Working with influencers means choosing creators whose audience matches your customer, checking that audience for authenticity, agreeing on disclosure and measurement before launch, and giving creators room to make content that looks like theirs. Pew Research Center found 21% of U.S. adults regularly get news from news influencers, and the FTC requires disclosure of any material connection, so a program needs both audience fit and compliance.
What should you decide before you contact an influencer?
Before contacting any influencer, decide whether influencer marketing is the right tactic and what result you will count as success. Influencer marketing is not the right answer for every business, so the decision to work with an influencer or an influencer agency should come after some research and a few qualifying questions: who buys the product, where those buyers spend time online, and what a good outcome looks like in numbers.
Set the measures before the campaign starts. A brand can track reach on posts, follower counts, visits to a tracked link, or sales through a unique discount code, but it has to decide ahead of time what matters and what will be counted. A newer brand or a newer product may be a good candidate for a first round of influencer work, because the goal is usually exposure to an audience that does not know the brand yet.
| Objective | What to count | How to track it |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Reach and views of the creator's posts | Screenshots of the creator's own analytics, collected in the contract |
| Traffic | Visits from the creator's audience | A unique tracked link for each creator |
| Sales | Orders attributed to each creator | A unique discount code for each creator |
| Reputation | What the audience says in comments | A manual read of comments during and after the campaign |
How do you define the audience you want to reach?
Define your target audience by starting with the problem your product solves and working toward the people most likely to have that problem. Very few products are universally marketable, like salt, so a brand that skips this step spends heavily, converts few buyers, and pays a high price to acquire each customer. The steps below take an audience from broad to specific.
| Step | Action | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Write down the problem the product solves | A list of people who have that problem |
| 2 | Start with a broad group, then narrow by age, location, and interests | A short list of segments, with some groups eliminated |
| 3 | Build a customer profile | One profile with habits, buying behavior, and social media use |
| 4 | Survey real customers about who they are | Data on actual buyers that replaces assumptions |
Once the profile exists, match it to the platforms where those people are. Pew's 2025 survey of 5,022 U.S. adults found 84% use YouTube, 71% use Facebook, 50% use Instagram, and 37% use TikTok. Age changes the picture: 80% of adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram compared with 19% of adults 65 and older, and daily Facebook use is highest among adults ages 30 to 49 (58%) and 50 to 64 (54%). A brand selling to adults over 65 gains little from an Instagram-first creator program. The guide to the six types of social media explains how the platforms differ.
Which type of influencer should you hire?
Four kinds of influencer cover most brand needs: bloggers and vloggers, social connectors, activists, and thought leaders. Each has a different source of trust and a different risk, so the right choice depends on the campaign goal. The 2020 version of this advice listed these four types, and they still describe how creators build an audience.
| Type | Source of trust | Best for | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloggers and vloggers | An established niche audience that reads or watches for a specific reason | Niche products, and campaigns where you want to see a response after each post | A small audience that is hard to scale |
| Social connectors | Followers see them as regular people sharing daily life | Products that fit everyday routines | Followers notice when a post feels like an ad |
| Activists | A cause the audience shares | Brands built around a cause, as Patagonia has been | The activist goes off script and the brand takes the blowback |
| Thought leaders | Followers follow their vision, not their preferences | Positioning a brand inside a larger idea | The brand has to fit the leader's vision |
Size is a separate choice. Goldman Sachs Research estimated in 2023 that only about 4% of the world's 50 million creators earn more than $100,000 a year, so most creators a brand can hire are small. A small creator with a consistent audience is often a better fit than a large one with a scattered audience, and the guide to micro-influencer marketing covers that choice in depth. For activist and cause-driven creators, see the piece on cultural influencers.
The 2016 version of this guide described a quilting example. Blogger Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville worked with brands in the quilting industry, and Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company showed products in weekly videos. The lesson from both is that a niche creator who shares useful tips can move product when the audience matches the buyer. A brand should look for the same match between a creator's audience and its own customer.
