Influencer marketing. Vetted, performance-led.
Half of influencer spend goes to ghost audiences. We verify real audience quality before we pay anyone, then we run partnerships against actual revenue — not vanity reach.
Brand marks © their respective owners
Influencer + creator marketing, defined for the whitelisting era.
The discipline.
Influencer marketing (now more accurately called creator marketing) is the practice of partnering with content creators who have built engaged audiences on social platforms — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts — to produce content that reaches their audience on behalf of a brand. The category split: nano-creators (10k–50k followers, $200–$1,500/post, highest engagement-per-follower), micro-creators (50k–250k, $1,500–$5,000), macro-creators (250k–1M, $5,000–$15,000), category authorities (1M+, $15,000–$50,000+).
What changed.
Whitelisting (capturing creator content as paid social ads under their handle) became the dominant amplification model — typically 2–4× the performance of brand-handle paid social because audiences trust creator authority over brand-direct messaging. Audience verification matured (HypeAuditor, Modash, Trendpop) — anything below 75% real-audience score is reject-by-default at our agency. Performance partnerships (lower upfront fee + revenue share) replaced flat-fee deals for scaling brands. FTC + ASA + ACMA disclosure rules tightened — non-compliant programmes are agency liability, not "creator responsibility."
What we ship.
Creator strategy + vetting ($2,499 — shortlist + audience verification + partnership structure), programme builds ($5,999 — 5–10 creators sourced + vetted + briefed + launched in 4 weeks), monthly programmes ($1,999/mo + creator fees billed at cost — ongoing sourcing + briefing + per-creator reporting), whitelisting + dark-post strategy for paid amplification, UGC sourcing for paid social creative pipeline, affiliate / ambassador programmes (Refersion, Impact, PartnerStack), and compliance management (FTC + ASA + ACMA disclosure language, contracted compliance, monitoring).
Six productised creator-marketing sub-services. Mix by your category + scale.
Creator vetting + strategy
Multi-source audience verification (HypeAuditor + Modash + manual engagement-quality check + content-velocity analysis + geo + age cross-reference). 75% real-audience minimum. Partnership structure recommendation (flat-fee vs performance vs hybrid), shortlist + briefing.
Programme builds + launches
5–10 creators sourced, vetted, briefed, contracted, launched. 4-week sprint typical at $5,999. Includes creative briefs, talking-points coaching, content review before publish, whitelisting setup, performance tracking from day 1.
Whitelisting + paid amplification
Captures creator content as paid social ads under their handle (Meta Branded Content tools, TikTok Spark Ads). Typically 2–4× brand-handle paid social performance. Builds compounding asset library — winning creator content runs as paid for months past organic decay.
UGC sourcing for paid social
Sourced + briefed creator content fed into paid-social creative pipeline. Pairs with /services/paid-social-ads/ retainer. UGC-style creative outperforms studio-produced creative 2–4× for most consumer categories on Meta + TikTok in 2026.
Affiliate / ambassador programmes
Refersion, Impact, PartnerStack, Skimlinks, custom affiliate platforms. Always-on, performance-only, lower-trust positioning. Pairs well with creator influencer programme — different funnel positions, different economics, often the same creators across both.
Compliance + monitoring
FTC (US), ASA (UK), ACMA (Australia), and equivalent regional disclosure language built into contracts. Monitoring of creator posts for compliance + brand-safety + sentiment. Compliance mistakes are agency liability — we take them seriously, document everything, audit quarterly.
Brands tired of vanity-reach creator deals that don't move revenue.
DTC + lifestyle
Paid social paired with creator UGC. Whitelisting at scale. Mid-funnel demand creation.
Beauty + skincare
Authority + tutorial creators. Whitelisting to retarget warm audiences as paid.
EdTech + lifestyle
TikTok-led. Creator-as-acquisition channel where paid CPMs already saturated.
Premium / luxury
Smaller creator network, higher trust signal, longer brand-deal windows.
Vet → brief → measure. Whitelist for compounding.
Strategy + creator shortlist
Audience-verified creator shortlist. Whitelist-fit assessment. Performance vs flat-fee mix.
Vetting + briefing
Audience quality (real vs ghost) verified. Brand-fit interviews. Creative briefs delivered.
Launch
5–10 creators live. Whitelisting permissions captured. Tracking + UTMs deployed.
Compound
Best-performing creator content amplified as whitelisted paid social. Top performers retained. Quarterly cohort review.
What ships every month.
Creator vetting
Real-audience verification — we filter out ghost-audience creators before we ever brief them.
Whitelisting
Dark-post strategy. Creator UGC amplified as paid — typically 2–4× performance vs cold creative.
Performance partnerships
CPA + CPC + revenue-share structures. Aligned incentives. No flat-fee guesses.
UGC sourcing
Sourced for paid social creative pipeline. Pairs with paid social retainer.
Affiliate / ambassador
Refersion, Impact, PartnerStack programmes. Compliance-aware.
Reporting
Per-creator cohort + LTV. Whitelist amplification ROI. Monthly Loom.
Strategy. Build. Or run it monthly.
Creator shortlist, vetting reports, partnership strategy.
- Creator shortlist
- Audience verification
- Partnership structure
- Strategy doc
5–10 creators sourced, vetted, briefed, launched.
- 5–10 creators sourced
- Vetting reports
- Creative briefs
- Launch + tracking
Ongoing sourcing, briefing, performance tracking, monthly report.
- Ongoing sourcing
- Whitelisting + amplification
- Per-creator reporting
- Quarterly cohort review
Common questions.
How do you verify real vs ghost audiences? +
Multi-source: HypeAuditor or Modash audit, manual engagement-quality check, content-velocity analysis, geo + age cross-reference. Anything below 75% real-audience score is rejected.
Whitelisting — what does it actually do? +
Captures creator content as paid social ads under their handle. Typically 2–4× the performance of brand-handle paid social. Builds compounding asset library.
What's your typical creator cost? +
$200 nano-creators (10k–50k) up to $5k–$20k for category authorities (250k+). Performance partnerships often require lower upfront + revenue share.
Do you handle TCPA / FTC compliance? +
Yes — disclosure language, contracted compliance, monitoring. Compliance-mistakes are agency liability — we take it seriously.
How long to ROI? +
60–120 days typically. Whitelisted creator content compounding takes 90–180 days as paid amplification matures.
Affiliate vs influencer? +
Different beasts. Affiliate = always-on, performance-only, lower-trust. Influencer = brand-led, mid-funnel demand creation. We can run both — they pair well.
How much does influencer marketing cost? +
Three productised tiers in USD: Strategy + Vetting $2,499 (2 weeks, creator shortlist + audience verification + partnership strategy), Programme Build $5,999 (4 weeks, 5–10 creators sourced + vetted + briefed + launched), Monthly Programme $1,999/mo + creator fees (ongoing sourcing + whitelisting + per-creator reporting). Creator fees billed at cost, no markup.
What's the typical creator-fee budget? +
Nano-creators (10k–50k followers): $200–$1,500 per post. Mid-tier (50k–250k): $1,500–$5,000. Category authorities (250k+): $5,000–$20,000. Performance partnerships often require lower upfront + revenue share. Whitelisted content amplification typically 2–4× standard creator-organic ROI.
Tell us your category + 3 creators you've seen.
We'll vet them, plus shortlist 7 more we think fit. Audience-quality reports + partnership-fit notes returned in 14 days.