Spotlights FAQ

Spotlights is a way to keep earning from content you've already posted.

When your organic content performs well, brands can request to turn it into a paid partnership ad directly from ShopMy. Your content is shown to new audiences, and your ShopMy affiliate link is built in, so you earn commission on every sale it drives.

Because earnings are performance-based, your upside isn't limited by a flat fee, your content can keep generating revenue as long as it continues to convert.

Spotlights go beyond a standard "boost." While boosting only increases visibility within your existing audience, Spotlights run as partnership ads with audience targeting, conversion tracking, and ShopMy attribution built in. That means your content is shown to new, high-intent audiences, not just your followers, helping drive incremental reach, measurable conversions, and ongoing earnings.

An Opportunity pays a fixed fee in exchange for creating new content that includes your ShopMy links. Spotlights build on that by helping your existing content keep working for you.

There's no need to create anything new. Brands can choose from content you've posted organically or through Opportunities to Spotlight, so the same content can continue to drive ongoing earnings.

Your best content is already out there, Spotlights just makes it keep working for you.

Here’s why this is so powerful for your business:

You set up once, choose how much control you want, and your content keeps delivering value well beyond the original post.

Brands already know that creator content performs better than traditional ads, but turning that content into paid media has historically been slow, expensive, and difficult to scale. Spotlights changes that.

Instead of paying large upfront fees for untested content or navigating a complex setup process for traditional partnership ads, brands can easily turn proven organic posts into ads, test them with small budgets, and scale what works. They’re not guessing, they’re building on content that’s already shown real performance.

That makes it easier and lower-risk for brands to invest more in creator content. And when brands see strong results, they continue running and scaling Spotlights, which means more opportunities and more earnings for you.

There are three ways a brand can run your content as an ad:

Spotlights gives you the authenticity and performance of a partnership ad, with none of the back-and-forth — and instead of a flat fee that caps what you can earn, your earnings grow with the ad's performance.

Yes, there's a one-time setup required to participate in Spotlights.

You'll need to authorize partnership ad access to ShopMy through your Meta account. Once that's complete, there's no per-brand or per-campaign setup required.

Please review the brief tutorial video below for step-by-step instructions on how to connect your Meta partnership permissions and enable Spotlights partnerships.

As a reminder, you should only need to complete this setup once. However, if you run into any issues connecting your account or enabling permissions, please follow along with the tutorial video for troubleshooting guidance.

Yes. Creators without Instagram connected are not eligible for Spotlights because ShopMy cannot capture mentions without it. You won't see the Spotlights option in the product until you receive your first request — and you can't receive a request without Instagram connected.

If you need assistance with connecting your Instagram account, please refer to these tutorial videos.

No. The Meta authorization is a one-time setup. ShopMy sends a DM, you approve it, return to ShopMy, and verify the connection. After that, there's no per-request interaction with Meta Business Suite required.

When you get your first Spotlight request , you’ll be walked through an onboarding flow that will help you set you the Meta connection. This is what the flow will walk you through:

How to accept Meta Partnership request

Any content where you mention a brand, organically or through a paid Opportunity, is eligible for Spotlights.

All historical mentions are eligible, not just those posted since the launch of Spotlights.

You will have access to Spotlights when you receive your first request from a brand.

Creators have 7 days to accept a Spotlights request.

No. Each Spotlight is tied to one specific piece of content. This is intentional — it gives both you and the brand clear visibility into exactly what's running, how it's performing, and what to scale or stop.

Currently, Spotlights support Meta Partnership Ads across Instagram and Facebook. TikTok Spark Ads are coming soon.

You can view the case study from our Alpha testing [HERE].

There are two ways to manage your Spotlight requests:

If you change your mind, you can edit your approval settings in your Spotlights settings on Web.

You have full visibility into the campaign before approving, so you know exactly what you're agreeing to. You'll see the brand name, the specific content they want to use, the ShopMy link that will be attached and the commission rate you’ll earn.

If you don't have Instant Spotlights enabled, you'll see all incoming Spotlight requests in your Spotlights page, where you can review full campaign details. After reviewing, you can choose to accept or reject each request.

Yes, you can pause any active Spotlight at any time. When you pause, you'll be asked to provide a reason so the brand has context on your decision. They'll see the Spotlight as paused on their end along with your note, but cannot override your decision. That said, it's worth thinking carefully before you pause. When a Spotlight is paused, the brand's budget shifts to other content, and if you pause frequently, you risk losing momentum on a campaign that was working for you and potentially your standing with that brand. Pausing won't penalize you or impact your ability to receive future requests, and since you only earn commission when the ad converts, an active Spotlight that isn't performing costs you nothing. So it's usually better to let it run unless something feels genuinely off. If something specific about a Spotlight doesn't feel right, pausing is absolutely the right call. That control exists for a reason. Just be thoughtful about when and why you use it, since brands value consistency and clear communication.

Yes. Brands can pause a Spotlight at any time. For example, if they want to adjust their strategy or pull back on spend. If a brand pauses it, they can also resume it themselves. This is different from when you pause a Spotlight. If you pause it, only you can resume it, and the brand cannot override your decision.

You'll be asked to provide a reason for declining. The brand will see your reason and can choose to re-request later if they'd like. Rejecting a request does not block the brand from sending future requests or affect your standing.

Through the settings cog on web, which opens the same permission setup used during your initial onboarding. This is where you can change your approval mode, manage brand-level access, review blacklists, and update your preferences at any time.

No. Brands are requesting permission to use your content as-is. It runs under your handle and cannot be edited or altered in any way.