How do you check that an influencer's audience is real?
Check an influencer's audience by looking at follower growth over time, engagement compared with similar accounts, and the quality of comments. Brands invest time, product, and money in these partnerships, so they should have some assurance they are reaching real people and not fake accounts or bots. Several analytics sites show an account's follower growth over time, and the tests below work on any platform.
| Check | Healthy sign | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Follower growth | A steadily climbing line | A sudden spike with no viral post, giveaway, or TV appearance to explain it |
| Engagement rate | In line with similar accounts on the same platform and size | Very high, which can mean bought likes and comments, or very low against a large following |
| Followers to following ratio | Followers far exceed accounts followed | Both numbers are close, which can signal a follow and unfollow tactic |
| Comments | Real remarks about the content or product | Only emojis, jargon that makes no sense, or nothing about the product |
| Other sponsored posts | A mix of sponsored and original content | Constant brand switching, dropped products, or a feed cluttered with ads |
Look at the content itself through the eyes of a customer. Does it look real, is it creative, and does it evoke the emotion that fits the brand's mission? Content quality shapes the brand's reputation, so set a standard before signing anyone.
The law now backs these checks. An FTC rule that took effect on October 21, 2024, prohibits buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, such as followers or views generated by bots, when the buyer knew or should have known they were fake and used them for a commercial purpose. According to a Hogan Lovells summary of the rule, the FTC noted that a company that hires an influencer who has fake followers without knowing it would not violate the provision. Vetting is how a brand stays on the right side of the words "should have known." This is general information, not legal advice.
What should the contract and brief include?
A contract and brief should state deliverables, timing, disclosure language, approval steps, and the ground rules for both sides before work begins. Setting expectations at the start means both parties know what they will get from the arrangement, and regular check-ins afterward show whether the creator is still happy to speak for the brand.
Disclosure belongs in the contract because the law places the duty on both the creator and the brand. The FTC's staff guide, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers, says a material connection includes personal, family, employment, and financial relationships, including free or discounted products. It says the disclosure must be hard to miss and placed with the endorsement itself, and that vague terms such as "sp," "collab," or a stand-alone "ambassador" are not clear enough. The FTC also updated its Endorsement Guides in July 2023. The full set of rules is in the influencer marketing guide.
Include a clause for a creator who goes off script. This matters most for activists, where the brand should know the message going in, keep creative control of how it appears in brand content, and have an exit if the creator's statements turn into a liability. Rewarding creators with free products, shout-outs, and other benefits keeps them engaged, but remember that free products count as a material connection and must be disclosed.
How much creative control should a brand keep?
A brand should keep control of facts, claims, and disclosure and give the creator control of the story. In the early days of influencer marketing, brands often distributed exact copy, product, and hashtags to many creators so the message could not go wrong. That approach is predictable, but followers can tell when a post reads like a script.
Longer-term partnerships let a brand loosen the script because trust builds over time. Illustrative scenario: a travel brand could invite a creator to take a short trip using its service and document it in the creator's own style, instead of asking for a post that lists features and benefits. The brand appears inside the creator's real experience, which shows what using the product is like. The same logic applies to every category. Find creators who are trustworthy, who create their own material, and who will put their own spin on the partnership.
How do you measure results?
Measure results with the objective you set before launch, and use tracked links and discount codes because likes alone do not show sales. An influencer post can collect thousands of likes, but a like does not show whether the person read the caption, looked at the product, or bought it. Discount codes and tracked links give a more direct view of conversions from a specific referral source, though attribution is still imperfect because shoppers often visit later through another path.
| Metric | What it tells you | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Likes and views | Whether the post was seen and liked | Does not show reading, interest, or purchase |
| Comments | Whether the audience cares about the product | Spam can inflate counts |
| Tracked link visits | Traffic from one creator | Misses visitors who return later |
| Discount code use | Sales from one creator | Codes can leak to coupon sites |
Plan for platform changes. Platforms can alter how metrics are displayed, and audiences move: Pew's 2025 data shows about half of adults ages 18 to 29 visit TikTok daily, compared with 5% of adults 65 and older. A program built on one platform can lose reach when its audience shifts, so keep a record of results by platform and review the mix each quarter.
