Level of brand and level of influencer program

For you if:

• You run a D2C brand that sells its own physical product, and growth needs more fuel on the fire.
• You are at $50 million a year or more, or getting close.

$0 to $10 million

Skipped

$10 to $50 million

Skipped

$50 to $100 million

What brands at $50 to $100 million look like

Revenue and staff are each company's figures in our records today. Our video records are YouTube only.

What to do:

1. Count the share of your creators you booked a second time, and put it next to 66%.
2. Count the share of your sponsored videos on channels past 1 million subscribers, and put it next to 22%.

Brands that did it at $50 to $100 million

Ridge Wallet paid for 3,000 videos from about 750 creators in 2020, the year it reached $50 million in sales

With $50 million in sales in 2020 alone. Influencer marketing has driven much of the growth. We sponsor a lot of influencers on YouTube. Roughly 750 in 2020, when we spent $3.9 million on 3,000 unique videos. Practical Ecommerce interview

We sponsor famously sponsored a ton of influencers right uh you know for Father's Day we had a thousand plus influencers go live something crazy right Ridge Wallet CEO Sean Frank's Hot Takes After $100 Million+ In Sales, DTC Podcast, 2022, 23:59

What to do:

1. Staff the search as well as the deals. Ridge approached about 1,000 creators a month to sign 150 to 200. OMG Commerce podcast, October 21, 2020
2. Check each rate against $1,300 a video, which is Ridge's $3.9 million spread across 3,000 videos.
3. Plan on about 4 videos from each creator. Ridge got 3,000 from about 750.
4. Book many creators for one date. For one Father's Day, Ridge had more than a thousand influencers go live.

ButcherBox ran influencers alone to $50 million before it touched another channel, paying them a share of the customers they brought in

We ran that influencer thing to like $50 million before we touched anything else like it was just wow you know a lot of times you're like trying to find that signal trying to find that hole with some oil in it and once you do don't go find don't go looking for any more oil until that thing is like you've got you're you're fracking every last drop out of it um and so that's what we did we just focused on that started building out a team like I want every influencer in this Arena let just get them all get them all get them all deep in the programs who's who's promoting what hey we have a new you know every couple of weeks it was like a new launch a new promotion get as many influencers promoting as possible build the system The story of ButcherBox: Mike Salguero, Starting Small, 2024, 38:34

We can't pay up front but we can pay your residual on the customers that you bring in and they're like yeah sure that sounds great and that's how we started The story of ButcherBox: Mike Salguero, Starting Small, 2024, 38:14

What to do:

1. Offer creators a share of the customers they bring in instead of a fee up front, as ButcherBox did when it could not pay up front.
2. Stay on the channel that works before you open a second, as ButcherBox did to $50 million.

Jones Road Beauty put its founder Bobbi Brown on TikTok with no trends and no voiceovers, and TikTok went from 2% to more than 30% of its revenue in two weeks

The brand is on a steep upward trajectory, according to industry sources, who expect sales to top $120 million this year Double 2022’s revenues. WWD, October 25, 2023

Within a week, the impact was a game-changer for Brown’s brand. Brown’s personal account went from around 3,000 followers to 130,000. What’s more, traffic to Jones Road’s website increased 196%, and TikTok went from generating 2% of the brand’s revenue to generating more than 30%, in the two weeks following these posts Most brands, celebrities and influencers are doing TikTok trends and stuff like that, but we haven’t done a single trend, a single voiceover. It’s literally the same Just Bobbi educating, doing makeup, talking about it. We’ve kept it really simple,” Plofker said. Glossy, April 29, 2022

What to do:

1. Put the founder on camera teaching the product, with no trends and no voiceovers, as Jones Road did with Bobbi Brown.
2. Put TikTok's share of your revenue before the posts next to the two weeks after. At Jones Road it went from 2% to more than 30%.

Daniel Wellington took in $70 million in 2014 giving its watches away to social media stars instead of paying for traditional advertising

Four years ago, Tysander invested $15,000 to start the company. In 2014 it sold more than a million timepieces and took in $70 million. This year, Tysander projects $220 million in revenue. The company also has a habit of giving its product away for free, specifically to social-media stars and prominent personalities. Tysander refuses to pay for traditional advertising, instead working with thousands of bloggers, celebrities, and other “influencers” worldwide. Bloomberg Businessweek, July 14, 2015

What to do:

1. Give the product to creators for free in place of traditional advertising, as Daniel Wellington did with thousands of bloggers, celebrities and influencers.

$100 to $250 million

What brands at $100 to $250 million look like

Revenue and staff are each company's figures in our records today. Our video records are YouTube only.

What to do:

1. Work out your ad spend as a share of revenue, and put it next to 5.8 to 16.1%.
2. Count the share of your creators you booked a second time, and put it next to 65%.
3. Count the share of your sponsored videos on channels past 1 million subscribers, and put it next to 28%.

Brands that did it at $100 to $250 million

Olipop was on track to pass $200 million in sales in 2023, and tests a creator on one video before offering a longer deal

Goodwin is the CEO and formulator of Olipop, a "healthier" prebiotic soda on track to surpass $200 million in sales by the end of the year. Within the first six months of 2023, Olipop hit $100 million in gross revenue. CNBC Make It, Sep 16, 2023

We send you a case you included in a video if it does well we do something together it's really kind of basic yeah Using Marketing to Optimize Brand Growth | Generation Influence Ep.1: Steven Vigilante of OLIPOP, partnrUP, 2023, 32:00

I just want to do a little test and if it's good I'll give you a three six month deal that's fine I just want to know up front if it's going to be worth worth it for us Using Marketing to Optimize Brand Growth | Generation Influence Ep.1: Steven Vigilante of OLIPOP, partnrUP, 2023, 31:46

What to do:

1. Send a creator one case for one video, as Olipop does.
2. If the video does well, offer a three or six month deal, as Olipop's Steven Vigilante describes.

