The most useful points from the 30 ranked interviews, v2

Fits into the main end to end influencer playbook, as the page that holds what founders and marketers told us in interviews and on our own brand calls.

The goal is to run a creator program the way the brands here do, without learning their mistakes all over again.

By the end you will know

• Which brands influencer marketing works for, and where it pays off.
• How to pick creators who fit the brand and sell.
• What creators cost and how to get a fair price.
• How to set up codes, affiliates and commission.
• How to use gifting and seeding to turn customers into advocates.
• What to put in a brief and how to get good content back.
• How to test, run and staff the program.
• When podcast reads work and how to buy them.
• How to run creator content as paid ads.
• How to measure what worked.
• When a celebrity or athlete is worth it.
• How PR, retail and local work fit around creators.

Where influencer marketing works, and who it works for

Before you pick a single creator, know whether creators fit your product and what job you want them to do, because every later step in the program builds on that answer.

Check that your product fits the channel

Some products sell through creators almost on their own, and it helps to know if yours is one of them.

• TikTok Shop suits brands with a big TAM, impulse prices and promos built for the platform, which is why Comfort and Mary Ruth Organic are named as natural fits.
• Vita Coco decided influencers were one of two fixes it needed after the Coke shock, to help amplify its message.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 57:09 and Executive House at 15:34.

Use small creators and free product first

Smaller creators and product sent with no strings let a brand start in the places it already sells.

• Tip. Use smaller micro influencers and seeded product in your key retail markets, aimed at the stores where you sell rather than at general awareness.
• Anastasia Beverly Hills started by sending products to people who posted makeup content and never asked them to do anything in return.

Heard on Open Residency at 49:24 and Nancy Twine at 16:24.

Stay with creators for the long run

Creator marketing works through repeated touchpoints, not through a quick one-off post.

• Slate fits into a creator's own posting style and aims for as many long-term authentic touchpoints as possible, not a quick hit and out.
• Warning. When a software company stops paying influencers, the talk about its tool goes away unless the software is great.

Heard on Open Residency at 48:19 and Marketing Operators at 1:24:54.

Once you know creators fit your product and what you want from them, the next question is which creators to pick.

Picking the right creators

The creators you pick decide who hears about the brand and whether they buy, so every later step in the program rests on this choice.

Pick creators who already love the product

Fit comes before reach, so start with who already uses the product and who your customers see themselves in.

• Sign creators who already believe in the product, the way Slate signed the Cavinder twins after they loved the product and because they believe their female following should drink more protein.
  • Poka's nurse creator Espresso RN was already an advocate, and together they ran a giveaway putting the drink into nurses' break rooms.
• Turn down a deal that is only a transaction, and keep partners who fit the way the brand already speaks to people.
  • Culture Pop's office already loved Noah Kahan, he turned out to be the same hardworking and caring person in person, and a Black Cherry flavor in his name now supports his Busyhead Project.
• Pick creators your customers see themselves in, the way Bucked Up brought Danny Duncan to the Arnold because that fitness crowd felt represented by him.
  • Rihanna's company picked affiliates with different looks and body types, like Gigi and Bella Hadid, Lizzo and Cindy Crawford, to reach a wider audience.
• Let the product decide the platform, so a dog food business may need visual YouTube creators while a vitamin brand may need an army of TikTok Shop advocates.

Heard on Open Residency at 64:10, Brydge Club at 50:21 and 54:55, CEOs You Should Know at 16:29 and 17:13, Bevlab and Alex Hormozi at 21:23.

Small creators sell, big names build awareness

Creator size is a choice between attention and purchases, and the brands here started small.

• Bucked Up's CEO says big names like Conor McGregor build awareness, but micro creators are the ones who get people to purchase.
  • Bucked Up offered one creator $1,000 for a shout out, she asked to be paid per sale instead, and with under 10,000 followers she sold as many as the big influencers.
• Tip. Start with micro creators and small athletes, as Bucked Up did before it moved up to Bryce Hall, Alex Eubank and Conor McGregor once the business was large.
• Missing one big name is not fatal, because there is always a next influencer coming up.

Heard on Bevlab at 25:56, 26:55 and 27:34 and Finally Ready To Grow at 18:52.

Screen on views, audience and engagement

Brands that buy creators well write down a bar each creator has to clear before anyone talks price.

• Tip. Check that views keep up with followers, as a wellness device brand does by asking for average views of at least a quarter of subscribers.
  • A car data company wants at least 20,000 views a video and an upload in the last month.
• Check who the audience is and where it lives, as a vitamin brand does by asking for over 60% female viewers in its key regions so it can target them in ads.
  • A wellness device brand wants at least 40% of a creator's audience in the United States.
• A drinks brand wants an engagement rate over 10% before it runs ads through a creator.
• Put the bar into the program itself, the way Bucked Up now asks ambassadors for a set number of followers and a posting commitment, which it did not do at the start.

Heard on Finally Ready To Grow at 18:07. From our calls with a wellness device brand (July 2026), a car data company (April 2026), a vitamin brand (February 2026) and a drinks brand (May 2026).

Skip cold outreach and recruit where creators gather

Good creators are flooded with requests, so where you look matters as much as who you pick.

