Whereas brands can now pay an influencer for promoted posts that only their followers would see, "branded content ads" allow the brand to promote them more widely just like any other ad on the platform.
In 2017, Instagram released its first branded content tools as part of its response to popular accounts promoting products without disclosing the relationship to advertisers, which has been a regulatory problem that has vexed digital platforms. Instagram has a way for these creators to tag the brands and disclose when a post is sponsored. However, if a brand wanted to take that post from the creator and put ad dollars behind it to reach more people, it could not do so within the branded content partnership program.