HexClad made $170.7 million in 2022 with Gordon Ramsay as its lead ambassador, and its other chef partnerships unpaid

It's grown steadily since, bringing in $170.7 million in revenue last year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The company is on track to bring in $350 million this year, HexClad president Jason Panzer says, and Ramsay is now a partial owner. CNBC Make It, September 6, 2023

Officially signed Ramsay as the brand’s lead ambassador last year. Apart from Ramsay, these tie-ups are all unpaid. Modern Retail, July 25, 2022

What to do:

1. Sign one chef or expert as lead ambassador, as HexClad signed Gordon Ramsay in 2021.
2. Give that ambassador a stake. Ramsay is now a partial owner of HexClad.
3. Add other professionals without paying them, as HexClad's other chef partnerships were.

Chubbies made $101.6 million in 2023, the year it formalized its partnership with NFL tight end George Kittle

Sales last year reached $101.6 million, up from $89.3 million in 2022 with $9.1 million in net income, reversing a minor loss the prior year. In terms of performance, 2023 was an historic year for us.” That was also the year that Chubbies formalized its relationship with San Francisco 49ers’ tight end George Kittle . WWD, Oct 21, 2024

What to do:

1. Look for an athlete or creator who already wears your product. George Kittle had worn Chubbies since college.
2. Reach out first. Chubbies contacted him, and formalized the relationship in 2023.
3. Build a product line with them, as Chubbies did with its George Kittle by Chubbies collection.

Béis passed $120 million in revenue with its founder, Shay Mitchell, leading the marketing and creative

Béis hit upward of $120 million in profitable gross revenue in March, WWD has learned exclusively. Mitchell has driven the marketing and creative at Béis, leading a team with the help of incubator and venture company Beach House Group, as well as brand president Adeela Hussain Johnson Béis also grew its combined social audience by 122 percent last year, gaining more than 365,000 net new followers, according to the company, with an average engagement rate of 8.8 percent throughout the year. Content views increased by 1,334 percent, reaching 120 million views on video content across channels. WWD, Apr 12, 2023

What to do:

1. Let the founder with the audience lead the marketing and the creative, as Shay Mitchell does at Béis.
2. Count the video views the brand gets each year. Béis reached 120 million views on video content.

Lovesac made $165.9 million in the year to February 2019, and its annual report says celebrities and influencers posted about it without being paid

Our customers include celebrities and other influencers who support our brand through postings made on an uncompensated and unsolicited basis. Lovesac annual report

Bubble Skincare, at an estimated $170 million in yearly sales, has over 70,000 ambassadors who visit stores and post

Bubble was estimated to reach around $170 million in sales last year, per industry sources Our community of over 70,000 ambassadors, who’ll be going to the stores and posting content, and a lot of our influencer partners as well,” Eisenman said. WWD, Jan 30, 2025

What to do:

1. Start the ambassador list from your focus groups. Bubble's began as 200 members of Gen Z.
2. Give ambassadors a job in the stores that stock you: going there and posting, as Bubble's do.
3. Run influencer partners beside the ambassadors, as Bubble does.

LMNT made $206.3 million in 2023, and its own filing puts $7.1 million of that year into sending free product

Product sampling costs including shipping costs, net of any funds collected, totaled $7,087 for the year ended December 31, 2023 and $2,316 for the year ended December 31, 2022. LMNT annual report to the SEC, April 2024

The filing counts in thousands of dollars. Its net sales for 2023 are 206,270.

Our records: 213 sponsored YouTube videos and podcast reads in 2023.

What to do:

1. Put product sampling in the budget as its own line. LMNT's cost $7.1 million in 2023, against $54.6 million of selling, marketing and brand expense. LMNT annual report to the SEC, 2023

Rothy's reached a record $211 million in 2024, and now sponsors in-person events hosted by Substack writers instead of TikTok videos and paid ads

In 2024, Rothy’s reported a 17% year-over-year revenue increase, reaching a record $211 million, with same-store sales up 20% One that eschews TikTok videos and paid ads for in-person experiences hosted by Substack’s most prominent writers and content creators. The brand saw a 75% increase in foot traffic to its Nolita store on the day of Veurink’s event, making it the highest-volume Sunday of the year at that location. Modern Retail, June 10, 2025

What to do:

1. Sponsor an event a Substack writer hosts in one of your stores, as Rothy's did at its Nolita store.
2. Count the store's visitors that day. Rothy's saw a 75% increase in foot traffic at its Nolita store.

BRC made $233.1 million in 2021, and its annual report says it relies on influencers who are not on staff, beside its founders' own accounts

In addition to company accounts and accounts associated with key employees, such as our founders, Evan Hafer and Mat Best, we rely on key non-employee influencers to drive online traffic and promote our brand. BRC annual report

What to do:

1. Put your founders on their own accounts, as BRC does with Evan Hafer and Mat Best.
2. Add influencers who are not on staff beside them, as BRC's annual report says it relies on.

What to do:

1. Send a creator one case for one video.
2. If the video does well, offer a three or six month deal.
3. Keep a set number of new creators getting product every month.

