Meta white paper puts creators top of long-term ROI at an index of 151.
Meta’s new creator white paper cites IPA data putting creators at a long-term ROI index of 151 against 99 short term, and sets out five moves for brands.
Meta has published Together creates better, a white paper on creator marketing, on its Meta for Business site.
The page is dated 7 October 2026 and argues that creators “now outperform every other channel on long-term return” yet are “often the last line in the media plan”.
The headline figures on the page: the creator economy is growing around four times faster than the rest of the media industry, with $13 billion of paid amplification forecast next year, up 48% year over year. The page does not say who made that forecast. It also cites IPA data across 220 campaigns and 144 brands, which puts creators at a long-term ROI index of 151, the highest of any channel analysed, and a short-term index of 99. The page does not give the period those campaigns cover.
What the paper argues
Meta’s case is that the gap between what creators return and what brands can prove is not belief or budget but infrastructure: how creators are planned, briefed, bought and measured. It says most budget decisions are made on the short-term view, that creators are often briefed after the work is effectively finished, and that they are judged on measures borrowed from other channels: follower counts from media buying and short-term returns from performance marketing.
The paper sets out five moves:
- Confront the shift: go where the market is.
- Convert with creators: move the numbers.
- Craft the creative: build it properly.
- Connect organic and paid: unite your teams.
- Confirm the payback: prove it with a test run in your own business, not someone else’s benchmark.
Contributors named on the page are Unilever, L’Oréal, WPP Media, dentsu X, Omnicom Media, Charlie Oscar, brand strategist Eugene Healey and creator entrepreneur Grace Andrews. Derya Matras, Vice President, EMEA at Meta, is quoted: “I have little doubt the next decade belongs to creator-first marketing. The question is who gets there first.”
What the page does not say
The page summarises the paper, which is a download. It does not name which Meta apps the guidance applies to, and it does not give the method behind the $13 billion forecast.
What it means for brands
The number a social team can use is the gap, 151 over the long term against 99 in the short term, because most budget calls are made on the short-term view and that view makes creator work look average. The paper’s own answer is a test in your own business rather than a borrowed benchmark. This week, pick one live creator activity and write down, before the results arrive, which long-term measure you will judge it on next to the short-term one, so the next budget conversation is not settled on the short-term figure alone.
Sources
The NBK Social briefing
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