• Warning. Cold outreach mostly fails, because millions of TikTok Shop creators with 5,000 followers already get 100 brand requests a day.
• Recruit through people who already hold creators, like the kids running TikTok Shop Discords and WhatsApps of hundreds of creators.
  • A beauty brand's affiliate program took off when a founder who scaled his own brand to $80 million introduced it to his best affiliates.
  • Ghost launched with five or six influencers, and every one was already a friend from the founders' earlier careers.
• Expect a steep funnel when you do reach out, since a shipping software company contacts 200 creators to talk to 30 or 40 and sign about 10.
  • A shipping software company runs an AI tool every Monday that brings back 50 new creators, so the list never runs dry.
• Tip. When a creator's ad works, book them again for the next product or sale, the way a cookware ad that works gets its creator booked for knives.

Heard on Open Residency at 13:38, Marketing Operators at 20:21 and 44:11 and Josiah Novak at 5:29. From our calls with a beauty brand (January 2026) and a shipping software company (May 2026).

Once you know who you want, the next question is what they cost and how to pay a fair price.

What creators cost, and how to get a fair price

What you pay each creator decides whether the program can ever pay back, so the price is set before a single post goes live.

Set the budget against your ad spend

The total you put into creators should follow what you already spend on ads.

• A brand spending 5 million a month on digital ads should probably put 100k to 200k or more into influencer.
  • Ridge spent about 14 million dollars on YouTube partnerships and says in hindsight it could have gone even harder.
• Emerging brands with super small influencer budgets put what little they have into seeding rather than paid partnerships.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 40:56 and 61:53.

Price a creator on CPM from their views

A CPM worked out from views tells you what a video is worth before you hear the creator's quote.

• Tip. Work out the CPM from the average views of a creator's last 10 videos, the way a buyer at a video platform does.
• A podcast network says to work to a CPM under $20 rather than to a set budget.
  • A wellness device brand books creators at a $40 CPM with a cap and counts the views for 45 days after the video goes up.
  • A kitchen appliance brand pays about a $50 CPM for a mention and about $100 for a whole video.
• A 90 second integration from a creator people chose to watch is good ad space even at a $20 to $40 CPM.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:09:56. From our calls with a video platform (June 2026), a podcast network (August 2026), a wellness device brand (July 2026) and a kitchen appliance brand (January 2026).

What a creator video costs at each size

These are the going rates brands told us they pay, so you know a fair quote when you see one.

• An online course company pays a creator who averages 5,000 to 6,000 views about $800, and creators who average 50,000 views charge $2,000 to $3,000.
• A big following can still come cheap, since a footwear brand pays creators with 900,000 followers less than $1,000.
  • The same footwear brand pays a creator with 40,000 followers $400 a month.
• One brand found creators who shoot a single polished studio style video for around $1,000 to $1,500, which it says is worth it.
• One brand's affiliate retainers run about $300 for six videos.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:16:24 and 45:00. From our calls with an online course company (February 2026) and a footwear brand (January 2026).

Big deals rarely pay back, small ones can

The size of the fee changes whether a creator deal can ever return its cost.

• Warning. On a paid posting basis alone, big influencer deals are almost impossible to make work.
• Influencers at $3K to $5K can break even or be profitable across the program, while the $30K to $40K ones cannot.
  • Ten years ago Bucked Up paid an Instagram creator with 670,000 followers $1,000 for a post, and it returned about 50 sales, which barely paid for itself.
  • A micro influencer with under 10,000 followers asked Bucked Up to pay her only for what she sold, and she did just as many sales as the big influencers.
• One brand would never work with a big influencer if the organic post had to be profitable on its own, so it aims for 10 times the content in media spend.
• Deals with larger influencers work when they are more strategic and deeply integrated, while micro influencers are a different game entirely.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 45:51 and Bevlab at 26:00 and 26:55.

Talk the first quote down

The first rate a creator sends is rarely the price you have to pay.

• Tip. When a rate comes back, ask first to drop the organic posts and knock about 10K off.
• A creator's 40 grand quote can often be talked down to a fourth or half of it.
• Tip. Buy a short list of deliverables with 3 to 4 months of usage instead of 6 month and 1 year deals, then extend the ones that work.
• A telehealth brand's creator charged 1k for the video and another 1k for whitelisting, but gave the whitelisting for just the 1k.
• Paying a creator two more grand can bring your cost per video down from four or five to three.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:00:56, 13:43, 40:13 and 41:51. From our calls with a telehealth brand (June 2026).

Book each deal's cost where it belongs

Splitting a fee between influencer spend and ad creative shows what the posts themselves cost you.

• Take what a deal returns off its fee, so a 30 grand creator who makes 10 grand counts as 20 of content cost.
• Superbloom books 100% of content that never gets posted as ad creative, and splits content with 30 days of whitelisting 80% to influencer spend and 20% to ad creative.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 45:33.

Pay in more than cash

Belief, gear and future revenue can stand in for part of the fee.

• Ghost paid below market and competitor rates at launch, and creators jumped in for a lot less cash because they believed in the vision.
• Red Bull gives an artist who does not want a cash advance an advance in plugins and audio instead.
  • Red Bull also lets its artists and friends of Red Bull use its studios in three cities free of charge.
• Spending a couple thousand dollars every time creators post 100 videos is a way to bootstrap, and the aim after that is to pay around revenue.

