Partnership ads have become an increasingly popular option for promoting products and services on Meta platforms in recent years. Meta itself, citing its internal data, states that “adding partnership ads to business-as-usual campaigns delivers 19% lower CPAs and 13% higher click-through rates, on average” (source). It is therefore not surprising that companies and brands around the world make extensive use of this form of creator-brand collaboration.
In its Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Meta announced “rapid growth in [the] partnership ads product, with its revenue run-rate more than doubling year-over-year in Q1 to $10 billion” (source). However, one major player appears to rely on partnership ads far more heavily than other comparable actors on the market when targeting users in the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Online Risk Labs’ study, conducted from December 2025 to May 2026, shows that between 1 January 2025 and 30 April 2026, almost two-thirds of all ads running on Meta platforms associated with Temu and targeting users in the EU and the UK were partnership ads. Overall, we identified 5,979,240 Partnership Ads among a total of 9,089,759 ads associated with 31 official Temu pages linked to official Temu advertising accounts.* These ads targeted audiences across the EU and the UK.** The cumulative reach of partnership campaigns reached approximately 66B, while the cumulative reach of all campaigns during the period from January 2025 to April 2026 amounted to 134B.
31 official Temu pages — ads targeting users in the EU and the UK:
Case study: 100 top Creators Cooperating with Temu and their Accounts
Although Temu commonly engages creators for promotional collaborations, we have reasonable grounds to suspect that a substantial proportion or even majority of the partnership ads associated with Temu deviate from the standard format of creator-brand cooperation. This may create a false sense of authenticity and thereby mislead consumers.
Temu collaborates with thousands of creators, there is no doubt that the vast majority of them are genuine. However, the greater the volume of partnership ads, the more atypical account behaviour and characteristics we observe among the creator accounts involved.
We identified 100 creators active on Instagram who, between 1 January 2026 and 30 April 2026, participated in more than 1.4 million partnership ads through their Meta accounts in collaboration with 31 official Temu pages, achieving a cumulative reach of almost 17B across the European Union and the United Kingdom. Overall, these ads accounted for 77% of the total cumulative reach of all identified partnership ads associated with the 31 official Temu pages during the January–April 2026 period.
Partnership Ads Run in Collaboration with 31 Official Temu Pages in the EU and the UK (January–April 2026):
The majority of these 100 top “creators” and their Instagram accounts helping promote Temu through partnership ads in the EU and the UK from January to April 2026 showed strong concentration on promoting a single brand. Based on publicly available account information, 47% of the accounts were based in China or Russia. Moreover, 73% of the accounts had changed their username at least once. Verified accounts accounted for only 8 of the sample. These signals will be elaborated in more detail below.
Suspicious Signals
Strong Concentration on Promoting a Single Brand
The majority of the leading “creators” promoting Temu in the EU and UK markets during the January-April 2026 period were heavily focused on promoting the brand. While several appear to be authentic creators who also publish organic content on their Instagram accounts, most seem to function primarily as advertising inventory rather than as regular content producers.
47% of the Creator Accounts Were Based in Russia or China
Based on publicly available account information, among the 100 Instagram accounts of the top 100 creators who helped promote Temu in the EU and the UK between January and April 2026, 28 were based in the Russian Federation and 19 in China. In the case of the Russian accounts, the majority had been created after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
By contrast, European creators were almost entirely absent from the dataset. Only three of these creator accounts for which country-of-origin information was available appeared to originate from an EU member state (one from Belgium and two from Spain), and three from the United Kingdom.
Some Creators Appeared to Present Themselves as European Users Despite Originating Outside the EU
Some creator accounts created the impression that they belonged to European users. However, the available account information suggested that these accounts are actually based outside the European Union.
Creator Accounts Frequently Changed Their Usernames
73% of the 100 Instagram accounts of the leading “creators” who helped promote Temu in the EU and the UK between January and April 2026 changed their username (handle) at least once after creating their account. 45% changed their username at least twice. One creator account changed their username as many as 15 times.
Repeated Use of Aliases
Some accounts used the same or similar usernames or display names.
Most of the Most Visible Creator Accounts Were Not Verified
The majority of the 100 Instagram accounts of the top “creators” who promoted Temu in the EU and the UK between January and April 2026 were created in 2022 or later. Only 8 out of the 100 leading creators were verified users. At the same time, we would like to stress that it is common even for authentic creators not to have verified accounts.
Why Temu's Approach to Partnership Ads Raises Concern
Although Temu frequently collaborates with genuine influencers and creators through Partnership Ads, some of the accounts associated with its most active "creators" appear to function primarily as advertising inventory rather than as genuine content creator accounts. These accounts appear to have been created or repurposed primarily to host branded content for a single brand while, at first glance, they may appear as ordinary creator accounts.
Meta's Partnership Ads format is formally intended to facilitate collaboration between a brand and a creator, or between two brands or companies. However, the format does not require creators to undergo any verification process. As a result, it cannot be ruled out that brands may establish partnerships with accounts that were intentionally created or repurposed primarily for advertising purposes.
Online Risk Labs recommends that these practices warrant closer scrutiny, as they may mislead platform users into interpreting sponsored content as an authentic creator endorsement.
Summary of Main Findings:
- Temu is one of Meta’s biggest advertisers in Europe. Between January 2025 and April 2026, 31 official Temu pages linked to official Temu advertising accounts ran over 9 million ads across the EU and the UK, achieving a cumulative reach of 134 billion. Partnership Ads accounted for 65.8% of these ads and 49.6% of their cumulative reach.
- Just 100 “creators” and their creator accounts participated in 74% of all partnership ads run in collaboration with 31 official Temu pages targeting audiences in the EU and the UK between January and April 2026. These accounts also helped to generate 77% of the total partnership ad reach — more than 1.4 million ads and cumulative reach of 16.9 billion in just four months.
- The majority of these accounts showed exceptionally high activity and strong focus on promoting Temu. Most of the accounts also displayed several non-standard characteristics: 73% had changed their handle at least once, with one account doing so 15 times. Only eight were verified. Despite targeting EU audiences, 28 of the top 100 accounts were based in Russia and 19 in China, while only six were based in the EU or the UK.
- Although Temu frequently cooperates with genuine influencers and creators, some of the accounts of the top “creators” appear to function primarily as advertising inventory rather than as genuine content creator accounts — accounts that are built or repurposed mainly to host paid partnership ads for a single brand while, at first glance, giving the impression of regular content creators.
Notes:
* Shoptemu, Temu, Temu Austria, Temu Belgium, Temu Bulgaria, Temu Croatia, Temu Cyprus, Temu Czechia, Temu Denmark, Temu Estonia, Temu Europe, Temu Finland, Temu France, Temu Germany, Temu Greece, Temu Hungary, Temu Ireland, Temu Latvia, Temu Lithuania, Temu Luxembourg, Temu Malta, Temu Netherlands, Temu Poland, Temu Portugal, Temu Romania, Temu Slovakia, Temu Slovenia, Temu Spain, Temu Sweden, Temu Ukraine, Temu United Kingdom.
**Only advertisements with a reach exceeding 499 users were included in the analysis. We also included campaigns that had started before the monitored period but were still running on or after 1 January 2025, as well as campaigns launched on or before 30 April 2026.
The research was conducted between January 2025 and May 2026. It was first published by Fortune: https://fortune.com/2026/08/31/temu-962-million-meta-partnership-ads-fake-creators/