Add one newer measure. When people ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity about your category, does the answer name your brand? 5W AI Communications calls this Citation Share. Creator content is one of the sources an AI answer can draw on, so a long-running creator program can be tracked this way alongside sales.
How do influencers build community, and why does it matter for sales?
Influencers build community by turning followers into members of a group with its own language, jokes, and norms, and that sense of belonging is what makes their recommendations persuasive. Followers do not think of themselves as strangers to the creator. They follow daily life, listen to opinions, and appreciate a perspective on a narrow niche, so a recommendation arrives with trust already attached.
Pew's research on news influencers points the same way, although it measures news creators and not product creators. Among Americans who regularly get news from news influencers, 65% say the influencers helped them better understand current events and civic issues. For a brand, the lesson is to look for creators whose audience already acts like a community, and to respect the group's norms in the campaign.
What mistakes should brands avoid?
The most common mistakes are choosing by follower count, launching without measures, over-scripting posts, and skipping disclosure. Each one has a direct fix.
- Choosing by follower count. A large following can be a scattered one. Pick the creator whose audience matches your customer profile.
- Launching without measures. Decide what you will count, and set up links and codes before the first post.
- Over-scripting. Give the creator the facts and approved claims, then let them tell the story.
- Skipping disclosure. Write the FTC standard into the contract and check each post.
- One-off posts. A single post rarely builds a body of content. Plan for a series with creators who fit.
- No plan for controversy. Decide in advance how the brand will respond if a creator becomes a problem.
What is the step-by-step process?
The process runs in eight steps, from deciding whether to use influencers to reviewing results. Follow the order, because each step feeds the next.
| Step | Action | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Decide whether influencer marketing fits the goal | A yes or no, with reasons |
| 2 | Set measures and tracking | Objectives, links, and codes |
| 3 | Define the audience and platforms | A customer profile |
| 4 | Choose the type of influencer | A short list by type |
| 5 | Vet the audience and content | A pass or fail for each candidate |
| 6 | Sign the contract and brief | Deliverables, disclosure, and approvals |
| 7 | Run the campaign and check disclosure | Live posts that meet the standard |
| 8 | Review results by platform and creator | A decision on renewing, changing, or ending each partnership |
To see the whole discipline in context, including the market data and rules, read the influencer marketing guide and case archive. For a comparison with other channels, see influencer marketing versus traditional advertising, and for a worked example, the Little Sapling Toys case study.
Frequently asked questions
Is influencer marketing right for every business?
No. It fits best when your customers are active on social platforms and the product suits a creator's niche. A business should answer a few qualifying questions about its buyers and its measures before spending on a campaign.
How do I know if an influencer has fake followers?
Check for sudden follower spikes with no explanation, engagement far above or below similar accounts, matching follower and following counts, and comments that are only emojis or spam. Compare several similar accounts to find a normal range.
Do I have to disclose free products I send to an influencer?
Yes. The FTC's staff guide says a financial relationship includes free or discounted products, and the creator should disclose it when mentioning the brand's products, even if the brand did not ask for the mention.
What is an influencer marketing agency?
An influencer marketing agency finds creators, negotiates contracts, manages disclosure, and reports results for a brand. 5W AI Communications runs an influencer marketing practice for consumer brands and founder-led companies.
Should I use one large influencer or several small ones?
It depends on the goal. A single large creator can deliver reach quickly, while several smaller creators can reach different niches at once and give the brand a wider test. The guide to micro-influencer marketing explains the trade-offs.
Originally published October 2019. Updated October 2026. This guide consolidates earlier posts on choosing, vetting, and contracting influencers.