What is Influencer Marketing

As humans, we’re naturally skeptical of ads.

We don’t like feeling like we’re being sold to, especially when we’re making decisions about what to buy. Instead, we give much more weight to recommendations from people who’ve genuinely tried and loved a product. It feels more real, more relatable, and a lot less like a sales pitch.

This is the premise that influencer marketing is based on: the idea that a personal recommendation from someone familiar will resonate more deeply than even the slickest ad campaign.

Popularity influencing how we behave is nothing new. If you wore white to your wedding, did you know you’re following in Queen Victoria’s influencing footsteps? And you’ve got Coco Chanel to thank for the popularity of a summer tan and that wardrobe-stable LBD. From Cleopatra’s kohl-rimmed eyelids to the Virgin Mary (at least according to Pope Francis), history is littered with influential figures who started something new.

It’s no wonder that brands are ready to tap into this movement for themselves, and social media platforms have revolutionized this entirely. In the past, a glossy front cover on Vogue would have cost businesses a pretty penny and have been inaccessible to most. Now? Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have turned everyday people into trusted voices that are able to influence buying decisions across global markets.

And there’s something else that a small social media influencer campaign can offer that a sleek ad campaign can’t: Authenticity. That’s why a huge 69% of consumers say that they trust recommendations from influencers versus just 8% who say they can trust ads.

When you think about influencer campaigns like that, it’s no wonder they’re the go-to strategy for brands in our digital age, where audiences crave tangible connection and authenticity. But making that connection isn’t just about choosing the right influencer—it’s also about delivering content that keeps your audience hooked.

Factors to Keep Your Customers Watching

So, what are the key factors that turn casual viewers into engaged customers?

Work with an influencer marketing agency

The biggest difference between an influencer marketing campaign that gets people talking and one that, well, flops, is the professionalism and the experience behind the campaign.

If you’re a brand that’s new to the world of influencing, then it’s tempting to give it a go alone. But navigating the influencer landscape can be overwhelming, especially with countless creators across platforms and a sea of data to wade through.

Choosing to work with a good influencer marketing agency will take the guesswork out of the equation. They’ll strategically match your brand with influencers who align with your voice, values, and target audience and use data to optimize your campaign beyond surface-level fit.

Plus, they’ll handle campaign logistics, meaning your team can focus on your core business and turn all those new clicks into paying customers.

Keep it authentic + real

The truth is that audiences can spot inauthenticity a mile away, and nothing makes them scroll faster than cringe-worthy content, tired trends, or a poor product-market fit.

Authenticity starts with partnering with influencers who genuinely love your product—not just the hype or the paycheck. It also means trusting them to do what they do best; they are intimately acquainted with what their audience enjoys, so collaborate with them on relevant content and let them speak up for their work.

Brands new to influencer marketing can be tempted to get themselves too involved and often fall into the trap of over-involvement by creating rigid guidelines and requesting unnecessary edits. While well-intentioned, this stifles creative influencer marketing strategies and limits your campaign’s potential impact.

Instead, let influencers tell your story in their own voice. Natural, relatable content always resonates more than something overly polished or scripted. But here’s the catch: relinquishing creative control requires confidence in your partnerships and robust brand security to protect your business from bad experiences.

That’s why working with an influencer marketing agency like Creo is a great choice. Our intuitive platform matches audiences with pre-vetted creators, giving a match score based on audience-fit and suitability for your campaign. In this way, Creo takes brand safety seriously, ensuring your reputation remains in good hands while helping influencers enjoy creative freedom.

Clarity (and legality) is key

Of course, a clear message is important. But so is being honest about the fact that your influencer campaign includes sponsored content.

The Federal Trade Commission has made it clear: any connection between a brand and an influencer needs to be clearly disclosed upfront. That doesn’t mean a sneaky #collab buried in a sea of hashtags; it means being clear and honest about the relationship between your brand and the influencer with visible disclaimers and

Here’s how to keep it clear (and legal):

• Be transparent: If your influencers are being paid, getting free products, or enjoying other perks, their audience needs to know. A quick #ad or #sponsored tag works wonders, but vague phrases like “thanks to [brand]” just won’t cut it.
• Make disclosures visible: Disclosures should be easy to spot—not hidden at the bottom of a caption or buried in a list of hashtags. On major social media platforms like Instagram, keep it in the first few lines of text. For video content, call it out verbally and visually so viewers don’t miss it.
• Keep consistent: Disclosures aren’t a one-and-done deal. Every sponsored post, story, or video needs to stand on its own. Even in live streams, influencers should weave transparency into their conversations.
• Make your disclosures fit the platform: Every platform has its quirks, and your disclosure game should adapt. On Instagram? Stick it at the top of the caption. On YouTube? Say it out loud and flash it on-screen. TikTok? Make it obvious in your text overlay.

