How to Get an Ad Code on Instagram

Looking for an ad code on Instagram can mean a few different things depending on your goal, but they all lead to one place: growing your reach and making a real impact. Whether you're a creator trying to land brand deals, an advertiser boosting a partnership post, or a business owner tracking ad performance, you've come to the right place. This guide will walk you through exactly what each code is and the practical steps to getting and using the one you need.

How to Get Affiliate & Creator Discount Codes for Brand Deals

This is the one most creators dream about. An affiliate or discount code is a unique code (like JANE15 or CREATOR20) that a brand gives you to share with your audience. When someone uses your code to make a purchase, they get a discount, and you earn a commission. It’s a powerful way to monetize your influence because it’s tangible proof you can drive sales.

Brands don't just hand these codes out, though. You need to position yourself as a valuable partner they can't ignore.

Step 1: Build a Strong, Authentic Personal Brand

Before you even think about outreach, your own house needs to be in order. Brands aren't just buying your follower count, they're investing in your audience's trust in you. A brand collaboration is an endorsement, and they want partners who genuinely align with their values and speak to a dedicated community.

• Niche Down: Don't try to be everything to everyone. Are you a minimalist home chef, a thrift-flip fashionista, or a digital nomad focused on budget travel? The more specific your niche, the clearer your value proposition is to a brand. A skincare brand would rather partner with a micro-influencer whose audience is 100% into clean beauty than a mega-influencer with a generic lifestyle audience.
• Show Up Consistently: Post regularly and engage with your community. Respond to comments and DMs. Go live. Ask questions in your Stories. A six-month-old profile with three posts won't attract any partners. An active, nurtured community will.
• Focus on Engagement, Not Vanity Metrics: A brand will look at your engagement rate (likes, comments, shares, saves divided by followers) before your follower count. Ten thousand followers with a 5% engagement rate is far more valuable than 100,000 followers with a 0.5% engagement rate. Engagement shows your audience is actually listening.

Step 2: Create High-Quality, Relevant Content

Your Instagram feed is your resume. It's the first thing a potential brand partner will see. High-quality, engaging content proves you can create assets that will represent their brand well.

• Showcase Your Style: Develop a consistent visual aesthetic. This doesn't mean every photo has to look identical, but there should be a cohesive vibe.
• Prove Your Storytelling Skills: Create Reels that show how a product could fit into your life. Use carousel posts to educate your audience on a topic related to your niche. Use Stories to give behind-the-scenes, authentic glimpses into your day.
• "Practice" with Brands You Love: Showcase products you already own and love without being paid. Tag the brands organically. This not only shows brands what you can do but also creates a portfolio of your work.

Step 3: Proactively Reach Out to Brands (The Right Way)

Once you have a solid brand and content to show for it, it's time to be proactive. Waiting for brands to find you can take forever. Go after the brands you truly want to work with.

First, create a simple media kit. This is a one or two-page PDF that includes:

• A brief bio about you and your niche.
• Your key stats: follower count, engagement rate, audience demographics (age, gender, location - you can get this from your Instagram Insights).
• Examples of your best work (links or screenshots).
• Your contact information.

Next, find the right person to contact. Don't blast the generic info@ email address. Look on LinkedIn for someone with a title like "Influencer Marketing Manager," "Partnerships Coordinator," or "Social Media Manager."

Finally, send a short, personalized pitch. An effective pitch looks something like this:


Subject: Content Creator Collaboration Idea for [Brand Name]

Hi [Contact Person's Name],

My name is [Your Name], and I'm a huge fan of [Brand Name]'s mission around [mention something specific you like].

I create content for [describe your niche audience] on Instagram (@yourhandle), and my community deeply values [mention a value that aligns with the brand, e.g., sustainable products, easy recipes, productivity hacks].

I have a few ideas for a Reel showcasing how your [specific product] could help my audience, I think it would resonate really well. My media kit is attached for more details on my audience and past work.

Would you be open to an affiliate partnership for a potential campaign?

Best,
[Your Name]


Keep it short, show you've done your research, and propose value first. It won't work every time, but a personalized approach gets you much further than a generic "hey, wanna collab?" DM.

Understanding the Branded Content Ad Code

This "ad code" is a critical tool for creators and brands working together on advertising campaigns. The Partnership Ad Code (or Branded Content Ad Code) is a unique alphanumeric string that a brand generates in their Meta Ads Manager. When they give this code to you, the creator, it allows them to promote your post as an ad using THEIR ad budget and account.