Heard on Josiah Novak at 6:10, MUSEXPOOfficial at 32:02 and 32:23 and Marketing Operators at 36:00.

Paying on revenue rather than per post is where codes, affiliates and commission come in next.

Codes, affiliates and commission

How you pay creators per sale decides whether they keep posting and whether each sale still makes the brand money, so this is where the program's costs are won or lost.

Start with a clear commission, then raise it

A creator's first question is what they earn per sale, so set a starting rate and a way to move up.

• Start every affiliate on the same revenue share, the way a software company starts each one at 30%.
  • An algae supplement brand pays 15% of the first sale, and affiliates are its most profitable channel.
• Tip. Let affiliates earn a higher rate by meeting set requirements, the way a gaming software company moves them from 10% to 20%, then 25%, then 30%.
  • The same gaming software company can put a huge influencer straight on its highest level.
• Add a payment per sale on top of the fee, the way a wellness device brand pays creators $30 to $50 a sale on top of the CPM.
  • A shipping software company sets thresholds, so a creator who brings in 20 users gets a $5,000 bonus.

From our calls with a software company (March 2026), an algae supplement brand (February 2026), a gaming software company (April 2026), a wellness device brand (July 2026) and a shipping software company (May 2026).

Check the math before you pick the payout

A payout that looks generous can lose money or cost more than a flat fee, so work out the numbers first.

• Paying influencers an upfront fee plus affiliate commission is a common mix, and it happens on platforms like ShopMy too.
• Warning. A fixed payment per signup loses money when the customer buys little, the way a shipping software company pays a creator $75 a signup while some of those customers buy one $8 to $10 label.
• Write out the math for a creator when commission would pay them more, for example that at 500 conversions they make more on commission than on a flat fee.
• Switch to a flat fee once a creator sells enough, the way a peptide telehealth brand finds a flat fee beats a 50/50 revenue split past an $18,000 threshold.

Heard on Lauren Kleinman and Marketing Operators at 50:07. From our calls with a shipping software company (May 2026) and a peptide telehealth brand (July 2026).

Make the code easy to see and use

A code only earns when the buyer notices it, so brands put it where the buyer already is.

• Show the creator's code on the site to people who arrive through that creator's link, the way one brand's top bar read use code MKBHD for 10% off.
  • The same brand found that keeping 50 separate VIP creator pages up to date was such a pain it was not worth doing.
  • Goalie runs large UGC clipping campaigns where people comment goalie to get 10% off.
• Have the creator say the price and the code out loud, the way one host worked out that $69 with 10% off is about $60 for a month, about $2 a day.
  • Another host read a code for 15% off each order and told listeners to use it more than once and share it with family and friends.
• Give the buyer who uses a creator's link a reason to come back, the way a shipping software company gives $25 back in shipping credit after a new user's first $25.
  • A gaming software company gives affiliates free seven day trial keys to hand out in giveaways to their community.
• Credit a creator for a code used long after the click, the way a footwear brand credits a code used five months later even though its cookies last 30 days.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 47:36, 51:37 and 55:32, Peter Gillooly and Dr. Chad Walding. From our calls with a shipping software company (May 2026), a gaming software company (April 2026) and a footwear brand (January 2026).

Get many creators posting at once

Codes and TikTok Shop both let a brand put hundreds or thousands of creators to work on one product.

• Bucked Up built its ambassador program out of coupon codes and its affiliate network experience, and it now has over 90,000 ambassadors.
• The main job of TikTok Shop is getting dozens, hundreds or thousands of people making content about your product.
  • HexClad might not do 10 million in TikTok Shop revenue this year, but expects tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of impressions from the creators it sends product to.
  • One brand did $350K on TikTok Shop in 2 months, and its largest creator brought in only $15K.
• Let creators sell any product in the catalog, the way one of the top 10 TikTok Shop brands does.
• Getting creators posting and merchandising well both work without TikTok Shop too, even though the shop often gets the credit for both.
• Warning. Count every cost of TikTok Shop, because for most brands one operator speaks to, the bulk of TikTok Shop revenue comes from GMV Max ad spend on top of affiliate commission and retainer fees.

Heard on Finally Ready To Grow at 17:47 and 19:31 and Marketing Operators at 46:51, 52:56, 58:15 and 59:25.

Paying per sale works best when creators already like the product, which is where gifting and seeding come in.

Gifting, seeding and turning customers into advocates

Free product is often the first thing a creator or customer gets from a brand, so how you gift decides whether the program grows into a group of people who talk about you for free.

Gifting alone can launch a brand

Before any paid deal, product in the right hands gets people talking.

• Tubby Todd ran no paid ad for over three years and put all of its marketing into influencer gifting.
  • Tubby Todd bought 750 bottles, shipped them to the founders' garage and sent them to the mommy bloggers they knew.
  • Tubby Todd found that almost 100% of the people they shipped to loved the product enough to post about it, which built the Tubby Todd Mama community.
• Heavy gifting before a launch puts people talking about a product before it ships, which is how David protein launched.
  • Rode Skin uses its community to announce launches by reposting influencer content.
• One operator looking back on Ridge and Jones Road says creator organic community distribution would be his biggest focus if he launched a brand today.