The FTC has made its opinion on this clear and has taken legal action against some influencers and businesses for shady practices, so it’s best to work with professionals with unique expertise in the legality of your campaign to make sure you’re sticking to the rules.

Choose your influencers wisely

If you’re new to the influencer identification process, then it can be tempting to make a decision based on follower count alone. After all, bigger numbers mean a bigger impact, right? Not always.

Follower count doesn’t tell the whole story. A mega-influencer with a million followers might look impressive, but if their audience isn’t engaged—or worse, isn’t your target market—your campaign could flop. On the flip side, a micro-influencer with just 10,000 followers might have a fiercely loyal, highly engaged audience that hangs on their every word.

So, how do you choose wisely?

• Know your goals: Are you aiming for brand awareness, driving conversions, or engaging with a niche community? Your campaign goals should guide the type of influencer you work with. Mega-influencers are great for visibility, but if you’re after engagement, micro or nano-influencers often deliver better results. (See below for more on how to choose from the different types of influencers)
• Check on genuine engagement: Don’t just focus on the size of their audience—look at how that audience interacts. Are they liking, commenting, and sharing? Or is the influencer’s page a sea of tumbleweeds and bots? It’s easy to get blinded by a sky-high follower count, but if the engagement is low, your influencer campaign won’t get you the results you’re expecting.
• Align on values and aesthetics: An influencer might be popular, but if their tone, content style, or values clash with your brand, it’s a mismatch. As well as surface-level aesthetics, dig into your potential influencer’s past content and collaborations to see if they genuinely connect with their audience. Identify any controversy that surrounds them and evaluate the risk – is this the right person to speak for your brand?

Remember, an influencer marketing agency can help you with all this. At Creo, our experienced team vets influencers from our diverse creator network, making sure you are selecting a person you can trust. Our team uses the vast database of influencers to filter by industry and keyword, creating a Match List of potential influencers to reach out to and contact.

Then, you can use the Creo platform to compare influencers based on their Match Score – a unique percentage value that helps you understand at a glance how suitable this influencer is for your campaign.

The Match Score drills into data like reach, audience insights, location profiles, and more, to give summary profiles of influencers like this, to support your discovery. 

Consider diverse social media channels

If your brand is already vocal on one social media platform, then it’s tempting to stick to what you know. But there’s more to building a good campaign than TikTok influencer marketing. Could a fresh platform bring you better results?

Think about YouTube, a platform built for long-form storytelling and deep engagement. If your product benefits from tutorials, unboxings, or reviews, YouTube’s format gives influencers the time to dive into the details. Not to mention, YouTube influencers’ large, loyal followings might mean more eyeballs and more revenue.

Then there’s LinkedIn, an influencer platform that is often overlooked but incredibly powerful for B2B campaigns. A thought leader endorsing your brand here can open doors you didn’t even know existed — and is worth a look even if your brand is building a business in an industry traditionally not suited for influencers.

Set goals and objectives

Before diving headfirst into influencer marketing and campaign execution, you need a clear testing roadmap. What’s the endgame? Are you looking to boost brand awareness, drive traffic, generate leads, or convert followers into customers?

Your goals should guide every decision, from selecting potential influencers to choosing platforms and content types. For example, if brand awareness is your focus, collaborating with mega-influencers and huge YouTube creators might make sense. Their broad reach can get your name in front of a large audience. On the other hand, if you’re targeting niche communities or aiming for a high conversion rate, micro-influencers with tight-knit, engaged followers might be the way to go.

Once your goals are locked in, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success. These could be metrics like impressions, engagement rates, click-throughs, or sales. Don’t forget to track progress throughout the campaign and be ready to adapt if something isn’t working. Influencer marketing is as much about strategy as it is about creativity, and the ability to pivot can make all the difference.