Daniel Wellington gave watches to influencers for free, and sold $228 million of them in its first 3 years

In just 3 short years the brand was able to sell $228M in watches, or 1 million watches, and become a household name. Their strategy was to reach out to influencers and offer free products. Since their margins were 50% because of the cheap production of these watches, that was a pretty cost-saving strategy. mayple.com

What to do:

1. Check your margin. Daniel Wellington's margins were 50%, which made free watches a cheap way to pay.
2. If your margin is high, pay creators in product first.
3. Repost what they make on your own channels, so each free product works twice.

Liquid I.V. passed $200 million a year by 2020 with influencer partnerships and famous investors

The company secured a high-profile funding round featuring A-list investors like Justin Bieber, catapulting its visibility. It also leveraged influencer partnerships and strategic marketing, propelling the brand to more than $200 million in annual revenue by 2020. pantry.ai

What to do:

1. Bring in well known investors who will talk about the brand. The funding round for Liquid I.V. included Justin Bieber.
2. Point the attention they bring at your influencer partnerships, so it lands on creators who can sell.

Chubbies made $101.6 million in 2023, the year it formalized its partnership with NFL tight end George Kittle

Sales last year reached $101.6 million, up from $89.3 million in 2022 with $9.1 million in net income, reversing a minor loss the prior year. In terms of performance, 2023 was an historic year for us.” That was also the year that Chubbies formalized its relationship with San Francisco 49ers’ tight end George Kittle . wwd.com

What to do:

1. Pick one athlete or creator whose fans already look like your buyer.
2. Test the fit with a few posts before you sign anything long.
3. Formalize the partnership once it sells, so it lasts past one campaign.

Béis passed $120 million in revenue with its founder, Shay Mitchell, leading the marketing and creative

Béis hit upward of $120 million in profitable gross revenue in March, WWD has learned exclusively. Mitchell has driven the marketing and creative at Béis, leading a team with the help of incubator and venture company Beach House Group, as well as brand president Adeela Hussain Johnson Béis also grew its combined social audience by 122 percent last year, gaining more than 365,000 net new followers, according to the company, with an average engagement rate of 8.8 percent throughout the year. Content views increased by 1,334 percent, reaching 120 million views on video content across channels. wwd.com

What to do:

1. If a founder or partner has an audience, let them lead the marketing and the creative.
2. Hire a brand president to run the business around them.
3. Count the video views the brand gets each year. Béis reached 120 million views on video content.

Lovesac made $165.9 million in the year to February 2019, and its annual report says celebrities and influencers posted about it without being paid

Our customers include celebrities and other influencers who support our brand through postings made on an uncompensated and unsolicited basis. Lovesac annual report

What to do:

1. List the celebrities and creators who already bought from you.
2. Make it easy for them to post about it, without paying them to.
3. Share what they post on your own channels.

Bubble Skincare, at an estimated $170 million in yearly sales, has over 70,000 ambassadors who visit stores and post

Bubble was estimated to reach around $170 million in sales last year, per industry sources Our community of over 70,000 ambassadors, who’ll be going to the stores and posting content, and a lot of our influencer partners as well,” Eisenman said. wwd.com

What to do:

1. Open an ambassador program that any fan of the product can join.
2. Give ambassadors a job in the real world: visit the stores that stock you, and post from there.
3. Keep paid influencer partners on top of the ambassadors, not in place of them.

LMNT made $206 million in sales in 2023 while partnering with Huberman Lab, Modern Wisdom and Peter Attia's podcast

According to 2023 filings, LMNT spent $54.6M on selling, marketing, and brand around 26.5% of total revenue and still delivered a 20% net income margin on $206M in sales. Their partnerships with Huberman Lab , Modern Wisdom , and Peter Attia’s The Drive function as authority-based distribution rather than pure advertising. LMNT spent $7.1M on product sampling in 2023, including fulfillment. consciouscommerceco.com

Our records: 213 sponsored YouTube videos and podcast reads in 2023.

What to do:

1. Pick hosts whose listeners already trust them on your subject.
2. Book them as standing partners, not one-off reads.
3. Budget for samples beside the fees. LMNT spent $7.1M on product sampling in 2023.

Rothy's reached a record $211 million in 2024, and now sponsors in-person events hosted by Substack writers instead of TikTok videos and paid ads

In 2024, Rothy’s reported a 17% year-over-year revenue increase, reaching a record $211 million, with same-store sales up 20% One that eschews TikTok videos and paid ads for in-person experiences hosted by Substack’s most prominent writers and content creators. The brand saw a 75% increase in foot traffic to its Nolita store on the day of Veurink’s event, making it the highest-volume Sunday of the year at that location. modernretail.co

What to do:

1. Find writers and creators whose readers look like your buyer and who host events.
2. Sponsor an event they host in one of your stores.
3. Count the store's visitors that day. Rothy's saw a 75% increase in foot traffic at its Nolita store.

BRC made $233.1 million in 2021, and its annual report says it relies on influencers who are not on staff, beside its founders' own accounts

In addition to company accounts and accounts associated with key employees, such as our founders, Evan Hafer and Mat Best, we rely on key non-employee influencers to drive online traffic and promote our brand. BRC annual report

What to do:

1. Put your founders on camera, on their own accounts, first.
2. Add creators who are not on staff to reach the people your founders do not.
3. Track the traffic each of them sends to your site.