If you choose to not enable Instant Spotlights, you’ll be prompted to select specific brands to grant ongoing access to Spotlight any of your content that mentions them. This makes it easy to earn more through your most trusted partnerships. The brands you mention most-often will be surfaced at the top, but you can grant access to any brand you’ve previously mentioned in your content.

Your handle. Spotlights run as Meta Partnership Ads under your account. They appear as your content, with a “Paid Partnership” label, so they feel like a natural extension of your organic posts rather than a traditional brand ad.

Meta and TikTok label partnership ads with a "Paid Partnership" tag, which is the same label that appears on sponsored posts. It's a light disclosure, but the content itself is your original post, so it still feels organic and authentic to you.

When the ad runs under your handle, new audiences can click through to your profile, follow you, and become part of your community. The brand is essentially funding the distribution of your content to people who wouldn't have found you organically. You're earning commissions and growing your audience at the same time, with no extra work.

With Spotlights, you earn a commission on every sale you drive, just like any other ShopMy link. Links in Spotlights have extended reach and a longer lifespan, creating more opportunities to earn over time. Your Spotlight earnings will appear as a separate revenue stream in your earnings tab, with payouts following the same timing as your existing affiliate earnings.

Flat fees give you certainty, but they also set a limit on what you can earn. Spotlights expand your earning potential. As your content continues to drive conversions, it can keep generating revenue over time, often outpacing a fixed fee.

Yes, there is no limit to how many spotlights can run at once. Multiple brands can amplify different pieces of your content simultaneously, with all of them earning commissions in parallel. You can also choose to enable Instant Spotlights to seamlessly capture more earning opportunities without any extra lift.

Spotlights uses your existing ShopMy link from the content being amplified, so whatever commission rate you currently have with that brand is what applies. That could be the brand's standard rate or a custom rate you've already earned with them, but it's not something that gets negotiated separately for a Spotlight.

No. The commission rate you earn from a brand through affiliate is the same rate that applies to Spotlights. Keeping rates consistent allows Spotlights to launch quickly, so your content can start driving conversions and earnings without delays from negotiation. Per-Spotlight Rates will likely be available in the future.

Your commission rate at the time of approval is what applies to your Spotlight. We're actively building additional protections to ensure that rate can't be changed mid-campaign without your awareness.

Yes. When a Spotlight is created, it's based on your existing ShopMy link for that brand. So if you've earned an elevated commission rate, that rate carries into your Spotlight — not just the brand's default rate.

Each Spotlight uses a duplicate of your original ShopMy link. This means your commission rate with the brand carries over, while tracking is kept separate so you can clearly see what sales and earnings are being driven specifically by Spotlights.

Spotlight links appear with a Spotlight badge, can be searched by typing "Spotlight," and are blurred and non-copyable. You cannot delete Spotlight links — they're managed separately from your standard affiliate links.

Not from the high-level performance screen at launch. To distinguish Spotlight orders from standard commission orders, you'd need to look at the individual link level. However, the Earnings page does break out standard commissions and Spotlight commissions as separate sections.

At launch, certain features are web-only: viewing top-line Spotlight earnings, browsing your content feed, pre-approving mentions as available for Spotlights, and seeing all content that's available to brands (even if not yet live as a Spotlight).

Yes. You'll have access to a dedicated analytics view showing performance and earnings for each Spotlight, along with a dashboard of all active content. You can also filter by brand, status, and time range to track what's working over time.

In addition to full analytics visibility into the performance of each Spotlight, ShopMy tracks these earnings separately. You'll be able to distinguish Spotlight earnings from your traditional commission earnings, giving you clear visibility into what's driving your revenue.

Spotlight earnings will appear in a specific Spotlights Affiliate section within your earnings tab. You’ll also be able to view Spotlight-specific earnings and performance directly within the Spotlights tab.

This section includes all of your brand mentions that are pulled into ShopMy. It makes it easy to view your content in one place, make it available for brands to Spotlight, see which posts are currently live as Spotlights, and track earnings on each piece of content.

No. Spotlights are designed to be low-lift and low-risk. Since you're not creating new content or investing anything upfront, a Spotlight that doesn't drive sales simply means no additional earnings from that campaign — nothing more. Performance is influenced by many factors beyond the content itself, like targeting, budget, and timing, so a single underperforming Spotlight isn't a reflection of your overall value and won't limit your future opportunities with that brand.

You can't directly change the link destination in the product — that's set by the brand. If you feel the linked product doesn't match your content, you can pause the Spotlight or message the brand to request a change.

The brand. Brands can mute audio during the request flow before the ad goes live. You cannot mute it yourself — that control sits on the brand side. If you're concerned about licensed music in your content being used in an ad, you can flag it when reviewing the request or choose to reject it.

No. Your content is always yours. You're simply granting permission for a brand to put ad spend behind it and expand its reach, and you can revoke that access at any time.

No. Most Spotlights will continue running as long as they're performing well, which means your content is driving results and you're continuing to earn.

No matter what, your content is never used without your control. You can pause a Spotlight at any time.

While there's no guaranteed way to receive requests — it's ultimately at the discretion of the brand — there are a few things you can do to improve your chances:

No. The brand is requesting to use your content as is. A Spotlight request will never require extra work from you.

You can access your Spotlights settings on web by clicking the small gear icon in the top right hand part of your screen.

No — a brand can only boost content where the creator has specifically tagged that brand. So if a creator posts an Alo outfit linked through Revolve, Alo can't boost it. But if the creator tags the Alo product directly from Alo's storefront, Alo can.