LinkedIn this month announced Creator Marketplace and BrandWorks - two products that bring creator discovery and hands-on creative support directly into the B2B advertising workflow on the platform, published June 10, 2026, as part of a broader push to make professional creator marketing more accessible at scale.

The announcements arrive at a moment when B2B buying behavior has shifted considerably. According to LinkedIn's 2026 Global B2B Marketing Outlook, a study conducted by YouGov between January 14 and February 5, 2026 among 1,299 B2B marketers aged 18 and older in the USA, UK, France, Germany, and India, 77% of B2B marketers say buyers need to trust and know a brand before they are willing to engage. That single data point frames why LinkedIn is investing in infrastructure that gives brands access to third-party credibility - specifically, through the voices of creators who already hold the trust of professional audiences.

What is Creator Marketplace

Creator Marketplace is a discovery and partnership tool built directly into Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's existing advertising interface. It centralizes several functions that B2B marketers previously had to manage through disconnected channels or direct outreach: finding creators, evaluating their audiences, identifying existing brand mentions, and amplifying content.

The tool allows marketers to search for vetted creators by topic and content expertise, then assess each creator's profile for audience composition, content performance, and fit relative to a campaign objective. That search capability addresses what LinkedIn's own research identifies as the single biggest operational challenge in creator marketing - finding credible, relevant voices. According to the same 2026 Marketing Outlook, creator discovery is the top hurdle for brands running or considering creator campaigns.

Once a brand identifies a creator, the tools allow it to locate organic and sponsored creator content that already features the brand, then amplify that content through Thought Leader Ads - a LinkedIn ad format that promotes organic posts from any LinkedIn member into targeted feeds. The mechanism here is important: rather than producing new content from scratch, brands can identify creator conversations that already exist and put paid distribution behind them. This reduces production time and keeps the content tied to a voice the audience already follows. LinkedIn's three-phase B2B launch framework published in May 2026 identified this exact mechanic - using Thought Leader Ads to convert creator attention into credibility - as a core component of launch strategy.

Creator Marketplace also provides contact information, giving brands a route to reach out directly about collaborations without going through intermediary agencies.

What creators get from the opt-in

From the creator side, participation in Creator Marketplace is opt-in. Creators who choose to share their profile with brands gain inbound visibility with companies actively seeking partnerships. The architecture gives them control at several specific points.

Creators can handpick which content pieces to feature when brands search for them - a selective portfolio display rather than an automatic dump of all published content. They can set a preferred email address for partnership conversations and include management contacts. They can evaluate incoming partnership requests and decide whether to approve how their sponsored content gets used. The design places decision-making authority with the creator rather than the brand, a structure that reflects the platform's interest in keeping its creator base engaged on commercial terms they control.

According to LinkedIn, creator monetization infrastructure is expanding alongside the marketplace itself. A dedicated monetization tab is expected to appear on creator profiles soon, and ramp for eligible creators has already begun.

AJ Eckstein, Founder and CEO of Creator Match, commented on the launch: "Creator Match has been all-in on LinkedIn since the early days, as the first agency to pay out over $1 million to B2B Creators. As the Founder and CEO, I can say with confidence there is no better platform for B2B. The Creator Marketplace launch just makes it that much easier for brands to see what we've always seen."

Brendan Gahan, CEO and Co-Founder of Creator Authority, also responded: "For two decades, the creator economy was treated as entertainment. LinkedIn is proving it's also how business gets done. In B2B, trust is the whole game, and LinkedIn has been the most trusted platform for years. Creator Marketplace gives brands a direct way to discover and partner with the creators they trust most, and Creator Authority is excited to be an early partner."

Dave Steer, Chief Marketing Officer at Webflow, described BrandWorks from the brand side: "We're a challenger brand in a category that rewards creativity, and BrandWorks shows up like a partner who actually gets that. The work we've done together around Cannes and Webflow Conf hasn't felt like a media buy or a line item. It feels like building moments with a team that's as invested in our brand as we are, helping make our work sharper - not just bigger."

Availability and current limitations

Creator Marketplace is currently in alpha. Creator discovery is available for select brands and creators in North America, covering English-only content. Organic content discovery and self-serve BrandLink - the pre-roll video ad product that places advertiser messages alongside creator and publisher video content - are both available globally.

That geography constraint matters for B2B marketers outside North America. The alpha stage means the tool is not a production-ready solution for most global teams yet. LinkedIn has not specified a timeline for broader rollout.

BrandLink itself launched in beta in May 2025 as a product that connects brands with publishers and creators through pre-roll video ads placed directly in the LinkedIn feed. According to LinkedIn's performance data, BrandLink campaigns deliver 130% higher average video completion rates compared to standard in-feed video ads, and members exposed to a BrandLink campaign are up to 18% more likely to become a lead after seeing a Lead Gen Form. The product has since expanded its publisher network to include Axel Springer, The CEO Magazine, NYSE, Reuters Japan, TIME, and Times Network, as announced in March 2026.