$250 to $500 million

A $375 million brand has $6.1 million to $13.5 million a year for creators, and about 595 people

Our arithmetic: ads at 7.1 to 15.6% of revenue, where the middle half of the 17 public consumer brands this size landed in their annual reports, and 23% of that to creators, Aspire's average share. The team is the median at the 78 brands this size in our records.

In the same reports, 8 of the 21 public consumer brands this size describe their own influencer program.

What to do:

1. Give influence its own director, the way large teams put a director over each channel.
2. Put the audit numbers below on one dashboard.
3. Review them with that director every quarter.

Brands this size book 55% of their creators a second time, against 69% under $10 million

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos, across the brands this size.

What to do:

1. Rank your creators by sales per video.
2. Offer the top of the list a longer deal before you add anyone new.
3. Set a floor for re-booking and check it every quarter.

26% of their videos run on channels past 1 million subscribers

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos, across the brands this size.

What to do:

1. Book a few bigger channels on purpose.
2. Judge them on the ads their videos make as well as the post.
3. Once they pay back, add a national name. TV personalities and pro athletes run $150,000 to $1,000,000.

Manscaped sponsored creators, newsletters and display networks all at once on its way to $297.2 million in 2021

In 2021, revenue surged to $297.2 million. Manscaped's partnerships with celebrities and influencers, which have helped to boost sales. thebrandhopper.com

Our records: 94 sponsored YouTube videos and podcast reads in 2021.

Manscaped was like we want to be everywhere. They had like scorched earth mentality. They'll sponsor every YouTuber, sponsor all the newsletters, do all the random um display networks, uh etc., etc. Rethinking the Customer Journey: Text-to-Buy, Post-Purchase Wins & Alternative Media, Marketing Operators, 2025, 58:57

I think a lot of people are familiar with man skate because of like our podcast and influencer marketing which a large portion of our marketing budget goes towards that as well Launching socials for Manscaped: Tyler Wentworth, Starting Small, 2020, 16:33

What to do:

1. Find the channel that pays back.
2. Go wide inside it: sponsor every creator in your niche who fits, not a handful.
3. Put a large share of the marketing budget into podcasts and influencers, as Manscaped says it does.

Feastables made every launch a piece of content for MrBeast's 300 million subscribers, and generated $250 million in revenue in 2024

With over 300 million YouTube subscribers, every product launch doubles as a piece of content that tens of millions of people watch voluntarily femfounded.org

We jumped into his YouTube analytics and understood retention very very quickly. We understood thumbnail iterative split testing and applied that to every step of the business. How MrBeast Built Feastables in 90 Days | Ben Acott, Feastables Founding Team, HotStart VC Podcast, 2026

What to do:

1. If you or a partner own an audience, plan every launch as something that audience would watch anyway.
2. Study how long people watch, the way the Feastables team read MrBeast's YouTube analytics.
3. Split test thumbnails, and apply what wins to the rest of the business.

FIGS made $263.11 million in net revenue in 2020, and has 250 brand ambassadors

After a history of operating losses, Figs achieved profitability in 2020 with a net income of $57.94 million and net revenues of $263.11 million, the latter up 138% over the previous year. Leveck is one of 250 brand ambassadors for Figs, a direct-to-consumer retailer that boasts 1.5 million active customers. Its hashtag “wearfigs” has popped up in TikTok videos, generating almost 283 million views at the time of writing. modernretail.co

What to do:

1. Recruit ambassadors from the people who use your product at work.
2. Keep the group small enough that you know each one.
3. Watch your hashtag as well as your ambassadors. FIGS's tag reached almost 283 million views on TikTok.

Rare Beauty expected $300 million in revenue in 2023, and works with about 3,000 beauty influencers

Expected to reach $300 million in revenues in 2023, the brand has transcended the celebrity of its founder, singer, songwriter, producer, actress and philanthropist Gomez For marketing, the brand works with about 3,000 beauty influencers. The brand held its inaugural in-person Rare Beauty Mental Health Summit bringing together 150 thought leaders, creators, health experts and community members in Los Angeles with nearly 50,000 people joining virtually via a TikTok livestream. wwd.com

What to do:

1. Once the product sells, work with influencers in the thousands, not a handful.
2. Host an event on the cause your brand stands for, and invite creators to it. Rare Beauty's summit brought together 150 thought leaders, creators, health experts and community members.
3. Stream it on TikTok for everyone who cannot come. Nearly 50,000 people joined Rare Beauty's.

Stanley doubled its revenue to $402 million in 2022, and its president credits an influencer partnership with The Buy Guide for the Quencher

In 2022, Stanley released a redesigned Quencher model with a streamlined design and new array of colors and finishes. Revenue doubled again that year to $402 million. My experience at Crocs told me that that kind of influencer opportunity was just the magic that Stanley might need," he says. "And we were right. The Buy Guide proved to be amazing partners and helped us create the Quencher phenomenon. I felt like I was signing a mortgage," LeSueur tells CNBC Make It of her purchase order for 5,000 Quenchers. cnbc.com

What to do:

1. Find a creator or shopping site whose audience already loves one of your products.
2. Redesign that product around what their audience wants, as Stanley did with new colors and finishes.
3. Let a partner who believes in it sell it themselves. The Buy Guide placed a purchase order for 5,000 Quenchers and sold out within days.

Lulus made $439.7 million in the year to January 2023, and its annual report lists ambassadors from nano influencers to college ambassadors and celebrities

Our authentic partnerships with brand ambassadors span the full spectrum of followership and engagement levels, from nano- and micro-influencers, to college ambassadors and celebrities, all of whom wear and genuinely love our brand. Lulus annual report

What to do:

1. Recruit ambassadors at every size, from nano creators to celebrities.
2. Add college ambassadors if your buyer is a student.
3. Sign only people who already wear and like the product.