Heard on Andrea at 17:05, 17:27 and 35:14 and Marketing Operators at 10:44, 23:21 and 48:44.

Treat sampling as a slow bet

Seeding pays back over time and never shows up neatly in a dashboard.

• Tip. When paid ads slow down, increase product seeding, knowing it is a longer game.
• Cody committed roughly a million dollars a year to getting samples into people's hands, against his own habit of tracking every dollar.
  • Ghost sent shakers and samples to a podcaster's live events for years with no measurable return, because there is never upside until there is upside.
• Warning. Seeding that works early can fade, and Gruns says its ugly seeded content stopped working for the main brand while it keeps the process alive for its early stage brands.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 21:16 and 60:48, Andrew Faris at 49:28 and Josiah Novak at 1:08.

Sending product and hoping is not a program

Samples only turn into content when there is a system around them.

• Warning. Founders who send 5,000 samples often get five responses, five videos and $20,000 on TikTok, because they do nothing with the creators after the box lands.
• HexClad lets creators apply, ships them product, and pulls the content they make into its ad account, as an extension of its product seeding program.
  • HexClad says that flywheel of creator content is worth more to the business than the revenue from TikTok Shop itself.

Heard on Open Residency and Marketing Operators at 59:05 and 59:39.

Build a creator community, not a list

Creators who feel part of the brand keep posting long after the money stops being the reason.

• Warning. A creator is only so motivated by money, and brands that cap out around $100,000 a month on TikTok are usually missing that connection.
• Tip. One chief executive runs a Zoom with his creators every quarter to pass on the company culture and make them feel part of it.
• Put the creators in a Discord where the head of growth and the brand manager talk with them.
  • That Discord started at 500 creators with a sales goal each one had to reach to stay in.
  • It now runs tier one, tier two and tier three, so creators can work their way up.
• Creators talk to each other, so a hook that works spreads through the group and the system starts to run on its own.
• The turning point for that brand was when creators saw it as the coolest, fastest growing brand on TikTok and wanted to be part of it.

Heard on Open Residency at 5:06, 6:13, 6:29 and 7:02.

Make the inner circle feel special

Creators stay loyal to a group they had to earn their way into.

• Keep the rewards scarce, like taking only 10 creators on a trip to Florida or putting only three on billboards.
• Sugar Bear Hair sent its influencers the nicest box, so being in the group felt special and had to be earned.
  • Sugar Bear Hair sent its creators to Coachella to hang out with the Kardashians, which kept them loyal.
• Bucked Up brings influencers to Utah and flies them over the mountains in a helicopter, because they rarely get to see country like it.

Heard on Open Residency at 9:57 and Bevlab.

Make it easy for them to post

What goes in the box and what you ask for decide how much content comes back.

• Anastasia Beverly Hills sent ring lights to influencers so they could make better content.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills also bought Sony cameras with Wi-Fi and sent them to influencers so their pictures looked better.
• Tip. Liquid Death asks the people it sends product to for one thing, a tag and the hashtag thirst, and then it reposts them.
• Put a QR code in the influencer box so creators who love the product can leave a review.

Heard on Nancy Twine at 16:57 and 17:25, JUST Creative at 18:13 and Marketing Operators at 20:08.

Turn customers and staff into advocates

The people who already use the product can do the work of paid influencers.

• Huel's version of influencers was customers with Huel in the office telling their colleagues about it, which its founder calls daily micro influencers.
• What they used instead:
• • free t-shirts in the box
• hand signed notes,
• staff as micro influencers
• Also had a manager doing witty replies bought with engagement
• Go where your customers already gather, the way Spacegoods says to get into ADHD communities and Reddit forums and lead them organically.

Heard on Piper PE at 45:18 and D2C Diaries at 1:03:44.

Once creators have the product and want to post, the next step is telling them what to make in the brief.

The brief and the content

The brief decides what creators say about the product, so it is where the creators you picked and the price you paid turn into content that sells.

Plan creators into the launch from the start

A launch goes better when the creator content is planned with it, not added after.

• Jones Road tiers each launch separately per channel, so the same product can be an A for paid social and a B for influencer.
• For one launch, the brand engaged a number of creators up front with different concepts and angles, so it had a full toolbox of ad creative for Meta and YouTube.
• An athletic apparel brand used influencers to promote a signature product line built around how customers use it, and saw a 150% lift in day over day revenue and a 50% improvement in paid efficiency.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 43:22 and 57:28 and Common Thread Collective at 9:48.

Write the message for each creator's audience

One general brand story falls flat, so the brief should start from who is watching each creator.

• HexClad got better at positioning its value props to a certain creator's audience instead of leaning on its general brand story.
  • One of its creators led with nonstick because omelettes are what her audience already watches her make.
• HexClad now begins creative planning by asking what should come from the brand and what should come from a creator, instead of starting from an arbitrary number of ads.
• Tell creators which products to push, the way a vitamin brand only lets creators promote its best seller or its weight loss product.

Heard on Reza Khadjavi at 54:22, 63:40 and 64:41. From our calls with a vitamin brand (February 2026).

Keep the brief light for creators who already sell

A heavy script can take away the thing that made the creator worth booking.

