LinkedIn's BrandLink now shares revenue with over 100 creators as platform builds fiscal 2027 monetisation suite

LinkedIn's BrandLink programme now shares advertising revenue with more than 100 creators and publishers, marking a significant expansion from the initial group of 30 creators when the revenue share launched in May 2025. The growth signals LinkedIn's most serious attempt yet to build systematic creator income ahead of a wider monetisation suite planned for fiscal 2027.

Internal strategy documents reviewed by Business Insider show LinkedIn is developing a brand deals marketplace, a subscription product and a potential creator fund, with the features planned to roll out heading into fiscal year 2027, which begins in July 2026.

The timing matters. LinkedIn has spent the past 18 months testing what B2B creator monetisation actually requires, first rebranding its publisher-only Wire Program to BrandLink in May 2025, then systematically adding creators and measuring what advertisers will pay for. The 100-creator milestone gives it enough inventory and data to justify building the infrastructure that makes LinkedIn monetisation a repeatable business, not a pilot.

How BrandLink works, and what creators actually earn

BrandLink is LinkedIn's ad revenue-sharing programme for creators, where brands pay to run pre-roll video ads (15-second spots that play before creator content) and creators get a cut of that revenue. It started as "The Wire Program," originally for publishers only, then LinkedIn expanded it in May 2025, renamed it BrandLink and opened it to individual creators for the first time.

LinkedIn hasn't published an exact revenue split for creators, but when BrandLink was still the Wire Program for publishers, the cut was close to 50%. The creator split has not been confirmed publicly.

Advertisers see 130% higher video completion rate and 23% higher views compared with standard video ads when using BrandLink, and members who view those ads are 18% more likely to become a lead. Those figures explain why BrandLink revenue surged around 200% quarter-on-quarter in Q2, while creator and publisher payouts more than tripled year-on-year.

New seasons of "Shows by LinkedIn" include titles such as "Innovation in Action," "Inside the Future" and "The Break Room," joining returning series including "AI in Action," "CEO Playbook," "Small Business Builders" and "The Founder's Blueprint". Creators participating include Meghana Dhar, Corporate Natalie, Ramit Sethi and Aishwarya Srinivasan, alongside returning creators Steven Bartlett, Cat Goetze, Bernard Marr and Candace Nelson.

What's coming in fiscal 2027: marketplace, subscriptions, fund

The fiscal 2027 tools will give LinkedIn creators the monetisation mechanics other platforms already offer, but tailored to B2B workflows. The planned brand deals marketplace would connect creators with brands for sponsored posts, and LinkedIn is also building a system that allows users to make one-time purchases for creator "experiences," such as paid advice sessions.

A separate subscription feature would let creators charge for access to newsletters, podcasts and paywalled communities. The company is also considering launching a creator fund to reward strong performers, having previously established a $25 million fund as part of a six-week accelerator program.

On the events side, LinkedIn generated $18.9 million between the second half of fiscal year 2025 and the first half of fiscal 2026. The company plans to launch approximately 50 exclusive events with top creators at the start of fiscal 2027, with a goal of expanding the programme to more than 1,000 creators.

The brand deals marketplace is the most significant piece. It positions LinkedIn not just as a platform where B2B creator monetisation happens, but as the infrastructure connecting brands to B2B influence at scale. That's a direct challenge to agencies and platforms like Passionfroot or CreatorIQ that currently broker those deals.

Why LinkedIn is building this now

LinkedIn has been cautious with creator monetisation, keeping programmes invite-only and scope limited. The acceleration reflects three pressures. First, video consumption is rising fast enough to justify the investment: video was described as growing twice as fast as any other post format in February 2025. Second, our breakdown of how noticed. built a million-pound agency on LinkedIn alone shows B2B creators are already monetising successfully outside LinkedIn's systems, and the platform risks losing them if it doesn't capture that revenue. Third, the parent company, Microsoft, needs LinkedIn to deliver more than subscription growth, and creator-led advertising gives it a new, high-margin revenue stream tied to video and influencer spend that's already flowing into B2B.

Subscription software led ad spend growth on BrandLink (up 20%), followed by healthcare and professional services (14% each), with the US, UK and Germany as top BrandLink ad markets and Brazil and India among the fastest-growing.

The programme expansion also follows LinkedIn's wider push into AI-led content curation and quality controls. LinkedIn ramps up fight against AI slop as EU user growth stalls showed the platform is investing heavily in content quality to protect feed engagement, and BrandLink's curated, creator-led shows give LinkedIn a way to surface high-quality video that advertisers trust and that users don't flag as spam.

LinkedIn has also integrated BrandLink into its recently expanded ad tracking tools, giving B2B marketers the ability to measure creator-led campaigns with the same attribution rigour they apply to display or search. That removes a longstanding barrier: B2B advertisers historically avoided influencer spend because they couldn't tie it to pipeline.

What this means for social media professionals

For brands, BrandLink is now viable at scale. With over 100 creators and multiple shows live, there's enough inventory to build campaigns around rather than testing one-off placements. The self-serve option in Campaign Manager for select customers removes the need to negotiate via sales teams, which speeds up activation and lowers the barrier to test.

For creators, the question is whether LinkedIn's monetisation will match what they can earn elsewhere. A 50% revenue split on pre-roll ads is competitive, but only if the CPMs and volume are high enough. Fiscal 2027's subscription and marketplace tools will matter more, because they let creators capture the consulting, advisory and community income that's always been the real money in B2B influence. If LinkedIn builds those well, it could become the primary platform for professional creators in a way no other network has managed.

For agencies, LinkedIn is signalling it wants to own the full stack. The brand deals marketplace will compete directly with influencer agencies that broker B2B creator deals, and LinkedIn's new Next Gen Community shows it's building a pipeline of early-career creators it can nurture and monetise inside its ecosystem. Agencies that currently act as middlemen between brands and LinkedIn creators should expect that margin to narrow.

The broader shift is that LinkedIn is no longer just facilitating B2B creator content. It's building the monetisation infrastructure to make LinkedIn the place where B2B creators earn, which changes how brands budget influencer spend and how creators choose where to build their audiences. That's the real implication of the 100-creator milestone. It's not a pilot anymore. It's a business model being scaled.