Creator Marketplace integrates with BrandLink, allowing brands to activate curated video inventory through a self-serve option in Campaign Manager. That self-serve BrandLink access - which became available in Campaign Manager in March 2026 - is a meaningful operational change for smaller teams without a dedicated LinkedIn account manager.

What BrandWorks provides

BrandWorks is a professional services team inside LinkedIn, covering brand strategy, creative production, content development, and events. It is distinct from Creator Marketplace - it does not connect brands to external creators but instead provides internal LinkedIn expertise to help brands develop and execute campaigns on the platform.

The service model positions BrandWorks as a collaborator for B2B marketing teams and their agency partners. The work spans converting LinkedIn audience insight into campaign strategy, co-creating branded content designed for professional audience engagement, adapting existing creative specifically for the LinkedIn feed format, and connecting campaign work to LinkedIn-specific opportunities such as publisher integrations, LinkedIn News sponsorships, and live events.

BrandWorks is currently available globally for select managed customers. That qualifier is significant: this is not a self-serve or broadly accessible product. It operates within LinkedIn's managed sales relationships. SAP and Webflow are cited by LinkedIn as early customers already working with BrandWorks.

The rationale for BrandWorks sits in a gap that many B2B teams face. They may have strong creative concepts but limited capacity to translate those concepts into the specific formats, targeting logic, and content structures that perform on LinkedIn. BrandWorks is structured to close that gap rather than replace a brand's existing agency.

The research numbers behind the announcements

LinkedIn is using its 2026 Global B2B Marketing Outlook as the evidence base for both product decisions. Several specific data points from that research are worth examining individually.

According to LinkedIn, 82% of B2B marketers say creators increase credibility with decision-makers, and brands are increasing creator marketing investment in 2026 as a direct result. That figure has become a core justification for the Creator Marketplace build. The 2026 outlook also reports that 81% of B2B CMOs agree their organization needs to deliver in new ways, while 78% say they need to change how they show up to stay relevant. Another data point: 83% of B2B marketers say credibility matters more than traditional brand messaging.

The buyer-side data is equally pointed. According to LinkedIn, 70% of marketers say buyers rely more on peer voices and expert content than on brand-produced content. More specifically, 56% of B2B buyers depend on creator input during the final stage of the buying process to validate recommendations. That last-mile influence is the specific behavioral pattern Creator Marketplace is designed to address - getting brand-aligned creator content in front of buying committee members at the moment decisions are being made.

Research published by LinkedIn and Ipsos in 2025, covering 1,500 marketing professionals across six markets, found that influencer collaboration delivered a 39 percentage point lift in brand awareness goal achievement compared to traditional marketing approaches. That earlier finding established the demand signal that the Creator Marketplace is now structured to address at scale.

Context in LinkedIn's broader product trajectory

These announcements do not arrive in isolation. LinkedIn has been building toward a more complete creator economy infrastructure for roughly two years. The Member Post API launched in July 2025 gave third-party tools access to creator analytics data, reducing friction between creators and advertisers who need to evaluate reach across platforms. The API is available through 11 tools including Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprinklr, and Later, with no cost to third-party vendors.

In March 2026, LinkedIn announced significant expansions to BrandLink, including a self-serve option in Campaign Manager, Stripe-powered creator payouts, and new publisher relationships including NYSE, TIME, and Reuters Japan. The same announcement introduced flexible CTV buying through The Trade Desk, allowing advertisers to purchase LinkedIn CTV ads programmatically rather than only through Campaign Manager.

Top Voices 360 - LinkedIn's premium creator sponsorship program for shows - also expanded in March 2026, introducing new creators including Meghana Dhar, Corporate Natalie, Ramit Sethi, and Aishwarya Srinivasan, alongside returning creators like Steven Bartlett, Cat Goetze, Bernard Marr, and Candace Nelson.

BrandLink video completion data is also reflected in broader performance benchmarks: a Wistia report published in May 2026 found that 81% of businesses rank LinkedIn as their top channel for sharing videos. Video viewership on LinkedIn reached 154 billion views in 2024, up 36% year over year.

The Dreamdata LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks Report 2026, released March 10, 2026, places LinkedIn's return on ad spend at 121% - up from 113% in 2024 - with B2B buyer journeys averaging 272 days. LinkedIn accounts for 41% of total B2B paid media budgets among Dreamdata's customer base. Against that backdrop, Creator Marketplace is positioned as a tool to extend campaign influence through the entire 272-day journey by embedding trusted voices at multiple points in the buyer's research process.

LinkedIn's B2B measurement guide published on June 3, 2026, citing Forrester data showing 64% of B2B marketing leaders distrust their own measurement methods, introduced the additional challenge of connecting creator activity to revenue outcomes. BrandWorks, which brings LinkedIn's internal team into campaign planning, may address part of this gap for managed customers by building campaign architecture with measurement built in from the start.