• Warning. Do not over brief a creator who already sells products to an audience that is there for it, and Bethany Frankel is the example given.
  • Ghost tells creators to share the product in any way that makes sense for their own community, and accepts whatever that turns out to be.
• Run creators in two lanes, a high volume of unscripted videos and a few polished ones like HexClad's team makes.
  • One brand had hundreds of creators posting about six or seven videos each, which made 1,200 ads.
  • BREZ's founder built his whole creative strategy on putting his phone in the corner and recording himself talking.
• Volume alone is not enough, since Ridge's street interviews on TikTok got millions of impressions but few of them became good ads.
• Rihanna's company sent affiliates banners, links and promotional materials, so promoting took them little time and stayed on brand.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:15:29, 32:45, 34:46 and 42:41, Josiah Novak at 7:25, Limited Supply at 18:37 and Alex Hormozi at 23:21.

Teach the product, then give creators proven hooks

Creators make better hooks when they know the product well and see what has already worked.

• Neurogum makes every creator sit through a three hour orientation, then expects them to build on the hook rather than repeat it.
  • One hook that always works for them reframes the Shark Tank rejection as the shark's biggest mistake, told through the founders' own backgrounds.
  • Another is a clip of Joe Rogan telling Bobby Lee how much he loves Neurogum, used as bottom of funnel proof.

Heard on Open Residency at 4:19 and 16:03.

Build the product into the story people watch

The pitch only works if viewers are still watching and it feels like part of the video.

• Tip. Superbloom writes into the contract that a HexClad or Jones Road integration sits inside the creator's average watch time, for example within the first 15 minutes of a 20 minute video.
• Give the creator a task that uses the product, the way a car data company challenged creators to find the cheapest good car in the UK with it.
  • One of that car data company's videos carried five calls to action, and they still felt natural in the story.
• A host who says he takes two tablets a day and needed six to eight weeks to feel it is a harder sell than a claim, and probably more persuasive.
• A tax service filmed a 40 minute session between an expert creator and one of its accountants, then pushed that content out.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 58:01 and Peter Gillooly. From our calls with a car data company (April 2026) and a tax service (April 2026).

Get more pieces out of every creator shoot

Each booking can feed ads and pages well past the first post.

• Tip. Ask a UGC creator to record two extra hooks and two extra CTAs, and one deliverable becomes six.
  • For holiday ads, one brand cut new intro hooks with Gordon and other influencers instead of shooting whole new ads.
• Creator content can carry a landing page too.
  • HexClad held an influencer holiday dinner and turned it into a landing page built around recipes.
  • A second holiday landing page showed what the brand ambassadors recommend, with a photo and a line of copy for each.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 67:43 and Cody at 28:54, 29:08 and 44:24.

Keep creator content inside the law

Content that fakes a person or a doctor puts the whole program at risk.

• Warning. AI ads that pretend to be a human loving the product are illegal, and they are not expected to do well.
• One GLP-1 company is reportedly spinning up 80 whitelisted doctor pages, some with no doctor behind them, which is an FTC violation waiting to happen.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:14:41 and Andrew Faris at 6:15.

With the brief and the content in place, the next step is testing what works and staffing the program to run it.

Testing, running and staffing the program

A good brief only pays off if someone owns the program, tests creators before committing, and keeps the best ones working.

Set the budget and run agencies your way

Too small a spend tells you nothing, and the brand should keep control of the price and the picks.

• Tip. Superbloom sets 50k as its minimum to run a program and gauge success, and only goes down to 20k for a brand it believes is disrupting something.
• Warning. Agency creator volume only works to a point, then it hits saturation and stops working the same way Facebook ads do.
• Tell the agency what you will pay for each creator and let them take that number back.
  • A footwear brand tells its agencies it is willing to spend 500 for a specific person, and the agency goes back to the influencer with it.
  • A mattress brand gives agencies no budget at all and only works with the creators it likes from their lists.
• Use an agency for what it knows, the way a vitamin brand in the UK hires one to find creators who have already converted for other brands.

Heard on Marketing Operators and Open Residency at 8:12. From our calls with a footwear brand (January 2026), a mattress brand (June 2026) and a vitamin brand (February 2026).

Give someone on the team clear ownership

Influencer sits in different places at different brands, but it always has a named owner.

• Put influencer where it fits your brand, whether that is the growth team or the brand team.
  • HexClad's growth team of 15 to 18 people owns influencer and affiliate alongside paid, retention, CRO, SEO and community.
  • At Jones Road influencer sits under brand, with social, copy and project management.
• Ridge has partnership managers as their own role in the marketing team.
• One person can carry the whole loop, as on Jared Brody's team where one person finds the influencers, writes the briefs and gets the shot list.
• HexClad's growth lead says the affiliate lead should hear the paid media and retention reporting, and calls bringing the channel leads together the big change they need to make.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 14:10, 17:23 and 18:07, Jared Brody at 64:37 and Conor McDonald at 77:46.

Check the rules before any content goes live

Some categories have legal limits on who can approve a post or whether creators can be used at all.

• Warning. At a regulated finance business, only a licensed compliance officer can sign off creator content.
• A UK franchise operator cannot use influencers to promote food that fails the HFSS health and sugar criteria.

From our calls with a regulated finance business (July 2026) and a UK franchise operator (April 2026).