Solo Brands made $454.6 million in 2024, and teamed with prominent social media influencers to grow its cooking line

To further support our end users and enhance the cooking experience, we have teamed with prominent influencers in the social media space and offer ingredients for one-time delivery or subscription. Solo Brands annual report

What to do:

1. Pick the category you want to grow next.
2. Team with creators already known for that category.
3. Sell what they use beside the product, as Solo Brands does with ingredients.

$500 million to $1 billion

A $750 million brand has $9.3 million to $29.5 million a year for creators, and about 1,300 people

Our arithmetic: ads at 5.4 to 17.1% of revenue, where the middle half of the 19 public consumer brands this size landed in their annual reports, and 23% of that to creators, Aspire's average share. The team is the median at the 82 brands this size in our records.

In the same reports, 11 of the 23 public consumer brands this size describe their own influencer program.

What to do:

1. List every agency fee and what it covers. Agency fees run 15% to 40% of creator spend.
2. Put each fee next to the salary of the person who would replace it.
3. Bring in-house every channel where the salary costs less. In-house wins long before this size.

Brands this size book 50% of their creators a second time, the lowest of any size in our records

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos, across the brands this size.

What to do:

1. Tie every post to a result.
2. Reward the creators who convert.
3. Let the rest go.
4. Move the proven ones onto long-term ambassador deals. With mega creators these run $250,000 to more than $1 million.

AG1 grew to about $600 million by 2024 while spending an estimated $2.2 million a month on podcast ads

AG1's revenue grew from roughly $160 million in 2021 to approximately $600 million by 2024, according to Wikipedia's sourced company page. Marketing analysis firm Ampifire estimates AG1 spends approximately $2.2 million per month on podcast ads, ranking it among the highest podcast ad spenders globally by total show count everything-pr.com

Our records: 627 sponsored YouTube videos and podcast reads in 2024.

The affiliate marketing strategy that they're using to spend over $2 million a month. $2 million a month in affiliate marketing spend and how they're actually doing that strategically. A Giant $600,000,000/Year Shopify Niche Store (Full Strategy Breakdown), Brando Monetti, 2025, 2:03

Every creator tracked, every post tied to results. The ones driving conversions get rewarded, and the ones that don't fall off naturally. How One Green Drink Became a $1.2 Billion Empire | AG1 Brand Breakdown, Zipchat AI | AI Agent for Ecommerce, 2026, 10:11

What to do:

1. Track every creator, and tie every post to a result.
2. Reward the ones who convert, and let the rest fall off.
3. Buy podcast and YouTube reads every month, as a standing budget rather than one-off campaigns.

SKIMS runs its creators as a three tier pyramid, and grew to an estimated $750 million in 2023

Estimated revenue growth from $500 million in 2022 to $750 million in 2023. SKIMS operates a three-tier influencer pyramid (celebrity, mid-tier, micro, and UGC) opensend.com

What to do:

1. Put a celebrity at the top.
2. Book mid-tier creators under them.
3. Fill the base with micro creators and UGC.
4. Budget each tier on its own, so the celebrity does not eat the money for the base.

HexClad became a $500 million brand, and spent over $11 million on paid advertising in 2023

Today, HexClad is a $500 million brand with global recognition and a loyal customer base. In 2023 alone, the brand spent over $11 million on paid advertising, focusing on platforms like Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and linear TV. Their ability to scale campaigns profitably and reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) by 34% showcases their expertise. tacticone.co

Hundreds. Yeah, we've had like 500 videos go up in the last like month or two. What Grüns, Marty Supreme, and TikTok Shop Teach Us About Modern Marketing, Marketing Operators, 2025, 46:37

If we would have only looked at one day click, we would have turned our ads off in a month and probably spent $75,000 on a $100,000 deal and not got our money's worth. And in the on the contrary, we spent 600 700 grand on on their ads. How HexClad Spent $700K on One Creator and Won Big, Marketing Operators, 2026, 44:40

What to do:

1. Send product to TikTok Shop affiliates in volume. HexClad had about 500 videos go up in a month or two.
2. Agree usage rights with every creator, so a video that sells can join the paid advertising.
3. Judge a creator's ads on more than one day of clicks. HexClad nearly switched off a $100,000 deal after a month, then spent far more on that creator's ads.

a.k.a. Brands made $611.7 million in 2022, and used about 25,000 influencers to test and launch new products

Core to our marketing strategy is the use of social media influencers, and we maintain relationships with approximately 25,000 influencers globally and utilize them to test and launch new products, gather customer feedback, increase brand awareness and acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner. a.k.a. Brands annual report

What to do:

1. Build a roster big enough to test products on, not only to post about them.
2. Send new products to influencers before launch, and read what they say.
3. Launch the products they respond to, and ask the same influencers to post.

Gymshark had hundreds of creators on its athlete roster by the time it made £607.3 million in FY2024

By the time Gymshark hit £607.3 million in FY2024 revenue, according to Rivo's breakdown of Gymshark's retention strategy , the athlete roster had grown from a handful of YouTubers to hundreds of creators across powerlifting, CrossFit, running, and general fitness. They are fitness content creators, from powerlifters to bodybuilders to yoga instructors, who represent the brand on and off social media, often for years, and who get pulled into product development rather than just product promotion. The Whitney Simmons x Gymshark collection is the clearest example: a creator's input shaped an actual product drop, and that collection sold out largely because her audience trusted her endorsement of something she helped build. contentgrip.com

What to do:

1. Start with a handful of creators in one sport.
2. Keep them for years, and add sports as you grow.
3. Bring the best ones into product design. The Whitney Simmons collection sold out.