How to Build a Winning Influencer Marketing Strategy

So far, we’ve covered the basics of influencer marketing campaigns and the different types of influencers you can expect to work with.

But how do you put all this into practice and launch your first campaign? Is it all about captivating content, in-depth reporting, and choosing the top influencers in your niche, or is there something more to look for?

In this section, let’s break down the four steps you’ll need to take to create a winning influencer marketing strategy.

1. Call in the pros

First, you’ll need to decide how to approach your influencer marketing campaign. Will you manage everything in-house, or will you work with a go-to agency that can guide you through the process? For brands serious about success, partnering with a full-service agency like Creo is often the smarter choice.

Creo offers a comprehensive approach to influencer marketing, handling everything from effective strategies and creator discovery to campaign execution and performance analysis. This means you’re not left guessing which influencers are the right fit for your brand, how to negotiate contracts, or how to track campaign outcomes. Our experience and insights take the pressure off your team, allowing you to focus on what you do best while our digital marketing analysts handle the details.

Next, our unique tech platform makes managing campaigns easy as pie. Instead of sorting through countless emails and spreadsheets, you’ll have one centralized hub where you can review creator profiles, approve content, and monitor real-time performance in tailored reports. This saves you money and time in the long run, meaning your campaign execution hits the spot the first time and eradicates all those wasted man hours spent trying to figure it out for yourself.

Partnering with an influencer marketing agency can help you spot opportunities, get round-the-clock support from a global team, learn from their experience working with amazing brands, and deliver campaigns that you know will hit the mark.

2. Set your sights

Next, it’s time to clarify your goals.

What do you want your influencer marketing campaign to achieve? Are you looking to get your brand in front of as many eyes as possible? Drive meaningful engagement? Tell your brand story in a unique way. Or is it all about converting followers into customers?

Start by breaking your goals into measurable outcomes. For example, if you’re aiming for brand awareness, focus on metrics like impressions and reach. If engagement is the priority, look at likes, comments, and shares. By deciding on these metrics early, you’ll have a clear way to track success and know when to adjust your approach.

It’s also important to think about your audience’s journey. Are you trying to attract new customers or engage the ones you already have? The answer will determine the types of influencers you work with, the platforms you prioritize, and the content you create.

Remember, these goals aren’t set in stone and might change over time. Influencer marketing thrives on flexibility (and the latest trends), so as your campaign unfolds, you’ll need to check in regularly to see what’s working and what’s not.

3. Find your perfect match

It’s not just an agency you need to research. The biggest factor in your influencer campaign’s success is, of course, the influencer you choose. This is influencer selection, and it’s a critical step to get right.

Start by focusing on alignment.

A mismatched collaboration can feel forced, and audiences are quick to spot inauthenticity. Take time to research potential influencers, looking at engagement rates, audience demographics, and past collaborations.

Next, think about the platform. Each social media channel has its own strengths, and the one you choose should align with your campaign goals and audience behavior. For example, Instagram and TikTok influencer campaigns are ideal for visual storytelling and quick, engaging content, while YouTube offers more room for in-depth product reviews or tutorials and space for short form video via Shorts.

Finally, don’t be swayed by follower count alone. A mega-influencer with a million followers might seem appealing, but if their audience isn’t engaged—or isn’t your target demographic—you could end up with disappointing results. On the other hand, a micro-influencer with a smaller, highly engaged community might be the perfect fit, especially for niche or localized campaigns.

4. Build relationships, not one-off posts

Now, finally, one of the biggest mistakes brands make in influencer marketing is treating collaborations as one-and-done transactions. While a single post might do well, real success comes from building ongoing relationships with influencers who genuinely connect with your brand.

When you invest in long-term partnerships, you allow influencers to become true ambassadors for your brand. Their audience gets to see them engaging with your product over time, which fosters trust and reinforces authenticity. Instead of a fleeting mention, your brand becomes part of their story—a natural fit that feels less like marketing and more like a genuine recommendation.

These relationships also benefit your brand in other ways. Influencers who know your brand well can provide invaluable feedback, helping you refine your products or messaging. They’re also more likely to go the extra mile, creating content that feels fresh and original because they’re invested in your success.

Long-term partnerships also make the most of your budget. When you work with an influencer over time, you don’t just pay for their reach—you build equity in the relationship, which can lead to more impactful campaigns without the need to start from scratch each time.