Test small, then sign the ones that work

One video proves little, so brands test a few creators and only commit to the winners.

• A car data company tests two or three videos with a creator, because one video cannot show proper results.
  • A shipping software company never books more than one video with a creator it has not worked with before.
• Tip. In a 90 day pilot, a shipping software company picks 10 creators, does one post a month with each, and replaces the ones that do not go well.
• An online course company tests creators first, then signs three, six or 12 month partnerships based on how the campaign performed.

From our calls with a car data company (April 2026), a shipping software company (May 2026), a shipping software company (June 2026) and an online course company (February 2026).

Onboard creators like new staff

Creators who know the brand make better content, so teach them before they post.

• Make every new creator sit through a recorded orientation, the way one TikTok brand sends a three hour video and a Notion page and tracks who went through it.
• The same brand's manager then asks each creator very specific questions, and the CEO holds a Zoom with them about once a quarter to share the company culture.

Heard on Open Residency at 4:08.

Once the program has an owner and a tested roster, podcast reads are the next place to put creators to work.

Podcast reads

A podcast read puts the brand in a host's own voice for a long stretch, so how you buy it and how the host tells it decide whether listeners buy.

Start podcast reads early

Some brands were built on podcasts, and operators who waited say they wish they had started sooner.

• Four Sigmatic put 80% of its early budget into podcasting, and a Ridge operator says Ridge could have gone that route too.
• Tip. The same operator says he wishes he had started podcasting earlier, and he tries to put 20% of spend into upper funnel channels like YouTube or TV.

Heard on Marketing Operators.

Know what a read costs and what happens if it misses

A read is bought on a fee and a promise of views, so settle both before you pay.

• A single read can return many times its fee, as a wellness device brand paid $3,000 for one podcast read, ran three, and saw about $30,000 come in.
• Tip. Ask what happens if a show misses its promised views, as a podcast network offers a free make good episode or does not invoice the missed views at the agreed CPM.

From our calls with a wellness device brand (July 2026) and a podcast network (May 2026).

Pick hosts who show they use the product

A read lands as personal use rather than an ad when the host shows they take it.

• The strongest read is a host who names the exact product they take and shows it on air.
  • Molly Sims told listeners the Cymbiotika vitamin C liposome is the only one she can swallow, and that she had already taken a packet that morning.
  • One host showed his two jars of Mars on camera during the read and said he gets them on automatic refill.
• A host who tells a story about a client using the product gives proof a brand cannot write for itself.
  • NativePath has sponsored a gym's podcast since its first episode, and the host says it is because the gym's clients feel amazing on the supplements.

Heard on Molly Sims at 6:14 and 6:28, Peter Gillooly and Dr. Chad Walding.

Buy the whole episode, not just a slot

Some brands turn the interview itself into the ad.

• A brand can buy a whole episode in which the host declares it an advertiser and interviews its founder.
  • NativePath co-founder Dr. Chad Walding was the guest on the P.A.S. Report, and the same episode ran two identical scripted ad breaks for NativePath collagen.
• Give the host something new to say, the way the Cymbiotika founder broke news of an unreleased magnesium with three forms on Molly Sims's show.

Heard on Dr. Chad Walding and Molly Sims at 22:15.

Give every show its own link and code

A link and a code made for one show tell listeners exactly where to buy.

• Tip. Give each host a vanity link and a code named for the show, and have the host read it out more than once.
  • The Wellness Company's host sent listeners to twwc.health/godzilla with the code Godzilla for 10% off.
  • Molly Sims said Cymbiotika.com/lipstick twice for 20% off plus free shipping.
• A host who owns a company can tell listeners the discount is a big one, the way Molly Sims did for the Cymbiotika 20% off.
• NativePath builds its discount into bundle deals at a fraction of other brands' prices rather than into a creator code.

Heard on Peter Gillooly, Molly Sims at 41:56 and 45:04 and Dr. Chad Walding.

Once a read has worked on a show, the next step is running creator content as paid ads.

Running creator content as paid ads

Creator posts reach only the creator's own audience once, so putting ad money behind the best of them is how the program keeps paying after the post goes up.

Run ads through the creator's own handle

Whitelisting puts your ad money behind a creator's account, and buyers trust that voice more than the brand's own.

• Whitelisting is when a brand puts its Meta or TikTok ad money behind a third party handle, like a creator, an influencer or a publication.
• People discount a brand praising itself, so an ad from Nectar saying Nectar is the greatest mattress gets the reaction that of course Nectar would say that.
• David Herrmann says whitelisted creator ads are the best performers across his whole client portfolio, no question.
  • A wedding band seller sees some of its best results from women creators in Meta partnership ads.

Heard on Lauren Kleinman, Jared Brody at 64:56 and Marketing Operators at 44:25 and 50:16.

Make most of a big creator deal paid

A big fee spent only on organic posts tends to come back small, so the money goes further behind ads.

• Warning. One founder paid Benny Blanco a low six figure fee for about four posts to a custom landing page, made about 20 or 25,000 dollars in revenue, and says he would now split deals like that 75% paid and 25% organic.
• One brand aims for 10 times the content cost in media spend, so a creator whose posts bring in zero revenue still gets $300k of ads behind them, and one who brings in $10k gets $200k.
• Tip. Write paid usage into the creator deal, so the brand can run the content as ads for a set time.
  • A vitamin brand gets its best results from Instagram story series with 30 days of paid usage run through the creator's account.
  • A drinks brand gets a UGC ad from a recognizable creator, then owns it and runs it for about three months.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 43:00. From our calls with a vitamin brand (February 2026) and a drinks brand (May 2026).

