Online Reporter
LAST week, Meta announced that it had launched a new programme aimed at luring top creators from TikTok and YouTube by offering guaranteed pay and boosted reach.
The Creator Fast Track programme offers social media stars with established followings guaranteed monthly payments and increased reach on Facebook.
It pays US$1,000 a month to creators with at least 100,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and US$3,000 a month to those with over a million followers on any of those platforms.
But, how does it work?
- To be eligible, creators need to share at least 15 Reels on Facebook within a 30-day period, posted on at least 10 different days.
- The content does not need to be exclusive to Facebook, but must be original to the creator, including AI-generated content.
- Creators can also earn on Facebook through subscriptions, tipping, brand deals and Facebook Content Monetisation, a programme that pays creators who meet certain requirements based on engagement across short and long videos, stories, photos and text posts.
- Meta is also adding new metrics to Facebook Content Monetisation to show creators which views qualify for payout, their approximate earnings rate and why certain views did not qualify.
“I just don’t think that a lot of creators today think about Facebook as the primary place they can go. But that itself actually creates this huge arbitrage opportunity,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on “The Colin and Samir Show.’
Zuckerberg said he wanted to revive what he called the original spirit of Facebook, or “OG Facebook.”
Since then, the company debuted a Friends tab for more personal content and overhauled the way it pays creators, shifting from a revenue share model to one based on engagement.
Meta is betting that a mix of up-front payments, and expanded distribution, can help jump-start activity on Facebook, particularly as creators increasingly complain about inconsistent earnings across platforms.
“We have heard from established creators on other platforms … that it can be hard or intimidating to get started,” Yair Livne, vice president of product for Facebook Creators told CNBC. “So this program is really meant to address that need.”
“We really want every creator to see Facebook as a home for them and a necessary platform to be on,” Livne said. “We believe monetization is a big part of that story.”
The guaranteed payments will only last three months, but Livne said creators will get access to Facebook’s Content Monetization program and will continue receiving a reach boost “in perpetuity.”
The announcement comes as Meta steps up its broader push to win over this segment of users.
The company said it paid nearly US$3 billion to creators in 2025, up 35% from the previous year.
About 60% of that total went to Reels content, with the rest split across other formats.
Facebook, while boasting over 3 billion users, has long struggled to attract creators, who have gravitated toward TikTok and YouTube.
The programme is the next step in a process to attract those with established audiences to help boost original content on Facebook.
Sidemen, the hugely successful group of influencers which includes KSI and Vikkstar, does repost existing content on Facebook, but Jordan Schwarzenberger, their manager said:
“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.”
“You’re always following audiences as a creator and so this doesn’t fix it,”
“I love Facebook and I love Meta and what they do, but this feels like a bit of a desperate move.” – CNBCBCV