Why this matters for B2B marketers

The fundamental challenge Creator Marketplace is addressing is one of infrastructure. B2B creator marketing has existed for years - LinkedIn has cited BrandLink, Top Voices 360, and Advice Sessions as prior investments in the creator relationship - but discovery and partnership workflows remained fragmented. Brands had to find creators through personal networks, intermediaries, or manual platform browsing. No programmatic or semi-automated discovery layer existed within LinkedIn's own ad tools.

Creator Marketplace changes that architecture. Placing discovery inside Campaign Manager - the same interface where budgets, targeting, and measurement live - shortens the distance between finding a creator and activating a paid campaign. It also creates a data loop: the same platform that holds creator audience data, content performance metrics, and brand advertiser information can now connect them directly.

LinkedIn's May 2026 small business announcement covering the Advice Sessions product - which lets creators offer paid consultations directly from their profiles - signals that the platform is building multiple monetization routes for professional creators simultaneously. Advice Sessions, Creator Marketplace revenue opportunities, and BrandLink rev-share together represent a more structured creator economy than LinkedIn has offered previously.

The alpha geography restriction and managed-customer requirement for BrandWorks mean that the current announcement is, in practical terms, a limited release. B2B marketers in Europe, Asia, or without a LinkedIn managed account relationship cannot access these tools today. What the announcement does establish is a product direction: LinkedIn intends to be the primary infrastructure layer connecting B2B brands to professional creators, and it is building toward that position incrementally.

Timeline

  • May 2025 - LinkedIn launches BrandLink in beta, connecting brands with publisher and creator content through pre-roll video ads in the LinkedIn feed
  • July 8, 2025 - LinkedIn launches Member Post API, giving 11 third-party tools access to creator analytics data
  • September 9, 2025 - Dreamdata LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks 2025 report shows 113% ROAS and 39% B2B ad budget share on LinkedIn; LinkedIn-Ipsos study finds influencer collaboration delivers 39 percentage point lift in brand awareness
  • January 14 - February 5, 2026 - YouGov conducts LinkedIn's 2026 Global B2B Marketing Outlook survey across USA, UK, France, Germany, and India among 1,299 B2B marketers
  • March 10, 2026 - Dreamdata 2026 benchmarks report 121% ROAS and 41% share of B2B paid budgets for LinkedIn; Semrush research identifies LinkedIn as the second most-cited domain in AI search
  • March 18, 2026 - LinkedIn announces BrandLink expansion including self-serve Campaign Manager access, Stripe payouts, new global publishers, and Top Voices 360 with CTV buying via The Trade Desk
  • April 28, 2026 - LinkedIn overhauls event advertising with off-platform Event Ads and full-funnel measurement in Campaign Manager
  • May 7, 2026 - Amazon DSP and LinkedIn data integration launches for CTV campaigns via Microsoft Monetize
  • May 12, 2026 - LinkedIn launches Advice Sessions, paid consultation bookings for Premium Business subscribers in the US, alongside small business founder data showing 70% year-over-year growth
  • May 26, 2026 - LinkedIn publishes three-phase B2B launch framework, detailing Thought Leader Ads as a mechanism for converting creator attention into buyer credibility
  • June 3, 2026 - LinkedIn publishes B2B measurement guide drawing on Forrester data showing 64% of B2B marketing leaders distrust their own measurement methods
  • June 10, 2026 - LinkedIn announces Creator Marketplace in alpha (North America, English content, select brands and creators) and BrandWorks globally for select managed customers

Summary

Who: LinkedIn, a professional networking platform owned by Microsoft, made the announcement, directed at B2B marketers, media buyers, and agency practitioners. Alex Josephson, VP of BrandWorks, and Sam Corrao Clanon, Director of Product, are named as primary product leads. Early customers include SAP, Webflow, and Rippling. Creator partners include AJ Eckstein (Creator Match), Brendan Gahan (Creator Authority), Liza Sweeney (Rippling), and multiple independent LinkedIn creators.

What: LinkedIn launched Creator Marketplace - a creator discovery and partnership tool inside Campaign Manager - and BrandWorks, a professional services team providing brand strategy, creative production, and campaign support to B2B marketers. Creator Marketplace connects brands with vetted creators, surfaces organic brand mentions, and enables amplification through Thought Leader Ads. BrandWorks provides hands-on strategy and creative support through LinkedIn's internal experts.

When: Announced June 10, 2026. Creator Marketplace is currently in alpha. BrandWorks is available globally for select managed customers.

Where: Creator Marketplace creator discovery is available for select brands and creators in North America, English-only content. Organic content discovery and self-serve BrandLink are available globally. BrandWorks is available globally through LinkedIn's managed customer relationships.

Why: According to LinkedIn's 2026 Global B2B Marketing Outlook, 77% of B2B marketers say buyers require trust before engaging, 82% say creators increase credibility with decision-makers, and 56% of B2B buyers rely on creator input during the final stage of the buying process. Creator discovery has been the primary operational barrier to running creator campaigns. Creator Marketplace addresses that barrier by placing discovery, evaluation, and activation inside the existing ad management interface.