Test many creator ads, then back the winners

Most creator ads will not work, so the setup has to find the few that do without killing them too early.

• Tip. Whitelist about 10 creator ads, expect about two to do well, cut the rest, and keep raising spend on the two while the cost per customer stays acceptable.
• Give whitelisted ads their own campaign with a 20% audience cap, and treat it as both middle of funnel and prospecting.
• Let a new ad spend a thousand before you change anything, which usually takes about five days.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 21:38 and 50:46. From our calls with a telehealth brand (June 2026).

Feed the ad account from organic creators

The ads are only as good as the creator content coming in, so the organic program is the supply line.

• Build an organic creator program that keeps feeding the ad account, instead of only scripting creators and paying them to post.
• Do not judge seeded content by how polished it looks, because Grüns found content its team called the worst it had ever seen became the top performer in the ad account.
• Use the same creators in the ad and on the landing page, as an athletic apparel brand did so the ad and the page felt like one experience.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 60:40 and Common Thread Collective at 10:07.

Plan for comments you cannot moderate

Partnership ads come with a support gap that the brand's usual tools cannot close.

• Warning. Hexclad cannot handle comments on partnership ads the way it can on ads from its own page, because Meta does not give comment access on whitelisted ads through its API.

Heard on Amit RG at 58:38 and 59:32.

Once creator content is running as ads, the next question is how to measure what worked.

Measuring what worked

Measuring is how a brand knows which creators to book again, so every choice made earlier in the program is judged here.

Set the return you need before you start

Brands that keep a program going decide up front what a creator has to bring back and how long they will wait.

• Tip. Agree on a break even bar, the way a footwear brand needs a $10,000 creator to bring back at least $10,000 to continue the partnership.
  • A hair care brand accepts a return below one at first and wants to reach at least one within three months.
• Set a ceiling on the cost of each customer and compare it with what paid ads cost you.
  • A shipping software company keeps its influencer cost per customer under $500, it is $333 now, and it pays around $500 on paid ads for each new active user.
• Give slow buyers time, the way a software company waits three months to see if free signups turn into paying customers.

From our calls with a footwear brand (January 2026), a hair care brand (January 2026), a shipping software company (May 2026) and a software company (March 2026).

Tracking misses most of what creators do

Creator sales often happen days later, in a store or through word of mouth, where the dashboard cannot see them.

• Warning. A short attribution window misses the buyer who saw the video and shops later, as Bloom's co-founder says a 7 day window misses someone who buys at Walmart 2 weeks after seeing the video.
• Ask buyers on their first order where they heard about you, because a supplement brand found 80% say a therapist or a friend sent them, whatever the tracking says.
  • When the Grüns team wanted to track its influencer program better, the first fix it reached for was a post purchase survey.
• At a large brand one creator can disappear into the noise, since an extra 10 grand from an influencer could just be a daily fluctuation, while a new brand sees a creator pop off in its numbers right away.

Heard on Open Residency at 8:17 and Marketing Operators at 12:50. From our calls with a supplement brand (June 2026).

Give each creator a way to be counted

A link, a page or a capture that belongs to one creator turns a guess into a number.

• Use a landing page for each show instead of a code, the way NativePath sends podcast listeners to a show specific page and says it twice per break.
• Put creator giveaway email and SMS signups into your customer data tool so a revenue number can be attached to them.
• Measure creator clicks the same way as other channels, as one brand's attribution tool measures YouTube partnership clicks exactly like Meta, Snap and TikTok.
• When you advertise a partner's product, ask them to install your pixel, or to clone the product page so only your pixel sits on that copy and you never touch their data.

Heard on Dr. Chad Walding, Marketing Operators at 12:52 and 34:55 and Alex Hormozi at 80:30 and 80:50.

Judge creator ads on more than one day click

A creator ad can look weak on the first day and still be one of the best ads in the account.

• Tip. Check how much of an ad's reach is new to the brand, because a macro creator's ad at a 0.4 one day click can still be a great ad if 85% of its reach is new.
• Look at lifetime value as well, since one creator's ads grew over 2x from one day click to lifetime value against about 1.5x for the account.
• Do not pick partnership ads by how the reel did organically, because one team found no link between the two.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 1:01:24, 34:19 and 46:06.

Compare creators with your other channels

Creators earn their budget when they sit in the same report and the same tests as every other channel.

• Give influencer and affiliates their own rows in the marketing summary, the way Hexclad's head of growth comments on every channel row beside email, SMS and paid social.
• Test creators against ads directly, as a franchise operator now runs one quarter of only creators against one quarter of only ads.
• Hold a creator drop against a forecast, the way one influencer drop beat the brand's model by 39%.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 32:34 and Common Thread Collective at 13:11. From our calls with a UK franchise operator (April 2026).

Once you can tell which creators pay back, the next question is when a celebrity or an athlete is worth the much bigger fee.

Celebrities and athletes

A famous name can carry a brand further than a hundred small creators, but only when the deal is built so the star moves product and not just attention.