This is a game-changer. It means the ad runs from your Instagram handle, giving it the authentic look and feel of a regular post from you, but the brand gets to control the targeting, budget, and analytics on their end. The ad feels less like a traditional ad and more like a trusted recommendation coming directly from you, often leading to much higher engagement and better results.

The Process from the Creator's Perspective

Let's say a brand, "Peak Nutrition," wants to pay you to post about their protein powder and then boost that post to a wider audience. Here’s what happens:

1. Get the Code: Peak Nutrition's marketing team will go into their Meta Ads Manager and generate a Partnership Ad Code for your upcoming collaboration. They'll send this code to you.
2. Create Your Post: Draft your post on Instagram as you normally would - upload your image or video, write your caption, and add your hashtags.
3. Access Advanced Settings: Before you hit "Share," scroll to the bottom of the sharing screen and tap on Advanced settings.
4. Add the Paid Partnership Label:
   • Toggle on Add paid partnership label.
   • Tap Add brand partners and search for the brand's Instagram handle (e.g., @PeakNutrition).
5. Allow Partner to Boost: After adding the brand partner, you will see a new option appear: Allow brand partner to boost. Toggle this ON.
6. Add the Partnership Ad Code: The brand should provide you with a unique partnership ad code. You may need to follow additional prompts to enter the code they provided. This officially ties your organic post to their specific ad campaign in their Ads Manager, allowing them to use it for paid promotions.

Once you publish the post, Peak Nutrition will see it in their Ads Manager under "Creator Ads," and they can start running it as an ad, reaching thousands or even millions of people who don't already follow you.

For Advertisers: Installing the Meta "Ad Code" (The Pixel)

If you're a business owner or marketer with a website, the "ad code" you're probably looking for is the Meta Pixel. It's not a code you share with followers but a snippet of code you install on your website. Its job is to act as a bridge between your Instagram ads and your website activity.

The Meta Pixel tracks actions that visitors take on your website after clicking your ad. This data is then sent back to Meta, and the connection is essential for:

• Conversion Tracking: See how many people make a purchase, fill out a lead form, or sign up for your newsletter as a direct result of your Instagram ad.
• Retargeting: Create custom audiences of people who have already visited your website. For example, you can show a special offer ad to everyone who added a product to their cart but didn't complete the purchase.
• Optimization: By feeding conversion data back to Meta, the ad algorithm gets smarter and becomes better at showing your ads to people who are most likely to convert.

How to Find and Install Your Meta Pixel

Getting your Pixel code is straightforward, even if you’re not a developer.

1. Go to Meta Events Manager.
2. In the menu on the left, click the green plus sign icon that says Connect Data Sources.
3. Select Web and click Connect.
4. Give your Pixel a name (e.g., "My Business Pixel") and click Create Pixel.
5. Enter your website URL to check for easy setup options.

From here, you have two primary options for installation:

1. Partner Integration (The Easy Way): If your website is built on a platform like Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, HubSpot, Squarespace, or Wix, this is the best option. Meta provides step-by-step instructions for connecting your Pixel without touching any code. You’ll usually just need to copy your Pixel ID and paste it into a designated field in your website’s admin panel.
2. Manual Installation: If you're using a custom-built website, you'll need to manually install the Pixel code. The Events Manager will give you a code snippet to copy. You must paste this code into the header section of your website’s HTML, just before the closing <,/head>, tag. It needs to be on every page of your site. If this sounds intimidating, it’s a quick job for a web developer.

Final Thoughts

Whether you call it a creator code, a partnership code, or a tracking code, understanding which "ad code" you need is the first step toward achieving your goals on Instagram. For creators, it's about building a brand that earns trust and an income, while for advertisers, it's about connecting with audiences and measuring what truly works.

As you grow your presence, coordinating all the content for brand deals and ad campaigns can feel like a full-time job. At Postbase, we know firsthand how chaotic it gets managing multiple platforms, which is why we built our tool after dealing with complex and clunky alternatives. Our platform gives you a simple, visual calendar to plan your content strategy, a unified inbox to manage all your comments and DMs from one spot, and clean analytics that show you exactly what's working. We believe social media management should make your life easier, not harder, and with Postbase, it does.

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