LinkedIn wants to own B2B creator discovery with new creator marketplace

The marketplace works like this: marketers can search for relevant creators by topic as well as view creator cards showing the creator’s followers, post volume, social engagement alongside recent content samples. They can also do a deeper dive on any of the creators by clicking on “creator insights” to view impressions, engagement, a full bio, plus a breakdown of their audience demographics by industry, job title and location. Marketers can also contact creators directly via email, or a creator’s LinkedIn profile.

Creators have to opt in to share their data and stay in control of the interactions.

The creator marketplace, which is in alpha, sits within LinkedIn’s campaign manager, and is currently available for select brands and creators in North America. For now, it only supports English-language content. While LinkedIn declined to share a timeline for broader availability for both brands and creators, a spokesperson confirmed additional regions will be added over the coming months. To make payments easier, eligible creators will also gain access to monetization tools, including a dedicated monetization tab on their creator profiles — though no timeline was provided.

“I think it’s really smart that they’ve put it in the campaign manager because it could provide a lot of long-term value to both brands and advertisers by weaving those in somewhat seamlessly, tying it to Thought Leader Ads, which from our experience, have been super effective,” said Brendan Gahan, co-founder and CEO of Creator Authority, who has had early access to the marketplace.

For those who can’t yet access the marketplace, LinkedIn confirmed some aspects of it like organic content discovery and its self-serve BrandLink are already available globally. 

A familiar playbook across social platforms

If the creator marketplace concept sounds familiar, that’s because they’ve become standard infrastructure across social platforms in recent years. TikTok was one of the earliest to launch its Creator Marketplace (2019). Similarly, YouTube rolled out BrandConnect (launched 2020 and revamped in 2026), while Meta’s Instagram (global rollout 2024) and Snapchat (2021) have all built their own versions to help brands discover, vet and partner with creators at scale.

Unlike consumer creator ecosystems, B2B creator discovery has stayed fragmented. LinkedIn never had an API that plugged into creator marketing software. That’s the gap this is designed to close.

Which is why Collectively’s chief innovation officer Natalie Silverstein, whose team has also had early access to the product, thinks this move to launch a specific B2B creator marketplace could be quite meaningful. 

“A native marketplace could solve a real pain point,” she said. “B2B creators also span a much broader range of expertise and niche areas than, say, lifestyle. It’s not a one-size-fits-all category, so a dedicated, brand-focused discovery tool has real utility here.”

Still, not everyone is convinced the marketplace solves the B2B creator discovery challenge. Discovery may become easier, but turning busy executives and subject-matter experts into active creators is a different problem entirely.

The Social Standard’s founder and CEO Jess Phillips made the point that unlike the other major social platforms, there’s still a limited amount of B2B creators in comparison. Added to that, B2B creators are “gainfully employed individuals” who don’t live on social media.

“We run B2B campaigns for very large businesses. Getting in touch with B2B creators isn’t easy, even when you have their direct email,” she said. “There is no way these individuals will be on LinkedIn looking to make a quick buck. This isn’t TikTok.”

Whether the marketplace becomes a meaningful engine for creator partnerships, or simply a better directory of B2B talent remains to be seen. After all, this is still an early iteration of the product that will likely evolve as LinkedIn gauges demand from both creators and brands.

“If LinkedIn gets the marketplace right, it closes a gap that’s been frustrating [in the B2B space] for a while,” Silverstein said.