BellRing Brands made $854.4 million in the year to September 2019, and ran an influencer program called Premier Shakers

The brand utilizes an influencer marketing program called “Premier Shakers” that leverages micro-influencers, content creators and top-tier influencers to generate further awareness of Premier Protein . BellRing Brands annual report

What to do:

1. Give the program a name creators can join.
2. Put micro influencers, content creators and top tier influencers in it together.
3. Point it at one product line, as BellRing did with Premier Protein.

Sol de Janeiro's sales rose 174% to $454 million in six months, after a campaign with more than 50 paid content creators lifted sales 33%

Sol de Janeiro experienced a 174% sales increase, to $454 million, in the six months ending on September 30. Reportedly , the campaign drove an overall sales increase of 33% and over $2 million in earned media value through posts by over 50 paid content creators. Over 90% of our growth this year is from [social], and it’s organic,” Yang said. glossy.co

What to do:

1. Pair one famous face with dozens of paid creators in the same campaign. Sol de Janeiro used Barbie Ferreira.
2. Judge the campaign on sales and earned media value.
3. Keep posting without paying as well. Its co-founder says over 90% of its growth that year came from social, and it was organic.

$1 billion and up

A $1 billion brand has $9.4 million to $29.7 million a year for creators, and about 10,500 people

Our arithmetic: ads at 4.1 to 12.9% of revenue, where the middle half of the 19 public consumer brands this size landed in their annual reports, and 23% of that to creators, Aspire's average share. The team is the median at the 178 brands this size in our records.

In the same reports, 14 of the 22 public consumer brands this size describe their own influencer program.

What to do:

1. Check your creator budget against the arithmetic. Fortune 500 companies spend $4.7 million a year on influencer marketing on average, far below it.
2. Run creator content as ads beyond social, where IAB projects $11.1 billion of US spend.

Brands this size book 62% of their creators a second time, more than the 50% in the band below

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos, across the brands this size.

What to do:

1. Put the audit numbers below on one dashboard.
2. Review them every quarter.
3. Re-book the creators who sell before a competitor with a bigger budget books them.

Fashion Nova partnered with thousands of micro and macro influencers, and reached an estimated $1 billion in sales in 2019

In 2019, it was reported that the collaboration helped Fashion Nova reach an estimated $1 billion in annual sales! The company partnered with thousands of micro and macro influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube worldwide to post photographs wearing Fashion Nova pieces businessabc.net

And what a reward creator to be featured everywhere by your brand and and I feel like, you know, what great positive reinforcement for that creator to keep creating content. And how can you like not just put it on the feed, but if it can go in email, etc. and have their handle everywhere. So, you're really promoting them and helping them grow. Um but then signaling to the community like make sick content and you will be featured everywhere. Um yeah, and I I actually that's Fashion Nova. I mean, that was Fashion Nova strategy. Ashton Wall: Putting Influencer Marketing At The Core of your Marketing Stack, Marketing Operators, 2024, 54:50

What to do:

1. Send product to creators at every size, and let them post wearing or using it.
2. Feature the ones who post on your feed and in email, with their handle.
3. Keep featuring them, so other creators see that good content gets shown.

Alani Nu was founded by fitness influencer Katy Hearn, and passed $1 billion in revenue in the first three quarters of 2025

Alani Nu generated $1,001.9 million in revenue in just three quarters of 2025, then a record $368.1 million in Q1 2026 alone. Alani Nu was founded in 2018 by fitness influencer Katy Hearn and her husband Haydn Schneider. businessmodelanalyst.com

What to do:

1. Look for a creator whose audience already trusts them on your subject.
2. Build a product line with them.
3. Treat their following as the first creator program, and grow outward from it.

Celsius made $1.3 billion in 2023, and its annual report says it relies on social media influencers and celebrity spokespersons to create demand

We rely on marketing by social media influencers and celebrity spokespersons that represent the Celsius brand to generate demand for our products. Celsius annual report

What to do:

1. Treat creators and famous faces as a main way you create demand, and budget for them like one.
2. Pair social media influencers with a celebrity spokesperson, as Celsius does.

Who does what

One person owns nearly every step of a creator program: the influencer or creator lead

From 160 job ads for influencer, creator, affiliate and community roles at consumer brands. What changes as a brand grows is who works around that person.

What to do:

1. Hire or name the influencer or creator lead first.
2. Write their job to cover the whole path: plan, brief, finding creators, outreach, contracts, seeding, review, running videos as ads, codes, re-booking and reports.
3. Add help around that person as the program grows, not in place of them.

The CMO or head of growth sets the goal and the budget, and judges creators on the ads that win

Marketing Operators

What to do:

1. Agree with the CMO which ad results count, before the first booking.
2. Put the influencer lead and paid social in the same weekly review.
3. Run the videos that sell as ads the same week.

