTok profile.
Enable Ad Settings: Make sure you have enabled "advertising settings" in your TikTok creator tools.
Go to your Profile.
Click the menu at the top right.
Select "Tools for creators".
Activate "advertising settings".
Authorise for Promotion: Within the TikTok app, you will need to authorise the specific video post for promotion. This often generates an authorisation code.
Share Authorisation Code: You generate and share the TikTok ad authorisation code with the brand. You can typically set how long this code is valid (e.g., 7 to 365 days).
Once the brand has this code, they can use it in their TikTok Ads Manager to run the ad from your account.
Important Notes
Make sure you don’t delete or make the video private after sharing the code, or the ad will stop running.
If you want to extend the authorization period later, just repeat steps 2–4 and update the setting.
You can revoke access at any time by toggling off "Ad authorization."
What Happens After You Grant Access?
Once you've granted access (either on Meta or TikTok), the brand can start running ads using your content and your social media handle.
Boosting Posts: The brand might boost an existing post you created for them.
Dark Posts: They might create new ad content that runs using your handle but does not appear on your profile feed (these are called "dark posts").
Performance Tracking: The brand will track the performance of the ads (like reach, clicks, conversions) through their ad account.
Ad Appearance: The ad will show your profile name and picture. On Meta, they might run it as a "Partnership Ad" showing both your name and the brand's name, or as an ad showing only your name ("true whitelisting").
Your Control and Compensation
Compensation: As mentioned, you should receive separate payment for whitelisting. This is in addition to your fee for creating the content itself. Twirl will share a separate payment with you after all information has been confirmed for the whitelisting.
Timeline: After content has been posted and set up, Twirl offers in collaboration with creators, 30 days periods. The client may reach out to compensate additional to continue running longer (e.g., another 30 days). If the brand does not turn off an ad after 30 days, please contact Twirl.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team!