Facebook is paying creators to return. The strategy signals a platform trying to reclaim cultural relevance in a market dominated by faster-moving rivals.
The company is offering up to $3,000 (£2,260) a month through its Content Fast Track programme. It targets creators with more than one million followers on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said it paid nearly $3bn to creators in 2025 through monetisation programmes.
The offer comes with conditions:
- Creators must prove they have over one million followers on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram
- They must post at least 15 short-form videos (reels) per month
- The programme runs for a maximum of three months
- It is currently limited to the US and Canada
Smaller creators can earn up to $1,000 a month under the same scheme.
Meta positions the initiative as a way to attract “established creators who are new to or rediscovering Facebook”. The move reflects a broader industry pattern: platforms now compete aggressively for creator attention, much like companies competing for top talent in a tight labour market.
Jordan Schwarzenberger, manager of content creators the Sidemen, questioned the strategy’s effectiveness.
“You’re always following audiences as a creator and so this doesn’t fix it,” he said. “I love Facebook and I love Meta and what they do, but this feels like a bit of a desperate move.”
His critique points to a structural challenge. Audiences often choose platforms first, then consume creators within them. That dynamic limits the impact of simply importing influencers.
“Facebook has not been a priority for the best part of a decade,” Schwarzenberger, chief executive and founder of management company Arcade, told BBC News.
“The reality is people go on the platforms before they go for the creators,” he said, which would mean attracting more creators to Facebook would not necessarily mean their fans follow them back to Facebook.
“They’ll probably also get that same content on TikTok, on Instagram, on the other platforms that they’re actually spending time on,” he added.
Even among major creators, Facebook plays a secondary role. The Sidemen, a group with millions of followers, repost content there, but Schwarzenberger says “there’s no focus” on it.
Financial incentives also fall short. Schwarzenberger argues the payments do not match what top creators already earn.
“Most creators over a million [followers] are going to be making way more money from brand deals or from maybe direct revenue on YouTube or memberships.”
He breaks down the numbers: Facebook pays $3,000 a month for 15 reels, or roughly $200 per video.
“That doesn’t even cover production costs for some creators. So it makes no sense for me,” he says.
Creators will gain access to Facebook’s wider monetisation tools, which reward views and watch time. Yet Schwarzenberger believes the programme will mainly attract smaller creators, producing “no real impact and won’t really bring any audiences”.
The strategy raises a sharper question: can financial incentives alone shift creator behaviour, or does platform relevance depend on where audiences already spend their time?
Facebook’s answer will shape whether it reclaims ground—or continues to follow trends set elsewhere.
Author: Pishon Yip