Start with stars who already use the product

The best celebrity deals here began with someone famous already drinking or using the product.

• Vita Coco's Madonna deal began when her manager Guy Oseary said over coffee that she drinks the product all the time, even on stage.
  • Vita Coco wanted Jay-Z, but that deal got too expensive and too difficult, so after a People magazine picture showed Rihanna holding Vita Coco at a grocery checkout, the founder called Jay-Z's team and did the deal with Rihanna instead.
• Slate became a UFC sponsor 8 months to a year after Dana White started drinking Slate, liked it, and reached out.
  • Slate met Max Crosby through Dana White, and Max now posts about Slate, tells his friends, and handed the phone to his nutritionist to get Slate in.
• Tonal had so many athletes and their agents calling to cut the delivery line that it set up a VIP program just for athletes.
  • Tonal's product was in the hands of LeBron James's trainer, that grew into a relationship with Maverick Carter, and then into an investment.
• Ridge got its Marques Brownlee partnership done by tweeting at him.

Heard on Executive House at 16:28, 17:36 and 17:45, Open Residency at 35:53 and 36:29, Omar Waseem at 5:50 and 8:09 and Shawn at 18:48.

Offer equity when you cannot pay the fee

A small brand can sign a big name by selling them part of the company instead of paying for an endorsement.

• Vita Coco's founder had no money to pay Madonna for an endorsement, so he offered her a spot in his investment round, and her manager took the whole round.
  • Madonna brought in Matthew McConaughey and Anthony Kiedis, they took the entire round, and then they went to work marketing and promoting the brand.
• Warning. Write a posting requirement into the deal, because Lemon Perfect's Beyonce investment had none, the announcement was the brand's own, and its reach was somewhat limited.
  • Lemon Perfect's founder says the first thing that comes up when you Google the brand today is that Beyonce is an investor, which adds credibility to its story.

Heard on Executive House at 16:28 and Strong New York at 43:30 and 44:06.

Give the star one specific thing to do

The deals that paid back tied the star to one moment or one buyer that turned into sales.

• Tip. Plan one stunt with a clear offer, the way DeChambeau announced that if he broke 50 with Steph Curry, Bucked Up would go 50% off for 24 hours, and the site did over $4 million in revenue that day.
  • Bucked Up says that one day paid for DeChambeau's sponsorship for the whole year.
• Conor McGregor sold over $700,000 of his product within three days, though Bucked Up wishes the deal had lasted longer.
  • McGregor pushed a 7-Eleven buyer in person to bring in his drinks, and 50 pallets went into 7-Eleven.
• One brand says Rogan's first mention did way more than Shark Tank, but by his 20th mention it no longer sees the blips.

Heard on Bevlab at 19:20 and 20:50 and Open Residency at 70:48.

Make a product in the star's name

A product the star helped make gives them their own reason to sell it.

• Waterdrop took Djokovic past being an ambassador and worked with him on an electrolyte performance drop under his own name.
  • Waterdrop built a tennis court in Times Square, and people still talk to the brand because of it.
• Bucked Up made Danny Duncan his own refresher drink with about 100 milligrams of caffeine, and he does TikTok lives for it.
• One brand shot every shade on its main model, gave her one in her name, and put her signature on the pack.
• Warning. Check what the star is already signed to, because Bucked Up could not make a Gronk Juice with Rob Gronkowski while Monster sponsored him.

Heard on Retail Reality Show at 17:44 and 18:54, Bevlab at 28:50 and Marketing Operators at 55:29.

Put the celebrity into paid ads

Celebrity posts on their own pages did not pay back for one brand, and the fix was paid media.

• Warning. One ecommerce brand paid Benny Blanco a low six figures for four posts to a custom landing page and made about 20 to 25,000 dollars in revenue on those products.
  • Its Hailey Bieber deal was also too organic and brought little revenue, so the founder would now make these deals 75% paid and 25% organic.
• Budget for the shoot as well as the fee, since one brand's first production with celebrity talent came to almost half a million dollars, fees included.

Heard on Marketing Operators at 19:15, 39:07 and 39:33.

A famous face opens doors with buyers and press, and the next part covers PR, retail and local.

PR, retail and local

Creators are not the only people who put a product in front of buyers, so the program works harder when the stores, the venues and the local scene carry the same message.

Win the people who serve the product first

A product can spread through the people who hand it to customers, before any creator posts about it.

• Red Bull only started to take off once bartenders and nightclub operators were convinced it belonged in mixed drinks.
• Point viewers to the stores that carry the product, the way a cannabis brand plans to have creators send people to a page listing local retailers that stock its hash rosin shot.

Heard on Founders Podcast at 26:53. From our calls with a cannabis brand (June 2026).

Go local with small creators and free product

A business tied to one area needs creators whose followers live nearby, and paying a big name can help the wrong people.

• A UK franchise operator posted an offer of free product and picked creators with low followings but high engagement, so it knew they were local and relevant.
• Warning. A franchisee who spends 3,000 pounds on one UK influencer ends up advertising the other 1,500 franchisees in the chain too.

From our calls with a UK franchise operator (April 2026).

Put the stores, the venues and the local creators together with everything before it, and the whole program points buyers to the same place.