The creative director pitches where a campaign goes, then every channel lead says what they need

And then our creative director and copywriter will pitch that to to us to, you know, leadership and and about like, "This is where I think we should take this campaign." The DTC Content Creation Process That Wins on Paid Social, Marketing Operators, 2026, 22:50

And we we like to talk about what we call here is circular investments. And so if if my creative director goes and films a commercial and doesn't use an ambassador from our community team, like he kind of didn't do his job right. Brand Tracking That Matters and How Modern Teams Scale TV, Marketing Operators, 2025, 52:11

One of the things that we've like rolled into essentially the shot list for these these types of shoots is to just always get, if there's any sort of talent, we want him speaking to camera about the product The DTC Content Creation Process That Wins on Paid Social, Marketing Operators, 2026, 24:48

What to do:

1. Bring the influencer lead into the creative pitch, not after it.
2. Cast ambassadors from your own community in the brand's shoots.
3. Film any talent on a shoot speaking to camera about the product, so the footage can run as an ad.

The team grows in three steps: the founder or one lead does it all, then a head of partnerships, then a director for each channel

Up until the end of last year, I was still creative director, which is a ton of work. MERIT Beauty CMO: Behind the brand, LADIES WHO LAUNCH, 2026, 32:17

So in the next like in the next three months we're hiring a head of partnerships who will manage kind of this influencer stuff that I'm talking about because that's becoming such a big piece of our playbook. And then we'll probably hire a head of growth another operations person to start to to kind of work across the two top brands. Zach Stuck on core marketing tactics as you scale, Marketing Operators, 2024, 62:45

We have a director of paid media creative director of retention director of affiliate SEO director of influence so that the buck stops with them right like my in terms of collaboration I am collaborating with them on what the strategy should be and how we're going to like tactically achieve those strategies but it's up to them to go in and execute it and I obviously will will jump in and execute and get in the weeds here and there or where needed and help them troubleshoot but it's their they own the channel and the things that we're doing in that channel more recently now we're starting to build out under them so now we have a retention manager we have a a designer fulltime we have a full-time copywriter so we've started to bring retent our us retention is fully in-house now we have an e-commerce manager who oversees all things Ecom operations from Paid media creative to you know landing pages all of it um we have a retention manager who handles all relationships and you know task management within or sorry influencer manager excuse me within influencer we have an affiliate manager who helps you know like send product out to all these affiliates and whatnot How 9-figure Brands Structure Their Organisations - Hiring, Delegating, Management & More, Marketing Operators, 2024, 45:20

We did the same thing with product seeding. We're like, hey, we've done we had 500 million impressions in the US in in the last 3 months. Like what would happen if we could add 10 to 50 million impressions per quarter. Like, okay, that pays for this this influencer hire just in that. How AI Is Reshaping Ecommerce Growth Teams: HexClad & Jones Road, Marketing Operators, 2026, 44:31

What to do:

1. Work out what a hire would add before you make it. One team found that 10 to 50 million more impressions a quarter from product seeding would pay for its influencer hire.
2. Hire a head of partnerships once influencers become a big piece of the plan.
3. At large size, give influence its own director, so one person owns the channel.

The newest hire at many brands is a head of creator, who owns seeding, paid posts and TikTok Shop

From job ads in our records.

What to do:

1. Put seeding, paid posts and TikTok Shop under that one person.
2. Let the same creators move between the three, so one relationship covers all of them.

Brands bring in an agency for creator relationships or a channel their own team does not have

How to select an influencer marketing agency

What to do:

1. Use an agency for the channel you cannot staff yet.
2. Plan the hire that replaces it once creator spend passes $450,000 a year.

What each program costs

Starting is cheap: gifting runs $30 to $80 of product per creator, and a UGC video for ads averages $198

Storika and Collabstr, 2025.

We'll go 500 samples per product. Episode 100! The Big Rocks We’re Focusing on for 2026 Growth, Marketing Operators, 44:36

What to do:

1. Start with gifting to small creators.
2. Buy UGC videos to run as ads before you pay for posts.
3. Seed in volume when you launch a product. Jones Road plans 500 samples per product.

Commission ties the cost to sales: 10 to 15% per sale for most D2C brands, and 8 to 15% in health and wellness

ReferralCandy, 2026. On TikTok Shop it is 10 to 15% open to any creator and 18 to 30% for creators you pick, plus a 6% referral fee on the order, per ShortFormNation, 2026.

What to do:

1. Open an affiliate program at 10 to 15% per sale.
2. On TikTok Shop, pay the creators you pick 18 to 30%.
3. Count the 6% referral fee in your margin before you set the rate.

Paid posts climb steeply with size: $150 to $500 for a micro creator's Instagram post, $5,000 to $20,000 for a macro YouTube video, and $50,000 to $250,000 or more for a mega creator's campaign

Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026. The biggest YouTube deals run $200,000 to half a million per video, per Select Management in Digiday.

We always position an integration within the average watch time. That's a contractual obligation. So, if your average watch time, you have a 20-minute video, it's 15 minutes. You have to put your Hexlide, your Jones Road sponsorship within the 15 minutes that your audience is watching to optimize for the most views. The Influencer Marketing Playbook - with Lily Comba, Founder & CEO of Superbloom, Marketing Operators, 2025, 58:12

What to do:

1. Work out what you pay per 1,000 views for each creator.
2. Compare it with a podcast host read, last measured at $21.37 CPM for a 60 second spot.
3. Test macro creators before mega ones.
4. Move up to mega only when the cost per 1,000 views holds.
5. Write into every contract that the read sits inside the video's average watch time.

Running a creator's video as an ad adds 20 to 30% to the fee for each 30 day flight, and most deals land at 25%

UGCBloom, citing Influship.

What to do:

1. Agree usage rights before the shoot, not after.
2. Buy usage only on the videos that already sold as posts.

Agencies take 15% to 40% of creator spend, and creator software runs $15,588 a year for the median Aspire buyer

InfluencerFee and Vendr, 2025.

