Definition: Influencer marketing is a brand partnering with creators, by paying them or giving them products, to promote the brand to the creator’s own audience in the creator’s own voice.
Also called: creator marketing, influencer partnerships, sponsored content
Updated October 11, 2026
Cost per acquisition = total creator cost ÷ attributed sales or sign-upsThe brand chooses creators whose audience matches its customers, agrees a brief (the message, the formats, the number of posts and any usage rights), and pays a fee, a commission, free product or a mix. The creator makes the content and posts it on their account, sometimes as a joint post that appears on both profiles.
In the US, the FTC’s “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers” says creators must disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, and that free or discounted products count. The disclosure has to be hard to miss and placed with the endorsement, not buried in hashtags or behind “more”. Clear words such as “ad” or “sponsored” work, while vague tags such as “sp”, “spon” or “collab” do not. In video, the disclosure belongs in the video itself, and the FTC notes that a platform’s built-in disclosure tool may not be enough on its own. Other countries have their own rules.
Give each creator a unique UTM-tagged link or discount code, then compare clicks, sign-ups and sales per creator against what you paid. For awareness campaigns, ask for screenshots of reach and engagement from the creator’s own analytics, since you cannot see those numbers on their account.
A skincare brand pays three micro creators $400 each and sends free product. Their tracked codes bring 96 orders. Cost per acquisition = $1,200 ÷ 96 = $12.50 per order, which the brand compares with its paid social cost per order.
A collab post is a single Instagram post or reel co-authored by two or more accounts, which appears on every collaborator’s profile and is shown to each of their audiences.
User-generated content (UGC) is any content about a brand made by people outside it, such as customers’ photos, videos, reviews and posts, rather than by the brand itself.
UTM parameters are short tags added to the end of a URL (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign and more) that tell analytics tools like Google Analytics where a visit came from.
Social media ROI (return on investment) is the value earned from social media activity, minus what it cost, expressed as a percentage of that cost.
Engagement rate is the percentage of people who interacted with a post (liked, commented, shared, saved or clicked) out of the people who saw it or follow the account.
Write once, tailor each version yourself or with optional AI, and schedule to 6 networks from one calendar.