What to do:

1. Add up what you pay an agency each year.
2. Past $450,000 a year of creator spend, hire. A $90,000 in-house manager costs less than a 20% agency fee.
3. Compare the software's yearly cost with the hours your team spends tracking creators by hand.

A mid-size ambassador costs $3,000 to $8,000 a month, and the celebrity band called most productive for D2C brands is $50,000 to $250,000

InfluencerFee, 2026 and Narrative Group. National names run $150,000 to $1,000,000.

What to do:

1. Move a creator onto a monthly retainer once they have sold for you more than once.
2. Before you sign a famous face, plan every use of them for a year.

These are published price lists from software vendors, agencies and trade press, not audited deals.

Audit your program

Check your own numbers against the 493 D2C product brands in our records with 50 or more sponsored YouTube videos and at least one in the last 24 months.

The typical brand books 55% of its creators twice or more, and 45% at the 64 brands over $50 million

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. Pull every sponsored post from the last 24 months.
2. Group the posts by creator, and count the creators with two or more.
3. Divide that by all your creators. Under 36% is the worst quarter of brands.

The typical brand gets 3.7 videos from each creator, 27 days apart

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. Divide your videos by your creators. Under 2.3 means mostly one-off posts.
2. Measure the days between each creator's videos for you. Over 36 is the worst quarter.
3. Book a creator's next video when you pay for their first.

The biggest creator carries 16% of the typical brand's videos

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. Divide your biggest creator's videos by all your videos.
2. If it is over 30%, add creators before that one leaves.

The typical brand keeps 36% of its creators from one year to the next, and 33% are still posting in its last 180 days

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. List the creators who posted for you last year and not this year.
2. Divide by last year's creators. Under 19% kept is the worst quarter.
3. Ask the ones who sold why they stopped, and offer them a longer deal.

The full checklist, problem by problem, is on the audit page.

Can one strategy take a brand from $1 million to $1 billion?

There is a real case that it can.

What changes the playbook is not size, it is who owns the checkout

A brand that takes the customer's money can measure a video, so it books small and pays the winners again. Whoop has 1,100 staff and runs the D2C playbook.

What to do:

1. Give every creator a code or link.
2. Re-book the ones who sell, whatever your size.
3. If most sales happen at retailers or on Amazon, count those sales too before you judge a creator.

Big does not mean more creators

All 86 big consumer brands in our records hold 2,502 sponsored videos between them. LMNT and Tiege Hanley hold 2,855, on 70 and 37 staff.

What to do:

1. Grow the program when the numbers hold, not when the team grows.

A creator relationship is worth about four videos at every size

Our records: 4.1, 4.3, 5.3 and 3.6 videos per creator from the smallest programs to the biggest.

What to do:

1. Budget each new creator for about four videos, not one post.
2. Grow by running more relationships at once, not by asking more of one person.

Squarespace re-books 90% of its creators off an affiliate program that has been open and paying for a decade, with no community around it

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. Open an affiliate program you can keep paying for years.
2. Keep the terms steady, so creators can count on it and come back.

Nobody started big

Of the 37 brands on the supplement and wellness shelf that got past 200 videos, the typical first year was 16 videos across 6 creators, then 35 and 13 in year two. Only AG1 (240 videos in year one) and Ritual (155) opened at scale, and both are venture funded.

What to do:

1. Start year one with a handful of creators.
2. Roughly double the program in year two if the first ones sell.
3. Open at scale only with the money to carry it, as AG1 and Ritual did with venture funding.

Eight figure brands tend to have one profitable channel on the front end

He started to note notice something with all of the eight figure ecommerce businesses and the brands out there there was one thing that was in common and what that was was that all of them were doing marketing you know pin you know Facebook Google YouTube all of this stuff but all of them only had one profitable chat channel just one on the front end that was profitable The Facebook Ads POWER HOUR featuring Cat Howell - Facebook Ads Insights, Tricks and Tips, Depesh Mandalia, 2018, 35:10

They scaled to like 15 million a year. They spent like That's his name, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And they spent They spent like 80% of their entire budget on YouTube. YouTube Deep Dive: Ads, Organic Growth, Partnerships & More, Marketing Operators, 2024, 25:21

In fact, these were the actual sales numbers from the first full month of sales from our supplement company, Prestige Labs. So, you can see there, 429,000. That was week one. 383,000, 411,000, 44,000 with zero paid ads using 100% affiliates. So, if you're trying to add it up, it was $1.7 million per month. $100M Leads Launch, Alex Hormozi, 2023, 61:23

What to do:

1. Find the one channel that is profitable on the front end.
2. Put most of the budget there before you add another.

On the health aisle, the creator pool runs out at about 200 videos

The typical program works 1, 2, 4.5, 9 and then 31 niches as it grows. AG1's biggest niche is travel at 209 videos, with health at 77.

What to do:

1. Before you pass 200 videos, list the next door niches your buyer watches.
2. Book creators in those niches, the way AG1 books travel creators.

Loyalty drops at the top: brands re-book 62% to 67% of their creators from 10 videos to 999, then 44.4% once they pass 1,000

Our records of sponsored YouTube videos.

What to do:

1. Past 1,000 videos, check re-booking every quarter.
2. Pay your best creators to stay before they drift.

What this cannot see: these records are YouTube only. Instagram and TikTok first brands like poppi, Celsius and Alani Nu read as zero here, which is a gap in what we hold, not proof they do nothing.